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History of Absurd/Silkworms


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Hi,

As far as I know, there are three versions of this song?

The original, which goes way back and has the chorus 'what would I do...'

Is my memory wrong or do I remember there being another version released at some point with no chorus at all?

And then the current version with the chorus being 'Absurd'.

 

I'll be honest and think that the current version doesn't work (the chorus definitely needs more lyrics), though I could see why they changed the lyrics. Has the music changed over time as well?

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We have the 2001 performances that share a resemblance to the leak from the Village Sessions, the leak is just missing the chorus. Then there is the Bumblefoot version, which is really guitar heavy and is similar to the version they debuted the other night,

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The Bumblefoot version of the song that leaked almost three years ago is near-identical to the version the band performed recently; for all intents and purposes, you could easily say that was the "completed" track ready for the album.  The big changes NITL added to the song:

  • Duff background vocals in the chorus
  • Slash & Fortus trading off solos during the chorus (likely replacing Robin & Bucket's respectively)
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22 hours ago, Dean said:

We have the 2001 performances that share a resemblance to the leak from the Village Sessions, the leak is just missing the chorus. Then there is the Bumblefoot version, which is really guitar heavy and is similar to the version they debuted the other night,

Am I being dumb - I don't recall a Silkworms in the Village Leaks?

EDIT - Yes I was, just went and looked :facepalm:

Edited by life_247
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On 8/5/2021 at 11:47 AM, Dean said:

We have the 2001 performances that share a resemblance to the leak from the Village Sessions, the leak is just missing the chorus. Then there is the Bumblefoot version, which is really guitar heavy and is similar to the version they debuted the other night,

It is the Bumble version, just with added Slash and Duff. I'm struggling to hear Fortus on this as other people have said, compared to how they've done it live the last two gigs

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Have got to love that - after all this history - no additional lyrics were ever recorded, or re-recorded, from the Village Sessions. All of these vox are from the earliest version of Silkworms, just rearranged a bit, and repeated.

Symptomatic of the CD sessions in general, lots of work on the music, but very little work on the vocals. Even now, 20+ years later, he never could lay down an extra verse on this track. Probably wouldn't make much a difference on this particular tack, but the lack of new vox is quite foreboding re: any future release, if any.... 

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1 hour ago, fiefer1 said:

Have got to love that - after all this history - no additional lyrics were ever recorded, or re-recorded, from the Village Sessions. All of these vox are from the earliest version of Silkworms, just rearranged a bit, and repeated.

Symptomatic of the CD sessions in general, lots of work on the music, but very little work on the vocals. Even now, 20+ years later, he never could lay down an extra verse on this track. Probably wouldn't make much a difference on this particular tack, but the lack of new vox is quite foreboding re: any future release, if any.... 

it’s called laziness.  We need to stop calling Axl a perfectionist.  He’s lazy and insecure and needed Izzy to save him from making every album shit like My World and OMG. 

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Played 4 times in 2001. HOB, RIO, LV@the joint Dec 29th and 31st. TWENTY FUCKING YEARS later it comes back out of nowhere last week (at least from a live performance stand point obviously it had leaked in various forms over the years) and then has a name change (to Absurd which is an Absurd song name) and then becomes the first official release with Slash and Duff. I would have never believed this in a million years when I heard this song live 20 years ago. 

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1 minute ago, 中国民主 said:

I always thought the chorus in the Bumblefoot version was absolutely brilliant musically. 

The chorus is built around the chords A5 and D#5, which is a dissonant chord-interval (tritone). I thought the way how "with a bitch like you" resolved into the D#5 followed by the lead-guitars was just epic. Generally, having such catchy vocal-lines over these nasty chords was an achievement on its own in my opinion.I will never understand why this chorus was replaced with the monotone yelling of the word "Absurd". But then again, who cares. Luckily, 3 versions exist (at least to my knowledge, excluding live-versions).

Apparently someone made another remix inserting 'bitch like you' line into Absurd 

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Short of re-recording all the vocals for this song, it wouldn't have sounded right for Axl to add a third verse from a different time period. The reason, supposedly, for many Chinese Democracy delays was due to the rotating lineup and Axl wanting the current members to be on the final release. So it's strange here we have the first studio release in 13 years, and there is no Frank, maybe no Melissa and Fortus. I'd love to know who exactly is playing on it, but since this is GNR, we'll probably never know. 

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Just now, GnR Chris said:

Short of re-recording all the vocals for this song, it wouldn't have sounded right for Axl to add a third verse from a different time period. The reason, supposedly, for many Chinese Democracy delays was due to the rotating lineup and Axl wanting the current members to be on the final release. So it's strange here we have the first studio release in 13 years, and there is no Frank, maybe no Melissa and Fortus. I'd love to know who exactly is playing on it, but since this is GNR, we'll probably never know. 

There are two possible line-ups for this song:

Axl - vocals 

Slash - lead & rhythm guitars

Duff - bass

Brain - drums 

Dizzy Reed & Chris Pitman - keyboards & programming 

Or

Axl - vocals

Slash - lead guitar

Richard - guitar 

Duff - Bass guitar 

Brain - drums 

Dizzy Reed & Melissa Reese - keyboards & programming 

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2 hours ago, Sosso said:

There are two possible line-ups for this song:

Axl - vocals 

Slash - lead & rhythm guitars

Duff - bass

Brain - drums 

Dizzy Reed & Chris Pitman - keyboards & programming 

Or

Axl - vocals

Slash - lead guitar

Richard - guitar 

Duff - Bass guitar 

Brain - drums 

Dizzy Reed & Melissa Reese - keyboards & programming 

+ Bucket tapping intro

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2 hours ago, Sosso said:

There are two possible line-ups for this song:

Axl - vocals 

Slash - lead & rhythm guitars

Duff - bass

Brain - drums 

Dizzy Reed & Chris Pitman - keyboards & programming 

Or

Axl - vocals

Slash - lead guitar

Richard - guitar 

Duff - Bass guitar 

Brain - drums 

Dizzy Reed & Melissa Reese - keyboards & programming 

The lineup is as follows:

  • Axl - vocals 
  • Richard -  guitars
  • Buckethead - guitars
  • Robin - guitars
  • Tommy - bass
  • Brain - drums 
  • Dizzy Reed & Chris Pitman - keyboards & programming 
  • Melissa - additional backing vox
  • Slash - guitar overdub
  • Duff - bass overdub
Edited by Pele
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2 minutes ago, Pele said:

The lineup is as follows:

  • Axl - vocals 
  • Richard -  guitars
  • Buckethead - guitars
  • Robin - guitars
  • Tommy - bass
  • Brain - drums 
  • Dizzy Reed & Chris Pitman - keyboards & programming 
  • Melissa - additional backing vox
  • Slash - guitar overdub
  • Duff - bass overdub

You forgot Robocop on synths

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13 minutes ago, Pele said:

The lineup is as follows:

  • Axl - vocals 
  • Richard -  guitars
  • Buckethead - guitars
  • Robin - guitars
  • Tommy - bass
  • Brain - drums 
  • Dizzy Reed & Chris Pitman - keyboards & programming 
  • Melissa - additional backing vox
  • Slash - guitar overdub
  • Duff - bass overdub

That's also possible but it doesnt makes sense that Brain is the only "associated musician" who has credits.

I know, logic and GNR are two different things... 

Edited by Sosso
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6 minutes ago, Sosso said:

That's also possible but it doesnt makes sense that Brain is the only "associated musician" who was credits.

I know, logic and GNR are two different things... 

I know, but neither does "written by Guns n Roses" when it was seemingly a Pittman/Reed composition.

Like I said in the other thread, I think it was thrown together in a couple of days and rushed out.  Someone said there is no song credit registration for it even. 

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2 minutes ago, Pele said:

I know, but neither does "written by Guns n Roses" when it was seemingly a Pittman/Reed composition.

Like I said in the other thread, I think it was thrown together in a couple of days and rushed out.  Someone said there is no song credit registration for it even. 

I still have the theory that Brain got credits because he has rerecorded his drum track recently. 

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1 minute ago, Sosso said:

I still have the theory that Brain got credits because he has rerecorded his drum track recently. 

Absolutely no chance!

Someone in the camp has thought "we like Brain, let's give him a credit".  Simple as that.

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The 2000 Village Sessions leak, which sounds like the HOB/Rock in Rio 3 version minus the chorus and the extra guitars from Finck, and also the acappela doesn't have the guitar part.

The 2006 leak with Bumblefoot Guitar parts.

And now Absurd.

Somewhere in between 2000 and 2001 there's a perfect version of the song (Just like it was played at rock in rio 3 or HOB), if you like the industrial first version of it, but it has never been leaked or released. 

Absurd is a pretty cool version of it though. I've been listening to it nonstop since it came out. Can't get enough of it. The fact that it's not a demo, it's full stereo and the sound quality is amazing, it really revamped the song for me!

Edited by Propaganda
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