AxlRoseCDII

You can’t make this shit up. Holy fuck. This is insane.

4 minutes ago, downzy said:

But why? 

How does or will the “success” of The General affect your enjoyment of the song? 

Moreover, if the guy who helped to create the song and laboured for years to get it to where they want doesn’t care  about achieving maximum success for it, why should any of us?

Because if it does well, maybe we get more, instead of having just 1/3rd of an album spaced out over two years. I’ll also say that it’s more of the logistics that’s pissing me off too. I would like to have a digital release so I could listen to it easier. Share it with family members who care about GNR without telling them to check out a weird audio file. Why restrict that from the fans? And if they were gonna restrict that from the fans, why not make it a pivotal marketing point of the vinyl so it would sell better? 

But you’re right that I’m giving GNR and Axl way too much credit and having too high of expectations for them to do anything in an optimal way at this point. Axl has been mentally checked out for years if not decades.

17 minutes ago, downzy said:

Do you think Axl cares all that much about money and publicity at this point?

If I had to guess, and it’s just a guess, an initial physical only release likely works for Axl’s desire to do something different; the mystique of it all and a throwback to how music use to be distributed. 

I think concerns over marketing, exposure, and generating income from a 20+ year old song are misplaced.  

You’re right. Axl doesn’t care and hasn’t for a while. But I want the band I’m a fan of to do things optimally and be as successful as they can possibly be. These weird obscure releases only makes “new” music less and less likely. With Perhaps they were rewarded with praise and good enough metrics for a band their size. No one will even know this song exists.

12 minutes ago, Powerage5 said:

It floors me so many people are shocked by this. We have a song that’s a b-side to a 7”, which was never announced (as of yet) to be a part of anything else, and no mention to the fact that it would be streaming other than a cheeky, one word comment from Fernando on the day the 7” was announced which if taken literally at face value means “I don’t know, but maybe”. There was no reason to ever have a strong belief that it would be streaming - sure people on here are claiming there’s never been a studio GN’R song that hasn’t been released on streaming, but not taking into account the context; there’s not much historical precedent here since GN’R has hardly released anything since streaming became a dominant form of music consumption. Yes, almost all of the old b-sides have ended up on streaming also…because they were re-released as part of the various AFD reissues. 
 

Whatever people on here think, this isn’t an uncommon practice for an artist to release a song as a vinyl exclusive. Plus you still get Japan getting exclusive tracks for many, many releases. The amount of records I’ve purchased because of exclusive tracks is sizeable, and this isn’t even a hard one to get a hold of. One of the bands I collect I had to track down a specific German pressing of an LP because the record label forgot to take a song off the 2x10” version that had been axed from all other releases internationally. If something similar happened here, then I could maybe understand the reaction people are having in this thread. On top of that, at least they’re choosing to give us actual new music on a record, unlike so many artists out there that release 20 different color variants of the same damn record hoping everybody goes “oh that’s pretty, I need it!”. There’s many, many things I critique GN’R over, and I’m quite vocal about it. This release is not one of those things. 
 

As for the possible delays in shipping/release - the record pressing industry has been in absolute shambles since COVID, the delays on vinyls have been both frequent and lengthy across the board. If there are delays (which we still don’t entirely know), it’s not something you can hold against the band specifically. That said it’s true they could be communicating potential delays better. 
 

But all of this…talk about turning an ant hill into a mountain

Very well said

2 minutes ago, Coma16 said:

It's a b-side throwaway track.

So you’ve heard the song? You know that it’s a garbage and not worth releasing on its own?

9 minutes ago, jacdaniel said:

It's only a matter of time until someone gets their vinyl and rips a copy and then we'll all be listening to that version. 

Probably not what the band intended but that's what'll happen. 

Great decision by the band. Lose free publicity and additional streaming revenue in a trade off for fans listening to the song for free anyways with none of the above. Genius. Just absolutely brilliant.

I’ve heard the song has been shipped exclusively to every General in the USA. They will be asked to rank the song on a scale of 1 to 10, and if every single one does not give it a 9 or above, then the single will be cancelled and the copies will be burned to a crisp.

1 minute ago, Litti said:

slash with a pig's nose

That’s an unnamed band member. The AI combined Slash and Axl into the main character.

It still has to ship. It always said “ships October 27th”. So it’s probably another week before we hear the vinyl rips.

4 minutes ago, ShadowOfTheWave said:

Shacklermyrye posted this on Gnrevo a few days back in regards to link fire: BTW I know a few people here and apparently a few just viewing the forum will be trying this link from time to time https://gunsnroses.lnk.to/thegeneral
If you do it may also be worth checking https://gunsnroses.lnk.to/thegeneralandmonsters. Given that this song is packaged in with the Perhaps link.to however it is likely that these links may never become active at all.

Possible that’s the case but it still doesn’t mean it’s going to happen at all digitally. 

19 minutes ago, GNRfanMILO said:

I think you guys are setting up for disappointment with the digital version. There’s no proof whatsoever that it’s coming to streaming platforms. Nada.

Yeah, it’s not happening. No link fire. No imminent live performance. All signs point to a vinyl exclusive release.

AI:

The intense dedication and enthusiasm displayed by some fans within the Guns N' Roses community can be seen as a testament to the band's enduring impact and the deep connection fans feel toward their music. The behaviors you mentioned, such as closely monitoring Spotify titles, playing guitar alongside clips, and checking for website updates, highlight the passionate engagement and anticipation surrounding the potential release of new material. This level of dedication underscores the lasting influence and cultural significance of Guns N' Roses, as their fanbase continues to actively follow and engage with the band's creative endeavors.

I heard the song everyone. I can confirm there is a one note of a DJ Ashba bend that lasts 10 seconds. I’m pretty sure it’s Steven Adler on drums. Chris Pitman’s towel solo was better than ever. I’d give it a 11/10.

5 minutes ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

I'm not sure you understand what the word "assumption" means. Going off of the available evidence, it will only be released on vinyl. Anything beyond that known fact is the assumption. Not the other way around.

Various news sites have posted about it being exclusive too, one of which was the website that was the only one who correctly reported Perhaps would be delayed a week.

1 hour ago, Voodoochild said:

Can I make some last minute predictions?

- I predict the song will split the fanbase. Half will feel underwhelmed by it, because it lacks the classic GNR sound or sound too much like a CD era track. The other half will love it because they are ok with that.

- We should get a lot less views on YouTube than Perhaps, which will drive people here to conclude that it was a failure. 

- People will say that Axl will not be able to sing it live. He will and it will sound like the usual. 

This is assuming the song gets released digitally and is played live at all, neither of which may happen.

1 minute ago, kruelty said:

Don’t get me wrong, I’m horribly anxious to finally listen to The General, but I think it’s gonna be very bittersweet. Of course there’s Soulmonster, Oklahoma etc left, but with the history this fanbase has with the unheard songs, it truly feels like the ChiDem era finally will be bookended come Friday.

What’s next? We have nothing that we know of on the horizon in regards to post-reunion new material. After hearing Atlas, Hardskool, Perhaps, all of the locker CD’s and soon The General, it kind of feels like the final stop of a long journey. A part of me is kind of going to miss the mystery!

I think there’ll always be mystery until we hear Soul Monster, Oklahoma, maybe the redone Atlas, Seven, but I agree that realistically The General is the end and final CDII song we’ll hear. With OMG and Going Down (even if officially unreleased, we’ve heard a complete version), we have 20 CD songs, so at least it feels sort of like we’ve gotten 2 albums worth of songs from this era. I don’t really think GNR will ever actually release new-new music so this may be the last release in their discography ever.

What if The General is just a cover of The Monster Mash?

We know it’s under 6 minutes due it being vinyl so it can’t be a combination of two songs unless they’ve shortened each by a considerable amount. 

Duff is not respecting what’s going on in the world right now by releasing a new album.