Undeniable proof that a Chinese Democracy re-release was almost done

[classicrawker]

3 covers on 2008: FACT.

Didn't work out: FACT.

2010/2011 re-release: The picture on the OP is a very strong evidence. Add that to the strong rumors back then, the remix album leaks, and the new tour gear related to the alternative artwork (like the Chinese Democracy fist on the piano top, the giant inflatable Mao head and the Red Hand) and I think it's pretty safe to say: FACT.

Didn't work out either: FACT.

You can claim the first two as fact but the rest is speculation on your part not fact. You have no definitive proof there was going to be this mythical rerelease with an extra disc of unreleased songs...and that is a fact...........

[Crash Diet]

Groghan, back on 2009 before the tour I emailed Brain and asked him if he was going to be with them on Asia. He said that he was not, but he was still working for Axl in a remix album. When Better Gone leaked I emailed him asking about it, and he confirmed it's his. There is a remix album.

And you say "Anybody with any sense of the music business would have looked at that idea and said "Uhhhh, no way in hell is that a good idea"

Well, does Axl sound to you like someone who has any sense of the music business and how to deal with it? He spent 14 years to release and album that flopped! What about his management team? Five years ago they were cleaning Axl's house and now they're managing Guns N' Roses. They certainly don't have much of a clue how things work either.

That's why this whole re-release thing doesn't surprise me at all.

haha good points

I laugh hard at the "5 years ago" part

Let's start for the beginning, if they tried to re-release CD in 2011 with a new booklet, remix album, whatever whatever, then why do the actual CD exists? I mean, did they print millions of records again and didn't sell one single copy? Are these copies that Troccoli owns promo CDs? Are those prototypes? If this was supposed to be released with a remix album, where is that album?

I believe no one has bothered to ask Troccoli as to how and where did he get those from.

Yeah "undeniable proof" everyone. Fuckin' smh.

to get some sense for the never ending touring...

[T.wa.T]

So troccoli is legit, but he posted fake copies of the alt covers. Got it!

[Apollo]

Groghan, back on 2009 before the tour I emailed Brain and asked him if he was going to be with them on Asia. He said that he was not, but he was still working for Axl in a remix album. When Better Gone leaked I emailed him asking about it, and he confirmed it's his. There is a remix album.

And you say "Anybody with any sense of the music business would have looked at that idea and said "Uhhhh, no way in hell is that a good idea"

Well, does Axl sound to you like someone who has any sense of the music business and how to deal with it? He spent 14 years to release and album that flopped! What about his management team? Five years ago they were cleaning Axl's house and now they're managing Guns N' Roses. They certainly don't have much of a clue how things work either.

That's why this whole re-release thing doesn't surprise me at all.

Thanks!

Great post.

[Amir]

The Cover B is definitely real, it's been acknowledged by BBF, we've seen the paintings and photos around Axl's house on his piano, etc.

But I still think Cover C is a fake. Fans have gone to stupid lengths to make fakes before (that shrink-wrapped "Monstrosity" single, the audio fakes ("garble garble garble Prostitute"), prob the MSL PowerPoint, etc. The art is crap in Cover C, and a lot of it is after CD was released, and that artist who authorised Axl to use her humping skeletons painting said she never authorised the dancing skeletons one for him.

Just look at this shoddy printing job here:

Axl did say there was a "How Are You?" Grenade cover, and I think some fan with too much time on their hands took it from there.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Amir

[Crash Diet]

Ron said that, regarding the Red Hand booklet, after it's release was cancelled, they sent copies to band members, tour crew, friends etc. Notice that the Red Hand booklet has a copyright from 2009! Not 2008 like the regular booklet, but not 2010 or 2011 either.

As for the Grenade booklet, Mr.SoulMonster found two copies of it on his local music shop and sent one to MSL. The vast majority of the Red Hand copies found were found that way: a lost copy among all the other regular booklet versions.

I don't know if they printed millions of it, if Axl has boxes full of it somewhere, what we do know is that the first print of Chinese Democracy never sold out, but for some reason they printed alternative versions 1 year later, 2 years later, THREE YEARS LATER.

Those booklets are real, there's no way someone took the time to make up this thing. Hell, even some of those paintings are in Axl House!

Correct, cameltoe from This I Love page could be seen in Axl's house.

lol maybe that is beta's "barn" (cameltoe)

Here is what msl said...

A full North American arena tour and Best Buy exclusive reissue of Chinese Democracy would both launch on March 29. (2011)

...

The album reissue would contain new artwork and a second disc containing bonus material. In addition to remixes of tracks from the album, the bonus disc would contain a new song 'Blood In The Water' as well as a new version of 'Better' featuring DJ Ashba, which would serve as the radio single for the reissue.

Funny thing is MSL got the New TIL from 2009 with DJ Ashba and new Axl vocal layers on it....

So troccoli is legit, but he posted fake copies of the alt covers. Got it!

how is it fake?

did i miss something?

[ManetsBR]

Sarcasm.

[T.wa.T]

Ron said that, regarding the Red Hand booklet, after it's release was cancelled, they sent copies to band members, tour crew, friends etc. Notice that the Red Hand booklet has a copyright from 2009! Not 2008 like the regular booklet, but not 2010 or 2011 either.

As for the Grenade booklet, Mr.SoulMonster found two copies of it on his local music shop and sent one to MSL. The vast majority of the Red Hand copies found were found that way: a lost copy among all the other regular booklet versions.

I don't know if they printed millions of it, if Axl has boxes full of it somewhere, what we do know is that the first print of Chinese Democracy never sold out, but for some reason they printed alternative versions 1 year later, 2 years later, THREE YEARS LATER.

Those booklets are real, there's no way someone took the time to make up this thing. Hell, even some of those paintings are in Axl House!

Correct, cameltoe from This I Love page could be seen in Axl's house.

lol maybe that is beta's "barn" (cameltoe)

Here is what msl said...

A full North American arena tour and Best Buy exclusive reissue of Chinese Democracy would both launch on March 29. (2011)

...

The album reissue would contain new artwork and a second disc containing bonus material. In addition to remixes of tracks from the album, the bonus disc would contain a new song 'Blood In The Water' as well as a new version of 'Better' featuring DJ Ashba, which would serve as the radio single for the reissue.

Funny thing is MSL got the New TIL from 2009 with DJ Ashba and new Axl vocal layers on it....

So troccoli is legit, but he posted fake copies of the alt covers. Got it!

how is it fake?

did i miss something?

Its not fake.

Someone had said that the covers arent undeniable proof of a rerelease, and at the same time said that troccoli is legit. So why would troccoli release bullshit if hes legit.

[Amir]

I've seen the painting of the 2 soldiers kissing on the Riad pages before. Someone's photoshopped them onto that Mao/Stalin painting, which has those red blood looking things taken from the helicopter painting in Cover B.

Still refuse to believe Cover C is official GNR merch.

[DieselDaisy]

There is so much conspiracy theory bullshit about this album, even following its release. We are still debating this stuff. It just seems that CD will always generate controversy.

[Amir]

No catalogue no. etc. for Cover C makes it even shadier. Cover B is just so tasteful, I love the artwork, I would legit pay £50 just for a Cover B version of CD (maybe more if it was a Vinyl with a big-ass booklet for the artwork). Cover C is pretty shoddy in comparison.

[Nosaj Thing]

I would legit pay £50 just for a Cover B version of CD

Price is: 2 camels for you.

[Amir]

I would legit pay £50 just for a Cover B version of CD

Price is: 2 camels for you.

All I've got is a bar of camel's milk chocolate

[jman2000]

I'd pay $150 for red hand, $400 for grenade. Very weird that soulmonster happened to have 2 copies... the only two that exist... and that he found them in Germany correct? After all his fakes too...

[Zeppelin]

Absolutely awesome artwork. It really is a shame that they aren't available.

[AndreCC]

1. Why can't this band properly release anything?

2. Really? A remix album? You put out one album in 20 years, supposedly have a vault full of "big guns", a current band that loves to write music.......and your second release since keeping the GnR name alive is a remix album? Can this band please hire a real management team?

Cause they're not a band. It's a one man project, the others are just following and hanging in there to the paycheck, and even that one man is doing this for the money. Albums don't give him money

[Chris 55]

Not to be saying "fake!" but did anyone notice the years aren't aligned with the rest of the text?

[Bobbo]

Errmm...why would they bother re-releasing an album that only sold about 700,000 of the initial 1.6 million copies Best Buy already were stuck with? I'm just gonna apply some basic common sense here and say the label wasn't gonna go out on a limb for a then two and a half year old failure to launch, and that's why they nipped it in the bud. Especially since more than likely Axl was making demands he was in no position to be making at that point. He had his chance two and a half years prior.

By then, the public's perception of CD was already well set in stone. Somewhere between "Meh, ok at best" and "What in the fuck was he thinking?" among the masses. Different cover art, and some hip hop sound effect ridden remixes probably weren't gonna persuade people in a more positive direction.

[phaeryen]

Theres really no reason to bash MSL.

Yes there is. He is an obnoxious egomanic man-child who uses the internet to satisfy his need for attention and importance. He is hurtful and disrespecting towards other people and doesn't care about the rules of message boards because he feels he is that special starpower guy who can do what he wants with no repercussion.

there's plenty of reason to bash on MSL and that's just the start.

Then there's the rest of it which I hopefully don't have to get into.

[themadcaplaughs]

It's a fuckin miracle that Chinese Democracy was released in 2008.

Look at all that stuff that failed: South American Documentary (2010), re-release of CD with another cover and proper booklet, remixes, DVD...

What was it Axl said in the chats in 2008? Something along the lines of, "it's a miracle your even holding this album in your hands." At the time, I thought that was typical Axl hyperbole but looking at all this he was right. It is nothing short of an absolute miracle we got an official release of Chinese Democracy, and really is a testament to the power of Azoff.

On the other hand, that this idea of a "reissue" of an album that was, at that point, about two years old is laughable. That kind of thing rarely works, and when it does is with an artist that still has critical and commercial approval in their favor. Not to mention that generally re-releases have new songs, or video, or something. We, it seems, would have gotten one new song and remixes of songs that a lot of people probably didn't hear in their original incarnations. It really is mind boggling the way this band works.

[SR_GR]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151715577808069&set=a.355783028068.156550.10901008068&type=1&theater

Take 2 - Axl driving his "Chevy Blue" piano in November Rain under the Sound Academy lights!

What is the song this picture is related to?

[Ric Nightingale]

Honestly, am I missing something here?

This is just a Chinese Democracy image that has been recopyrighted. Why does this suggest plans for a rerelease? Genuinely confused by this, as this sort of thing happens all the time. I work in the book industry and promotional posters for books don't always carry the same copyright date as the initial release. I think we might be getting a bit carried away here!

[ManetsBR]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151715577808069&set=a.355783028068.156550.10901008068&type=1&theater

Take 2 - Axl driving his "Chevy Blue" piano in November Rain under the Sound Academy lights!

What is the song this picture is related to?

Shackler's Revenge.

[ThinkAboutYou]

Shacklers image was from Red Hand

[Rustycage]

You can't polish a turd.