Nice Boy

I was just watching the Paris 92 show again, and they sure had a lot of accessories on stage - not only the 2 big orange and blue UYI images on either side of the stage, but also that huge inflatable 'Appetite' monster that appears half way through the show ! I wonder what happened to that inflatable monster and all the other stuff ? Surely it isn't just 'in storage' ? That blow-up monster would be worth some dollars now !

Thanks jeaubear that answer was quite informative, with the bits from Duswalt's book .. kinda said what I expected, that the teleprompter guy's job would be a nightmare, especially cueing up the songs with lyrics right at the start!

Well yeah whilst it's true that most of the UYI sets follow a pattern, there were variations. So the question still remains, if they suddenly said ok let's do Perfect crime in the middle of the set, then teleprompter guy is gonna have to do his thing real quick to get the lyrics running in tandem with the song being played..

Axl announces the next song through private mic line.

That would be a sufficient answer.. so they had an 'internal/private' mic system too? I thought they just spoke closely to confer about what songs to do.

I always wondered how things worked with the lyrical teleprompter at front stage on the UYI. I mean if there was no fixed set list as they claimed, then there must have been some person whose job was to listen out closely for whatever song the band was about to play, and then very quickly co-ordinate the lyrics onto screen in time with the song that had already started. And if the song was one where the lyrics start right away (e.g. Live and Let Die, Perfect Crime) then the teleprompter guy would have to be very on the ball to immediately cue the song's lyrics and make sure they were running in time with where the band was in the song.. know what I mean?

Hi all

I am interested in the origin of the GnR songs from the 85 to 93 era. By this I mean what riffs and songs influenced the ones written by GnR. Please note, I am not detracting fro GnR's songwriting prowess with this discussion- I am a lifelong fan, and it's commonly accepted that lots of songwriting is done by riffing around other songs. So I don't intend for a discussion about originality as such, I'm just wondering if anyone has info or theories about where the GnR songs were developed from. I will give you some examples so you know what I mean. :

Used To Love Her: This is pretty obviously a reworking of Rolling Stones' 'Dead Flowers' ; I think this is pretty much undisputed. Very similar in sound and structure, and were sometimes played one after another live.

You're Crazy: I've heard it suggested that the original acoustic is a reworking of The Who's 'The Seeker'. They do sound very similar, and Axl's opening lyrics about "looking for" stuff are similar to Daltrey's lyrics about looking everywhere for something, in The Who song. So I think that's plausible.

Double Talkin'Jive: When they played this live they often begin by playing a segment of Metallica's 'Welcome Home' (sanitarium) but it's not clear to me if the DTJ riff has a root in that song. The acoustic end bit of DTJ is pretty much identical to Pink Floyd's 'A Spanish Piece'. Although that is a very generic flamenco piece I think.

Paradise City: The chunky verse parts of PC are apparently a sped up version of the riff from Black Sabbath's "Zero The Hero'. It has the same sort of key transition too. That's an interesting comparison to listen to if you haven't before.

Rocket Queen: Duff said the groove originates in him and Adler jamming to Cameo, (!) and that 'Word Up' was a song they like to play along to. It may sound dubious that these two songs are related, but actually if you experiment by singing the vocal to 'Rocket Queen' over "Word Up" it actually fits quite well ! similar key changes again.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts and if you have any speculation on the origin/root of other GnR songs please let us know!