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


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I think CD as a whole sort of reinforces that Axl isn’t much for a “songwriter” in the traditional sense (Dylan, Waits, etc.) There are a lot of songs with repeating verses, inaudible lyrics, and that more or less just sound cool and don’t go anywhere. He can write the hell out of a song though in terms of melodies and vocal notes. He’s a rock singer above all else. I almost feel his intentions are to use his vocals like an instrument vs creating lyrical masterpieces. 
 

that being said, Monsters certainly does deliver on all fronts. It’s some of his best work in terms of writing and vocal performance. It’s pretty impressive a guy can go from writing a song like Shotgun Blues to Monsters within 10-15 years. 

Edited by bumbleslash69
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20 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

I thought that the Monsters as a hidden track theory was rather unlikely, but upon further review I think it's quite possible.

Maybe, as someone said earlier (sorry for not tagging - I forgot the username) Axl wanted it to be a cool surprise gift for the fans, but the writing credits on SESAC and then the leak ruined it for him, lol.

 

I wouldn’t say it’s ruined. We’re all happy as fuck

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38 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

I thought that the Monsters as a hidden track theory was rather unlikely, but upon further review I think it's quite possible.

Maybe, as someone said earlier (sorry for not tagging - I forgot the username) Axl wanted it to be a cool surprise gift for the fans, but the writing credits on SESAC and then the leak ruined it for him, lol.

 

Seems plausible. 

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12 minutes ago, bumbleslash69 said:

I think CD as a whole sort of reinforces that Axl isn’t much for a “songwriter” in the traditional sense (Dylan, Waits, etc.) There are a lot of songs with repeating verses, inaudible lyrics, and that more or less just sound cool and don’t go anywhere. He can write the hell out of a song though in terms of melodies and vocal notes. He’s a rock singer above all else. I almost feel his intentions are to use his vocals like an instrument vs creating lyrical masterpieces. 
 

that being said, Monsters certainly does deliver on all fronts. It’s some of his best work in terms of writing and vocal performance. It’s pretty impressive a guy can go from writing a song like Shotgun Blues to Monsters within 10-15 years. 

I agree big on the lyrical side, if only he did too and focused on making the best with what he has, know your place and reign it in. Instead he tries awfully hard to be profound but ends up worse instead. I still think he could write good/enjoyable lyric, instead it was a struggle and only pain, hence we get overload of seymour drivel.

Think I wrote earlier back he only writes from experience, would indicate he stopped late naughts there were no more sad thoughts and experiences, not a slight on his person btw, but he's been done musically a long time.

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26 minutes ago, Amir said:

Thanks @D.. for emailing Marco. It's interesting that when he was interviewed in 2003 he talked about working on Seven, Thyme, Leave Me Alone/Soul Monster/Monsters, and The General, none of which appeared on ChiDem; but by the time of the release of the album he had also been brought in to work on SoD, TWAT, Madagascar, TIL, and Prostitute, all of which (with the possible exception of TIL in its final form) already had demos by 2000. So I guess that's actually 9 songs he worked on, unless Thyme was never really a song and more of an instrumental intro.

No problem. Yes it could be 9, he said 8 but that was so long ago he may not be 100% precise.

That said, I don't hear Beltrami's signature sound for the CD era in the Thyme version we've heard, it doesn't sound like anything else he's touched on CD & General/Monsters, so maybe he doesn't count that one. Or maybe he forgot and there's another version of Thyme that sounds more like him.

I'm really hyped for Seven, apparently it's the best one. It will be hard to beat Monsters, it's becoming my favorite out of all CD songs. On par with TWAT at least, I just love the mean section, it's crazy I've listened to it countless times, can't get bored.

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30 minutes ago, ZoSoRose said:

I wouldn’t say it’s ruined. We’re all happy as fuck

Blackstar says “ruined for him”, and it most definitely did, I can’t imagine the band and TB aren’t fuming at the ears over this leak.

Edited by AxlRoseCDII
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1 minute ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

Blackstar says “ruined for him”, and it most definitely did, I can’t imagine the band and TB aren’t fuming at the ears over this leak.

Oh yeah that’s true. Either way, I’d say most of the hardcore base is thrilled by this past week and are overall pretty positive on the songs

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13 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

Blackstar says “ruined for him”, and it most definitely did, I can’t imagine the band and TB aren’t fuming at the ears over this leak.

It's not like everyone wouldn't have known once the first person got their record. The surprise was ruined (or more like stolen thunder) but it's not people wouldn't have known prior to spinning their own record once received (assuming that was the plan)

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25 minutes ago, pbj_jam said:

I agree big on the lyrical side, if only he did too and focused on making the best with what he has, know your place and reign it in. Instead he tries awfully hard to be profound but ends up worse instead. I still think he could write good/enjoyable lyric, instead it was a struggle and only pain, hence we get overload of seymour drivel.

Think I wrote earlier back he only writes from experience, would indicate he stopped late naughts there were no more sad thoughts and experiences, not a slight on his person btw, but he's been done musically a long time.

Couldn't disagree more. Love the lyrics on Perhaps, TG, and Monsters. I think Mike Patton is much more into using his lyrics, which are often nonsensical as just an extra sound rather than any way of communicating anything. I'm a huge FNM fan for the record.

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28 minutes ago, D.. said:

No problem. Yes it could be 9, he said 8 but that was so long ago he may not be 100% precise.

That said, I don't hear Beltrami's signature sound for the CD era in the Thyme version we've heard, it doesn't sound like anything else he's touched on CD & General/Monsters, so maybe he doesn't count that one. Or maybe he forgot and there's another version of Thyme that sounds more like him.

I'm really hyped for Seven, apparently it's the best one. It will be hard to beat Monsters, it's becoming my favorite out of all CD songs. On par with TWAT at least, I just love the mean section, it's crazy I've listened to it countless times, can't get bored.

The Thyme version from the Village leaks is from 2000, Beltrami worked on the tracks in 2002.

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1 minute ago, Coma16 said:

It's not like everyone wouldn't have known once the first person got their record. The surprise was ruined (or more like stolen thunder) but it's not people wouldn't have known prior to spinning their own record once received (assuming that was the plan)

True, but I guess they knew that once the first person received their 7-inch it would be ripped and shared. But until that point it would be a surprise.

Imagine if you spinned your record without knowing anything, The (real) General started playing and you're like "Wtf is this, where's the phone clip" and then another track started playing that is the one from the phone clip. And then the tracks get shared and there's speculation what the other song is etc. They probably were thinking it like that and laughing at the potential reactions.

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4 hours ago, Gunnerfan_rus said:

I've just made calculations using Wiki as source (but some lengths there are a little different compared to numbers on physical releases, so it could be +/- some seconds) and if we take all studio albums (AfD, Lies, Illusions, Spaghetti & CD) + Sympathy for the Devil from GH + 4 latest singles (Shadow, Absurd, Hard Skool & Perhaps) then the average GNR song length is 4:36!

If we don't count Spaghetti then it's 4:48 and if we don't count any covers at all (aka original material only) it's 4:49.

And if we don't count My World it's even 3 seconds more - 4:52 :D

Thank you for further proving me right, as expected

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55 minutes ago, bumbleslash69 said:

 It’s pretty impressive a guy can go from writing a song like Shotgun Blues to Monsters within 10-15 years. 

I really like Monsters, but 10-15 years is a shitload of time. A lot of classic bands and artists that showed great diversity wrote, recorded and released their whole catalogue in less time than that. In fact, I wouldn't say Axl's output is very impressive in, er, calendar-terms, if you know what I mean.

That being said, I love how he goes from that hiccupy "oh, oh" thing at the start to that extreme part later on, it's certainly a very quirky and original vocal.

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4 minutes ago, jafeijo said:

Sorry if already been asked, but is Slash on TG? Only noticed his parts on Monsters.

and down the rabbit hole we go.... 🤣  

Lots of speculation about that one, largely assumed that is him on Monsters but debate exists on TG because it appears to be less certain that it's the final version. 

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9 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

True, but I guess they knew that once the first person received their 7-inch it would be ripped and shared. But until that point it would be a surprise.

Imagine if you spinned your record without knowing anything, The (real) General started playing and you're like "Wtf is this, where's the phone clip" and then another track started playing that is the one from the phone clip. And then the tracks get shared and there's speculation what the other song is etc. They probably were thinking it like that and laughing at the potential reactions.

But minus the vinyl, isn't that (almost) exactly what happened?

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The last two min of monsters is incredible. Whenever I listen to it, it's so compelling to me. It brings forward emotions of nostalgia. Like most things that fit when these two shitheads get their shit together they make music that is indistinguishable from magic. Pure alchemy. Sorcery. The last two minutes of monsters is emotional sorcery.

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12 minutes ago, ShadowOfTheWave said:

The Thyme version from the Village leaks is from 2000, Beltrami worked on the tracks in 2002.

The vocals were recorded in 1999 :P 

Just now, you know who said:

The last two min of monsters is incredible. Whenever I listen to it, it's so compelling to me. It brings forward emotions of nostalgia. Like most things that fit when these two shitheads get their shit together they make music that is indistinguishable from magic. Pure alchemy. Sorcery. The last two minutes of monsters is emotional sorcery.

Just imagine how the Buckethead/Robin version sounded. 

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2 minutes ago, Coma16 said:

But minus the vinyl, isn't that (almost) exactly what happened?

Not exactly the same, because we had the credits already, and then there was the leak and we had the title of the second track. But if the credits weren't published yet and Monsters was an uncredited hidden track, the surprise factor would be much bigger.

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