It's 5'O Clock Somewhere as a GNR Album

[bacardimayne]

It really amazes me that there are people here who think It's 5'O Clock Somewhere should have been a GNR album and that Axl was being an outright cunt for rejecting it. Really, it's 1996. The band hasn't released anything in five years (TSI doesn't count). Based on the wait, the general public is expecting another huge album chock full of hits. Possibly another double album even. Five years is a long time. Instead, they'd have gotten a single-disc full of songs like Jizz Da Pit and Good to Be Alive (Really, do people think these stand up to album tracks like It's So Easy and 14 Years?).

And you can go "oh but if GNR had recorded it it would have been so much better". Yeah, but wasn't Slash entirely against any input from Axl? Isn't this situation where the "shut up and sing" quote stems from? So basically, the only difference would have been the lyrics and the voice singing it. Still not enough to take songs like Good to Be Alive and make them good. The only song on I5OCS that had a chance at becoming a GNR-worthy hit was Beggars & Hangers-On.

To summarize, I think that If GNR had released It's 5'O Clock Somewhere as an official GNR album, it would have tanked hard, and the band would never have recovered. I'm not saying it's not preferable to what happened, but it just makes me laugh that some people here think Snakepit would have saved GNR and been the next AFD.

[Mfegz]

Cool

[bran]

5' o clock somewhere is a bad album beggars and hangers-on is a pretty good song i always liked it but the rest is garbage. if it was released as a gnr album it would have been horribly recieved IMO

[saber_]

It needed Izzy's touch.

[bran]

It needed Izzy's touch.

you cant polish a turd

[saber_]

It needed Izzy's touch.

you cant polish a turd

It needed Steven Adler's touch too.

[Johnny Drama]

I dont think it would have been adopted wholesale by any means. Obviously it would have only been like a third of the songs, or had ideas from songs incorporated into songs that Axl, Izzy and Duff had wrote.

I mean Axl was a pro at finishing up stuff to really make it something, its just that he pushed that ability way too far and ended up with an album that was way too over produced. Like for example, Jizz Da Pit was written by Slash and Mike Inez, and it has two pretty distinct halves (pretty obvious who wrote which half). I reckon Axl could have mixed the whole 50's rock and roll part with the Alice in Chains/Soundgarden-y part easily to make a more cohesive tune (and by all intents and purposes that sounds exactly like what he wanted to do in the 90's)

[Use Your Delusion 1]

It needed Izzy's touch.

you cant polish a turd

It needed Steven Adler's touch too.

you can polish a syringe I guess.....

[Johnny Drama]

5' o clock somewhere is a bad album beggars and hangers-on is a pretty good song i always liked it but the rest is garbage. if it was released as a gnr album it would have been horribly recieved IMO

The music and song structures are great and the band's playing is top notch, but Eric Dover can grate on the ears.

[tr420]

Ah at least a once a year topic. Cool.

[gavgnr]

There's 2-3 good songs there for me, but who knows what might've been with axls lyrics

[classicrawker]

I dont think it would have been adopted wholesale by any means. Obviously it would have only been like a third of the songs, or had ideas from songs incorporated into songs that Axl, Izzy and Duff had wrote.

I mean Axl was a pro at finishing up stuff to really make it something, its just that he pushed that ability way too far and ended up with an album that was way too over produced. Like for example, Jizz Da Pit was written by Slash and Mike Inez, and it has two pretty distinct halves (pretty obvious who wrote which half). I reckon Axl could have mixed the whole 50's rock and roll part with the Alice in Chains/Soundgarden-y part easily to make a more cohesive tune (and by all intents and purposes that sounds exactly like what he wanted to do in the 90's)

I agree with this..and I don't agree it was a bad album........if Axl and Slash had met each other halfway and worked on some of the songs together it could have been a good start for the next GnR album IMHO...

But with the bad blood between the two there never was going to be a next GnR album with Slash in the band..........

[DieselDaisy]

Yeah, but wasn't Slash entirely against any input from Axl? Isn't this situation where the "shut up and sing" quote stems from?

If, if you believe Axl's account of events. Slash's account is quite different and consists of an Axl trying to buy back five of the ideas when the Snakepit album was about to be released.

[classicrawker]

Yeah, but wasn't Slash entirely against any input from Axl? Isn't this situation where the "shut up and sing" quote stems from?

If, if you believe Axl's account of events. Slash's account is quite different and consists of an Axl trying to buy back five of the ideas when the Snakepit album was about to be released.

That is about half an albums worth of songs and would have been a nice start to the next GnR album..and didn't Axl say Slash played him his Fall to Pieces" song idea also?

Edited December 22, 2012 by classicrawker

[DieselDaisy]

In January 1994 Slash presented Axl with DATS of songs he later worked up into Snakepit. The important question is, how highly developed were the DATS, how like/unlike the finished Snakepit record were they. We know Dover wrote most of the lyrics and Dover didn't arrive until after the demos had been rejected, after, Slash had made the decision to turn them into a solo record (which was about, late summer 1994). So that automatically removes most of the lyrics from the equation. Axl is found lying therefore as, Axl insists that he was told what to sing which presupposes that Slash had written the lyrics. Why would Slash present Axl with lyrics only to, a few months later, allow Eric Dover to write completely new lyrics. Answer: there were no lyrics and Axl is lying.

Edited December 22, 2012 by DieselDaisy

[bran]

5' o clock somewhere is a bad album beggars and hangers-on is a pretty good song i always liked it but the rest is garbage. if it was released as a gnr album it would have been horribly recieved IMO

The music and song structures are great and the band's playing is top notch, but Eric Dover can grate on the ears.

eric dover and myles kennedy do that for me i just cant stand their voices.

[sweetness]

I think if Slash included the best ideas from that album in a GNR collaberative effort it could have been amazing, maybe even better than the illusions. There's some damn good lead guitar playing on Its Five O'Clock Somewhere, and some solid riffs, if it had a talented singer like Axl Rose writing lyrics and melodies it could have really been something.

Main reason that album doesn't stack up against GNR albums is the incredibly weak vocals or Eric Dover, and the lyrics.. god damn those lyrics are pretty cringe worthy for the most part

[saber_]

In January 1994 Slash presented Axl with DATS of songs he later worked up into Snakepit. The important question is, how highly developed were the DATS, how like/unlike the finished Snakepit record were they. We know Dover wrote most of the lyrics and Dover didn't arrive until after the demos had been rejected, after, Slash had made the decision to turn them into a solo record (which was about, late summer 1994). So that automatically removes most of the lyrics from the equation. Axl is found lying therefore as, Axl insists that he was told what to sing which presupposes that Slash had written the lyrics. Why would Slash present Axl with lyrics only to, a few months later, allow Eric Dover to write completely new lyrics. Answer: there were no lyrics and Axl is lying.

Do you have any page numbers or sources? I'm just curious. I'd like to see the exact quote from Axl you keep referring to in vague terms. If you can produce it, fair play. I truly am just curious as to your sources for that entire paragraph.

[DieselDaisy]

Isn't it the dexter chats. Give me a minute...

[Vincent Vega]

"Slash: I just delivered my last tape to Axl. My latest tape to Axl.

Steve Downs: Just minutes ago.

Axl: I've been eagerly awaiting." (Axl & Slash, Rockline, 01/03/94)

"We just jam a lot, you know. We just get together and play and all our musical roots and all that kinda shit are still intact. You know what I mean. So, like... We've been working on songs for the next record and all we do is like, jam up at my house. Well, up until the earthquake. The studio is now down. [laughs]" (Slash, Canadian radio, 01/94)

" Anyway, so that was set and done and I built the studio in my house. And started recording material for the next record. So we got about 14 or 15 songs for the next record." (Slash, Canandian Radio, 1/94)

"But, we've got 14 songs done, at this point and as soon as I get back to LA from Canada, I'm gonna rent a place to live next to the rehearsal studio and then we'll just go in there and start jamming. And that's how we hang out. That's what we do." (Slash, Canadian radio, 01/94)

"The coolest omen," says Slash, "was the night I recorded three songs and mixed them that night, which I normally wouldn't do. I went to bed with the DAT in my hand, all 14 songs. [...] And it was like Godzilla came to town. [...] The time was 4:31 a.m., Jan. 17, 1994. The Godzilla in question was L.A.'s 6.7 earthquake." (Slash, Rolling Stone, 04/95)

"I played him [Axl] the material that I was writing, and he was like, "I don't wanna do that kind of music." The stuff that he was into, I couldn't understand. So I took the material back - I was cool - and at the same time I started jamming with Matt (Sorum) at home. And Gilby was still my mate - I didn't have anything to do with him being fired from Guns - and we met up with Mike Inez, and all of a sudden I realised we had a band. I'm making a short story long here! And Eric (Dover) had this really innocent, natural, very "retro" kind of voice. And I was like "Cool!" y'know - play my ass off, the band's great, Eric sings the way he sings and so on - and we did an album in a short amount of time. And then I booked a tour, and at this point Axl turned around and wanted the material back. And that's where the big shit started, because I told him, "Dude, it's gone. If I remember correctly, it was turned down flat." And that's where we got threats of lawsuits and this, that and the other.

"Anyway, I took off and did the Snakepit tour - it was supposed to end in June, but because it was so much fun I kept adding gigs."(Slash, Metal Edge, 11/95)

“When we got off tour was when we got in trouble,” Sorum sighs. “Axl’s thing was to outdo the last thing and we’d just done a three-year tour in massive stadiums and done epic videos and there was a lot of pressure on us.

“Me and Slash wrote a bunch of songs and gave them to Axl and he didn’t like them. Those songs turned into Slash’s Snakepit. We recorded that album together.

“In retrospect that was probably the beginning of the end. We should have rallied as a band and figured out how to get the songs better instead of jumping out on our own. In Axl’s defence he was probably right. We should have stuck together, it wasn’t the time for solo records. You don’t see Metallica running around doing solo records. Has Bono or the Edge made a solo record? No.”

http://www.musicrada...-story-549356/6

"Kerrang!: How's the next GN'R album progressing?

Gilby: "There is no 'next GN'R album'!"

K!: EVER?!

G: "I don't know about ever. For now. We started working on one, and it got canned."

K!: How come?

G: Well, it's an Axl thing. He just wasn't into what we were doing, so he's kind of rethinking what he wants to do. He just kind of threw a wrench into everything that me, Slash and Matt had worked to. And then Duff came in. Duff and Axl have an idea what the album should be, and the rest of us have another idea." (Gilby,Kerrang, 05/24/94)

"What people don't know is, the [slash's] Snakepit album, that is the Guns N' Roses album. I just wouldn't do it. [...] Duff walked out on it, and I walked out on it, because I wasn't allowed to be any part of it. It's like, 'No, you do this, that's how it is.'" (Axl, MTV, 11/08/99)

"I didn’t walk till several months after having 3-4-hour phone conversations nearly every day with Slash, trying to reach a compromise. I was specifically told no lyrics, no melodies, no changes to anything and to sing what I was told or fuck off." (Axl, MyGNR, 12/14/08)

"And I didn't believe in it. I thought that there were riffs and parts and some ideas, I thought, that needed to be developed. I had no problem working on it, or working with it, but you know, as is, I think I'm with the public on that one." (Axl,MTV, 11/08/99)

"The Snakepit album could have been the new GNR album, but Axl didn't thought it was good enough.

H.R.: What do you think about this album?

Matt: There was some good songs, but it wasn't a band effort, it was Slash's songs. It had nothing to do with 5 guys working hard in a studio, what we are doing with Guns right now. When Slash says "I'd like to work on that riff" and Duff answers "Yeah, let's work on it", it's really GNR. This has nothing to do with "This is a Slash song, you will play like that and Axl will sing like that".--Matt, Hard Rock Magazine, 1996.

Edited December 22, 2012 by Vincent Vega

[classicrawker]

"We just jam a lot, you know. We just get together and play and all our musical roots and all that kinda shit are still intact. You know what I mean. So, like... We've been working on songs for the next record and all we do is like, jam up at my house. Well, up until the earthquake. The studio is now down. [laughs]" (Slash, Canadian radio, 01/94)

"But, we've got 14 songs done, at this point and as soon as I get back to LA from Canada, I'm gonna rent a place to live next to the rehearsal studio and then we'll just go in there and start jamming. And that's how we hang out. That's what we do." (Slash, Canadian radio, 01/94)

"The coolest omen," says Slash, "was the night I recorded three songs and mixed them that night, which I normally wouldn't do. I went to bed with the DAT in my hand, all 14 songs. [...] And it was like Godzilla came to town. [...] The time was 4:31 a.m., Jan. 17, 1994. The Godzilla in question was L.A.'s 6.7 earthquake." (Slash, Rolling Stone, 04/95)

“When we got off tour was when we got in trouble,” Sorum sighs. “Axl’s thing was to outdo the last thing and we’d just done a three-year tour in massive stadiums and done epic videos and there was a lot of pressure on us.

“Me and Slash wrote a bunch of songs and gave them to Axl and he didn’t like them. Those songs turned into Slash’s Snakepit. We recorded that album together.

“In retrospect that was probably the beginning of the end. We should have rallied as a band and figured out how to get the songs better instead of jumping out on our own. In Axl’s defence he was probably right. We should have stuck together, it wasn’t the time for solo records. You don’t see Metallica running around doing solo records. Has Bono or the Edge made a solo record? No.”

http://www.musicrada...-story-549356/6

"Kerrang!: How's the next GN'R album progressing?

Gilby: "There is no 'next GN'R album'!"

K!: EVER?!

G: "I don't know about ever. For now. We started working on one, and it got canned."

K!: How come?

G: Well, it's an Axl thing. He just wasn't into what we were doing, so he's kind of rethinking what he wants to do. He just kind of threw a wrench into everything that me, Slash and Matt had worked to. And then Duff came in. Duff and Axl have an idea what the album should be, and the rest of us have another idea." (Gilby,Kerrang, 05/24/94)

"What people don't know is, the [slash's] Snakepit album, that is the Guns N' Roses album. I just wouldn't do it. [...] Duff walked out on it, and I walked out on it, because I wasn't allowed to be any part of it. It's like, 'No, you do this, that's how it is.'" (Axl, MTV, 11/08/99)

"I didn’t walk till several months after having 3-4-hour phone conversations nearly every day with Slash, trying to reach a compromise. I was specifically told no lyrics, no melodies, no changes to anything and to sing what I was told or fuck off." (Axl, MyGNR, 12/14/08)

"And I didn't believe in it. I thought that there were riffs and parts and some ideas, I thought, that needed to be developed. I had no problem working on it, or working with it, but you know, as is, I think I'm with the public on that one." (Axl,MTV, 11/08/99)

"The Snakepit album could have been the new GNR album, but Axl didn't thought it was good enough.

H.R.: What do you think about this album?

Matt: There was some good songs, but it wasn't a band effort, it was Slash's songs. It had nothing to do with 5 guys working hard in a studio, what we are doing with Guns right now. When Slash says "I'd like to work on that riff" and Duff answers "Yeah, let's work on it", it's really GNR. This has nothing to do with "This is a Slash song, you will play like that and Axl will sing like that".--Matt, Hard Rock Magazine, 1996.

Thanks Miser, We can always count on you to pull out the interviews..always an interesting read

What I find curious is that Matt contradicts himself as first he claims he worked the songs with Slash in one interview and then claims they were Slash's songs in another...goes to show you how what really happened after the UYI tours is so different depending on who ios telling the story...

Isn't it the dexter chats. Give me a minute...

If you can't find it just claim insider information as that seems to work for MSL for some people.........

Edited December 22, 2012 by classicrawker

[DieselDaisy]

In January 1994 Slash presented Axl with DATS of songs he later worked up into Snakepit. The important question is, how highly developed were the DATS, how like/unlike the finished Snakepit record were they. We know Dover wrote most of the lyrics and Dover didn't arrive until after the demos had been rejected, after, Slash had made the decision to turn them into a solo record (which was about, late summer 1994). So that automatically removes most of the lyrics from the equation. Axl is found lying therefore as, Axl insists that he was told what to sing which presupposes that Slash had written the lyrics. Why would Slash present Axl with lyrics only to, a few months later, allow Eric Dover to write completely new lyrics. Answer: there were no lyrics and Axl is lying.

Do you have any page numbers or sources? I'm just curious. I'd like to see the exact quote from Axl you keep referring to in vague terms. If you can produce it, fair play. I truly am just curious as to your sources for that entire paragraph.

And I’m not talking change of styles or sounds etc. A lot of people bought that crap and me having gone in other directions seems to many to have verified that. Then you have the mind twisting equally as true horseshit in Slash’s book but I have the rehearsal tapes. There’s nothing but Slash based blues rock and he stopped it to both go solo and try to completely take over Guns. I read all this if Axl would’ve put words and melodies on it could’ve… That was denied and I didn’t walk till several months after having 3 to 4 hour phone conversations nearly every day with Slash trying to reach a compromise. I was specifically told no lyrics, no melodies, no changes to anything and to sing what I was told or fuck off.

Dexter chats

[saber_]

I still don't think you've proven Axl is lying. He claims he was told what to sing. That doesn't mean he was literally handed lyrics by Slash. Where have you proven he was literally handed lyrics by Slash? And hey, he very well could have been handed lyrics by Slash and Matt and Gilby. I think Axl was referring to how Slash and Matt were acting like producers and telling him how it was going to be.

Edited December 22, 2012 by brainsaber

[Rustycage]

How sad. Axl layers down a ton of synth on UYI to the surprise of everyone and when it's a group consensus that Axl can't hijack a project, he cries like a baby.

His story still looks like bullshit.

[Jeez]

It really amazes me that there are people here who think It's 5'O Clock Somewhere should have been a GNR album and that Axl was being an outright cunt for rejecting it. Really, it's 1996. The band hasn't released anything in five years (TSI doesn't count). Based on the wait, the general public is expecting another huge album chock full of hits. Possibly another double album even. Five years is a long time. Instead, they'd have gotten a single-disc full of songs like Jizz Da Pit and Good to Be Alive (Really, do people think these stand up to album tracks like It's So Easy and 14 Years?).

And you can go "oh but if GNR had recorded it it would have been so much better". Yeah, but wasn't Slash entirely against any input from Axl? Isn't this situation where the "shut up and sing" quote stems from? So basically, the only difference would have been the lyrics and the voice singing it. Still not enough to take songs like Good to Be Alive and make them good. The only song on I5OCS that had a chance at becoming a GNR-worthy hit was Beggars & Hangers-On.

To summarize, I think that If GNR had released It's 5'O Clock Somewhere as an official GNR album, it would have tanked hard, and the band would never have recovered. I'm not saying it's not preferable to what happened, but it just makes me laugh that some people here think Snakepit would have saved GNR and been the next AFD.

Agreed!