Nice Boy

A little known aspect of this performance:

At the beginning of PC after the first ‘take me home’ you can see Axl point at some people in the crowd and scream ‘Shove it’!  - Those people were actually the protesters who had been trying to get GnR removed from the lineup because of homophobia on OIAM. They were unsuccessful but still attempted to disturb/provoke Axl with some banner in the crowd. He knew they would be there and hence tells them to shove it.

A bit later on you can see Duff and Axl share a warm handshake. That was Duff saying thank you to Axl for not going on a rant about the protestors. Duff had requested Axl remain calm and not rise to them on this occasion as it would spoil the event. Axl managed to abide by this and hence Duff was thankful. 

This result is a real surprise to me. I have never rated Ain’t It Fun much at all. It’s not terrible, but just not a very remarkable song, with quite depressing lyrics really. That said, I occasionally get it in my head. But I’d never put it on out of choice. Hair Of The Dog, New Rose and Raw Power would be my picks. 

Looking at the year, first thing I thought of was OIAM damage control too…

I seem to recall the last “stuck it in the..” bit of Brownstone is not written in the lyric sheet with the album… I always wondered why 

That SCOM shoot went well into the early hours after midnight didn’t it 

probably waiting for Axl to feel it was the right time to sway back n forth singing a love song with a psycho look in his eyes 

I actually like You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory. Especially as a live intro to Raw Power.

I’ve been meaning to do this thread for a while..

Some examples that come to mind:

”Take a wedding car to the liquor store” (Take your credit card to the liquor store) Nightrain

“I’d like to think that out love is a tadpole” (I’d like to think that our love’s worth a tad more) Dead Horse

I could never put my finger on why Shotgun Blues is such a weak song, but it is.

GITR would’ve been ok kept as a punk song without the puerile crap at the end.

So Fine is just, meh

My World isn’t even a song, it’s just a skit. And cringeworthy.

Why would being ‘politically woke’ indicate possibly cancelling a European tour because of a war in Ukraine? 

Don’t Cry is a good song, it just goes on a bit too long / repetitively at the end imo

my favourite versions are live 86, 87, and the old demo, got a certain rough sound that’s more raw

That live one in a bar where you can hear a crowd of a few dozen people just disinterestedly chatting over the music is pretty good too

Lmao, going in hard on Soulmonster questioning his contribution credentials is the most destined for failure line of attack I’ve ever seen on this forum 😄

Iirc he does mention in an early interview that sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes the music comes first and the lyrics are written to it.

Not that this is any big revelation.

Get November Rain out of here ffs, surely only casual fans really rate that 

(sorry Rain fans)

On 3/17/2022 at 8:22 AM, jacdaniel said:

Double Talkin Jive is a weird one for me. It's one of my favourite Guns songs but I hate the album version. 

It needs that prolonged heavy intro and extended solo.

I’m the same. The album version is something I’d never voluntarily listen to, it seems a stunted and over polished version of the live one, which can be fantastic when Slash is on fire. I think Argentina 92, 93 and Tokyo 92 are some of the best. 

The point made above about the vocal melody for Don’t Damn Me imitating the guitar riff is true, it makes it sound uninventive and weakens the song… Axl should have come up with a different melody, he’s good at doing that usually 

On 3/15/2022 at 10:03 PM, Gibson87 said:

I can't believe The Garden is getting so many votes  It's easily one of the best songs on the album 

Agree, it’s one of only about 5 or 6 great songs on the entire UYI

It’s not as simple as looking at other artists and saying “well so and so is 75 and they are still touring”.

Think about how difficult it is for him with his naturally low speaking voice, trying to pull off really high rasps, in x years’ time

There’s no point saying “but Steven Tyler / Robert Plant..” etc, they have naturally high speaking voices, it’s way easier for them to still sing their material.

I remember seeing this MTV thing where they gave random people on the street UYI (1, I think.) Told them to listen to it and come back with their opinions. This one guy, a small middle aged Asian dude in a suit, was like yeah it’s ok but a bit depressing. I thought wtf, depressing? Then I thought more about UYI 1 and realised, he’s kinda right. Pretty much all the songs are about woes with women, angry diatribes or general laments. Is there a single ‘upbeat, song on it? Garden Of Eden maybe, a bit. But that’s pretty crap filler anyway lol. 

Christ that is cringeworthy 

Sorry 

Patience is obviously a great song but not one I’d listen to regularly, you have to be in a soppy, wistful state of mind to get into it really. If you’re not feeling loved up then not something to listen to. Whereas Nice Boys and Crazy have a feel that I can get into pretty much any time.

That ship has sailed a long time ago 

They should be concentrating on making videos for new releases if anything 

Tbf a lot of the context is, that Axl has since shown that he’s a lot more clued up than the scared young kid he was at the time of the OIAM experiences.

Ironically the people who actually do still have those kind of prejudices now regard Axl as a ‘woke’ / liberal / left winger because of his actions since.

Meanwhile idiots like Phil Anselmo are still getting drunk and shouting white power on stage then trying to excuse themselves out of that when sobered up. That’s someone who is still having trouble shaking off his dubious political attitudes at an age when he should have grown out of them. Axl is miles ahead of him in terms of maturity of outlook.
 

8 hours ago, RussTCB said:

The fact that it's not fiction is just your opinion and I hold the opposite opinion. 

So if the original question is "would you play One In A Million for friends"?, my answer is still yes. 

Well with respect, what aspects of it are fictional? Because as I mentioned above, Axl has referred to incidents with black guys and cops hassling, hostile foreign store owners, and sexual assault by predatory gay men.. I wish I could write it off as fiction / just a character but that doesn’t correlate to things he’s said happened to him..

I’m sure all of those things that happened to him can be found in the interview transcripts on A4D. I’ve definitely read him describing the events before. Black guys selling chains and fake drugs, cops harassing him, foreign store owner chasing him out of shop, and the sexual assaults by his father and the guy he hitch hiked from. It all happened so not an imagined character.

8 hours ago, RussTCB said:

Why would it take a lot of context and explanation to say "these lyrics are from the perspective of a character"? 

You could, but I don’t believe they are from a character. I know that was one of the many contradictory explanations given, but I don’t think it’s true. I think the lyrics are totally based on Axls thoughts and fears arriving at the bus terminal and first experiences of LA. It was simpler to explain it away with the 3rd person/character excuse than be honest and say “I did think those things but now I feel differently having had more experience of life.” The lyrics are obviously about him getting hassled by black guys, cops, foreign store owners and predatory gay men. It’s not fiction. It’s what happened and how he felt in reaction.