Perhaps - New Guns N' Roses Single - Discussion

[SoulMonster]

Just now, Blackstar said:

So I guess we can conclude that HS was "Jackie Chan" (as Axl said in 2008 anyway) and it was the same song Duff and Matt were talking about, although not intended for a movie.

Most likely.

[Blackstar]

18 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Most likely.

That's also supported, in a way, by the writing credits and how the publishing is split for Hard Skool. For the songs on CD and these "new" songs, Axl's writing/publishing share seems to be a fixed ~50% for lyrics and melodies, and larger if he wrote part or most of the music.

Matt described the "Jackie Chan" song as a song Axl had suggesting that it was a song that Axl was working on mostly by himself and not with the band. According to the writing credits, Axl's share on Hard Skool is 76%, similarly to I.R.S. (75%). So it can be speculated that those two songs were written when Axl was trying to write songs on guitar.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Blackstar

[Jw224]

I don't think Bob was correct about the songs, it was that moment that set the band on the course it went. Axl was ready to mix and release the stuff.
 

[colonizedmind]

Pretty decent cover here!! Showcases the song is quality as an acoustic too! Diggin his hair too 👍🤟

 

[JasmineSwe]

5 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

Pretty decent cover here!! Showcases the song is quality as an acoustic too! Diggin his hair too 👍🤟

 

Great voice, singing in his own style, and yes, that hair style is hard to pull off but it looks so good on him!

[colonizedmind]

1 minute ago, JasmineSwe said:

Great voice, singing in his own style, and yes, that hair style is hard to pull off but it looks so good on him!

Very Adler! 👌

 

[Slugworth]

10 hours ago, Cosmo said:

And do you think Perhaps is just a chinese leftover? I mean… u really missed my point by a long shot, didn’t u? 

What's there to miss? You asked a simple question and got an answer.

 

If you don't like answers, don't ask questions.

[Cosmo]

1 hour ago, Slugworth said:

What's there to miss? You asked a simple question and got an answer.

 

If you don't like answers, don't ask questions.

You never answered the question I made, thats the whole point 😂

[body]

It's been a week since the release, after the first listen I reacted with "WTF is this" strange mix, weak guitars, boring vocals and a track that goes nowhere. After a few days I started to like it and now I love it. At the moment one of my favorite tracks for gym and driving.

[drlaban]

20 minutes ago, body said:

It's been a week since the release, after the first listen I reacted with "WTF is this" strange mix, weak guitars, boring vocals and a track that goes nowhere. After a few days I started to like it and now I love it. At the moment one of my favorite tracks for gym and driving.

That radio station premiering the song had really bad sound/compression. After listening to the YouTube video a few times and Spotify maybe 40-50 times it has grown to be really good. Make sure to set your equaliser so that you hear the “harbouring this hate for days” line, it’s perhaps slightly too low in the mix. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by drlaban

[Voodoochild]

10 hours ago, Blackstar said:

That's also supported, in a way, by the writing credits and how the publishing is split for Hard Skool. For the songs on CD and these "new" songs, Axl's writing/publishing share seems to be a fixed ~50% for lyrics and melodies, and larger if he wrote part or most of the music.

Matt described the "Jackie Chan" song as a song Axl had suggesting that it was a song that Axl was working on mostly by himself and not with the band. According to the writing credits, Axl's share on Hard Skool is 76%, similarly to I.R.S. (75%). So it can be speculated that those two songs were written when Axl was trying to write songs on guitar.

Didn’t know that about IRS. It’s interesting because I’ve always felt the guitar intro was weird in tone and style. In fact, there’s clearly two different clean guitar tones on that intro, on the album version which I thought it was Robin and Paul Tobias. The demos from 1999 to 2006 all had just one of those guitars for the whole intro. Maybe that’s Axl playing? 

[The Matinator]

11 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

We don't.

But Slash said something which could be interpreted that Hard Skool was the oldest of the bunch and that the other forthcoming singles were newer. So if Hard Skool dates back to 1997 or earlier, when Slash, Duff and Matt were in the band, Perhaps should be newer. 

Btw, it is not proven that Hard Skool is as old as having started in 1996, but I was later informed - by a "source close to the band" - that the 1996 song that the band worked on, and which Duff and Matt talked about, was actually never intended for a Jackie Chan movie. That was a misunderstanding

Obviously we don’t know 100%, but I’m fairly certain Hardskool was from the 1994-96 sessions & was carried over to CD. Not only because of Slash’s comments but also Josh stating he had no memory of it, which probably means he wasn’t too involved with the creation. Also, Tommy also said in a recent interview that he didn’t remember the song much either & that  it could have been a song by the old band but he wasn’t sure.

[Slugworth]

3 hours ago, Cosmo said:

You never answered the question I made, thats the whole point 😂

The answers are in that post. I didn't know it needed to be spelled out for you.

 

I'm now losing brain cells during this exchange. Just pretend I never responded to your post and for the love of God, don't respond to this one.

[Lies They Tell]

Gotta say that GNR are doing things right with this release. When you look at people's reactions on Youtube most people seem to really like the song. I guess this is the kind of a song that most GNR fans can enjoy. It has piano, so November Rain fanboys can dig it, but it's not too soft, so even the edgier GNR fans can find something to enjoy about it. It has a little bit of something for everyone. It was probably a good idea to release the first proper GNR music video with a song like this, that most people can enjoy. The fact that the song has a proper music video makes a huge difference. Many people don't want to make reaction videos to songs that don't have a video. And in today's day and age these reaction videos are a very good way to get free advertisement for your songs.

The reception for this song has been much more positive than I expected. I was afraid that people would think it's too safe and bland. But it seems like this is exactly what many people wanted from a new GNR song. So it's a good pick for a single. If The General had been the first single with a proper music video, it might be a bit too dark and angry for the mainstream audience. Even if The General will most likely end up being the song that I prefer out of these two songs.

[Blackstar]

2 hours ago, Voodoochild said:

Didn’t know that about IRS. It’s interesting because I’ve always felt the guitar intro was weird in tone and style. In fact, there’s clearly two different clean guitar tones on that intro, on the album version which I thought it was Robin and Paul Tobias. The demos from 1999 to 2006 all had just one of those guitars for the whole intro. Maybe that’s Axl playing? 

Axl is not credited for playing guitar on the album version though, is he?

[Voodoochild]

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

Axl is not credited for playing guitar on the album version though, is he?

I was hoping you would know because I honestly don’t remember lol. I think not. As far as I remember, only Madagascar and TWAT had his guitar?

[Blackstar]

1 minute ago, Voodoochild said:

I was hoping you would know because I honestly don’t remember lol. I think not. As far as I remember, only Madagascar and TWAT had his guitar?

I actually looked in the liner notes. Yes, he has credit for playing guitar on TWAT and Madagascar, but not on I.R.S.

*

On an unrelated note, reading the liner notes I realized that Marco Beltrami has contributed orchestration on TWAT, Prostitute, Madagascar, Street Of Dreams and This I Love, in addition to Paul Buckmaster (or, rather, the main orchestral arrangement was by Betrami and there was additional orchestration by Buckmaster). We know that both Beltrami and Buckmaster worked on tracks in 2002, but Beltrami only mentioned the four yet unreleased songs (The General, Seven, Leave Me Alone/Soul Monster and Thyme). So I wonder if he worked on the CD tracks at that same time in 2002 or later, and if it was the former, why he didn't mention them.

[Blackstar]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned/discussed already, but at some point (probably a day after release) the credits in the description of the auto-generated youtube video were updated with additional information about the mixing and mastering:

So it was mixed by Joe Barresi and not by Caram. I looked up Joe Barresi and he has a lot of credentials.

And mastered by Bob Ludwig, who had mastered CD. Interestingly, Bob Ludwig announced his retirement a couple of months ago:

https://www.gatewaymastering.com/

So Perhaps (and I suppose The General - and possibly more tracks?) were probably one of the last projects he worked on.

[Lethalis]

6 hours ago, Lies They Tell said:

If The General had been the first single with a proper music video, it might be a bit too dark and angry for the mainstream audience. Even if The General will most likely end up being the song that I prefer out of these two songs.

We have no idea how the whole song sounds, do we? When you pick 30 seconds of Perhaps as a preview you can make it sound dark and heavy, but also like a piano ballad.

Most of us have heard the cell phone clip and a concert intro with some orchestra, but we don't know how the rest of song the sounds.

It might not be as dark as we expect it to be.

Brain called it "a cool jam"

Edited August 26, 2023 by Lethalis

[Towelie]

18 hours ago, colonizedmind said:

Pretty decent cover here!! Showcases the song is quality as an acoustic too! Diggin his hair too 👍🤟

 

If only Axl sounded that good on the chorus!

[Lies They Tell]

2 hours ago, Lethalis said:

We have no idea how the whole song sounds, do we? When you pick 30 seconds of Perhaps as a preview you can make it sound dark and heavy, but also like a piano ballad.

Most of us have heard the cell phone clip and a concert intro with some orchestra, but we don't know how the rest of song the sounds.

It might not be as dark as we expect it to be.

Brain called it "a cool jam"

I guess it's possible that there are brighter parts in the song. But based on everything that we've heard so far, it's hard to imagine that the song would change tone so drastically all of a sudden. The dark orchestra seems to be a pretty essential part of the song that most likely can be heard thoughout the song on the background layer. Kinda like the piano on Perhaps. Anything is possible, but my bet is that The General is a pretty dark song.

[pbj_jam]

hipster fantano was very negative about the song, shocker.. Guess the song sucks now

Edited August 26, 2023 by pbj_jam

[Cosmo]

9 hours ago, Slugworth said:

The answers are in that post. I didn't know it needed to be spelled out for you.

 

I'm now losing brain cells during this exchange. Just pretend I never responded to your post and for the love of God, don't respond to this one.

Yeah lets stop, you obviously need those brain cells 😂

[Gaanzer]

2 hours ago, Towelie said:

If only Axl sounded that good on the chorus!

This makes it apparent that there is a decent song there. Great cover and voice.

[Towelie]

7 minutes ago, Gaanzer said:

This makes it apparent that there is a decent song there. Great cover and voice.

Weirdly he doesn't seem to be able to pull off the verses that well, there's something really awkward about the "hay hey"s which both this dude and Axl struggle with live. It sounds good on the record to me, but doesn't seem to translate well outside of a studio recording. But the cover guy does a stellar job on the chorus, much better than Axl does.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Towelie