Beta confirms 48 songs completed in 2001

[Apollo]

So in her March 2001 interview, Beta says that GnR had 48 completed songs and were waiting for the record company to select songs for the album, which would probably be out in the summer of 2001.

I don't know the history of that event. Can anybody here share with us what happened?

Why wasn't an album released at that point, especially if GnR had 48 songs ready?

With 48 songs completed in 2001, why did it take seven more years to finally release an album?

Did the record company reject all 48 songs?

Did they keep some of them, and reject others - if so, what songs did they keep?

Were some of those 48 songs ones that ended up on the 2008 CD release?

If the band had 48 songs completed in 2001, how many songs more songs have been created from 2001-through-2008?

Thanks in advance.

[Redhead74]

Hi Groghan! Wow, 48 is a lot. Obviously not everything gets released to the public with any artist ever, but from my vague understanding wasn't it completed from a musical standpoint years before it was released but there were so many holdups which were mostly legal related and also Axl's inability to compromise when it came to negotiating with the record company, the management, the promoters, the video directors, the janitors, the pizza delivery boy, etc, etc.

[TeeJay410]

From various interviews, I think the issue was a shift of who was overseeing the project. Jimmy Iovine got involved and wanted to put his mark on it, make it his pet project. But at the time Eminem and Dr. Dre were blowing up the music world as well as the boy bands, he never gave it the serious attention it needed and held a lot of things up.

[WhazUp]

And that is why whenever a band member mentions writing songs I still have no hope for new material coming out in a reasonable amount of time

[downzy]

That's a story that likely has 30 different versions. I remember reading an interview by Tom Zutaut where he claims he was brought in to help get the album out around the time period Beta is talking about. If I can recall correctly, Zutaut felt at the time that the album was ready, but that Axl wasn't.

I think it was rumored in 2006 that the band had close to 72 songs recorded, but it was uncertain whether how many of these had actual vocals on them. This could have been the case back in 2001. Perhaps Axl didn't want to waste his time putting vocals to songs the label might reject (consider if they sent the label songs like Silkworms, I can understand why they'd might not give their approval). What I'm curious about is what was going on between 2004 and 2006. Why did it take Axl that long to find a replacement for Buckethead? Was the hope that Buckethead would eventually come back, like Finck did five or six years prior? Considering Buckethead was added at the last minute before the warm-up shows in NYC, I'm not sure what they were doing for those 2 years. I kind of get the 2006-2008 period, with transitions in management and the Best Buy deal to be worked out. It's that 2004-2006 space that I find so difficult to asses.

Since Axl has given anything but a clear and understandable answer as to why exactly this album took so long to put out (considering the material was there), who knows what the real answer is. It's probably a multitude of reasons: Axl's reticence, band members coming and going (Freese, Finck, Buckethead, Brain, Tobias), arguments with the label (including creative output/direction and financial obligations/commitments), management issues, the generally poor reception the band received by critics and the public alike when they re-launched, and other legal issues not already covered.

It would make for one hell of a book and perhaps movie. Maybe Axl could provide the soundtrack

[bran]

That's a story that likely has 30 different versions. I remember reading an interview by Tom Zutaut where he claims he was brought in to help get the album out around the time period Beta is talking about. If I can recall correctly, Zutaut felt at the time that the album was ready, but that Axl wasn't.

I think it was rumored in 2006 that the band had close to 72 songs recorded, but it was uncertain whether how many of these had actual vocals on them. This could have been the case back in 2001. Perhaps Axl didn't want to waste his time putting vocals to songs the label might reject (consider if they sent the label songs like Silkworms, I can understand why they'd might not give their approval). What I'm curious about is what was going on between 2004 and 2006. Why did it take Axl that long to find a replacement for Buckethead? Was the hope that Buckethead would eventually come back, like Finck did five or six years prior? Considering Buckethead was added at the last minute before the warm-up shows in NYC, I'm not sure what they were doing for those 2 years. I kind of get the 2006-2008 period, with transitions in management and the Best Buy deal to be worked out. It's that 2004-2006 space that I find so difficult to asses.

Since Axl has given anything but a clear and understandable answer as to why exactly this album took so long to put out (considering the material was there), who knows what the real answer is. It's probably a multitude of reasons: Axl's reticence, band members coming and going (Freese, Finck, Buckethead, Brain, Tobias), arguments with the label (including creative output/direction and financial obligations/commitments), management issues, the generally poor reception the band received by critics and the public alike when they re-launched, and other legal issues not already covered.

It would make for one hell of a book and perhaps movie. Maybe Axl could provide the soundtrack

it would be a killer movie

[Georgy Zhukov]

Chinese Democracy starts now.

[bran]

Chinese Democracy The Movie starts now.

[Chris 55]

So in her March 2001 interview, Beta says that GnR had 48 completed songs and were waiting for the record company to select songs for the album, which would probably be out in the summer of 2001.

I don't know the history of that event. Can anybody here share with us what happened?

Why wasn't an album released at that point, especially if GnR had 48 songs ready?

With 48 songs completed in 2001, why did it take seven more years to finally release an album?

Did the record company reject all 48 songs?

Did they keep some of them, and reject others - if so, what songs did they keep?

Were some of those 48 songs ones that ended up on the 2008 CD release?

If the band had 48 songs completed in 2001, how many songs more songs have been created from 2001-through-2008?

Thanks in advance.

I dunno. In the end it's irrelevant. Only 14 got released and it doesn't seem like new ones will be out for a long time

[Snowmass]

The maid/housekeeper/nanny/whatever speaks. Wow.....how riveting.

[SeBaZ]

2001 - 1993 = 8 years

2012 - 1993 = 19 years

8 years ------- 48 songs

19 years ------ 114 songs

OMG!

[dalsh327]

Brain said he transcribed 30-something songs, which could mean that the ones he didn't were just Axl on the piano. It's possible "This I Love" wasn't going to have GNR on it.

Zutaut said there's 50 or 60 songs on 4 or 5 CDs.

A "management spokesman" in 2002 said there were 41 being worked on, out of 60-70 songs.

In 2003, Marco Beltrami mentioned putting orchestration to "Seven", "Thyme", "The General" and "Leave Me Alone", but had also said there were no lyrics to the songs at that time. Paul Buckmaster was also brought in for the same reason, but I think all his songs were released on Chinese Democracy. For all we know, Axl had them both orchestrate the same songs.

In 2006, Axl said they were working on 32 songs, 26 were near done, and 13 were slated for CD.

[Apollo]

Thank you all for the great answers!

Redhead, be careful. I'm apparently head over heals in love with you.....(as opposed to the guy who wants to masturbate in your sock drawer).

[star]

what does Beta know ?

[KeyserSoze]

what does anyone besides axl know?

[Johnny Drama]

Thank you all for the great answers!

Redhead, be careful. I'm apparently head over heals in love with you.....(as opposed to the guy who wants to masturbate in your sock drawer).

Wants to? I already did.

Cool story breta. How about he puts more out?

[username]

Beta is Axl's Yoko Ono.

She seems to have more influence on Axl and thus GnR than I'd like any outsider to have on any band.

[Redhead74]

Thank you all for the great answers!

Redhead, be careful. I'm apparently head over heals in love with you.....(as opposed to the guy who wants to masturbate in your sock drawer).

Thanks Groghan, I'm hearing you! Johnny needs to learn a few manners around here but I can assure you my sock drawer is nice and clean and safe from his clutches.

[dalsh327]

Beta is Axl's Yoko Ono.

She seems to have more influence on Axl and thus GnR than I'd like any outsider to have on any band.

I think her influences are prob. more good than bad, but I think they have a pretty good grasp on his moods more than any manager coming in would have.

We know there's 30-40 songs out there that Axl's sitting on, and Caram prob. has a good idea which songs are ready to be released. Not sure if DJ's role is where Axl won't be as involved in producing it, maybe that's where DJ will come in and take over. I do think it's going to be more of a "live" band album than ChiDem was. He has to perform those songs as live songs so he's able to sing them properly.

The only thing is, no label, and a lot of time and money have to be put aside to work on the songs. It's going to be coming out of pocket, on his dime, and presented to record companies who are going to want him to take an active role in promoting it. If he just self releases the thing and calls radio stations, shows up on Fallon and Kimmel with the band, does a few surprise club shows for fans and media. that's all he really needs to do on his end. And maybe a live UStream performance and/or Q&A.

[GivenToFly]

So in her March 2001 interview, Beta says that GnR had 48 completed songs and were waiting for the record company to select songs for the album, which would probably be out in the summer of 2001.

I don't know the history of that event. Can anybody here share with us what happened?

Why wasn't an album released at that point, especially if GnR had 48 songs ready?

With 48 songs completed in 2001, why did it take seven more years to finally release an album?

Did the record company reject all 48 songs?

Did they keep some of them, and reject others - if so, what songs did they keep?

Were some of those 48 songs ones that ended up on the 2008 CD release?

If the band had 48 songs completed in 2001, how many songs more songs have been created from 2001-through-2008?

Thanks in advance.

Tommy said that Roy Thomas Baker made them rerecord everything and the wasted a lot of time on that. I can't remember who else said that when asked how many good songs they had Baker answered "3 maybe".

[AXL_N_DIZZY]

For all we know "48 songs" in 2001 meant "Madagascar" version. "A", "B", "C" and "D" and so forth for each and every title we've come to know. I'd take it all with a grain of salt- especially 11 years out (hard to believe) and several line-up changes and producers later, etc. I do think there may be 5-10 tracks (e.g. "The General", "Thyme", "Seven", perhaps a re-worked "OMG", etc.) that currently exist (in probably 10 different versions each) that could see the light of day at some point. I'd really be pretty shocked if there's 34 original completed songs (beyond the 14 on CD) just lying around since 2001 though. We'll see...

[Crowebar]

what does anyone besides axl know?

Yes... Indeed...

I hope we get to hear this "Rock N' Roll Roller-Coaster" ride of a story, straight from the man and source, Axl, himself some day.......

Man, what a saga.......

[dalsh327]

So in her March 2001 interview, Beta says that GnR had 48 completed songs and were waiting for the record company to select songs for the album, which would probably be out in the summer of 2001.

I don't know the history of that event. Can anybody here share with us what happened?

Why wasn't an album released at that point, especially if GnR had 48 songs ready?

With 48 songs completed in 2001, why did it take seven more years to finally release an album?

Did the record company reject all 48 songs?

Did they keep some of them, and reject others - if so, what songs did they keep?

Were some of those 48 songs ones that ended up on the 2008 CD release?

If the band had 48 songs completed in 2001, how many songs more songs have been created from 2001-through-2008?

Thanks in advance.

Tommy said that Roy Thomas Baker made them rerecord everything and the wasted a lot of time on that. I can't remember who else said that when asked how many good songs they had Baker answered "3 maybe".

Bob Ezrin's the one that said 3, but he was acting as A&R, not as a producer. That's according to Alice Cooper.

I think Axl made a mistake asking him. It just reinforced Axl's insecurity. Baker seemed to be trying to do the right thing by Axl, but he should've just given Trent Reznor the 10 million dollars at that point and brought the band to New Orleans.

Even though Ezrin made "The Wall" and Lou Reed's "Berlin", he also made "The Elder".