THE GENERAL - MONSTERS - Official Discussion Thread. NO LINKS OR ASKING FOR LINKS

[Crazyman]

4 hours ago, Fozzie Bear said:

This song is total garbage. Played it for a room full of people and they all hated it. Trash that never should have been recorded. 

Genius move to play a song about child abuse in front of a bunch of people and assume they'd be totally into it.

Chess, not checkers folks!

[Blackstar]

7 minutes ago, uzi your illusion said:

I read this comment quite a bit, but who's to say that these songs are about Stephanie? He could have had plenty of other relationships through the years that weren't public, that also could have ended badly. 

True, he could have had other relationships. However, I think it's highly unlikely that there were relationships that affected him as deeply as the ones with Erin and Stephanie. And even in the interview he did with Rolling Stone in late 1999, he basically implied that a lot of the album would be about Stephanie when he said that he hoped Dylan would listen to the it one day.

[GnR Chris]

We should stop thinking in terms of “this one isn’t hit” or “this one is radio friendly.” It’s largely pointless. For me it just comes down to, do you like the song or not.
 

New Guns music doesn’t really get played on the radio regardless. If they wrote “Sweet Child O’ Mine” today, the radio would play it a couple times then go back to the classics. 

[pbj_jam]

The orchestral part is dearly missed behind the wall of sound or has been chopped outright, makes the pace and dynamics jumpy that could've been a slow grind build up much better. Specifically the what I like to describe as fingers running down your spine part in the orchestral, those short single note thingys, anyway its or they are a banger..

[rocknroll41]

2 hours ago, Asdiz said:

As someone raising two little kids and not able to keep up w gnr to the degree that I’d like - I cannot follow this thread. When is the general and monsters coming out to streaming? I don’t care to go find leaks, I want to hear the official version. 

As of now, the song(s) is not expected to be on streaming. Just a vinyl release coming December 8th. But hopefully that changes.

[Blackstar]

The "You stole my soul with the devil's romancing" line in Monsters reminded me of this quote about This I Love:

Axl: The person I wrote that song [=This I Love] for said, "Thank you for the gift of your soul." Well, it took a while, but I got that fucker back. [Telia Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 27, 2017]

 

[rocknroll41]

6 minutes ago, GnR Chris said:

We should stop thinking in terms of “this one isn’t hit” or “this one is radio friendly.” It’s largely pointless. For me it just comes down to, do you like the song or not.
 

New Guns music doesn’t really get played on the radio regardless. If they wrote “Sweet Child O’ Mine” today, the radio would play it a couple times then go back to the classics. 

Sorry, but I’m gonna have to disagree. Songs like SCOM and November Rain would get tons of airplay and clicks if they were released today. Just look at what The Stones were able to pull off with Angry.

[uzi your illusion]

4 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

True, he could have had other relationships. However, I think it's highly unlikely that there were relationships that affected him as deeply as the ones with Erin and Stephanie. And even in the interview he did with Rolling Stone in late 1999, he basically implied that a lot of the album would be about Stephanie when he said that he hoped Dylan would listen to the it one day.

Yea I think that's right that a lot of it could be about her. I just recently re-read the chats he did here and he speaks a lot about how most of his songs are only partially influenced by sole individuals, and how even if they sparked an idea for a line, they maybe aren't the basis for the rest of the song. So I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I guess a part of me just really hates to think of him as this guy who was still really fucked up almost a decade after the relationship ended, totally spent emotionally, and holed up in Malibu staring off into the ocean at all hours of the night. Most people have terrible breakups once or twice, and I can buy into him feeling things differently and more so than most. But it just bums me out to think he maybe never was able to move past it.

 

By the way, if you haven't listened to these songs on headphones, you're doing yourself a massive disservice.

[Free Bird]

2 hours ago, jacdaniel said:

Buckethead is not on these songs at all. That's 100% Slash. 

It's funny, isn't it? All these comments about Slash ain't able to deliver anymore and everybody wants Bucket instead... and now they can't even keep apart their playing 

[default_]

been listening to these songs the whole morning and cant really understand why havent they hired a professional engineer to handle the mix and mastering. The songs are amazing but they end up being really painful to listen to, theres no clarity in anything at all… Its like someone is trying and failing hard to be Phil Spector.

[kitstuai]

Just now, default_ said:

been listening to these songs the whole morning and cant really understand why havent they hired a professional engineer to handle the mix and mastering. The songs are amazing but they end up being really painful to listen to, theres no clarity in anything at all… Its like someone is trying and failing hard to be Phil Spector.

Because those songs are demos versions..

[hpantazo]

2 minutes ago, default_ said:

been listening to these songs the whole morning and cant really understand why havent they hired a professional engineer to handle the mix and mastering. The songs are amazing but they end up being really painful to listen to, theres no clarity in anything at all… Its like someone is trying and failing hard to be Phil Spector.

Well, these are not the final mixes though. 

[default_]

2 minutes ago, kitstuai said:

Because those songs are demos versions..

Nah… it happened to the other released songs too. 
 

Maybe its time to get rid of Caram lol

Edited October 29, 2023 by default_

[Blackstar]

3 minutes ago, default_ said:

Nah… it happened to the other released songs too. 
 

Maybe its time to get rid of Caram lol

Perhaps was not mixed by Caram, so it's safe to say that these have not been mixed by him either, so maybe they have actually gotten rid of him.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Blackstar

[DSTK]

18 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

Sorry, but I’m gonna have to disagree. Songs like SCOM and November Rain would get tons of airplay and clicks if they were released today. Just look at what The Stones were able to pull off with Angry.

The difference is, Angry is the 1st half decent stones song since 1981 & more pressure, bigger band 

[Cosmo]

4 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Perhaps was not mixed by Caram, so it's safe to say that these have not been mixed by him either, so maybe they have actually gotten rid of him.

I’m always impressed about how you’re like the freaking GnR oracle, Blackstar 😂

[Jw224]

Perhaps still sounded bad. The master wasn't overly compressed so it seems to have been messed up in the mixing stages. I don't expect the final release to sound much better than these leaks, tbh. 

[Cosmo]

Just now, Jw224 said:

Perhaps still sounded bad. The master wasn't overly compressed so it seems to have been messed up in the mixing stages. I don't expect the final release to sound much better than these leaks, tbh. 

That’s what I was saying the other day. My band has 5K as the entire budgey per album, and our last two album’s mixes are about in the same level as Perhaps, Hard Skool and Absurd. These dudes are not knowing how to spend their money properly.

[jeffreysh68]

Has anyone listened to "Monsters” at 1.25x playback speed, it’s much better in my opinion 

[kozydogg]

There is no chance Monsters is the same as Me & My Elvis/Soul Monster from the village leaks.  That instrumental sounds nothing like Monsters, not even elements of it, not to mention, it's already structured as a complete song idea.  The only thing it needs are the vocals. 

I'm willing to bet that if Soul Monster ever gets released, the instrumental will be almost identical to the village leaks...kind of like how 3 Dollar Pyramid was virtually unchanged from the final Better.

[rumandraisin]

There's so many bloody layers to these, everything you play it on sounds different. I'm just trying to study it going between speakers, a Bluetooth speaker and headphones. 

1 minute ago, kozydogg said:

There is no chance Monsters is the same as Me & My Elvis/Soul Monster from the village leaks.  That instrumental sounds nothing like Monsters, not even elements of it, not to mention, it's already structured as a complete song idea.  The only thing it needs are the vocals. 

I'm willing to bet that if Soul Monster ever gets released, the instrumental will be almost identical to the village leaks...kind of like how 3 Dollar Pyramid was virtually unchanged from the final Better.

Yeah but it's only the word 'elvis' making people think that. 

Edited October 29, 2023 by rumandraisin

[GnR Chris]

2 hours ago, Underhardy said:

He’s 100% switching between singing words and just the Melodies at the end of The General and I can’t imagine that’s what Axl wanted the final outcome to be. Just like how he eventually found the right words to end Street of Dreams.

“State of Grace” sounded like placeholder harmonizing at the end. But “The General” honestly sounds intentional to me. It doesn’t sound like it was temporary till Axl came up with words. I really feel like he wanted his words to melt and blend into the guitar. I think it was Slash who once famously said Axl’s voice was like an instrument unto itself. That’s my favorite part of “The General,” the way it almost becomes indecipherable if it’s Slash’s guitar, or Axl’s distorted high-pitch wail or both. It’s fuckin’ badass to me. 
 

We definitely know Axl liked experimenting with harmonizing in this era. See: “Scraped” intro.

[rumandraisin]

14 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Perhaps was not mixed by Caram, so it's safe to say that these have not been mixed by him either, so maybe they have actually gotten rid of him.

I thought Caram was on Perhaps though. Digital effects or something typically Chinese Democracy ish

[Blackstar]

4 minutes ago, kozydogg said:

There is no chance Monsters is the same as Me & My Elvis/Soul Monster from the village leaks.  That instrumental sounds nothing like Monsters, not even elements of it, not to mention, it's already structured as a complete song idea.  The only thing it needs are the vocals. 

I'm willing to bet that if Soul Monster ever gets released, the instrumental will be almost identical to the village leaks...kind of like how 3 Dollar Pyramid was virtually unchanged from the final Better.

But it was never confirmed that Me and My Elvis was Soul Monster. That was just a conclusion that fans jumped into because of "Elvis" in the title.

Just now, rumandraisin said:

I thought Caram was on Perhaps though. Digital effects or something typically Chinese Democracy ish

He was the co-producer (alongside with Axl), but not the mixer. According to the official credits, Perhaps was mixed by Joe Barresi.

[GnR Chris]

37 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

Sorry, but I’m gonna have to disagree. Songs like SCOM and November Rain would get tons of airplay and clicks if they were released today. Just look at what The Stones were able to pull off with Angry.

You could be right. I listened to a little bit of the new Stones and then forgot all about it. I’ll probably never listen again though. LOL. That’s how I imagine most people consume music from legacy acts. Although the Stones are on a different level than GNR. I just checked the song you mentioned. Good goddamn. 20 mil on YouTube. 
 

EDIT: Just listened to “Angry.” I … I think it’s not very good. Kinda boring. At least on first listen. I’m curious how many “classic rock” stations will spin this song a year from now. That’s my point I guess. They seem to play new songs a couple times then go back to the same rotation of hits from yesteryear. Chicago I don’t think even has a “current” rock station. 

Edited October 29, 2023 by GnR Chris