Silence

1 hour ago, El Guapo said:

Ok, this is the official version now.

I think it fucking sucks, it's the worst officially released GnR song ever. 

The ending especially sounds exactly like something Dustin Bones would do. The song is boring, weak and the vocals are ridiculous. The drums sound like utter shit. The whole production is shit. I'm 100% convinced Slash and Duff don't think that this is great music, they should be ashamed. Wow. This is the lowest lowpoint in GnR history, imo.

 

Its my favorite song behind Estranged. 

14 hours ago, RONIN said:

Catcher in The Rye (Brian May version) - 9.8/10 - Near classic perfectly realized post Illusions material from Axl. A final mix and bringing out more of Brian May's sound in the mix would give it a 10.

Oh My God - 9.5/10 - Almost perfect rocker from a ferocious sounding Axl that is powerful enough to stand with the old stuff. Needs a better mix and less distortion in vocals for a 10.

Sorry - 9.5/10 - Perfectly realized - if only the lyrics were better and less juvenile. This type of song really suits Axl as he's gotten older. Buckethead is phenomenal here.

Prostitute - 9/10 - Again, he was so close to nailing this. Would have preferred more guitar in the song - more variation to the sound.

If the World - 9/10 - Another near hit, if only that 70's porn riff wasn't front and center through the entire song.

This I Love - 8.5/10 - Could have been a classic. Beautiful production and playing from Finck. Lyrics and Axl's vocals are a let down. Way too dramatic and theatrical - it's just too excessive. Should have gone for a tone similar to Don't Cry.

Better - 8.5/10 - The melody and vocals are a 10, the korn-esque guitar break in the middle sinks it for me as does the "I never wanted you to be so full of anger...". Sometimes the CD stuff just feels like two separate song ideas smashed together, to me this is one of those tracks. As it stands, another "could have been a classic" contender.

Shacklers - 8.5/10 - Great for what it is.

TWAT - 8/10 - Needs a better chorus and less production. Is the choir at the beginning and end really necessary? This type of pointless studio wankery from Rose really takes away from the post Appetite material unfortunately. The melody could have been stronger - needed the Appetite/Illusions team on this one.

Chinese Democracy - 7.5/10 - It's good-ish. Feels a bit generic coming from a rock legend like Rose - especially as a kickoff single for a new album. Needs Duff and Slash.

Catcher in the Rye (Bumblefoot) - 7.5/10 - Everything that was great about the original demo is stripped away here. It feels excessive and tasteless - both from Bumblefoot and Axl's creative decisions/production. The original felt far more elegant and classic - this one just becomes a generic rocker with a good melody and lyrics.

IRS - 7/10 - Ehh, it's good-ish I guess. We start treading water from here. The song just lacks balls - the vocals don't have enough power. Needs duff and slash badly.

Riad - 7/10 - Not bad actually - neat ideas here - feels more like an undercooked sketch with potential. Even if IRS and CD are technically better, I'd probably listen to this one over those two more often.

Scraped - 6/10 - Not bad - again, this one is more interesting than IRS and CD, but feels like whatever idea they had for it just didn't come together properly.

Street of Dreams - 6/10 - They ruined this one from the '02 live version. That would be a 7.5-8. As a song, it has its moments but I think it's a bit too sappy and corny at times - needs more balls, Axl needs Izzy, Duff, and Slash to give it some edge and some help with the melody.

Madagascar - 5.5/10 - Meh. The song feels a bit corny and repetitive with a completely gratuitous breakdown section complete with MLK quote. Not a fan of the repetitive guitar work either - it feels as one-dimensional as Prostitute's guitar sections. Axl's vocals are a "WTF" choice from him - not sure what the creative reasoning for that was.

 

Hard Skool - 5/10 - Generic b-side that is instantly forgettable and below the mark for a Guns N' Roses song. The Illusion b-sides like Shotgun Blues, Get in the Ring, etc destroy this. Should have stayed unreleased.

Perhaps - 5/10 - Generic and repetitive. Almost like they had one verse/chorus - a single germination of an idea - and just stretched it out into a song. This is just way below the mark for a band with their legacy. Should never have been released.

Absurd - 3/10 - How this song was released as a single is truly a mystery. Even My World has more creative inspiration.

 

A lot of the post-Slash stuff from Axl lacks strong melodies imho. He has some great ideas - but he needs a competent song writer like Izzy to string all these different ideas together cohesively and a showman like Slash to bring them to life. He had Buckethead who could have filled the Slash role but it looks like the entire nu-guns band/organization nerfed him. Imagine having a Michael Jordan on your team and you barely let him shoot. Instead of Axl writing with Bucket - it looks like they just took riffs and ideas from him to frankenstein into a song which is a shame....and it reflects on the material.

The rockers are weak - period. Aside from Oh My God, imho nothing else works. Not enough edge, grit - this type of stuff is not in Axl's wheelhouse. He needed the original lineup for that.

The stuff Axl had that were hits out of the gate like Catcher, Oh My God, Better, etc - he just didn't stick the landing out of either second guessing himself or giving in to his trademark of being over-indulgent and excessive with the production. A good producer and a stronger band with veto rights (like Izzy and Slash) who could have kept Rose from meddling would have delivered better versions of those tracks I feel. Catcher came the closest to realizing Rose's 90's vision but he ended up throwing out Brian May in favor of Bumblefoot, go figure.

For me, the creme de la creme of post- Slash material was Oh My God, Catcher in the Rye (May), Sorry, and Prostitute. Honorable mention for If The World which was a really cool track.

 

 

Ditto. 

The General and Monsters is my second favorite GNR song behind Estranged. 

10 hours ago, Draguns said:

Not really. Point is a guy with a high school level education from a different country is able to make it even though he's supported three other people at close to poverty level. One of which the three people he's supported was born with multiple physical disabilities. 

You just don't want to hear it that it's relevant to today.

Using your father’s income as an example is a poor one. 60% of people in the US live paycheck to paycheck regardless of income. Its a consumer culture. 

On 12/1/2023 at 10:31 AM, Draguns said:

There is personal responsibility.  If you KNOW you can't afford something, why go out and buy it? My employer published an article on how Americans making $150,000 are living paycheck to paycheck. When I read that article, I was thinking that some people need to cut down on their expenses if they are making that much money. 

My father had two jobs. He was a machinist and janitor. He was the sole breadwinner of a family of four. Additionally, he had to deal with a child that was born with a disability (me). Even with two jobs, my brother and I figured out that we were living close to the poverty line. Yet, he was  able to save money because he made sacrifices. He also put my brother and I through college if there were costs that were not covered by scholarships. 

I don't feel badly for this guy, especially since he made a joke about people with disabilities in a previous thread and now whining about $15. 

Life is different now. That comparison is pointless. 

12 hours ago, Blackstar said:

I'll say The Ritz, too, and then Perhaps.

I also have a soft spot for Absurd, mostly because of the way it was released. Very unpredictable and wtf moment

It was released in an absurd manner.

On 12/1/2023 at 9:48 AM, Dean said:

We're more than 10 years since hearing Going Down for the first time. I love the version that appeared among the Village Discs, but it didn't top the experience of listening to the fleshed out version for the very first time. Axl's backing vox have always been a favourite of mine. It's the Village version that mostly gets played in this house, but I threw on the original leak earlier and it's still a great listen. Songs of such quality shouldn't be stored away for decades.

I agree with your entire assessment of the song. Its criminally underrated and ranks amongst the best of the songs where Axl is featured in the back ground. Unfortunately I have not heard the song in a decade. It had sone great guitar work as I recollect. 

5 hours ago, Slugworth said:

The General can only dream of being as good as that song.

I love both songs dearly, so you will receive no argument from moi. 

The General reminds me of Blow Up the Outside world.

13 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

But Duff seemed to take Axl's side on that, since, according to Slash, Gilby had "words" with Duff, too.

Slash: The whole Guns N' Roses situation with Gilby wasn't as cut and dry as it seems. He wasn't really fired officially. Axl just didn't wanna write with him. He never even got a chance to write with us. And so, I told Gilby that that was going on. So he didn't hear it from somewhere else. Because if you know, in this business, leaks are like crazy. And it's just best to be upfront and honest about thing. So I told him what was going on. Then he had words with Axl and then in turn he had words with Duff. And that sort of cemented the, you know, the relationship, the departure. Whatever you wanna call it.

Slash:  Axl didn’t want to write with him and I had to go and tell Gilby myself that this was going on, so he didn’t hear it, you know, in the field or something or turned into some sort of weird rumor. So I went and told him and then – well, I think the thing that really etched in stone Gilby’s dismissal from Guns was the fact that he had words with Duff and he had words with Axl, and that sort of cemented the fact that he wasn’t in the band. But Axl still thinks, like he does with everybody, like, “Well, maybe we’ll have three guitar players, or maybe we’ll do this or maybe we’ll do that,” or “Gilby can come out live,” but whatever. And I come from a different point of view altogether: that you get the guy that fits naturally, you write together, he plays on the record and he does the tour.

 

And from the second quote it's evident that, although Axl was adamant about not wanting to write with Gilby, he was discussing and suggesting ways to keep Gilby in the band even though not as a writer.

Or Axl was just lobbying for Paul to be his writing partner and Gilby can tour the album. 

On 11/27/2023 at 9:05 AM, DTV88 said:

I would think it’s almost a certainty that Gilby and Slash will share the stage at least once. I don’t recall anything negative said towards each other. 

Slash once said that only Izzy and Dave Kushner were the only guitar players he could write with. Seemed like a dig at Gilby.

5 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

The leak is the final version, Axl absolutely would release a song with vocals that distorted, and GNR France posted pics of their vinyl days ago.

That felt obvious from the beginning. 

4 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

https://tinypic.host/?lang=en

But which photo do you mean? If it's the one of Axl with a woman in the Look Away video that's probably just a random picture with a fan

Ok. That makes sooooo much more sense. I couldn’t fathom that girl was a Penthouse playmate. 

39 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

There hasn't been any photo of her and Axl.

I wonder who the girl is. How does one post a photo in here?

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

She wasn't starstruck though, according to her. She was just attracted to him a lot. She said she didn't even know who he was (and his rockstar status) And she wasn't someone who would have been easily starstruck since, according to her book, she had dated or slept with a few famous people (Paul Stanley, Michael Jay Fox, Tom Jones among others) before that night with Axl.

 

Yeah, but that photo of her and Axl demonstrates he was in fact a cutie. 

4 minutes ago, DoMw94 said:

She was sick. She's a human being, humans get sick. Nothing strange about it

The timing could be argued as strange. Thank you for the information about how human being’s can become ill. No human being in the history of the world has ever said “sick” to explain an absence. That never happens.

7 hours ago, Voodoochild said:

Beta's nephew didn't play with the band, he was the photographer. The guy playing the keyboards was Melissa's tech.

Her absence feels strange 

13 hours ago, jamillos said:

So here’s my theory: 
The Nando and Axl allegations happened within a week or so, right? 
This was all scheduled. They were contacted by the girls way back and made a deal that they’d wait and first let them finish the tour. That’s why Axl was so hesitant to release new music and just toured instead. That’s why he released songs about hard school of life and why he’s literally saying "perhaps I was wrong" in one of them. That’s why, in the final stage, he introduced Daddy don’t, by which he’s saying it’s not his fault, cause he was abused etc. It’s his way of apologizing for the crazy young years. 
This makes 100% sense and no one will persuade me otherwise! 

 

Seeing Beta’s nephew in the band playing at the Mexico show feels like Melissa’s absence might be an act of solidarity. 

10 minutes ago, ZoSoRose said:

Haven’t seen Randy in years, damn blast from past

His Charlie Sheen threads could be inspired. 

1 minute ago, ZoSoRose said:

I know, I’m fucked in the head. It’s great 

Lol. Understood. At least there not Randy Laheay threads anymore

1 hour ago, ZoSoRose said:

It’s wild man

All of us are so fucked. 
 

“ohhhh Axl is such a misunderstood artist, wowwwwe. Such deep amazing poetry and sknging wowwwwe!” 
 

*he was actually a mentally ill man who sounded like a screaming frog- man at best and sounds like micky rat at worst. Writes lyrics like “pussy full of maggots” and This I love rhyming and “Riad and the bed bugs had a plan and thought thy win”
 

GNFNR wowowwwww!!!!!!!! 

Youve been here forever. 

2 hours ago, The Cosmic Ted said:

We are sorry we are not at the same level of fanaticism as you.

Lol. 

22 minutes ago, GnR Chris said:

Are people not allowed to gain perspective as they get older and wiser? Are they not allowed to change without it being deemed “fake”? I’m so tired of presentism exhibited by so many people today. It’s fuckin’ ridiculous. The world was different 20 years back, 30 years back, 40 years back. 

I agree. 30 years ago and most people men or woman would have fucked Axl. 

Just now, Blackstar said:

Yes, I'm sure. I haven't found anything about it before 2016. But it's been shared a few times after 2016, especially when "Little Michelle"'s claims were discussed.

Ok. That might be where I heard it. I love Axl dearly. Nothing will ever change my mind about him in a negative light. 

13 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

This story was first mentioned in 2016 (it wasn't known before and no one had said anything) when she released her book and did a promo interview for it in The Daily Mail. The excerpt from her book is on page 2 of this thread where she said Axl apologized to her after it happened. There wasn't any reaction from Axl when the Daily Mail interview was published.

2016? Are you certain? It feels old. Like its been shared multiple times.

14 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

This story was first mentioned in 2016 (it wasn't known before and no one had said anything) when she released her book and did a promo interview for it in The Daily Mail. The excerpt from her book is on page 2 of this thread where she said Axl apologized to her after it happened. There wasn't any reaction from Axl when the Daily Mail interview was published.

I trust your version. I seriously believed differently. 

2 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

She said she apologized to her after the fact. He hasn't admitted it publicly.

Then my recollection is weaker than I want to admit. The story always felt real to me. I also think Axl knows and should pay up.

2 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

What story?

Ive read it. Its been mentioned in the press. Ive read your site alone multiple times. I cant single out anything with clairty.