Should Axl hire professional songwriters?

[CoolRanchDressing]

Oh many good songs has dizzy written in his entire life? Which dizzy songs will people strum around the campfire fifty years later?

Edited September 11, 2013 by CoolRanchDressing

[Liquor & Whores]

no, if Axl needs anything - it's a vocal coach

[Apollo]

what Axl needs is a good motivational speaker to convince him GnR should release music more often than every 15 years

Topic should be locked after this post. Nothing else really needs to be said.

And lol at the DJ post. Axl Nutters praise DJ for his going in and co-writing on the Motley Crue album.......but then in this thread, people are bashing people that write songs for other people!!!! Axl fans will twist and warp every topic into somehow praising Axl.

[CoolRanchDressing]

what Axl needs is a good motivational speaker to convince him GnR should release music more often than every 15 years

Topic should be locked after this post. Nothing else really needs to be said.

I'm glad you will never be a moderator here.

Also, I hope you can appreciate the irony of continuing your post after posting that this thread should have been closed.

Personally, I think axls needs are great enough to warrant both a good motivational speaker AND some pro songwriters. And a real therapist. And a real manager.

Edited September 11, 2013 by CoolRanchDressing

[Brunzopolis]

I can't see him ever even considering this. He seems to have a lot of integrity. Hiring songwriters would compromise it. But...I think maybe he has so much integrity, that were he to, in a moment of wavering, hire songwriters, it would later cause him so much anguish that it would set something off creatively inside him. So maybe it's a good idea (for us, the greedy fans, at least ).

But really, how much time has to pass before "writers block" becomes "not really a songwriter anymore".


Even going back to the UYI's...how many of those songs had their genesis years earlier? November Rain, YCBM, Don't Cry...others? Musical creativity seems to be something that comes in bursts. Being young seems to help. Turmoil helps. Drugs seems to facilitate stuff too, sometimes.

I don't think it's about, or ever was about Axl somehow breaking free of his "writers block" - as if he's got a bunch of great songs just sitting in his brain waiting to come out. Musical creativity seems to be somthing that is more about external factors placed on the individual that open up them up to something. As Keith Richards puts it: Being a conduit.

Living in a posh mansion in Malibu surrounded by a gang of Brazillian schlubs; being hung-up on the past; and grinding out one lousy performance after another (yes, that's what it is, "grinding". There's no way he truly wants to be doing all these shows. Something or someone is forcing his hand, either truthfully, or it is just how he sees it), is not the lifestyle that leads to great creative outpourings. I'm not judging him for it, just saying I don't see great (or even, any) songs coming down the pike, given the way things are.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Brunzopolis

[CoolRanchDressing]

Axl hires people to play the music. He hires people to produce, engineer, mix, and master his music. He even pays other musician to help write the music itself. So what's the shame in getting help with some lyrics and melodies too? Especially since even CD fans seem to acknowledge lyrics and melodies as the album's weakest link. what's the weird pride issue at play here? Wouldn't you rather have better songs than two more credits in the liner notes? If its all about the music anyways, shouldn't you want the best songs, regardless of outside factors?

Edited September 11, 2013 by CoolRanchDressing

[Tom2112]

At the end of the day if a songs good it's good, but I would prefer to know that the band wrote it by themselves and that some "hit-doctor" didn't come in instead. If Axl did a solo record, I'd be totally fine with the use of outside writers like Desmond child etc. but to do that on a Guns record would be missing the point. West and Del are two exceptions only because they were involved with the band almost from the start and they didn't try and help the band to write more commercial music. I'm not against professional songwriters, but I don't think they have a place in GnR for the same reasons most of you have listed.

[Apollo]

I suppose I differ from most of you.

I don't care who writes a song, why they wrote it, what it's really about, etc.

All I care about is how good the song sounds to my ears.

I just had this discussion with a friend at work.

If you found out your favorite song, which just touched you emotionally and means soooo much to you, wasn't actually written out of a place of love by the artist would it change your opinion of the song? Meaning if Nov Rain and SCOM are your two favorite love songs and Axl came out in an interview tomorrow and said "Ya, I wrote the lyrics to Nov Rain over a drunken cocaine binge that happened when I was just about out of money. I knew I needed more money for more drugs, and to buy a new car, so I got high and wrote a love song that is actually about my cat. I PURPOSELY tried to write a hit that would make me money. Somehow magic came out of it. And SCOM was actually written by Pee Wee Herman. I purchased the song from him for 10 grand and the promise he'd never reveal that he was the real writer. Both songs worked out pretty well for GnR."

I would still love both songs as much as I do today.

My friend said he wouldn't. I just find all of it so odd. The music/song should be all that matters. I couldn't care less who wrote it, or for what reasons the artist wrote it.

If Axl wants to collaborate with an outside song writer - more power to him.

[magisme]

Axl needs to fire more people than he needs to hire.

[Apollo]

Axl needs to fire more people than he needs to hire.

Naw. It's awesome that current GnR is more well known for people who are in Axl's "camp" than for any music released over the past 4.5 years.

********

On a side note, two of Eric Clapton's most popular songs were written by somebody else. But I suppose that means they automatically suck, as they were "hits" and weren't written by the singing artist.

[Randy Lahey]

On a side note, two of Eric Clapton's most popular songs were written by somebody else. But I suppose that means they automatically suck, as they were "hits" and weren't written by the singing artist.

Bob Marley is a far cry from Diane Warren or Desmond Child.

[Val22]

No because Axl Rose is a professional song writer. Right now he chooses not to write any new songs.

[Apollo]

On a side note, two of Eric Clapton's most popular songs were written by somebody else. But I suppose that means they automatically suck, as they were "hits" and weren't written by the singing artist.

Bob Marley is a far cry from Diane Warren or Desmond Child.

Never said Marley was on the same level as those two guys.

How about JJ Cale, who wrote a couple of Clapton's most famous songs?

Val, how do you know that Axl isn't writing new songs?

And how do you feel about Axl accepting outside writing help on past songs, as well as making bank off of cover songs written by other artists? Did you know that Axl didn't write LALD and Knocking on Heaven's Door? Did you also know that the Spag Inc weren't original GnR songs?

[Randy Lahey]

Die hard fans don't want Axl singing crap like I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing and Crazy just so he can sell a few more albums. Singing songs from legends like McCartney, Dylan and Marley is okay though.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Randy Lahey

[CoolRanchDressing]

If Axl and his new guys could write a song as good as living on a prayer, they could waltz into the label and get an album released next week. Even if the other 11 songs were as shitty as this I love. Personally, I like Dianne warren and Desmond child songs far far far more than what happened on Chinese democracy. I think I don't want to miss a thing is a pretty song. But I like sweet songs from parents to kids more than rambling nonsensical songs about Stephanie Seymour's brother or whatever Riad is supposed to be about.

Also, really weird to read some of you would be okay with songwriting collaborations... but only if they yielded unpopular songs. I can't for the life of me wrap my head around that. I don't see why so many of you seem to equate popularity with crap. It's possible that something can be good and popular at the same time. Or unpopular and shitty.

Edited September 12, 2013 by CoolRanchDressing

[RussTCB]

Also, really weird to read some of you would be okay with songwriting collaborations... but only if they yielded unpopular songs. I can't for the life of me wrap my head around that. I don't see why so many of you seem to equate popularity with crap. It's possible that something can be good and popular at the same time. Or unpopular and shitty.

Could not agree more. Who wrote the song isn't so much important to me as how it's presented. There are a LOT of cover versions of songs I like far better than the original and it makes no difference to me who the song writer was.

[WhazUp]

Why hire songwriters if GNR can't even release the songs they already have recorded? It would just be more material to have GNR not release

And we are at the point now where to the general public GNR is "Axl and random musicians" so I don't see the harm in having a random songwriter in the picture, assuming that the songs presented will sound awesome

Edited September 12, 2013 by WhazUp

[Lies They Tell]

If Axl and his new guys could write a song as good as living on a prayer, they could waltz into the label and get an album released next week. Even if the other 11 songs were as shitty as this I love. Personally, I like Dianne warren and Desmond child songs far far far more than what happened on Chinese democracy. I think I don't want to miss a thing is a pretty song. But I like sweet songs from parents to kids more than rambling nonsensical songs about Stephanie Seymour's brother or whatever Riad is supposed to be about.

Also, really weird to read some of you would be okay with songwriting collaborations... but only if they yielded unpopular songs. I can't for the life of me wrap my head around that. I don't see why so many of you seem to equate popularity with crap. It's possible that something can be good and popular at the same time. Or unpopular and shitty.

Like always it's a matter of taste. Personally I prefer everything on CD compared to Living On A Prayer or Don't Want To Miss A Thing. In fact Don't Want To Miss A Thing is the perfect textbook example of what I don't want GNR to become.

Of course sometimes hit-songs can be good, but that's incredibly rare these days. And even if a good song happens to become a hit, it's very rarely actually written by a "professional songwriter". Because those hitmakers never take any risks and you can't write anything interesting if you don't take risks.

In the end I don't care who wrote the song as long as the song is good. It's just that I have zero faith that those professional songwriters could create anything great.

[wasted]

I think we or even people in general want to see Rose in the writing credits. Id love to hear Axl on a more commercial Permanent Vacation type record though.

[wasted]

I think we or even people in general want to see Rose in the writing credits. Id love to hear Axl on a more commercial Permanent Vacation type record though.

[wasted]

I think we or even people in general want to see Rose in the writing credits. Id love to hear Axl on a more commercial Permanent Vacation type record though.

I think we or even people in general want to see Rose in the writing credits. Id love to hear Axl on a more commercial Permanent Vacation type record though.