Young_Gun Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Well? If so, why, If not, why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) I don't know. TBH, I would like to listen to more stuff from him before judging, but getting more songs from him seems to be nearly impossible. Edited September 27, 2013 by Chewbacca Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfuckinga Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Obviously Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volcano62 Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Obviously Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristmasFnatic Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 In some of his songs, I can see brilliance. Not always, but its there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Comstock Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) He's too insecure to be a "musical genius" I think. Being one would mean being able to see when you've reached the end of something, and Axl's infamous for tweaking and overcorrecting in the studio. "Street of Dreams" didn't need to be completely overhauled over a 10-year span, for example.That said, he's made some incredible songs. Edited September 27, 2013 by RickRoses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanudo19 Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 ObviouslyObviously Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Linguini Occurrence Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realpoti Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Hell no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Paradise Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 In some of his songs, I can see brilliance. Not always, but its there.Yeah, well said! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-GenerationX Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 No way.Far too small a body of work to be mentioned with those guys. And even in that small body of work, wasn't like he was a one man show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young_Gun Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 ObviouslyWhy exactly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnold layne Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 No.Source: November Rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highvoltage Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I'm not sure. At some points I think so, but I wonder if he struggles for inspiration or motivation to write new songs. It's obvious he enjoys performing, but new material so rarely gets released... not an issue for any of the other "genuises" you've mentioned. By accounts from the CD sessions, he has hundreds (maybe thousands?) of fragments of ideas, but it seems like most of it is never able to be finished.I think back to Merck's open letter where he mentioned Axl's "muse" eluded him on several occasions. Maybe he has moments of genius, but it doesn't seem like he's as driven or inspired to write songs as any of those other guys were/are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blusky Grenfield Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 No.He is insecure, distracted and has to rely on other musicians and production to get his vision across, or at least the tiny part of it that we get to hear.Musical genius imo: Prince, PJ Harvey, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix. Axl isn't even on the same planet as these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Len B'stard Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) Why not, OK, i'll have a stab at this, first of all Prince and Jacko ain't musical geniuses but lets take Dylan and good ol' Scouse John, first thing, talent is prolific, prodigious, thats a talent, I'm personally of the belief that if anybody in the world took 15 years to make an album thats ample time to make an amazing album even if you don't how to play a single instrument, in that time you could fucking learn. I mean lets put 15 years into perspective here, Jimi Hendrix died at age 27, having started playing guitar at 12 years old, thats 15 fuckin' years that he was playing guitar, thats about the time it took to make and release Chinese Democracy.Another reason why not is he writes naff lyrics. He has moments of brilliance, SOME good ideas and they're all enveloped in what is pretty much quite trite stuff, quite naff really, it has a certain appeal based on the context (i.e. good time rock n roll, meaning it serves a purpose and does it well but as a standalone thing they are pretty shite, certainly not profound as you would expect from genius.He simply doesn't even decent albums under his belt to be considered a musical genius in a rockstar context. Quite frankly, honestly and truly the only people who think he's a genius are his fans and i'm sure One Directions fans think they are genius too, Dylan, Lennon, folk of that calibre, even a great many of their detractors will put their hands up and say that those boys were the fuckin' dogs bollocks, they were geniuses, Axl don't really cut it, to anybody outside of his fanbase he's at best an aging relic to an era that is very much of it's time and not very impressive and at worst a fat bald ginger twat with an attitude problem and a sense of his own grand position in music that is not befitting what and who he is (neither are perspectives i share by the way).He just ain't fuckin' good enough, simple as, genius crosses over boundaries and makes people stand up and take notice, geniuses are lauded by their peers for years, decades past their time, i'm talking about substancial accolades here, not "the fans of Classic Rock Magazine said he was the 7th best lead singer ever, HUZZAH!!".Lastly would be, OK, he doesn't write songs very well, he doesn't really play any sort of instrument that is an all round staple of the music he makes so you can put that to one side, as a singer I think personally he's fantastic but he even stumbles a little there because his voice is such, it's so distinctive that it's like marmite, it's not Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye where most people who listen to it will fall in love with it, it has like a nasal quality, a screeching touch to it that isn't easy on everyones ears.Put simply, he ain't in the fuckin' league of geniuses....he's far far from it. I'd rate someone like Noel Gallagher as more of a genius than Axl Rose. The man can knock out a beautiful tune almost offhand, his songs can point to something profound while at the same time not really having any issues with just being fun and frilly and silly, he makes consistently good music, he releases product with some degree of regularity, led one of the biggest rock bands of our times and he's still out, still doing it, still making good solid tunes and just trundling along like that, doing the job, no fuss, no muss At the core of Noels thing is an inexplicable ear for putting together chords and a pretty melody with his guitar and his vocal melodies and THAT is a solid core on the basis of which you can really fly if you want to, or you can just exploit as a standalone thing ad infinitum, THAT is talent, THAT is genius really, something as simple as that can be genius, basically, at it's core, thats what John Lennon and Paul McCartney have, albeit a thousand times greater and purer than how Noel has it its something like the same thing, Noels is just a rusty creaking version of the same thing. And John and Paul had umpteen other strings to their bow to make em the massive thing that they were. Edited September 27, 2013 by sugaraylen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lies They Tell Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Axl's a musical genius in my opinion. He's no Lennon though. I've never really understood why some people consider Prince a genius. I like some of his songs and of course it's cool that he plays almost all the instruments on his album by himself. But in the end how many songs has he written that could be considered classics? Purple Rain of course, maybe When Doves Cry? What else? Axl's written Welcome To The Jungle, Sweet Child O' Mine, Paradise City, November Rain... all of which could be considered classics. In my opinion Axl is more of a genius than Prince. But that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDemocracyRose Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Prince can play every instrument in the band...But Axl is one of greatest frontmen of all time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RussTCB Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Well? If so, why, If not, why not?His output so far can't match those you named, but I like some of his material as much or more than some by those same artists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Prince can play every instrument in the band...But Axl is one of greatest frontmen of all time...IMO, He's got one of the best stage presences in the current musical scene, that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuzeville Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) For starters, he's hardly a songwriter in his own right. I guess that would be the point of referencing Dylan or Lennon. There are very few songs he wrote on his own. Most of these are awesome but that's a small body of work. Of course, he had a hand in writing a bunch of great songs but he always relied heavily on the talent of his bandmates. Edited September 27, 2013 by Chuzeville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pe_teko Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 No fuckin' way... I love him but he's not thereSome people consider Prince a genius but I don't consider him to be up there too with Bob Dylan, John Lennon, David Bowie, Roger Waters or Bruce Springsteen. Those are the genius guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbhutto Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I would say he's definitely a musical genius. If not then he has at least dipped into the same aether that the other guys mentioned have.I wouldn't say that Axl's productivity(or lack thereof) should necessarily be held against him. But in terms of his body of work and legacy it will definitely be. It'll probably be argued that the ability and talent were there, but Axl failed to completely fulfill his potential. Axl still has enough of an output that he can't be discounted as some sort of fluke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MYWIFEMYLIFE Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 The jump from AFD to UYI is marvellous, CD is an absolute eargasmatron. He's the best imo. I wouldnt give a flyin duck for the huge and successful people mentioned in the title. I would only compare him to Elton,Freddie, Plant,Mick and Rotten in some ways, but he's the sum of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbirdie76 Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I don't know if musical genius is the right word for any of them. I don't know the right wording but I see what you're getting at.Compared to those you've mentioned I would say:- Not as prolific in terms of the volume of stuff he's released- Musically and song wise (not sales) way more hits than missies comparatively (in fact Axl's music is one of few artists don't think has ever released anything bad and I can listen to all of it)- Just as prolific in terms of relevance over time with the exception of maybe Lennon - not a slam, but I don't know if anyone will release something on par with Imagine, ever- Best voice of the bunch, and easily arguably anyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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