Vincent Vega Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Much was made in the 90s of Axl's famed writer's block. According to pretty much everyone who worked with him from around 1994 to 1998, This I Love was the only song he wrote. According to people who worked with him in this period, while there were tons of instrumentals by both the Slash and post Slash iterations of the band done in this period, there were no lyrics or melodies; Axl reportedly complained of being unable to write due to all the lawsuits swirling around him, that all he'd end up writing about were lawyers.He regained the spark around 1998 with Madagascar reportedly being among the first new songs written lyrically and seems to have had a burst of creativity from 1998 through 2000 or 2001, with Oh My God, TWAT, Catcher in the Rye, Street of Dreams, and IRS (if not more songs) having been written lyrically in this period.Could it be that the reason we haven't seen even ONE single new song from Axl in half a decade is because he's suffering from writer's block again? That he's finding it hard to find something to say in song, and thus, hasn't really gotten anything done, because he simply can't find the magic?If so, should he go the Aerosmith route and hire some professional songwriters to assist him? I mean Aerosmith's comeback album was Done With Mirrors, and that was the last album written by them alone...And it was kind of a flop. Then they hired songwriters and had their REAL comeback with Permanent Vacation and had a renaissance in popularity....If Axl was to do the same thing, have professional songwriters work with him and the current band, we could get some A level, hit tracks, perhaps on par with Classic GN'R.If Axl hiring professional songwriters could get us new music, would you be against it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfriend Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 The day Desmond Child or Marti Fredrikksen get anywhere near a Guns N' Roses song is the day I say 'fuck this shit'. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Vega Posted July 24, 2013 Author Share Posted July 24, 2013 The day Desmond Child or Marti Fredrikksen get anywhere near a Guns N' Roses song is the day I say 'fuck this shit'.What makes a "professional songwriter" any worse than someone like West Arkeen? I mean it wouldn't be the first time GN'R used non-band people to help them write songs...West co-wrote tons of GN'R songs, and then you had others like Dave Lank and Del James co-writing songs on the UYIs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfriend Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 The day Desmond Child or Marti Fredrikksen get anywhere near a Guns N' Roses song is the day I say 'fuck this shit'.What makes a "professional songwriter" any worse than someone like West Arkeen? I mean it wouldn't be the first time GN'R used non-band people to help them write songs...West co-wrote tons of GN'R songs, and then you had others like Dave Lank and Del James co-writing songs on the UYIs.At least West Arkeen and Del James were part of Axl's/GNR's world and not some hired outsider solely there to teach the band how to be more universally acceptable versions of themselves.Desmond Child and co's songs sound like the rock equivalent of fan fiction. Everything about them reeks of falsehood, artifice and posturing and they're responsible for some of the worst rock singles of all time - successful, yes, but almost universally terrible. Remember how slick and radio-friendly rock music became in the '80s?You had Alice Cooper putting out the appropriately named 'Trash', Cheap Trick courting soccer-moms with songs like 'The Flame' and so on. Fucking awful - when Appetite came out it was almost like the antidote to that scene. To see Axl go that route would be more dispiriting to me than him never recording again.And that's without even getting started on Diane Warren. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolRanchDressing Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 (edited) Axl hires professional musicians to play his music. What's so shameful about hiring some pro songwriters too? I just want some better songs. How that come about makes no difference to me. Only a giant pretentious butthole would judge Elvis for not writing blue suede shoes or Sinatra for not writing my way. Axl deserves some songs that good, however he can get them Edited September 10, 2013 by CoolRanchDressing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasted Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 If he found somebody he had a connection with. But there's songwriters in his band and he writes his own. That's where the money at. The GNR fanbase probably want Axl Rose songs at least, throw in and Izzy song and a long solo and that's the record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niceguy Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Axl is an extremely gifted songwriter, far more so than jon bon jovi or steven tyler (who are also great songwriters).Axl will never hire a Desmond Child type figure to weite music for him. Just like he'll never reunite with GNR. It's not him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caught in a Coma Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Axl is an extremely gifted songwriter, far more so than jon bon jovi or steven tyler (who are also great songwriters).Axl will never hire a Desmond Child type figure to weite music for him. Just like he'll never reunite with GNR. It's not him. I believe his bandmates sometimes carry him. He doesn't write the instrumentals most of the time, except on the piano based songs, so other people are making the building blocks of the songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lies They Tell Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Aerosmith's been pure crap since they hired "professional" songwriters. Not that I ever liked them all that much anyway, but these days they sound way too poppy.I don't want GNR to become a pop rock band, so a huge NO to "professional" songwriters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emcitymisfit Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 i thought that's what DJ Ashba was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolRanchDressing Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 i thought that's what DJ Ashba was.Totally true. He once wrote a song for the solo band from the bass player of motley Crüe. Respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apollo Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Axl hires professional musicians to play his music. What's so shameful about hiring some pro songwriters too? I just want some better songs. How that come about makes no difference to me. Only a giant pretentious butthole would judge Elvis for not writing blue suede shoes or Sinatra for not writing my way. Axl deserves some songs that good, however he can get themAnd look at how many covers that Axl performs every show. Those are songs written by OTHER people.LALDHeaven's DoorRiff RaffWhole Lot of RosieSeekerThe Neil Young songAxl put out a COVERS album.Haven't Tobias, Arkeen and James contributed musically to the band? Didn't he have Brian May come in and play?But people are freaking out about him using an outside writer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITG Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 He already did. Wasn't Finck et al Team A and Buckethead Team B or something like that? Axl can't write songs on his own. All you'd get would be This I Love and look out how that turned out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolRanchDressing Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 If robin finck was part of his songwriting a team, then there truly never was a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lies They Tell Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Axl hires professional musicians to play his music. What's so shameful about hiring some pro songwriters too? I just want some better songs. How that come about makes no difference to me. Only a giant pretentious butthole would judge Elvis for not writing blue suede shoes or Sinatra for not writing my way. Axl deserves some songs that good, however he can get themAnd look at how many covers that Axl performs every show. Those are songs written by OTHER people.LALDHeaven's DoorRiff RaffWhole Lot of RosieSeekerThe Neil Young songAxl put out a COVERS album.Haven't Tobias, Arkeen and James contributed musically to the band? Didn't he have Brian May come in and play?But people are freaking out about him using an outside writer?People are freaking out because a professional songwriter usually means someone whose main focus is to make a HIT-song, instead of making something good and creative. The stuff that GNR has covered is not typical poppy hit music. In my opinin it's okay if some outside people contribute musically to the band IF they come up with something interesting, but not if they want to turn the music into poppy hit music.I've just never heard of a situation when a rock band hires some professional songwriters and that turns out good. The result is always poppy garbage. That's why I'm agaist professional songwriters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Why the hell would Axl need songwriters? How about the out-of-the-box option of getting off his lazy ass and into a studio? Or releasing all the stuff that's supposed to be done? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunnari Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Why the hell would Axl need songwriters? How about the out-of-the-box option of getting off his lazy ass and into a studio? Or releasing all the stuff that's supposed to be done?+1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Diet Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Yeah, why not?but i think he's got enough talent to write his own songs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netcat Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 (edited) he should. if their names are Izzy, Slash and Duff Edited September 11, 2013 by netcat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One.In.A.Million Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 (edited) If there's one thing Axl doesn't need is proffesional song writers, how can anyone think that?. Axl is a gifted and exceptionalily talented songwriter who's only downfall is his own self doubt and inability to believe in himself. Not saying that songwriters don't work for some people, but never for GN'R as their biggest strength always was Axl's amazing lyrics. Edited September 11, 2013 by One.In.A.Million Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolRanchDressing Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 I think axls lyrics were among the worst aspects of CD, an album I found to be terrible in a multitude of ways. slash should work with some real songwriters too. I think they both suck as writers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasted Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 a guess professional songwriters dont always just bring in full songs. but I don;t think they need song ideas, it seems like they need a producer to focus a record. to bring all the ideas together. these days with iPods albums are a dying a form. A GNR mixtape would probable work well. like a Jukebox of GNR songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netcat Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 what Axl needs is a good motivational speaker to convince him GnR should release music more often than every 15 years 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick85 Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Isn't ASHBATM, basically the Desmond Child of Nu-GnR?Guns N' Roses is proud to announce that guitarist n' songwriter Dj Ashba has joined the band for an upcoming tour....Dj Ashba co-wrote and co-produced Motley Crue's latest album "Saints of Los Angeles," which garnered a 2008 GRAMMY nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance, as well as co-wrote and co-produced the Sixx AM album "Heroin Diaries." http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/147068-guns-n-roses-names-dj-ashba-as-bands-newest-axeman/Umm, 12 demos anyone?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARBeast Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Axl is an incredible and prolific songwriter!And bsides, he's got Dj and Dizzy to help out. They've been writing for some time now.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts