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Explain the logistics of the alternate CD covers to me

smoke

By smoke
in 2013

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smoke

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One thing I've never understood are how the How Are You? grenade and the Red Hand covers made it out into the public. If there were just one or two copies floating around, I could understand that maybe someone in the camp or the studio passed it on to someone else. But aren't there accounts of the alternate covers showing up in retail?

So, do we know how a few of these things got out? How many were likely pressed, for those with general industry knowledge? I can't imagine they just made a dozen of each right? So is there a warehouse full of these things somewhere? How would onesies and twosies somehow slip out into different retail outlets, or am I making the wrong assumption?

Can anyone explain how something like this happens in generic industry terms, if not specifically in CD terms?

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ARBeast Senior

ARBeast

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I've never seen an alternate cover in stores. I never understood the concept myself, to be honest. But maybe I just never saw them in stores?

I think Axl wanted to do a lot of things with Chinese that just never happened. But he also had to do them on HIS terms, something record labels don't always agree with.

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Amir FRONTMAN

Amir

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While they were both meant to be mass-produced, a few dozen Red Hands were produced in the end and distributed amongst people who worked on the album and artists whose artwork was featured, if I remember correctly. There's only 2 Grenade covers (allegedly). I love love LOVE the artwork in the Red Hand booklet, but prefer the Grenade cover, my ideal booklet would be the Grenade cover with the Red Hand artwork. The artwork in the Grenade booklet is pretty unimaginative compared to the stuff in Red Hand, I still have a hard time believing it's not fake when the pieces in Red Hand are so much better.

This might be one of my favourite pieces of artwork ever (NSFW):

727754.jpg
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Amir FRONTMAN

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Having a look at the images again, I don't think this booklet was proof-read. Apart from the misspelling of Wilde, I think that "List of charities in the People's Republic of China" is just placeholder text since the list below it is of charities that aren't related to China. Also, the mentions of Stardust instead of Street of Dreams, etc.

CDChiDemRedHand34.JPG

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kever20 Full

kever20

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I wonder it as well! I think Thal said those alternate pressings were for band and crew members after the wide release if them was nixed.

I also wondered why there are copies of CD with publishing dates of 2009, 2010, and 2011. I imagine it had to do with a new edition for release outside if Best Buy, but I'm not sure.

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gavgnr GOD

gavgnr

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Love the artwork in both, but prefer the grenade cover. From what I've read it was a prototype and not up to the same retail quality that the red hand cover was manufactured to.

Have been searching for a grenade cover for a while now! One day I'll find one of those bad boys!

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smoke Full

smoke

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So what's kind of odd also is that the Best Buy sticker made it on the Red Hand cover. Maybe part of the sales pitch? I'd love to know the full scoop on the cover that actually made it out as well. Assuming the cover was "blessed" so to speak, but the insides got rushed and an unapproved version went to press.

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ManetsBR FRONTMAN

ManetsBR

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When Chinese Democracy first appeared on the Best Buy website, there were Cover Aa, Cover Bb and Cover Cc. There were no images avaiable. A while later, only Cover Aa was left, and they uploaded an image, which was slightly different: there wasn't a GNR logo. Only "Guns N' Roses / Chinese Democracy", which took the whole side of the album. Then, the image was updated to the one released.

As for the copies out there: Some were printed, probably prototypes. I think it's safe to assume that the graphic press prints a few copies of everything they're gona massively print as a testing. Somewhere in the middle of the process, Cover Bb and Cc were cancelled. Axl said on the chats they planned to release'em somewhere in the future. I have no idea why Red Hand was shipped to the most randomic places... Thing is, a few of the copies found have the Copyright from 2009, and not 2008, which is a strong indication that Chinese Democracy was almost re-released, they even printed more prototypes.

As for How Are You Grenade, I'm not 100% sure that's it's real... It probably is, but I think it's weird that the only two copies found were found by the same guy in Germany, who was already famous among the Guns N' Roses fans for faking unreleased material like the Monstrosity single and The Legend Of The Red Panda album. He traded one of the copies with MSL for Better Gone. MSL said it's legit. Then he sold it for Troccoli, who also said it looks legit. Thing is, the artists who painted the images used on the booklet claimed that they didn't sell any of those pieces to Axl Rose. I find it hard to believe that they would print copies of those albums without the artist's permission, after all, they did everything right with Red Hand, why wouldn't they with How Are You Grenade?

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Amir FRONTMAN

Amir

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I see Sasha Volkova is credited with the Untitled Red Cross...didnt know she was doing painting?

13-credits1.jpg

It's interesting to note how much was done before Beavan left: on the left page Beavan's credited with recording Axl's vocals on CD, Prostitute, ITW, TWAT, Maddy, Riad, IRS and SOD. And while he helped record Bucket's solos for ITW and Maddy, it looks like Bucket came up with the CD and TWAT solos after Beavan left.

So the songs that didn't have vocals and/or lyrics before Beavan left were Shackler's, Better, Scraped, Sorry, Catcher and TIL. The last two I'm a bit surprised by, but Shackler's we know didn't have lyrics until 2007 at the earliest, which is probably when Sorry got lyrics as well.

Also cool to see Axl did some recording in London! Maybe he's been doing some recording on his visits there recently....?

For some reason I've got it in my head that "Axl's guitars on There Was A Time recorded by Billy Howerdel" refers to the acoustic bit just before Robin's solo?

Seems Bucket's solos on Riad and Prostitute were done after Beavan, wonder what those songs sounded like before Bucket's contributions? I also just realised the other day that Bucket and Fortus aren't on Catcher at all, it's just Finck, Huge, and all the solos are by Ron. I wonder if Axl ever got Bucket to try out solos for the song before he left, or if he just left Brian May's solos on the song until Ron joined?

Edited by Amir
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themadcaplaughs DEMI-GOD

themadcaplaughs

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One can only imagine what Best Buy executives must have thought. Wal-Mart gets an exclusive on an AC/DC album that pretty much plays up the angles of that band people love. Best Buy gets an exclusive on a Guns N' Roses album, the most legendary album of all time, and it comes with artwork like this and long written rants by Axl. I wish we had those alternates, but I have no confusion AT ALL as to why Best Buy just went with the one that has band pictures (which we've been told might be a draft from 2006-2007).

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Amir FRONTMAN

Amir

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(which we've been told might be a draft from 2006-2007).

Nah, Shackler's, Sorry, and Scraped wouldn't have been in the booklet then since they didn't have vocals/lyrics at that stage. I doubt the rants were what held back the alternate album releases, as bizarre as they would have appeared. I'm sure Best Buy would have wanted at least a few alternates to sell to target the collectors' market, I just think the label couldn't be arsed with producing them and wanted to dump the album and were thanking their lucky stars that Azoff managed to shift what they thought for years was an uncommercial album on to Best Buy.

"Stinson: The stupid thing was, it was pulled out of [Axl's] hands. He was already ready to give it up, but there were a few minor things that meant a lot to him artistically, but they pulled it out of his hands anyway. What was another couple fucking weeks waiting for the artwork? I mean really? That's what it came down to. That's just too bad. The whole thing is a disappointment, considering how much time everyone put into it."

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themadcaplaughs DEMI-GOD

themadcaplaughs

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(which we've been told might be a draft from 2006-2007).

Nah, Shackler's, Sorry, and Scraped wouldn't have been in the booklet then since they didn't have vocals/lyrics at that stage. I doubt the rants were what held back the alternate album releases, as bizarre as they would have appeared. I'm sure Best Buy would have wanted at least a few alternates to sell to target the collectors' market, I just think the label couldn't be arsed with producing them and wanted to dump the album and were thanking their lucky stars that Azoff managed to shift what they thought for years was an uncommercial album on to Best Buy.

"Stinson: The stupid thing was, it was pulled out of [Axl's] hands. He was already ready to give it up, but there were a few minor things that meant a lot to him artistically, but they pulled it out of his hands anyway. What was another couple fucking weeks waiting for the artwork? I mean really? That's what it came down to. That's just too bad. The whole thing is a disappointment, considering how much time everyone put into it."

Fair enough. I did not specifically mean that it was THE version given up at 2007, but I get the feeling it was basically a draft version that was slightly updated with lyrics, credits of who finally ended up playing on the record, and (incorrect) songwriting credits. Either way, something is up as the version we ended up with was so much less substantial than the other two versions.

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