What happened to Slash's guitar playing?

[Sosso]

I just saw the guitar solo part for Street of Dreams. It would have been so easy for Slash to stay close to the original. 

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Sosso

[Mindray11]

Yeah, that was sad.

[Gordon Comstock]

He's RAWK N ROLL, DUDE.... He plays what he FEELS! He's a LEGEND that can do no wrong!!

 

Seriously though, he should have sounded great on solos like that, and This I Love, and Sorry... but he just doesn't care about learning the CD solos so he "improvises" and it sounds like shit. Was anyone really expecting him to play SOD accurately?

[Sosso]

Just now, Gordon Comstock said:

He's RAWK N ROLL, DUDE.... He plays what he FEELS! He's a LEGEND that can do no wrong!!

 

Seriously though, he should have sounded great on solos like that, and This I Love, and Sorry... but he just doesn't care about learning the CD solos so he "improvises" and it sounds like shit. Was anyone really expecting him to play SOD accurately?

The start of his solo actually sounded good but then he proceeded into improvising mode

[EvanG]

Slash isn’t as technical as a player like those nu-GnR guys, so he can’t play them exactly note for note even if he wanted to. For example, Slash can’t sweep pick. At least I’ve never seen him do so.

[Sosso]

4 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Slash isn’t as technical as a player like those nu-GnR guys, so he can’t play them exactly note for note even if he wanted to. For example, Slash can’t sweep pick. At least I’ve never seen him do so.

I get that for the solo on TWAT and Prostitute. The Street of Dreams solo , however, involves a lot of bending and is not that hard to play. 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Sosso

[alfierose]

He knows that SOD is about him and this is his revenge. 

[Jw224]

He's been like this the entire tour. Up until like a year ago he routinely totally messed up his own solos as well. 

[EvanG]

Just now, Sosso said:

I get that for the solo on TWAT and Prostitute. The Street of Dreams solo , however, involves a lot of bending and is not that hard play. 

I should listen to the song. Don’t remember the solo that well. But even if he can learn to play it note for note, I don’t think that’s his style. He’s all about feel.

[SAU3R]

12 minutes ago, EvanG said:

He’s all about feel.

Didn’t sound like it on SOD 

[Sosso]

18 minutes ago, EvanG said:

I should listen to the song. Don’t remember the solo that well. But even if he can learn to play it note for note, I don’t think that’s his style. He’s all about feel.

I just can't believe that someone who wrote the solos for November Rain and Estranged can fuck up Street of Dreams. 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Sosso

[Beto 22]

I miss Robin Finck

But since 2016 this isnt a surprise.

 

It just got worse. The good thing is Fortus picking up halfway through the solo.

 

[Sosso]

5 minutes ago, Beto 22 said:

I miss Robin Finck

But since 2016 this isnt a surprise.

 

It just got worse. The good thing is Fortus picking up halfway through the solo.

 

Robin was great back in 06/07! He had a lot of energy back then. 

[WhazUp]

I think Slash just sometimes can fall into the trap many guitarists can fall into where the excitement of playing live takes over and you just feel like playing really fast runs lol

I think even Slash is at the very least somewhat self-aware of that temptation based on this GuitarWorld interview:

“When I play fast, it really is an energy thing. I would actually like to tone it back sometimes, especially when I'm doing solos live, but I get so taken away.

[AxlRoseCDII]

The Street of Dreams solo from Slash was complete dogshit. Completely shat on the CD Guitarists. If you don’t want to practice it just have Fortus do it. Sounded like a kid trying to stay in key and improvise in a high school garage band. Axl didn’t even sound that different from 2011/2012, think he was fine.

[GNR 1991]

They finally played my favorite CD track with Slash n Duff. Axl sounds shaky but still pretty good on it after all these years. He was too slow on some of the verses though. Slash sucked ass on The Blues solo and Fortus saved the day there. Either way, hopefully either Slash improves this solo going forward or just let Rich take over the entire solo.
 

Are there any high quality pics of Axl wearing the 2006 cutoff shirt? That’s his best look in over a decade at this point.

[31illusions]

That wasn't good. I can only assume Slash doesn't like the song and wanted to pump up the solo. As I recall he said something similar about SCOM. He hated it and the only saving grace was the solo.

[megaguns1982]

I really don’t think slash cares anymore. I can’t blame him really.l if that’s the case.
I’d be embarrassed to take the stage with Axl sounding like shit night after night. 
I just wish they’d call it a day and become a studio band, at least theyd get to make it perfect in pro tools and I really believe that they can release something relevant and new that they can be proud of and go out on a high.

- then a AfD5 farewell tour

Edited June 19, 2022 by megaguns1982

[axlfan88]

Slash's guitar is pretty much the only good thing about current GNR. He's the main man on stage, he's carrying the whole show on his back.

[Gunner Gilby]

I agree it's great having Slash back in the band. I disagree that he's the only good thing about the band. Richard's guitar playing compliments Slash's nicely and he's equally good on lead too. Duff is a criminally underrated bassist and his playing is always solid. Dizzy's cool too. He keys playing is always great. And the rest of the time he adds percussion just provides solid back up. I don't get the hate Frank gets either. His drumming is a good mix of Steven's groove and Matt's technicality. I'm not entirely sure what Melissa adds but she's better looking than Shitman. 

Some make a big deal of Axl's vocal issues on some songs. FFS he's 60. For the most part he sounds great. It's obvious he's made a real effort to lose weight and looks in pretty good shape. He's behaving himself and going on stage on time. And he's still a brilliant front man.

I enjoy every aspect of seeing the band live. Guns were meant to come to NZ last year but couldn't due to covid. I can't wait to see them when they finally come in December.

[jacdaniel]

The funny thing about Slash is that he can still play with a lot of feel as you can hear on his studio albums. He's wrote some great solos. 

I think the problem is a combination of things. The band dont really have chemistry, the set list is stale and it's easy to go through the motions, he doesn't seem to care much for the CD songs understandably.

I personally hate Richards playing. He sounds terrible on songs like Nightrain, Don't Cry and RQ at least. 

[Bitchisback]

I guess I never understood the want that everyone has to hear the songs exactly as they appear on the album, or as close as possible.  One of the best parts about live music to me is hearing how the band has changed and interprets the songs that are 20, 30 years old.

 

I don't think Slash's solo on SoD was one of the best he had ever done but hearing Slash play a new solo is exciting to me.  If I wanted to hear it played exactly as it's played on the album I would listen to the album.

 

Same with Axl.  His vocals might not be what they used to be. But I would rather see him give it his all and hear him sing live rather than lip sync (ala kiss) just to have the songs sound like 30 years ago

 

These guys are are all going into their 60s and playing 3 hour shows.  They are giving it their all and even if their all night not be what it was 30 years ago I still appreciate seeing it live.  Seems like few bands really do that anymore.

 

 

 

[Rovim]

sometimes Slash improvises and shreds in a live setting when a more defined and slower playing could have served the song better. I think sometimes it's because he doesn't have a specific and thought out idea in mind for how to fill the solo space in a song and other times it's cause he's simply excited to play live and the energy of it speeds everything up and it could be messy with too many notes, sometimes maybe both.

a common problem among many guitar players but imo it's not specifically about SOD or CD tunes, an inspiration problem as Slash approaches it in the same way with the Conspirators live and even for his latest album, 4, the solos sound improvised and once the band supported it with a tour and Slash had the chance to live with the material a little bit, it improved I think so it's kinda expected of Slash to prefer to figure it out in the moment mostly instead of sitting down by himself and trying to cover a solo 1:1 or come up with a more planned out melody cause he's been playing like that for a long time now.

not every solo is perfect like in the past, but realistically, for the most part at least I don't expect Slash to sit down and invest time and effort in figuring out how to play solos by other people or sometimes even guitar parts. Slash has admitted he doesn't even know what the players before him did on Madagascar so he's just not that type of player and as Izzy said, he was always a noodler, now he's an older and sober noodler so it's maybe even more pronounced.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Rovim

[jacdaniel]

I'm not sure how much the band actually even rehearse together. They tried Dead Horse a few times and it was just tragic. Had to be dropped. 

The alt type songs seem more prone to improv.

[MaskingApathy]

2 hours ago, axlfan88 said:

Slash's guitar is pretty much the only good thing about current GNR. He's the main man on stage, he's carrying the whole show on his back.

Yup pretty much