Rate: Sorry & Catcher in the Rye w/ Senor Slash

[RONIN]

These are my 2 favorite cuts from Chinese Democracy by far and the songs I wish Slash and Duff had a chance to play on. I re-watched the live versions from 2016 and imho, Slash kills it.

Catcher in the Rye sounds so much better and tastefully played compared to the album version. It's still inferior to Brian May's demo but I think a studio version w/ Slash would be an instant classic. He's so good during the outro portion in particular.

I love Buckethead's work on Sorry but Slash's interpretation is really good. He has a great feel for the song. It doesn't top Bucket but it comes close - this type of song is right up Slash's alley and I think he would nail it in the studio. 

 

[Free Bird]

Neither Slash is able to safe Catcher. To me it's an awful song with or without him.

I love Buckethead's part on Sorry. Great guitar work. And of course I really like Slash's take on it. Especially his first attempts. Like Ronin said, I think he would nail it in the studio.

 

Edited April 12, 2017 by Free Bird

[Słash]

I really like Slash's take on these songs. 

Generally I din't like them so much, the last verse of Catcher is pretty good. The demo with Brian May gave the song the raw feeling. 

I like Ron, but his solo on catcher is too screechy, Slash does a great job.

even on Sorry, Slash did a good job. 

[wasted]

I like the CD versions. I thought Slash version of Sorry was great. Catcher I thought was good too. In a live setting I think the broader dynamics of the songs matter more, to me they are there in both songs. I like the sonic quality of CD. The subtle, dark atmosphere of Sorry. The jangly, hazy, psychedelia of Catcher on the record is immersive, you always find new bits and pieces and combinations. 

A good song for me is hard to ruin, the lyrics and melody are what matters. I'm not really looking for things to sound the same, throw a kazoo on a rock song. 

[Rovim]

I think if Slash played in 2001 on Chinese it would have worked musically and also would have sold more than a few copies. Sounds like Slash will have no problem of coming up with good solos for Axl to use. The reunion also gave me a chance to hear some of Chinese with Slash and Duff.

I think it showed he can adapt to most of the material, that it clearly sounds more Guns and it fits. It also made me appreciate Bucket's and Robin's solos even more and just how good Slash is at improvisation, even if there was something to build on.

In closing, since I trust Robin's taste and Bucket's endless pool of ideas, I say why not represent that era with a few solos from CD ll, the SRV solo, Axl's favorites, and the rest it's Slash with Fortus maybe doing a couple.

Edited April 12, 2017 by Rovim

[RONIN]

6 minutes ago, Rovim said:

I think if Slash played in 2001 on Chinese it would have worked musically and also would have sold more than a few copies. Sounds like Slash will have no problem of coming up with good solos for Axl to use. The reunion also gave me a chance to hear some of Chinese with Slash and Duff.

I think it showed he can adapt to most of the material, that it clearly sounds more Guns and it fits. It also made  me appreciate Bucket's and Robin's solos even more and just how good Slash is at improvisation, even if there was something to build on.

In closing, since I trust Robin's taste, and Bucket's endless pool of ideas, I'd say why not represent that era with a few solos from CD ll, the SRV solo, Axl's favorites, and the rest it's Slash and Fortus maybe doing a couple.

Great post.

The biggest surprise for me on CD was Robin. Didn't care for him live but he's a very good songwriter. Robin is the Izzy of CD.

And I love that we get to hear these Chinese songs being played by sluff. I hope they dust off If the World and Prostitute on the next leg of the tour.

[Silent Jay]

Terrible poll choices.

Slash does a fine decent job on these two songs, despite the fact the solos both sound under-rehearsed especially Sorry. 

With Catcher In The Rye, Bumblefoot did it a lot better live, also with acoustic guitar in 2010, more control, better phrasing, backing vocals etc. The outro solo is where he truly shined live. It's hard to do better than him, he nailed every ChDm song.

And I feel that Dj Ashba did a better job with the solo on Sorry than Salsh. Buckethead's studio version is king obviously.

 

Edited April 12, 2017 by Silent Jay

[maynard]

Songs are too awful for Slash to improve them. I have to say I have zero interest in those CD songs they cover after watching one video of each.

[Mendez]

I like how Slash starts out on Sorry, but once he starts doing his shredding thing, he hits brown notes. His tone is great though. And ovetall i like his take.

Bucketheads is still better imo

Edited April 12, 2017 by Mendez

[Gibson87]

I loved Catcher as it was and now that Slash is playing on it I think it's even better. They should really play it more. 

As for Sorry, it's never really been one of my favorite songs on CD. I like Slash's solo though.

[Nosaj Thing]

Awful songs. Will never sound like Guns N' Roses.

[soon]

4 hours ago, RONIN said:

These are my 2 favorite cuts from Chinese Democracy by far and the songs I wish Slash and Duff had a chance to play on. I re-watched the live versions from 2016 and imho, Slash kills it.

Catcher in the Rye sounds so much better and tastefully played compared to the album version. It's still inferior to Brian May's demo but I think a studio version w/ Slash would be an instant classic. He's so good during the outro portion in particular.

I love Buckethead's work on Sorry but Slash's interpretation is really good. He has a great feel for the song. It doesn't top Bucket but it comes close - this type of song is right up Slash's alley and I think he would nail it in the studio. 

 

I feel the exact same way about slashs takes as Ronin says above.

also always love the philly sorry take, how at 3:05 Axl seems to be conducting slash.  I know Axl just does a lot of those gestures on stage and is probably nothing, but it fits into a narrative and gives me a chuckle. 

[Rovim]

2 hours ago, Wagszilla said:

Also I like you friend but all of your threads are false dichotomies and leading questions. 

I like your friend's threads. On topic: I honestly think Slash needs like a day or two in the studio to come up with a perfect reworked Catcher solo.

In Sorry, even when he fucks up the solo badly, many times there are sections where it sounds great. For example in Kobe, he struggled with it, and we know the beginning of the solo is the part that usually sounds the best when Slash plays it. But on the most melodic section of the solo he sounds great so in the studio, he can just play for an hour on the chord progression and copy/paste it like in Safari Inn or how Axl did with May's Catcher solo.

He ruined the end of the phrase by playing too many notes there, but mostly sounds great. (4:04-4:15)

 

Edited April 12, 2017 by Rovim

[Sosso]

I wonder how a Robin solo would have sounded on CITR. He was the soul player, not Bumble.

[J Dog]

I do like Slash's versions. They sound good and everything, and big respect to Slash for playing them. But I still like the album versions. Bucket kills it on Sorry.

[Rovim]

1 hour ago, Sosso said:

I wonder how a Robin solo would have sounded on CITR. He was the soul player, not Bumble.

Bumble was influenced by May so maybe Axl thought it was appropriate for Bumble to play it and he was new at the time plus Axl wanted to use him in the studio like Frank. Or maybe he just came up with the solo Axl liked the best other than May's.

Edited April 12, 2017 by Rovim

[appetite4illusions]

It still totally blows my mind that Axl and Sean Beavan assembled Brian May's solo note for note in the Catcher demo. I've just never heard of such nonsense.

The fact that they took a magnificent artist's improvisation, cut it up  i n t o    p   i  e  c  e  s , and then Frankenstein it back together, well, that's madness.

 

You think after going through all that trouble and coming up with something that was totally appropriate, they would be satisfied. But no, they let Bumblefoot just run wild in the end.

[ZoSoRose]

I really like Rons work on the song. Brians great, too and it was a demo anyways, so who knows what happened. 

Some people just use the cut and paste method to fuel their creativity. I collaborated with a guy in college for 2 songs on his record. He frankeinsteined my playing but it ended up still sounding really cool. It was his project so its all good.

Thay approach doesnt work for everything though. A GnR album with Slash wouldnt benefit from that imo

[ZoSoRose]

Also, I think the current versions of CD, Better, and TiL are fantastic. I think I like them overall more than the studio cuts (although those takes are fantastic too). I went from not thinking they should do CD songs on a reunion to having those 3 songs be set highlights on the tour. 

Sorry I think is pretty good. Slash usually does a great job on that one. Hard to top Bucket, Id say I like them equally.

Catcher, and TWAT are a little more hit and miss for me. I dont think they are bad, but not as good as the original takes. 

[Gordon Comstock]

I think Sorry sounds better on the album, Slash's take is different but not any better or worse than Bucket IMO.

Catcher sounds awesome with Slash and Duff, it was one of the highlights when I saw them in Seattle but I've always liked the song.

[Walapino]

I really like Slash and Duff input in the CD songs they have played in the tour... I wish they would release them live as bonus on a new CD!

[Sosso]

I hope that they sill Shackler's Revenge during the next leg of the current tour. Slash's take on the song could be very intereting. 

Edited April 12, 2017 by Sosso

[Walapino]

I wish they did Madagascar and IRS

[Tom-Ass]

Can't polish a turd

[appetite4illusions]

3 hours ago, ZoSoRose said:

Some people just use the cut and paste method to fuel their creativity. I collaborated with a guy in college for 2 songs on his record. He frankeinsteined my playing but it ended up still sounding really cool. It was his project so its all good.

Thay approach doesnt work for everything though. A GnR album with Slash wouldnt benefit from that imo

To me it's almost like the producer is the writer of the solo. They have the guitar melodies and then proceed to just gut them and rearrange them. The fact that Axl said it was note for note though, that's both extremely ambitious and loony toons crazy.

If it was comprised of several licks and several runs, I could understand, but my impression is that they took every note and every phrase and had their way with it. I just don't see how you do that to a legend like Brian May. It's disrespectful and undermines the effort he must have put into it.

In the end, the solo was marvelous and as far as I'm concerned, it's the only solo that ever fit the song. So I'm not saying it didn't work, but the balls it must take to ask Brian May to collaborate and then eradicate the work that was done...huge.