Open Letter to Axl & my opinon about the CD Era

[D..]

Just now, Axl_morris said:

 I think when anyone has the audacity and becomes disillusioned enough to "write an open letter", they should step away from the keyboard, get some fresh air and discover a new hobby.

What a load of self centered nonsense.

[Lio]

Give me a break. The truth about the CD era?

'We have heard Axl sing on X songs' => this is all he has done for years. The truth is we are still no closer to knowing what went down in the CD era, but I'm sure Axl had a lot more on his plate than just recording a few vocals. Saying he was lazy or sat on his ass for years based on what we actually know, is just nonsense.

[eggers]

Bob Ezrin was right.

[Underhardy]

Just delete this post. What a load of nonsense. So many assumptions. You know Axl confirmed he laid down vocals on Me and My Elvis (Soul Monster) and said during the bridge we’re his meanest vocals ever. How the fuck do you know he didn’t record vocals for these songs? How the fuck do you know anything about what went on during that time? Oklahoma had vocals too. Just delete this shit so no one else has to waste their time reading it. And you actually think Axl would read this shit? 

[Popcorn crew]

Dude, just close your open letter to Axl please.

[kever20]

49 minutes ago, D.. said:

Just wanted to share a few thoughts with you, and with Axl, if he still reads boards. I appreciate this forum & most of you here, great discussions have happened there, and Russ is doing a great job at handling things.

That being said, my history post speaks for itself: I've mainly been an Axl supporter, hardcore supporter I might say. The following is just my opinion, of course.

I had big doubts about the reunion and didn't feel right about it, because to me it meant no CD II happening, and basically ignoring a lot of what went down during that CD Era, what Axl had to say on Slash, and doing a complete 180. But then again, that was just my opinion, and it's great that the guys made peace. That sends a good message to humanity. But I wasn't wrong in my predictions and I hate to be right on those things. Nothing happened in almost 4 years except the same shows, mediocre Axl vocals, and absolutely no new material.

 

Now, with all those leaks from the CD Vault, and since we're almost done with the 20 CD locker saga... It gives a completely new insight of what really down.

Does anyone recall when Axl said, in a 1999 interview with Kurt Loder: "We've been working on... I don't know... 70 songs?"

Many here speculated Axl didn't have much going on in the vault and this was bullshit. 

 

Well truth is, it was half bullshit. It wasn't 70 "songs". It was maybe 70 instrumentals, with a third tops having vocals. The band sure was productive as far as musicians go.

As for the band singer? What a joke.

When State of Grace, Hard School, Perhaps and Atlas Shrugged leaked, I actually told myself "hey, I knew it, Axl had been working hard on this stuff, he had saved stuff!"

Then the rest dropped, little by little. All those great instrumentals, most feeling finished. That "Me & Elvis" fucking masterpiece. And no single vocals on them. Nothing. He sure knew how to pick the right musicians and expected the best from them, but as for himself? Wasn't expecting the best from himself. At all.

One can just admire what the band had to offer, the variety of genres they explored, their creativity, their commitment to the mission. And why so many eventually quit. Those guys (Tobias, Finck, Buckethead & the others) were productive and talented as hell. They sure were superior to the original line-up with Slash & Izzy for one thing at least: they knew how to explore a wide variety of styles, not just old school hard rock (not even going to talk technically).

 

As for Axl? He didn't work nearly as much as the other guys from the band, nor as he led us to believe. You have to take two things in consideration here:

1) His vocal takes are untouched (except very minor changes on the blues ending for example) from 1999-2001 to 2008. That tells a lot. On the other hand, the band recorded variants, there were loads of takes, redoing everything, many musicians covering other musicians parts, hell's work.

2) He sings on a third of the instrumentals. 

Now, one could argue his vocal takes were perfect to begin with. That was what I thought originally, because on most of CD 2008, he sounds great. I've always loved his different vocal approach. But then, when you listen to "Eye on You", "State of Grace" or "Perhaps": do those sound like definitive vocals? To me it doesn't. It feels half assed. Doesn't feel complete. And I could argue that now that I think of it, he should have redone vocals for CD 2008. The band did go through the trouble. Why not Axl?

One could also argue he picked his favorite tracks to sing on. I sure can't buy into that now. How the fuck did he think Silkworms and Rhiad were better picks than "Me & Elvis", "Zodiac", "Quick Song", "Oklahoma", and so many other instrumentals of great quality? It just blows my mind.

 

With that taken in consideration, when Axl offered the song to that Bob Ezrin guy and was told he only had 3 good songs tops and sure could do better... Now that we've heard all of that, I think Ezrin wasn't the fuckhead we made him to be after all.

 

Put yourself in a producer's shoes for a sec. You're given songs from the Rough CD 1 mix. Honestly, fanboy aside, how many A-list songs are there on there, objectively? 3 tops. TWAT didn't sound as good as the definitive 2008 version. As for some songs on there like Prostitue, was it ever going to be a hit really? No.

Not even sure one could consider any as real A-list song (beside The Blues) that would have been a guaranteed hit back then without Slash to sell it alongside Axl.

Now, regarding what was in the vault instrumentally, just imagine if Axl had laid vocals on all of them, and had worked his ass off on every vocal take to make it sound perfect & polished. How is State of Grace this half assed? Axl sure could do a lot better back then if you just take Street of Dreams for example. 

If he DID have so many full songs completed, how many songs would have Bob Ezrin judged worth? Surely more than 3. How in the hell could a producer accept garbage like Silkworms & Rhiad when there were crazy potential like Soul Monster? And how in hell would a producer think it could work when branded "Guns N' Roses". You had OKLAHOMA AXL! OKLAHOMA! Now that would have worked! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!

 

This whole thing just blows my mind. To think Axl had this band working for him non stop coming with so many instrumental gems, some of which were totally in the vibe of Use Your Illusion and some taking it to the next level (and not some idiotic electro BS which made no sense either for this band or coherence with the band's legacy). And what did he do with that? Close to nothing.

 

Was he really that sensitive when he was turned down by Universal? Come on man. Axl the legend who rants about everything was hurt because Silkworms & Rhiad suck when you have goddamn gems to work on in the vault? WORK YOUR ASS OFF!!!! It's not like there was nothing and the musicians were incompetent. 

 

I also thought Axl chose poor songs like Rhiad, If The World and Scraped to save some of his best for CD II. I originally thought there was not much going on that the CD 2008 songs and some other songs like The General & stuff that he would save for a follow up. I was cool with that. Why not since apparently, the production was hell.

 

But really, just from 1999 to 2001, he had soooo many options to choose beside those 3. Thing is, he most probably never bothered recording for all of them. Maybe Soul Monster, Zodiac, Seven & Oklahoma. As for the rest, I'm pretty sure he never gave Devious Bastard a chance, never completed Quick Song, and so on. I wouldn't call those tracks genius either, but sure far better picks than what we got on CD 2008.

Instead, they went on overproducing shits like Rhiad for almost a decade. They butchered songs that were already impeccable to begin with and only needed a proper master like The Blues, Catcher & others. Why not just give the other instrumental a proper vocal take while NOT adding stupid layers and replacing perfect musician's work like Brian May's, and then turn everything to Universal. Imagine how things would have turned differently.

 

Now if you couple that with whatever Axl has been doing since 2011, and especially from 2016 til now (except the glorious AC/DC tour), I think it's safe to conclude Axl has been lazy as hell, has completely failed himself, has not seen the potential that was there, was not objective about his own self, has given up on things a long time ago, and that most of what went down is on him.

His own goddamn fault. Not Ezrin. Not bandmembers who quit. Not "I don't know what oh god life is so hard". Fuck that shit.

 

How can you show up this untrained to a gig like last saturday? What went down when he showed up for Rock in Rio 2011? How can you have so many goddamn instrumentals with potential and do NOTHING with them for years while the rest of your band sacrifice everything?

 

I find this situation absurd. And the management at no point said "hey, why not make a boxset with all this vault, it will sure please the ones who supported CD & the 2002/2006/2007/2009/2010/2011/2012/2013/2014 tours for all this time". They had all the time in the world to do it. They didn't.

 

And Axl? Zero communication. All efforts spared. No vocals on most instrumental in 2001. Unacceptable.

 

Bottomline is: Axl fucked it up, alone. It's fucking crazy. He had it all and sat on it, crying about whatever. Dammit.

ABSURD!!!

[gnfnrs1972]

Fed up fan. I get it. That's what this forum is for? Praise and persecution. 

[YOUCOULDBEMINE.]

4 minutes ago, kever20 said:

ABSURD!!!

Thanks for quoting the entire post just to say that 

[Axl_morris]

Delete this monstrosity of self entitlement.

If you don't like the way things were done fuck off to a Metallica forum

[lines n' noses]

I've always wanted to know what the 18 songs plus 10 extra tracks where that Axl mentioned in London in 2002. . . 

...After 'Chinese Democracy,' Axl says, "Now, there's been some concern... that if we play 5 or 6 new songs, then there can't that many more on the album. Au contraire mon frère! We're just playin' the songs we're not considering putting out as singles or anything. So you'll get 18 songs and about 10 extra tracks. And when that... when the record company feels that has run [it's] source, then you'll get it all over again. And by that time, I should be done with the 3rd album!"

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Lethalis]

I stopped reading halfway through somewhere.

Because this "open letter" ignores the fact that Axl actually worked on these instrumentals too. What many seem to ignore, is that Axl actually learned to play the guitar and has put many of his ideas and melodies on tape.

Of course he asked the band to work on those ideas, but he has had a lot more input on these instrumentals than you might think.

He is even credited on TWAT and Madagascar for his guitar work.

And of course the piano parts on a lot instrumentals are his too.

He is not just the vocalist.

That alone was reason for me to stop reading.

And then we have the fact these CD's are from 2000. Between that and 2008 a lot more was recorded.

We even have a clip of The General where you can hear Axl singing... that is not on these discs.

There is more stuff.

But yeah, the reunion was surprising to me too. It made any release of existing material a lot less likely.

[RussTCB]

53 minutes ago, seely said:

A lot of assumptions there. Who knows how much other stuff was worked on before and after that time. Just because instrumental versions are all that leaked doesn't mean that lyrics aren't done and vocals aren't there on other versions.

Exactly.

Not to be an asshole but that post is hilarious to me. It's too early in the morning to go into all of the things that are wrong about the post but I'm sure everyone else will get it lol

 

EDIT-

I also changed the title of the thread to say "MY OPINION". Calling it "the truth" is hilarious. 

[Flake]

Boring

Next

[D..]

24 minutes ago, Underhardy said:

Just delete this post. What a load of nonsense. So many assumptions. You know Axl confirmed he laid down vocals on Me and My Elvis (Soul Monster) and said during the bridge we’re his meanest vocals ever. How the fuck do you know he didn’t record vocals for these songs? How the fuck do you know anything about what went on during that time? Oklahoma had vocals too. Just delete this shit so no one else has to waste their time reading it. And you actually think Axl would read this shit? 

He confirmed he sung it on a Christmas Eve, not that he recorded it in the studio, check the facts. Now, that could also mean it was recorded and I did mention it could have if you read my entire post.

Still, I'm mainly talking about the 1999-2001 time period. Who knows how many of those instrumentals have vocals now? It's only a speculation game.

[papashaun]

This post just took things a little too far.......Everything you heard on the leaks belongs to this band. With Axl being the main creator/curator, it's his choice if he feels to release the material in finished form to the public or not. Look at how much material artists like Tupac, Prince, and Michael Jackson kept in a "vault" so to speak. Just because they don't release it, doesn't mean it sucks or isn't good, it can all boil down to finding the right fit for an an album, or potential future plans....Sometimes those plans just don't happen the way they hoped for or wanted to. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by papashaun
mis spelled word

[Propaganda]

1 hour ago, D.. said:

Just wanted to share a few thoughts with you, and with Axl, if he still reads boards. I appreciate this forum & most of you here, great discussions have happened there, and Russ is doing a great job at handling things.

That being said, my history post speaks for itself: I've mainly been an Axl supporter, hardcore supporter I might say. The following is just my opinion, of course.

I had big doubts about the reunion and didn't feel right about it, because to me it meant no CD II happening, and basically ignoring a lot of what went down during that CD Era, what Axl had to say on Slash, and doing a complete 180. But then again, that was just my opinion, and it's great that the guys made peace. That sends a good message to humanity. But I wasn't wrong in my predictions and I hate to be right on those things. Nothing happened in almost 4 years except the same shows, mediocre Axl vocals, and absolutely no new material.

 

Now, with all those leaks from the CD Vault, and since we're almost done with the 20 CD locker saga... It gives a completely new insight of what really down.

Does anyone recall when Axl said, in a 1999 interview with Kurt Loder: "We've been working on... I don't know... 70 songs?"

Many here speculated Axl didn't have much going on in the vault and this was bullshit. 

 

Well truth is, it was half bullshit. It wasn't 70 "songs". It was maybe 70 instrumentals, with a third tops having vocals. The band sure was productive as far as musicians go.

As for the band singer? What a joke.

When State of Grace, Hard School, Perhaps and Atlas Shrugged leaked, I actually told myself "hey, I knew it, Axl had been working hard on this stuff, he had saved stuff!"

Then the rest dropped, little by little. All those great instrumentals, most feeling finished. That "Me & Elvis" fucking masterpiece. And no single vocals on them. Nothing. He sure knew how to pick the right musicians and expected the best from them, but as for himself? Wasn't expecting the best from himself. At all.

One can just admire what the band had to offer, the variety of genres they explored, their creativity, their commitment to the mission. And why so many eventually quit. Those guys (Tobias, Finck, Buckethead & the others) were productive and talented as hell. They sure were superior to the original line-up with Slash & Izzy for one thing at least: they knew how to explore a wide variety of styles, not just old school hard rock (not even going to talk technically).

 

As for Axl? He didn't work nearly as much as the other guys from the band, nor as he led us to believe. You have to take two things in consideration here:

1) His vocal takes are untouched (except very minor changes on the blues ending for example) from 1999-2001 to 2008. That tells a lot. On the other hand, the band recorded variants, there were loads of takes, redoing everything, many musicians covering other musicians parts, hell's work.

2) He sings on a third of the instrumentals. 

Now, one could argue his vocal takes were perfect to begin with. That was what I thought originally, because on most of CD 2008, he sounds great. I've always loved his different vocal approach. But then, when you listen to "Eye on You", "State of Grace" or "Perhaps": do those sound like definitive vocals? To me it doesn't. It feels half assed. Doesn't feel complete. And I could argue that now that I think of it, he should have redone vocals for CD 2008. The band did go through the trouble. Why not Axl?

One could also argue he picked his favorite tracks to sing on. I sure can't buy into that now. How the fuck did he think Silkworms and Rhiad were better picks than "Me & Elvis", "Zodiac", "Quick Song", "Oklahoma", and so many other instrumentals of great quality? It just blows my mind.

 

With that taken in consideration, when Axl offered the song to that Bob Ezrin guy and was told he only had 3 good songs tops and sure could do better... Now that we've heard all of that, I think Ezrin wasn't the fuckhead we made him to be after all.

 

Put yourself in a producer's shoes for a sec. You're given songs from the Rough CD 1 mix. Honestly, fanboy aside, how many A-list songs are there on there, objectively? 3 tops. TWAT didn't sound as good as the definitive 2008 version. As for some songs on there like Prostitue, was it ever going to be a hit really? No.

Not even sure one could consider any as real A-list song (beside The Blues) that would have been a guaranteed hit back then without Slash to sell it alongside Axl.

Now, regarding what was in the vault instrumentally, just imagine if Axl had laid vocals on all of them, and had worked his ass off on every vocal take to make it sound perfect & polished. How is State of Grace this half assed? Axl sure could do a lot better back then if you just take Street of Dreams for example. 

If he DID have so many full songs completed, how many songs would have Bob Ezrin judged worth? Surely more than 3. How in the hell could a producer accept garbage like Silkworms & Rhiad when there were crazy potential like Soul Monster? And how in hell would a producer think it could work when branded "Guns N' Roses". You had OKLAHOMA AXL! OKLAHOMA! Now that would have worked! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!

 

This whole thing just blows my mind. To think Axl had this band working for him non stop coming with so many instrumental gems, some of which were totally in the vibe of Use Your Illusion and some taking it to the next level (and not some idiotic electro BS which made no sense either for this band or coherence with the band's legacy). And what did he do with that? Close to nothing.

 

Was he really that sensitive when he was turned down by Universal? Come on man. Axl the legend who rants about everything was hurt because Silkworms & Rhiad suck when you have goddamn gems to work on in the vault? WORK YOUR ASS OFF!!!! It's not like there was nothing and the musicians were incompetent. 

 

I also thought Axl chose poor songs like Rhiad, If The World and Scraped to save some of his best for CD II. I originally thought there was not much going on that the CD 2008 songs and some other songs like The General & stuff that he would save for a follow up. I was cool with that. Why not since apparently, the production was hell.

 

But really, just from 1999 to 2001, he had soooo many options to choose beside those 3. Thing is, he most probably never bothered recording for all of them. Maybe Soul Monster, Zodiac, Seven & Oklahoma. As for the rest, I'm pretty sure he never gave Devious Bastard a chance, never completed Quick Song, and so on. I wouldn't call those tracks genius either, but sure far better picks than what we got on CD 2008.

Instead, they went on overproducing shits like Rhiad for almost a decade. They butchered songs that were already impeccable to begin with and only needed a proper master like The Blues, Catcher & others. Why not just give the other instrumental a proper vocal take while NOT adding stupid layers and replacing perfect musician's work like Brian May's, and then turn everything to Universal. Imagine how things would have turned differently.

 

Now if you couple that with whatever Axl has been doing since 2011, and especially from 2016 til now (except the glorious AC/DC tour), I think it's safe to conclude Axl has been lazy as hell, has completely failed himself, has not seen the potential that was there, was not objective about his own self, has given up on things a long time ago, and that most of what went down is on him.

His own goddamn fault. Not Ezrin. Not bandmembers who quit. Not "I don't know what oh god life is so hard". Fuck that shit.

 

How can you show up this untrained to a gig like last saturday? What went down when he showed up for Rock in Rio 2011? How can you have so many goddamn instrumentals with potential and do NOTHING with them for years while the rest of your band sacrifice everything?

 

I find this situation absurd. And the management at no point said "hey, why not make a boxset with all this vault, it will sure please the ones who supported CD & the 2002/2006/2007/2009/2010/2011/2012/2013/2014 tours for all this time". They had all the time in the world to do it. They didn't.

 

And Axl? Zero communication. All efforts spared. No vocals on most instrumental in 2001. Unacceptable.

 

Bottomline is: Axl fucked it up, alone. It's fucking crazy. He had it all and sat on it, crying about whatever. Dammit.

D, don't get me wrong here. I realize the frustration on not having much releases since the 90's (we only had CD in 2008, with new material), but i think you're assumption is very wrong, and let me explain why.

This locker saga thing... most of these recordings are from 1999,2000,2001.  So you're basically basing your assumption on two years of work. This 20 cds is what Axl worked with the band for those two years, and we don't know if there is more out there. I'm sure there is. I'm sure more executives other than Zutaut had copies of these, and who knows even more.

Then you have the work that was done post 2000... 2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007 etc etc etc up until CD was released...which most of it, we don't have access to for obvious reasons.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Propaganda

[YOUCOULDBEMINE.]

3 minutes ago, D.. said:

Who knows how many of those instrumentals have vocals now? It's only a speculation game.

But with that last sentence you're contradicting most of what you're ranting about in your original post...

Also people, stop quoting the entire thing. This is almost as bad as those pyramid quotes from back in the day 

Edited September 25, 2019 by UcudBmine

[D..]

Just now, Propaganda said:

D, don't get me wrong here. I realize the frustration on not having much releases since the 90's (we only had CD in 2008, with new material), but i think you're assumption is very wrong, and let me explain why.

This locker saga thing... most of these recordings are from 1999,2000.  So you're basically basing your assumption on two years of work. This 20 cds is what Axl worked with the band for those two years, and we don't know if there is more out there. I'm sure there is. I'm sure more executives other than Zutaut had copies of these, and who knows even more.

Then you have the work that was done post 2000... 2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007 etc etc etc up until CD was released...which most of it, we don't have access to for obvious reasons.

Yes that's what I stated in another post here and thought it was obvious it my initial post. I'm not stating no other vocals exist beside this locker. I'm pretty sure now there must be another 50 cd's we've never heard about.

1 minute ago, UcudBmine said:

But with that last sentence you're contradicting most of what you're ranting about in your original post...

I guess you didn't understand my post, or maybe my english sucks so bad my point didn't came across lol.

Main point was to underline how there was all this instrumental stuff by 2001 and Axl had done only a third of it and picking some shit like Rhiad & Silkworms over some gems. I guarantee history would have been different and could definitely see a 2001/2002 release had Axl worked harder.

I'm in no way saying there are no other vocals done after that time period.

[Tom2112]

All assumptions made... If you're looking for a title for that post  

A lot of this comes from the early stages of the record. It is perfectly normal for tracks to be recorded in demo form without vocals and for producers to hear them that way... I'm, sure the majority of producers prefer hearing it with vocals but ya'know!

Now, I agree that it is crazy that so may of the leaked recordings from 199-01 have Axls final vocal takes (save for minor tweaks), but I listen to CD and I rarely think "he should have done another take on that".

As for what work happened after 2001? I would imagine there has been a lot of different songs, and that Axl probably recorded more vocals.

Song choices, I'd say that was all down to what he thought would work in the context of an album. I don't really like Rhiad and a few others. But others do and I would have put Hard school on the record instead but you can't have it all. I'd probably have narrowed it to 10-12 songs too, but I can imagine being in the producer seat having wrote all those song, and just wanting to release everything. 

 

[D..]

7 minutes ago, papashaun said:

This post just took things a little too far.......Everything you heard on the leaks belongs to this band. With Axl being the main creator/curator, it's his choice if he feels to release the material in finished form to the public or not. Look at how much material artists like Tupac, Prince, and Michael Jackson kept in a "vault" so to speak. Just because they don't release it, doesn't mean it sucks or isn't good, it can all boil down to finding the right fit for an an album, or potential future plans....Sometimes those plans just don't happen the way they hoped for or wanted to. 

I don't think it's fair comparing artists like Prince who released shit ton of stuff while alive to Axl who has not released any new song officially in 11 years. 

As for me going too far, probably. I'm not from switzerland.

[Underhardy]

17 minutes ago, D.. said:

He confirmed he sung it on a Christmas Eve, not that he recorded it in the studio, check the facts. Now, that could also mean it was recorded and I did mention it could have if you read my entire post.

Still, I'm mainly talking about the 1999-2001 time period. Who knows how many of those instrumentals have vocals now? It's only a speculation game.

You think Axl would just say ‘sung it on a Christmas Eve,’ and not mean he recorded the vocals? You think he’s just saying “Yeah I sung it in my car that one day, it was cool.” No, he recorded it. A few sentences later he says “when people hear it I’m sure they won’t agree.” Obviously he recorded the vocals, as he’s stating we’ll all hear them. Checks your facts, man! Too early for this nonsense. Posts like this are why Axl doesn’t go on these forums anymore. 

[Download]

Axl doesn’t give a hot fuck what the fans think. Well maybe he does to an extent but not enough to feel obligated to do something about it. More than anything he probably resents his fans or holds them in contempt for the entitlement they possess. 

I get it, we all want new music but it’s just not in him to provide us with that. He doesn’t give a shit that we want it. He could have easily threw a couple of these songs on his website or twitter and said “ hey guys, here’s a new tune I’m working on! #GnFnR #wittycomment” and threw the hardcore fan base a bone but has never done it once. Ever. 

Why? Because No. Fucks. Given. 

[jbhutto]

25 minutes ago, Underhardy said:

You think Axl would just say ‘sung it on a Christmas Eve,’ and not mean he recorded the vocals? You think he’s just saying “Yeah I sung it in my car that one day, it was cool.

Maybe he went caroling?

[D..]

36 minutes ago, Underhardy said:

You think Axl would just say ‘sung it on a Christmas Eve,’ and not mean he recorded the vocals? You think he’s just saying “Yeah I sung it in my car that one day, it was cool.” No, he recorded it. A few sentences later he says “when people hear it I’m sure they won’t agree.” Obviously he recorded the vocals, as he’s stating we’ll all hear them. Checks your facts, man! Too early for this nonsense. Posts like this are why Axl doesn’t go on these forums anymore. 

Your lack of logical sense is disturbing. "I sung it on a christmas eve" means "I recorded it" to you? Amazing. To me it just means he has a pretty good idea of vocals & lyrics and tried it on a christmas eve. As for the other sentence, it's just a hint he'd like to record & release it for people to hear it. Doesn't prove he had recorded it properly in a studio at that point in time.

That being said, I sure hope he recorded it and that we'll hear it.

[appetite4illusions]

As far as Bob Ezrin goes, as far as anybody's opinion about Chinese Democracy and why there was never any "single material" on the album, despite having quality songs, need look no further than Axl.

Look at the songs on Chinese and now the wealth of material we have on our hands.

Why couldn't the guy just write a conventional song with a conventional chorus?

 

Almost all these songs have non-choruses, they have too many words, Axl has too much to say.

The key to crafting a great song is: keep it relatively simple. Catchy chorus goes a long way. The type of chorus that really suits a song has a few words with key words stretched to emphasis the music. 

The type of choruses  GN'R, classic GN'R were known for were Anthemic. They were chants, they were sing-alongs, they carried themselves with the song. You looked FORWARD to the chorus.

 

Look at the chorus section or lack of, on many of these songs. Are there any that could be called "Anthemic?" In my opinion, only "Chinese Democracy" has a great chorus and an anthemic chorus, at that.

Look at songs like TWAT, Atlas Shrugged, Prostitute, Shackler's Revenge, etc...They might be cool, but there is no chorus for anybody to hang their hat on. There's hardly any more anthemic material on the album, other than the title track.

He got so deep in the weeds, trying to express himself, be creative and make a challenging album, that he withheld a key component to making hit songs: didn't make them catchy enough.