Why do people consider Riad a bad song?

[yourcrazy]

Overall I really like the CD album. I always skip Riad, Scrapped and Madagascar. Don't care for any of them.

[Rovim]

I love it actually. The riff after the long weird intro is great imo. Axl's vocals has that AFD thing about them. I like Bucket's outro robot solo

and just the general crazy feel of the song. Much better then Scraped for me.

[Millions]

Simple. No melody.

All the classic GNR songs would still sound good with just one guy singing with an acoustic guitar. Rhiad doesn't have a strrong melody - its all just clever production and noise to cover up the fact that there's nothing really going on.

And those 'Ah-ah-ahhhhhhh' lyrics (if you can call it that) are cringeworthy.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Millions

[Patience 4 Axl]

I hate this song. It sounds like it's on a loop, same goofy lyrics over and over. I hate the whole "ohh ohhh ohhh" part, it comes off so forced. And that awful solo could break glass.

[RockerRoller]

Simple. No melody.

All the classic GNR songs would still sound good with just one guy singing with an acoustic guitar. Rhiad doesn't have a strrong melody - its all just clever production and noise to cover up the fact that there's nothing really going on.

And those 'Ah-ah-ahhhhhhh' lyrics (if you can call it that) are cringeworthy.

beyond cringeworthy, just awful, it embarrasses me to listen to in front of people, they're just like wtf thats gnr? ugh

[AndreCC]

The Riad leak version has like the worst solo ever in GNR history... that buckethead solo is the worst thing i've ever heard.

Other than that i think it's a good enough song. Bumblefoot's solo is a little bit better but still not convincing. Other kind of guitar parts doing some melody on the background would save this song.

It suffers from what the other songs i didn't like on CD have.

Riad, Madagascar, This i Love, Scraped - They all sound like unfinished songs.

Edited August 14, 2013 by AndreCC

[Vincent Vega]

Simple. No melody.

All the classic GNR songs would still sound good with just one guy singing with an acoustic guitar. Rhiad doesn't have a strrong melody - its all just clever production and noise to cover up the fact that there's nothing really going on.

And those 'Ah-ah-ahhhhhhh' lyrics (if you can call it that) are cringeworthy.

Shotgun Blues?

[Apollo]

Riad and the Bedouins seems to be one of the most criticized and hated songs on CD...Without just saying "cause it sucks", can the people who dislike it elaborate on just what is bad about it? Its just a good, driving riff, not bad lyrics by Axl. Musically it sounds like The Immigrant Song meets Industrial meets GN'R.

I like it.

One of the few actual rock type songs on the album.

I'd love an album full of songs like this.

[bacardimayne]

ohhhhhhh sweet salVAAAATION

n ALLLLL MAH frustrations

[Vincent Vega]

It reminds me of mid period Led Zeppelin meets the 1990s.

[ll_tj1]

I don't care for it simply because I believe the lyrics are terrible. Among the worst of Axls career. And he is one of my favorite lyricists. But Riad is horrible

[liers]

I think the lyrics are actually pretty deep and make you think.

I like it, I like scraped too. The only songs I don't like from CD are TIL and ITW.

[jmapelian]

Riad and the Bedouins seems to be one of the most criticized and hated songs on CD...Without just saying "cause it sucks", can the people who dislike it elaborate on just what is bad about it? Its just a good, driving riff, not bad lyrics by Axl. Musically it sounds like The Immigrant Song meets Industrial meets GN'R.

Sorry but it sucks donkey cock....incoherent nonsense with no soul as well

Riad and the Bedouins seems to be one of the most criticized and hated songs on CD...Without just saying "cause it sucks", can the people who dislike it elaborate on just what is bad about it? Its just a good, driving riff, not bad lyrics by Axl. Musically it sounds like The Immigrant Song meets Industrial meets GN'R.

Read the lyrics again. Really read the lyrics.. that says just about what needs to be said about it as a song. Musically its a a busy song but I think the #1 killjoy on that song is the lyrics. The vocals are down in the mix as well.

Take another sonic bombastic song like COMA and play it after this song... and tell me that there isnt something wrong in the chicken coop.

Riad and the Bedouins

Had a plan and thought they'd win

But I dont give a fuck bout them

Cause I ain't crazy

All my salvation

and All my frustrations

Caught in the lies

No one I love as well

Somewhere in time

where only I could tell

(((((^^^ OK what in the hell about that was cohesive with the song ^^^^^)

Ohhhh

Ohhhh

Oh-Oh

Riad and the Bedouins

So thats the world that you can win

But I have had enough of them

And you can't blame me

'Cept the time they're Bedouins

Nomads and barbarians

I wont bend my will to them, you ag-gra-vate me

All My salvation

And all my frustrations

Caught in the lies

No one I love as well

Somewhere in time

Where only I could tell

Oh Sweet salvation like

All My frustrations

Caught up in lies

No one I love as well

Somewhere in time

Where only I could tell

Oh-Oh, Oh

Oh-Oh, Oh

Oh-Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh

Oh-Oh, Oh-Oh, Oh-Oh, Oh-Oh, Oh

Oh Sweet salvation and

All My frustrations

Caught in the lies

If you have worked so well

Somewhere in time

Then only I could tell, oh

oh oh

oh oh

oh oh

oh oh...

Rhiad and the Bedouins

had a plan and thought they'd win

...something about a bomb....

These lyrics blow....just like the song

[wasted]

I think as a stand alone track its awesome but on CD its lost among the scyscrapers. Its like a Ducati doing 203 mph in Tokio desert.

Those lyrics are wrong. There are cool lyrics.

[The_Universal_Sigh]

The lyrics make me think more than most gnr songs, old or new. A lot of their songs are about simple relatable stuff, even the deeper ones with amazing lyrics like locomotive and estranged. The image I get when hearing rhiads lyrics is one of modern versions of the bedouins in the old Arabia: the modern Islamic terrorists in the Middle East. I get that connection and that image sets the entire feel of the song for me. The verses are angry at them from a regular Westerner not in the military point of view and the chorus is from a point of view of one of those people who happens to be conflicted about what they're doing. If you think about it the point of view can be switched with the local afghani or Iraqi person being the verse and the war hungry conflicted Westerner being the chorus.

Ya, I rambled on.... It's a pretty good song. Not executed fully though.

Edited August 15, 2013 by The_Universal_Sigh

[jimb0]

Sadly it's one of the better guitar riffs on the Album.. And Brain is great.

Only Axl could take cool ideas like these... write the worst lyrics ever, put his whiney clean voice over it, a minute intro and way too much Pittman to kill the song.

Needs more good parts, too repetitive.

[zepsun]

Fucked.. It's probably in my top 3 on CD.

Chinese, Prostitute, Riad and Better are all I listen on on CD. And I sometimes listen to This I Love (No Guitar).

Also.. he does a pretty strong vocal. Here is the vocal only version:

Edited August 15, 2013 by zepsun

[arnold layne]

There isn't a transition between the chorus and the rest of the song. It's weird and I don't like it, I say.

[wasted]

Its a Tommy song? punk rock doesnt have a bridge. Its a punk song with strings.

[J Dog]

To me, it's just a mess that's all I can say. When I first heard Oh My God or Shackler's I thought they were a mess, now I love both of those. Riad, I can listen to it right now be like, this song's still a mess. I do think the lyrics are better than some are saying.

[wasted]

I don't see how it's a mess. If anything it's too simple and tight. There's no breathing room for Axl to sing, it's like he's singing over this cacophony which only breaks for the solo. It's in stark contrast to Sorry which is slow and lush. Riad is an arrid desert, Sorry is the dark oasis you find. But a normal album would go into IRS and would flow better more conventionally.

[there is no dana only zool]

Incredible how some people describe it as what you guys said, and a professional critic said this about Riad:

‘Riad N’ the Bedouins’ is one of Chinese Democracy’s best songs. It starts out all atmosphere and fuzzy wubs, Axl goes to the sonic cathedral, and then his “aah-aahs” and some frenetic guitar kick in. The chopping and changing between elements and styles that’s all over the album turns this song into something like a sped-up version of Queen at their most elaborate – there’s a noise like a falling videogame block, then it threatens to go orchestral for a second, then changes its mind and there’s another impossible solo instead. Meanwhile, Axl can’t decide if he’s singing about about “nomads and barbarians” or himself, namedropping Riad a couple of times and then suddenly switching focus to shout: “I ain’t crazy!” (One of his least believable lyrics ever; it sounds like even he doesn’t believe it.)

‘Riad N’ the Bedouins’ is so rich it’s like a Greek feast you’ll need to visit the vomitorium halfway through eating. It’s decadent and gloriously wasteful in the way rock & roll should be. The only thing wrong with ‘Riad N’ the Bedouins’ is that it doesn’t go for another four minutes, that it isn’t the basis for an extravagant, monstrous failure of a Broadway musical that has passed into legend and been parodied by The Simpsons, or at least South Park.

I like this review.

I also love Riad. It's totally different and cool and, to an extent, "experimental," yet not in your typical experimental fashion. It's unique and has its own colors and shapes and AGH... makes me feel like dropping some acid and going into one of those black light bowling alley/"glow bowl" places lol.

[J Dog]

I don't see how it's a mess. If anything it's too simple and tight. There's no breathing room for Axl to sing, it's like he's singing over this cacophony which only breaks for the solo. It's in stark contrast to Sorry which is slow and lush. Riad is an arrid desert, Sorry is the dark oasis you find. But a normal album would go into IRS and would flow better more conventionally.

Considering Sorry might be my favorite song on CD, it is a pretty hard contrast. But the song, it just doesn't flow good to me. That part about no breathing room for Axl, that's how the whole song feels to me. It's almost like the music and vocals aren't quite on the same page or something. It's the only song like that for me.

[useyorappetite]

i like it it's a weird energetic song. there is nothing wrong with lyrics. the vocals are a little awkward though. maybe it doesn't flow well with the album.

[eggers]

Terrible lyrics.