How do you decide what is GNR and what isn't? What makes something more GNR than something else?

[smoke]

I don't care what anyone says, it will always be Burma to me.

[Ana_1991]

This is more GN'R than all of the Chinese Democracy songs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M42bPkG_89s

[wasted]

Coca cola has changed a lot over the years. We're in the new Coke era, yet we think of it as the real thing.

[Bobbo]

Sure Axl's current venture is legally and technically "guns n roses", but it is also legally and technically a completely new entity labeled as a familiar one. I always laugh when people say "it's not like Gnr broke up and then Axl started a new band and called it gnr", when that's, legally, exactly what happened.

In virtue, it's a completely different monster that looks, acts, and works (internally) completely different than the separate entity that gave us live-spaghetti. Which is why most of the masses don't look at this as "guns n roses" with a straight face, and mostly view it as the Axl Rose solo venture, or Axl and a bunch of backing muscians playing gnr songs. It's a new outfit disguised as a familiar one.

Doesn't mean it can't be liked for what it is, but it will never be looked at as legit gnr by the vast majority. And I do think that has merit.

[Apollo]

Coca cola has changed a lot over the years. We're in the new Coke era, yet we think of it as the real thing.

So if Axl retires tomorrow and signs the "name" over to DJ.........who then hires Brett Michaels to front the band.............you'll still be cool calling them Guns n Roses?

Unfortunately Axl has turned GnR into a "brand" name instead of it being a rock band.

Technically, this band IS Guns n Roses.

Personally I couldn't care less about the actual name of the band.

I just wish that when Axl decided to keep the name alive that he would have included releasing music as part of his quest. Unfortunately, it now appears that he fought so hard for the GnR name simply to make money off of touring.

[wasted]

Coca cola has changed a lot over the years. We're in the new Coke era, yet we think of it as the real thing.

So if Axl retires tomorrow and signs the "name" over to DJ.........who then hires Brett Michaels to front the band.............you'll still be cool calling them Guns n Roses?

Unfortunately Axl has turned GnR into a "brand" name instead of it being a rock band.

Technically, this band IS Guns n Roses.

Personally I couldn't care less about the actual name of the band.

I just wish that when Axl decided to keep the name alive that he would have included releasing music as part of his quest. Unfortunately, it now appears that he fought so hard for the GnR name simply to make money off of touring.

From my own personal perspective its hard to see it has really GNR. But in the broader context of history Im but a pawn in the ocean. Its like if they took sugar out of coke for health reasons, it would still be coke. I dont have to like it, but its still coke. New Guns is Coke Zero.

With CD to me its very much about the late 90s and has maybe 8 songs you could see Axl releasing under GNR.

But bottom line fuck the name, its Axl releasing music and theres very little else out there like it.

Im happy to see GNR as Axl and whoever he worked with. You can like one record more than another.

Like I got into the Stones in the 90s. I never saw the og line up or bought the early albums. But I was at the Voodoo Lounge tour with no thoughts like is this the real Rolli Stones. Its not just about me. Theres a kid now who goes to the show and its GNR to them.

Edited October 9, 2013 by wasted

[saber_]

Everyone who has participated in a GnR record owns a piece of the "Guns n Roses" name in the collective consciousness of the fans. That's why it's not as big a deal as some make it out to be that Axl owns the name. He may own the paper, but Slash and Steven and even Bucket(among others) all own a piece of the name too, in different ways. That's why I don't understand why some people give Axl such a hard time for owning the name.

People have different perceptions of GnR. There is no universally agreed upon standard for judging whether something is "more GnR" than something else. Pieces of GnR's sound can be found in many places.

Ok whatever carry on.

[izzygirl]

Axl, Izzy, Slash, Duff and Steven.

Why? Because I don't like keyboards neither I like Matt Sorum. Gilby was cool but with the real Izzy we don't need him.

That was the band that made me love GNR. All of the other line-ups are as GNR as the old ones I guess, but my mind says no.

[DieselDaisy]

The first thing you think of when you look at Appetite is, 'this is a band of equals': think of, Slash writing the music for Jungle, Izzy writing Think About You and Duff co-writing Paradise City. Then Axl wrote most of the lyrics so it was a group collective. They all participated. When GN'R were big, just as many people were attracted to Slash as Axl. Izzy wrote as many songs as Axl. Duff chipped in with songs. Slash designed the early artwork. Axl discovered the Williams Appetite art. Slash discovered Sorum and Clarke when the band were in a complete crisis. Slash organised the Illusion tour. Axl did the big videos. And Steven, Popcorn Adler merely flashed his cheesy grin. All were equals on a musical level, on a political level, on a legal level.

Beginning on the Illusion tour and certainly since 1996 that arrangement was significantly altered to the benefit of Axl and the detriment of the other members. Between that time, GN'R ceased to be.

[Crash Diet]

The first thing you think of when you look at Appetite is, 'this is a band of equals': think of, Slash writing the music for Jungle, Izzy writing Think About You and Duff co-writing Paradise City. Then Axl wrote most of the lyrics so it was a group collective. They all participated. When GN'R were big, just as many people were attracted to Slash as Axl. Izzy wrote as many songs as Axl. Duff chipped in with songs. Slash designed the early artwork. Axl discovered the Williams Appetite art. Slash discovered Sorum and Clarke when the band were in a complete crisis. Slash organised the Illusion tour. Axl did the big videos. And Steven, Popcorn Adler merely flashed his cheesy grin. All were equals on a musical level, on a political level, on a legal level.

Beginning on the Illusion tour and certainly since 1996 that arrangement was significantly altered to the benefit of Axl and the detriment of the other members. Between that time, GN'R ceased to be.

well said

[KinseyHolley]

To me: GNR: 1985-1996

From 1997-onwards: Axl's solo band

The original spirit lost when Steven got fired and Izzy leaves the band

It's that simple

This, altho I think Steven's firing could've been overcome. (No offense to Stevie, but I always thought he was lucky to be along for the ride.)

Once Axl bullied everyone into signing over the name, that was the end of GNR. It says something about him that he kept the name instead of just forming his own band and naming it after himself, which you'd expect someone with that level of narcissism to do. I honestly don't think GnR would've gone anywhere without Izzy and that's not just because I'm an Izzy fangurl (which I am) but because Izzy was the only one who could relate to Axl and handle him on some level. Axl likely wouldn't have lasted with any band that didn't have Izzy in it; Izzy was his voltage regulator. Once he was gone, it was over.

It's not the same thing as what happened with Lynyrd Skynrd - none of the guys in the current LS lineup are originals, but that happened organically. The plane crashed, the survivors kept going, as survivors died off they were replaced until replacements were the only ones left. But there's a lineage there. There's no lineage with the current GnR - it's just whoever Axl allows to be in the band at any given point. And if one guy is in charge of who gets to be in the band, then it isn't a band. The real GNR was not Bon Jovi.

Perhaps Axl does have a reservoir of untapped masterpieces in him--but until and unless he produces them, it doesn't matter. Chinese Democracy can't stand up to AFD or even Illusion 1 & 2. At this point, Axl has a very talented and enviably profitable cover band. He's also a stock tragic figure - the guy who got everything he wanted and wound up alone. (Professionaliy, in the wider picture, I mean. Yes, Izzy and others are still friends with him. But he's not a Tyler or a Jagger or a Lee or a Plant, as he should've been.)

[WhazUp]

The first thing you think of when you look at Appetite is, 'this is a band of equals': think of, Slash writing the music for Jungle, Izzy writing Think About You and Duff co-writing Paradise City. Then Axl wrote most of the lyrics so it was a group collective. They all participated. When GN'R were big, just as many people were attracted to Slash as Axl. Izzy wrote as many songs as Axl. Duff chipped in with songs. Slash designed the early artwork. Axl discovered the Williams Appetite art. Slash discovered Sorum and Clarke when the band were in a complete crisis. Slash organised the Illusion tour. Axl did the big videos. And Steven, Popcorn Adler merely flashed his cheesy grin. All were equals on a musical level, on a political level, on a legal level.

Beginning on the Illusion tour and certainly since 1996 that arrangement was significantly altered to the benefit of Axl and the detriment of the other members. Between that time, GN'R ceased to be.

Great points, I totally agree

To me post-96 and 86-early 90's have this specific vibe that it IS a different band now. Call both GNR, call 'em anything you want but that is never ever going to change one iota