How many UYI tracks were already fully or partly written when AFD came out?

[Nice Boy]

I was thinking that looking at a list of how many UYI tracks were already complete or partially written by the time AFD came out would give an indication of how productive (or unproductive) the band was in the period between the albums, including the problematic Chicago sessions. Are there any others to add to the list apart from these?

 

Live N Let Die (cover)

Don't Cry 

Perfect Crime

Bad Obsession 

Back Off Bitch 

November Rain 

The Garden 

 

Civil War 

Yesterdays (maybe?)

Knockin on Heaven's Door (cover) 

Estranged (maybe part of 'Without You'?)

You Could Be Mine 

Don't Cry (instrumental)

 

 

Any others?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gordon Comstock]

In '86-87, they had:

Don't Cry
November Rain
Bad Obsession
The Garden
Perfect Crime
Back Off Bitch
You Could Be Mine
Yesterdays (this might have been written in 1988, can't remember off the top of my head)
and Ain't Goin' Down, which was pulled from UYI at the last minute.

By mid-1989 they also had:

Garden Of Eden
Locomotive
Dust N' Bones
Don't Damn Me
and probably Civil War

[Nice Boy]

The instrumental to Civil War was ready around the time of AFD it seems, Slash used to play it at soundchecks so he said

[Blackstar]

- Yesterdays must definitely have been written - at least partly - when AFD came out. Billy McCloud, who is credited as co-writer, lived with Del James even before the Hell House days. Axl had forgotten his last name, so in the first pressing of UYI he was credited just as "Billy".

- According to Slash's autobiography, Axl had Dead Horse before GN'R started.

- The music for Civil War was written in late 1988 according to Slash and Duff (came from jams during the tour in Japan and Australia).

Edited May 27, 2021 by Blackstar

[DTV88]

2 hours ago, Blackstar said:

- According to Slash's autobiography, Axl had Dead Horse before GN'R started.

I completely forgot about that! I wonder if that’s why Axl felt confident enough to play guitar on the album. 

[Original]

Truly amazing how many kick ass songs they wrote in such a short period of time.  Unbelievable if you think about it.  

[rocknroll41]

We have a full demo of Yesterdays that dates back to 1985/1986 so yes that one definitely existed before AFD. Same with Don't Cry.

[Nice Boy]

I did think Dead Horse might have been an old one, simply because Axl tends to sit on track ideas for a while, so that makes sense. Maybe Shotgun Blues is from the same time..

[rocknroll41]

This thread is making me realize that maybe, instead of doing Lies in 1988, they shoulda just gone straight to the second album and do something like this:

1.You Could Be Mine

2.Perfect Crime

3.Don’t Cry

4.Patience

5.Bad Obsession

6.Back Off, Bitch

7.The Garden

8.Yesterdays

9.Used To Love Her

10.Dead Horse

11.Knocking On Heaven’s Door

12.November Rain

Hell, maybe they could’ve also thrown in stuff like Shadow, Ain’t Goin Down, Crash Diet, etc.

Edited May 27, 2021 by rocknroll41

[axl666]

15 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

This thread is making me realize that maybe, instead of doing Lies in 1988, they shoulda just gone straight to the second album and do something like this:

1.You Could Be Mine

2.Perfect Crime

3.Don’t Cry

4.Patience

5.Bad Obsession

6.Back Off, Bitch

7.The Garden

8.Yesterdays

9.Used To Love Her

10.Dead Horse

11.Knocking On Heaven’s Door

12.November Rain

Hell, maybe they could’ve also thrown in stuff like Shadow, Ain’t Goin Down, Crash Diet, etc.

When you look at these songs, you realise how much GNR had transcended the genre from which the originally emerged (80s LA rock scene).

I could potentially imagine a lot of LA bands of that time writing a number of these songs, like Back off Bitch (though whether they would have the songwriting ability is another story). However I just can't imagine a lot of these bands writing songs like The Garden or Perfect Crime, which I think would have more in common with things like Alice in Chains Dirt.

[King_Johnny]

Love that Drunk Fux version of Yesterdays from early 1988.

[Arnuld]

On 5/27/2021 at 4:25 PM, rocknroll41 said:

This thread is making me realize that maybe, instead of doing Lies in 1988, they shoulda just gone straight to the second album and do something like this:

1.You Could Be Mine

2.Perfect Crime

3.Don’t Cry

4.Patience

5.Bad Obsession

6.Back Off, Bitch

7.The Garden

8.Yesterdays

9.Used To Love Her

10.Dead Horse

11.Knocking On Heaven’s Door

12.November Rain

Hell, maybe they could’ve also thrown in stuff like Shadow, Ain’t Goin Down, Crash Diet, etc.

No one in a million?!

[Chuzeville]

On 5/27/2021 at 4:27 PM, Original said:

Truly amazing how many kick ass songs they wrote in such a short period of time.  Unbelievable if you think about it.  

But history shows that after that they were pretty much done for. They got all these songs out of their collective system; then the systeme ran on empty for a while & started breaking down.

Edited June 3, 2021 by Chuzeville

[MaskingApathy]

On 5/28/2021 at 6:11 AM, axl666 said:

When you look at these songs, you realise how much GNR had transcended the genre from which the originally emerged (80s LA rock scene).

I could potentially imagine a lot of LA bands of that time writing a number of these songs, like Back off Bitch (though whether they would have the songwriting ability is another story). However I just can't imagine a lot of these bands writing songs like The Garden or Perfect Crime, which I think would have more in common with things like Alice in Chains Dirt.

 

On 5/27/2021 at 7:27 AM, Original said:

Truly amazing how many kick ass songs they wrote in such a short period of time.  Unbelievable if you think about it.  

It's a very diverse collection of songs too, not just the same old 80s sleaze rock that all the other bands in Hollywood were doing.