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Themes, inspiration and lack of new material


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Axl's never been a really great lyricist but I think he's one of the best lyricists because of the way he writes, which is exactly how you described. He's always thought people were Out Ta Get him and the sense of paranoia and anger and sort of fear of sex and all that was part of what made the band - and especially Appetite - interesting to begin with. Of course, when he became famous it seemed like the lyrics only became more angry and Chinese Democracy very much strikes me as reflective of what we know about his life over the past couple decades. I think I.R.S. is particularly classic YCBM-style Axl; people always criticize the chorus but I think the verses are some of the best he's written.

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he has hundreds of songs to release. he would need to start writing again after releasing 3 or 4 albums.

Again, as I said in the first post, most of those things (if they're anything like CD) are about anger and issues with the original gnr breaking up. Who says he still wants to release them?

He's not releasing them now or showing any intention to do so.

From what he has said a few times, there was definitely two batches of songs, CD more guitar driven and all the songs fitted thematically and a more electronica based album with guitars which was more eclectic. Fortus has written songs that didn't go on CD just because that record was done basically.

Axl also said he never wanted to be in the position of needing input from others to do a record again. So he has material backed up. He has material, he could put out a record, but that does bring up other questions. Like he said in Del's interview, it depends what you mean by finished. What he said on Kimmel is they have stuff and they see what they want to do.

to me it's more how to deal with the industry side of things and what they want to do with their material, but final word is from Axl. For better or worse. Inspiration in context in context. There's nothing that kills creativity more than anticipation.

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I think you'll see artists and record companies having a better working relationship than in the past 20 years, the exception being pop stars.

GNR hasn't been faced with how to distribute the music, just in 4 years, it's changed a lot. But with social media, having songs played on a hit TV show, or a song for a soundtrack, something new is going to get out there.

I do think they'll wind up doing a "test run" with a new song for download or an EP, before putting more songs out.

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I usually don't like to speculate/think about this a lot, but I incidentally did. So with the risk of sounding ridiculous, here goes. What kickstarted this trail of thought were the lyrics of the Checkmate clip. A lot of people would agree it's roughly this:

All cautions made, every chance was given, no effort spared, to save what we had

Basically this shows regret, sadness, anger, abandonment issues... And basically those themes run through a lot of CD. The most obvious example being Sorry. A couple of examples:

Don't ever try to tell me, how much you care for me

Don't ever try to tell me, how you were there for me

I don't believe there's a reason (I don't, I don’t believe it)

I don't believe there's a reason (I sure, I don’t believe it)

I've got a wicked demon here somehow never fades

I've got an empty feeling

I won't be home today

No one is stopping you from doing what you want to do

No one is stopping you now, stopping you now

You like to hurt me

You know that you do

You like to think

In some way

That it's me

And not you

Nobody owes you

Not one goddamn thing

You know where to put your

'Just shut up and sing'

It was a bargain for the summer

An I thought I had it all

I was the one who gave you everything

The one who took the fall

You were the one who would do anything

The one who can't recall

Forgive them that tear down my soul

And bless them that they might grow old

And free them so that they may know

That it's never too late

I'm not going to say everything on CD is about this stuff and over analyze every line. But I still maintain that some of the most common themes in CD were anger, sadness, betrayal, abandonment issues etc. And yes, I do think this was mostly due to the original band breaking up. It's about Slash, it's about Duff, it's about Izzy. Not every line, but the main feel of the album is.

Just like for example Keith Richards You' Don't More Me Anymore is actually about Mick Jagger. At the time he even thought it was about some woman or relationship but later on he realized it was just how he felt towards Mick. He talks about it in his book as well.

Now, this raises a few issues for me.

First of all. They were all written in more or less anger. That matches the fire GnR started with around 2001/2002. And I think it was still there in 2006. Then it slowly wore off. Maybe this is related to the lack of new material. If the anger dies down, maybe the songs seem silly now (to Axl). Maybe that's part of why he's not doing anything with them. He's calmed down and feels meh about the lyrics and subjects in them.

That's half of why I think there's no album. The other half is this. If that was his inspiration then, what's his inspiration now? Is there any inspiration? What's the fuel?

So I think there's no progress because:

1. Axl feels weird/unsure about the old material which is probably just as angry and about the old GnR as most of CD is.

2. Without that anger, he has no inspiration to write other things either. There's no fuel to the fire.

Thoughts?

One last thing, PLEASE don't make this another Axl vs Slash threads.

I think that's an excellent analysis of the situation. i know that inner turmoil seems to inspire the most creativity for me and others I know. It's like a friend of mine told me- he needs to get his heart broken.

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Great topic and theory. Fun to speculate.

Anyway, we can universally discontinue sayig that Axl Rose has found the key to life and is too HAPPY to write songs or sing like he used to?!?!?!

No matter how much happier he is now, he can't be "happy". He's got plenty of fuel in there somewhere. When you experience anger, deceit, deception, abandonment...those feelings don't just disappear because "now you're happy".

Of course, if happy meds are clouding what's inside and temporarily plugging the levee, that's a whole new animal that wasn't mentioned in the OP.

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I actually dont see how inner turmoil fuels creativity. Not neccasarily. Maybe in terms of writing love songs maybe. But not creativity in general. The Stones, Zepp or even Queen dont seem that tortured. Jagger especially doesnt seem to care.

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I actually dont see how inner turmoil fuels creativity. Not neccasarily. Maybe in terms of writing love songs maybe. But not creativity in general. The Stones, Zepp or even Queen dont seem that tortured. Jagger especially doesnt seem to care.

I'm not saying it's like that in general. I'm saying that when you look at the central themes running through Chinese Democracy (and maybe the Checkmate clip), it was what fueled Axl at the time he was writing those songs. And if that was what fueled him them, it seems like he's lost that now.

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I actually dont see how inner turmoil fuels creativity. Not neccasarily. Maybe in terms of writing love songs maybe. But not creativity in general. The Stones, Zepp or even Queen dont seem that tortured. Jagger especially doesnt seem to care.

I'm not saying it's like that in general. I'm saying that when you look at the central themes running through Chinese Democracy (and maybe the Checkmate clip), it was what fueled Axl at the time he was writing those songs. And if that was what fueled him them, it seems like he's lost that now.

I agree with you that it fuels Axl. Hes even quoted as saying Bowie said he was driven by anger and he felt the same or somwthing. He does seem to be possessed by Jack Nicholson recently.

I was just ruminating in general about creativity. matisse was just normal dude. Bridget Riley is creative but shes not driven by rage.

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I actually dont see how inner turmoil fuels creativity. Not neccasarily. Maybe in terms of writing love songs maybe. But not creativity in general. The Stones, Zepp or even Queen dont seem that tortured. Jagger especially doesnt seem to care.

I'm not saying it's like that in general. I'm saying that when you look at the central themes running through Chinese Democracy (and maybe the Checkmate clip), it was what fueled Axl at the time he was writing those songs. And if that was what fueled him them, it seems like he's lost that now.

I agree with you that it fuels Axl. Hes even quoted as saying Bowie said he was driven by anger and he felt the same or somwthing. He does seem to be possessed by Jack Nicholson recently.

I was just ruminating in general about creativity. matisse was just normal dude. Bridget Riley is creative but shes not driven by rage.

i think passion might be a better way of putting it. That can be fueled by angst, love, drugs or any number of things. it seems to me Axl is lacking the drive to do something new, probably for any number of reasons including fear of failure AND fear of success. Imagine you had gone through what Axl did in terms of lineups changes, lawsuits and the generally lukewarm response to CD. i think Axl's inner self was deeply wounded by that, and i'm not referring to sales or anything of the like. What incentive does he have to put that much of himself out there again? Maybe he's grown comfortable in his life as a hermit and sees no reason to start up the media circus and again if the album were a success in commercial terms.
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i think passion might be a better way of putting it. That can be fueled by angst, love, drugs or any number of things. it seems to me Axl is lacking the drive to do something new, probably for any number of reasons including fear of failure AND fear of success. Imagine you had gone through what Axl did in terms of lineups changes, lawsuits and the generally lukewarm response to CD. i think Axl's inner self was deeply wounded by that, and i'm not referring to sales or anything of the like. What incentive does he have to put that much of himself out there again? Maybe he's grown comfortable in his life as a hermit and sees no reason to start up the media circus and again if the album were a success in commercial terms.

I think it would be fair to say that Guns N Roses is not Axl's life. He has a family now and lives his life much like any other average Joe. I believe GNR is still an important part of his life, but it's not his whole life. He's has more music completed, and at some point, I imagine he'll return to the studio to record again. When he does, it will be on his own timetable and not anyone else's. If fans would accept that, I think there would be a lot less moaning and baseless accusations about him never do anything ever again.

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