When will they debut Hard Skool?

[Pskihq92]

2 hours ago, sofine11 said:

Isn’t tonight a month since Absurd dropped?

Ya think? 🤔

Friday will be 4 weeks. Not quite 1 month. 

[SAU3R]

7 hours ago, jimisbatman said:

This makes sense

That’s why it won’t happen 

[Ak1nney]

13 hours ago, Towelie said:

I'm starting to think HS ain't gonna be played till they announce an album to go along with it.

Makes sense because if this North American leg is just the greatest hits + Absurd, then they can drop the album before the European leg and then announce another big North American leg playing songs off the new album.

Yeah. I really don't see it coming out until an album is announced. If it is to be the lead single, it'd make the most sense to keep it back until then. 

[fantomas]

11 hours ago, SAU3R said:

That’s why it won’t happen 

this x100

[axlslash]

When will they debut Hard Skool?

No.

[AxlRoseCDII]

Hard Skool seems like it’s been shelved for Absurd.

[Pskihq92]

It's only been 4 weeks guys. They're barely halfdone the USA shows. Still plenty of time.  

[smokingarthur]

8 hours ago, Pskihq92 said:

It's only been 4 weeks guys. They're barely halfdone the USA shows. Still plenty of time.  

Only in the bizarro GNR universe does a band who has reunited over 5 years ago, that hasn’t released an album in 13 years, that sold a tour originally under the guise of “The Next Chapter” then pretended that it hadn’t, released the worst GNR track ever recorded as a single, is unable to acknowledge a completion of an album or release date, has fans who believe something will change after 4 weeks that hasn’t already happened. 

[rumandraisin]

It's hilarious that fans of a band that went thirteen  years between New music think they'll get a second single just one month on. If we're lucky we'll get Hardskool by 2024. If we're lucky.... 

[Free Bird]

Very optimistic to expect them to announce HS to promote the announcement of a new record. That would mean that they're announcing a new record at all 

Somebody pointed out the next leg. That seems kind of realistic (what the hell does this mean in GNR world?) too me for the next single.

I highly doubt they'll release HS on this leg.

[Joraz]

They’ll play it at Bottlerock

[D..]

Pretty confident they'll release Hard School soon, probably in October. October fits the vibe of the song.

They'll release it with the same vocals from 20 years ago, like Absurd.

And I doubt Axl will sing it much live,, it's clearly too hard to sing properly with his current level. It would be a terrible advertising to play this live & butcher it, it's not like trying deep cuts like Coma & Locomotive.

[Atlas19]

I think it will be released before played live. With the current Axl vocals live would be a shot in the foot for the band if the fans listen to it live for the first time...

But ir gnr land everything is possible...

Edited September 4, 2021 by Atlas19

[StrangerInThisTown]

7 hours ago, D.. said:

And I doubt Axl will sing it much live,, it's clearly too hard to sing properly with his current level. It would be a terrible advertising to play this live & butcher it, it's not like trying deep cuts like Coma & Locomotive.

That's ridiculous. You really believe Axl will deliberately choose a song as a single that he can't sing? Why? Why would he fuck himself over like this?

Even when that ridiculous train of thought would come true, in any case they can always tune down live, that's very common. If they were smart they would just change the key of the song to one that Axl is good with, the song is unreleased anyway, maybe they did that now in the studio and that's why Absurd dropped first, who knows?

Edited September 4, 2021 by StrangerInThisTown

[Bansidhe]

7 hours ago, D.. said:

Pretty confident they'll release Hard School soon, probably in October. October fits the vibe of the song.

They'll release it with the same vocals from 20 years ago, like Absurd.

And I doubt Axl will sing it much live,, it's clearly too hard to sing properly with his current level. It would be a terrible advertising to play this live & butcher it, it's not like trying deep cuts like Coma & Locomotive.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did the Absurd thing and just straight up removed the high raspy chorus. Replace it with Axl just shouting "Hard School" in his normal voice 😄

 

It'd at least mean it'd be feasible to reproduce live.

 

 

 

[mystery]

When was Hard School believed to be recorded? 1999/2000? Was the existence of the song known before the locker leaks in 2019?

[Joraz]

7 minutes ago, mystery said:

When was Hard School believed to be recorded? 1999/2000? Was the existence of the song known before the locker leaks in 2019?

I remember searching for it in 2018. It was the biggest known leak along with atlas that was never heard

[Blackstar]

8 minutes ago, mystery said:

When was Hard School believed to be recorded? 1999/2000? Was the existence of the song known before the locker leaks in 2019?

The version that is in the locker leaks was recorded in 1999/2000, yes.

A 15 sec. clip of it had leaked in 2006 as "Checkmate". Axl said in 2008 that its working title was "Jackie Chan" and that "Checkmate" was a fake title. The name Hardschool wasn't known before the leaks in 2019.

[mystery]

9 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

The version that is in the locker leaks was recorded in 1999/2000, yes.

A 15 sec. clip of it had leaked in 2006 as "Checkmate". Axl said in 2008 that its working title was "Jackie Chan" and that "Checkmate" was a fake title. The name Hardschool wasn't known before the leaks in 2019.

Thanks, this kind of jogged my memory a bit. I listened to Hard School recently and it's a solid song. Boggles my mind that they went with Absurd as their first new release of music since Chinese Democracy in 2008. Hard School is a perfect first single.

[D..]

On 9/5/2021 at 12:32 AM, StrangerInThisTown said:

That's ridiculous. You really believe Axl will deliberately choose a song as a single that he can't sing? Why? Why would he fuck himself over like this?

Even when that ridiculous train of thought would come true, in any case they can always tune down live, that's very common. If they were smart they would just change the key of the song to one that Axl is good with, the song is unreleased anyway, maybe they did that now in the studio and that's why Absurd dropped first, who knows?

It's just my own speculation, could be complete BS.

Axl has a history of being a perfectionist, and not promoting things properly hehe. TWAT was on Chinese Democracy, and it was arguably the best song from the album (and the hardest one to sing). I've seen Guns 4 times in 2010 in hopes of hearing TWAT live. Well guess what: they didn't play it. Why? Because Axl could barely handle it even then and didn't want to blow it up. He sung TWAT when he felt like it, and it was extremely rare. And back then, he was on FIRE. Sure, TWAT wasn't a single, but what's a single with Guns in the past 20 years really? The promotion has been a disaster. I've never heard a CD track ONCE on the radio in 13 years.

Just because Guns releases a song or a full album with loads of songs doesn't guarantee every song will be played live. I don't know if Hard Skool will be considered as a single. Maybe Axl/Fernando will view this as another release to build-up the hype for the next album.

I don't know if a full album is fully recorded & mixed already, but it looks like some songs are done & ready for release, including Absurd & Hard Skool. Probably Atlas too.

Since Absurd has the exact same vocals as Silkworms, recorded 20 or over 20 years ago, I think it's safe to assume that all of the CDII songs will just be reworked by Slash (and maybe Duff) and re-use Axl's vocals from 20/over 20 years ago. This alone is a sign that Axl can't do better in a studio as of 2021. He can't beat his younger self, and doesn't look like he's willing to sing differently on the studio version. But he can still sing Absurd/Silkworms, in his own new way of doing it, it works, because this song isn't complicated/too demanding for him.

I think he can still sing Atlas Shrugged as well. As for Hard Skool, I don't see Axl singing this now. It's extremely complicated to sing, like a lot of Guns songs. The thing is, it's not the same to promote a "new" song live, and singing a deep cut. When you sing a deep cut, the audience is just happy the song is back in the setlist and knows the song already and sings along with you. But if it's something they've never heard, you better not butcher your new material because no one else will sing along (except for die hard fans). That's why I think we haven't heard Hard Skool live yet.

This song has been on the setlist for a while, the band rehearsed it several times so it's ready to be performed anytime, but Axl doesn't try it. Because he knows he can't do it justice. Maybe he'll try it at some point but get ready for a disaster & never hear it again live. I'm being pessimistic I know, but objectively, Axl's voice is shot. He can still perform great on some songs in low key, using his deeper voice, but whenever he has to sing higher & fast, it's very bad.

I don't blame him, he's almost 60, he's been the most legendary frontman ever in my eyes, he has done absolutely amazing shows, and Guns material is incredibly hard to sing. He was already complaining of You could be mine back in the day :') Imagine what he's thinking now.

I don't know whether Absurd & Hard Skool will be the biggest guns for the new album (if there's a new album). I think those songs are chosen because the vocals from 20 years ago exist, and it's probably faster to do things this way. Maybe Axl doesn't feel like doing new vocals right now, or maybe he just doesn't want to butcher his own work (from the CD vault).

I just find it very tricky to bring those CD songs back because some of those songs will be impossible to sing live. I'd love to see State of Grace on the next album, but that song too has some very hard parts to sing.

The easiest road would be to make whole new songs with this line-up, old school hard rock, easier to sing... And release a CDII boxset with all of the vault (including THE GENERAL, I want this), remixed properly, with the original players (Buckethead & so on). That way, it would be easier live for Axl, and we wouldn't be waiting for Axl to perform some CDII songs.

At this point, I don't care much what happens. I don't care if Hard Skool is played live ever since I won't attend a new Guns show given Axl's voice, I prefer my memories to what's happening now (unless a miracle happens and Axl gets back to 2010 level, but I'm dreaming). I just hope the next song releases will be nice. And I wish the best to Axl, all the band, and the marketing department.

[rumandraisin]

On 9/5/2021 at 3:58 AM, mystery said:

Thanks, this kind of jogged my memory a bit. I listened to Hard School recently and it's a solid song. Boggles my mind that they went with Absurd as their first new release of music since Chinese Democracy in 2008. Hard School is a perfect first single.

Boggles my mind that not one member has even commented on it. What kind of band has a gag order on its own members talking about their own music. 

[19AT5]

Does anybody else think the intro to Hard School is bloody terrible? I think the chorus is catchy as sin but the rest of the song is really quite bland. 

[Live Like a Suicide]

43 minutes ago, 19AT5 said:

Does anybody else think the intro to Hard School is bloody terrible? I think the chorus is catchy as sin but the rest of the song is really quite bland. 

Good thing it now seems to have a bass intro.

[jimisbatman]

10 minutes ago, Live Like a Suicide said:

Good thing it now seems to have a bass intro.

Source? 

[19AT5]

10 minutes ago, Live Like a Suicide said:

Good thing it now seems to have a bass intro.

Ah does it, that's hopefully a bit better than that awful soft melodic intro. I've not heard any of the Slash/Duff versions. Only the old Village leaks version.