Could GNR Make More Use of The Band's Vocals?

[Graeme]

So, when Guns gig, pretty much every player in the band has a mic stand allocated to them, but they almost seem like window dressing because no-one's volume is turned up loud enough to be audible... It's cool to see Ron and Richard standing singing back-up on Paradise City as a visual thing, but it's kinda pointless if they're not adding anything to the sound. There were some pretty big harmonies on that chorus on the original album recording, so if you're going to have those mics there, would it not be cool to actually add the backing vocals to the overall sound?

There are bits and pieces at the moment when backing vocals can be heard (The "na na nas" on Better or Tommy's "You could be mine" at the end of said song) but the point is that Axl's turned up so much louder than them that the second he's singing at the same time they become completely inaudible and therefore utterly defunct. Surely there's space for them to compliment Axl's voice effectively (it's not like GNR recordings are short of harmonies) or even fill in bits in the background which Axl struggles to transition from/to because they're from separate simultaneous vocal tracks.

As an example, take Catcher in the Rye from L'Arc and compare it to a performance of Catcher from any of the arena shows it's been played at. At L'Arc, because the settings are different, Ron's able to cover the gap where "It's just another day like today" and "When all is said and done." cross over, which sounds so much better than the big shows where Axl's vocals are totally isolated and he's left trying to leap from one vocal track to the other with no help... We've got some great singers in this band, Tommy has that awesome punk thing going on, Ron's incredibly expressive and versatile... Thoughts?

[Bansidhe]

Totally agree. We know that Tommy and Ron (at least) have great singing voices so will be good at doing backing & harmony parts. I used to like Finck's backing vocals on the outro parts of Madagascar but of course they used the samples of Axl singing the high parts now.

[bumblecool]

in It's So Easy you can ear Tommy voice some times above Axl voice.

[WhazUp]

Definitely, I have always wanted the backing vocals to be more prominent

[Rafał]

Ron has actually edited the vocal parts which were originally sang (both live and in studio, although in studio they are really buried) by Izzy in Mr Brownstone, and it sounds good.

[Guest gunns5]

Just let Ron do the chorus in shacklers by himself

problem solved

[James Bond]

I couldn't agree more. While Guns has never been a backing vocal band in the likes of say Van Halen or KISS where there's a strong emphasis on backing harmonies, the songs that DO have prominent backing vocals (like your example of Paradise City) would definitely benefit from being able to hear the other guys a lot more. Someone in another thread mentioned too that'd it be nice to hear Ron, Tommy and Dizzy cover the extra vocals on CD songs that are currently using a backing track, just to show off the guys more as well as help Axl out and add to the authentic live sound.

[Tyler Drama]

Dizzy and Bumblefoot are awesome singers. They should make up new harmonies for all the songs and sing 'em live. On most of the Chinese Democracy album version songs, there aren't many harmonies (Catcher has a bunch, Scraped has that intro, Sorry has Bach, and Riad has some good ones, but still not a lot overall). There are a ton of octaves, but I've sang some cool harmonies along with Street of Dreams, If The World, and This I Love that I think would be awesome for the other guys to do.

[Dean]

Always felt they should make use of the bands vocals, especially on Chinese Democracy tracks, instead of using backing tracks of Axl on the actual record - 'Sorry' being an example of this.

[Musicman11]

Hell yes, Ron, Tommy, Dizzy, and Chris could do a great job taking over the vocals in concerts for the parts Axl can't get to. It would also be nice if at concerts that they would turn up the backing vocals so we could hear them a little better as well, not trample over Axl's vocal, but be just slightly below his when needed. It's a shame Finck is gone though, I loved his vocals to be honest, made this the best version of Chinese Democracy in my opinion.