Will UYI outtakes ever be released?

[Tom2112]

People really want that stuff? I mean some of it might be interesting if they are different arrangements, with different gtr parts etc. Overall, if there's things left off a record it's usually for a good reason!

Live releases from vault? Yep. Same goes for unreleased original material (worthy of release), yep! Anything else is a bit of a waste of money and effort to buy or for the band to release. The only people interested in CD or UYI instrumentals are super hardcore gnr fans... That's not big business.

I think you're in the minority on that opinion. The outtake version of 14 Years is an utter master piece, it has an extended solo/ending on it that blows the record version away, Izzys lyrics weren't as cohesive as the original version but they were still good enough for that song in the context of a whole song and honestly that assessment is just me being picky, but it was a waaay better band performance than what wound up on the record. Point being, the producer doesn't always have the right idea and in a band with 5-10 opinions once you add co-writers & producers and band members things can change in an instant on what they thought at the time would be a better song to be on the record. Some of my favorite songs are outtakes or Live Performances.

I don't mean to always compare Elvis Presley to GNR, but he's one of my personal expertise and everybody knows him, he has around 800 released songs with multiple versions/outtakes of each and on top of those 800 songs counting the unreleased songs that pushes the number to nearly 1200 songs! So the amount of material that people haven't heard could be in excess of 2500 songs, and I'll tell you, I've heard a lot of those unreleased songs and they only solidified him as pure gold because any one of his fuck up tracks or practice tracks could have been masters and nobody would have known the difference, he was that good. Some of his fuck up tracks have been released as #1 songs in the US & UK 30+ years after he "died".

I feel GNR in the same light, many of their unreleased songs deserve to see the light of day at the very least, the Illusions demo's were a great insight into how those songs came about and hearing more of them is like finding a new good artist to listen to, its like being reborn as a fan and that can never be a bad thing.

Jimi Hendrix... he made how many official albums? and how many does he have to his name since his death? and more importantly, how many of those collections are actually any good? not many is the answer. I'd imagine Jimi would rather the majority of those recordings stayed in the studio... scrapped albums of incomplete ideas - I'd wager he'd be much happier if he knew that if someone picks up a Hendrix album that it was actually something he Ok'd and stood behind.

Of course there's some interesting stuff lying around (like the extended 14yrs.... which IMO is not superior to the original) but unless it's full songs, nobody outside of guns nuts are going to be that interested, passed clicking a quick link on blabbermouth if it gets a release. Basically, there's no money in it. "What if they remastered UYI, they could add companion discs like Zeppelins remasters"... yeah, they could do that... but again that's for mega fans only as it's likely gonna cost a fare few quid.

I love GnR, but I'd rather for them to focus on new material, and when all's said and done, they can fire away on out-takes and join the nostalgia gravy train like all the other bands.

You know it only takes a moment to tell some jockey in a computer lab to put together some songs from the vault, especially if the details are spread out over the course of months. Honestly now it'd be like saying "I'd rather they didn't take a shit break or lunch break because I want them to focus on the music", its something that doesn't take any real time to do.

Now as for unreleased songs, they are recorded for a reason, to be heard again. One case of a vaulted song that was given life is Roy Orbisons "I Drove All Night". The song was written for him in mind by 2 producers and after several years of failing to find someone to sing it they finally got ahold of Roy Orbisons management at a concert of his and asked if he would come down to jam at their studio, Roy said yes, after a few months they heard nothing from Roy thinking he had told them to fuck off, one day Roy came down in his Red Ferrari and caught them off guard and said he was ready to jam and hadn't forgotten about their offer, they jammed for several hours and nothing came of it until one of the producers decided to show Roy the song they wrote with him in mind, Roy listened as the producer sang the song once and glanced at the lyrics & decided to right then and there record "I Drove All Night" in 2 takes never to sing the song again with them using the original take as the master in the most crude recording conditions possible not meant to be anything but a demo and it turned out to be the Definitive version of the song as it was also the first. Cyndi Lauper ended up releasing her version first in 1989 because Roys version which was recorded first as an unfinished demo in 1987 and he ended up dying late 87.

The point of the above is that good songs are good songs regardless of what they were meant for, its now an iconic song that would have never seen the light of day had the producers had your line of thinking. To be able to have what was not available and listen to that is such a treasure, releasing even a demo recorded with a potato would still be a treasure to have and one that even if it sucked would not tarnish the legacy of the band one bit. To have something is better than to not have something because there is always time to lose that something (unless we're talking stds). Look at the members list of this forum and the fact its been around almost 15+ years or a little over and you have all the evidence you need that the legacy Guns N' Roses is still alive & well, I doubt casual fans just sign up to random forums, they obviously care beyond playing it off their cell phones playlist.

What Guns N' Roses fan would buy unfinished demos you ask? probably the same ones who take the time to sign up to a forum that features a band that hasn't played together since 1993, I don't count the Chinese Democracy fans because they were all here because of the legacy of the original band. I know I'd buy a cd or digital album of unfinished songs. Slash even said he hopes that someday he can be able to share with us some of the unfinished stuff or other mixes of the UYI, maybe that will finally come to fruition.

Yeh, you could get some jockey to pull up songs from the vault... but we're talking about GnR!!! any other band that might work. Axl would be all over it, and there's no way those recordings would be released without his final approval (as in finishing touches on mixes, probably adding extra vocals etc), and that's both a good and bad thing.

Look, maybe on a Gnr forum I'm in the minority but outside of forums I'd wager that I'm on the winning side. Would there be interesting bits and bobs? of course, enough for a stand-alone release? Maybe!? but my best guess is there's enough for a companion disc on a anniversary edition of UYI or something.

[classicrawker]

I'm not sure if it's related, but I'm pretty sure Slash mentioned, in his book, that he had stripped down mixes of some of the Illusion songs.

Less production, basically simple guitar, bass, drums mixes.

I would love to hear those.

Slash said the raw mix of UYI, before Axl added his overdubs, kicked ass but he lost his copy so unless the multi tracks still exist there is no chance we will ever hear them...

[classicrawker]

People really want that stuff? I mean some of it might be interesting if they are different arrangements, with different gtr parts etc. Overall, if there's things left off a record it's usually for a good reason!

Live releases from vault? Yep. Same goes for unreleased original material (worthy of release), yep! Anything else is a bit of a waste of money and effort to buy or for the band to release. The only people interested in CD or UYI instrumentals are super hardcore gnr fans... That's not big business.

I absolutely want this stuff...I have the 2 Cult box sets of demos from their early albums which are fantastic IMHO...

Raw demos before overdubbing, alternate takes and lyrics and in their case there is at least an album worth of unreleased songs and instrumentals.....I would love to see what lurks in the Guns vaults......

[t-p-d-a]

i want all concerts from 91 to 93 in High Definition