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Article in Todays Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach)


mimnaugh

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I wish she would have mentioned the CD should be out this year, but at least its something.

Leslie's appreciation of all things Guns N' Roses

By Leslie Gray Streeter

Palm Beach Post Music Writer

Friday, October 20, 2006

The version of celebrated rock hooligan collective Guns N' Roses coming to BankAtlantic Center on Tuesday is a very different group from the one we came to know in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For starters, GN'R's rotating colorful cast of musically and chemically gifted players like Slash, Duff McKagan, Gilby Clarke and others has changed, leaving lead singer Axl Rose the sole original member.

But that's cool. If it's hard to imagine hits like Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O' Mine, Patience and November Rain without Slash and the other original players, it's impossible without all the integral ingredients Axl brings to the table. There's his snarly-raspy vocal delivery, his Davy Jones-esque moves, and the fact that, if his behavior over the past two decades is an accurate indication — the drunken brawls, controversial lyrics and questionable use of dreadlocks — he's a walking Nutty Buddy. With extra nuts. (Seriously, dude... you hired a guitarist named Buckethead?)

Then again, what fun is a well-adjusted rock star? Behold a brief timeline of the madness of King Axl. Long may his red dreadlocks reign.

1985: W. Axl Rose (born William Bailey) forms Guns N' Roses with guitarist Tracii Guns, combining their bands Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. (Rejected names reportedly include Heads of Amazon and AIDS). Guns doesn't last long, leaving Axl the only namesake, and therefore really hard to ever get rid of.

July 1987: GN'R releases their major label debut, Appetite For Destruction. The original cover art, featuring a robot rapist, comes under fire from religious groups and retailers and was replaced — by a drawing of the band members as skeletons positioned on a cross taken from one of Axl's tattoos.

1988: Here he comes, dancing down your street: For the video for Patience, Axl borrows a signature move from an unlikely source — the Daydream Believer shuffle of criminally cute Monkee Davy Jones. This is surprisingly hot.

November 1988: GN'R Lies is released, featuring, among other songs, the Axl composition One in a Million, with derogatory references to gays and blacks. Axl's many goofy explanations is that the song is not only not racist, but a realistic tool at understanding the realities of racism. As of press time, the Nobel Peace Prize committee has yet to call.

July 1991: Axl shows his smooth way with the crowd in two different shows, threatening vigorous fisticuffs to any audience member who throws anything onstage at a show in Uniondale, N.Y., and jumping into the crowd in St. Louis to slap around someone taking pictures before walking off stage and inciting a riot. Whoops.

April 1992: GN'R performs at a Freddy Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, performing with Queen. He also plays with Elton John, becoming the first allegedly homophobic musician to play the Elton John card. Somewhere in Michigan, a young Eminem takes notes.

November 1993: The band releases The Spaghetti Incident, featuring a hidden track — Look At Your Game Girl, written by noted music fan and convicted mass murderer Charles Manson.

2000: The first release date for Chinese Democracy, which would be the first original studio album from the band since 1993's Use Your Illusion II, comes and goes. A lot. The album, which has cost reportedly more than $13 million, features band members no longer in residence and will reportedly be culled from more than 300 tapes, including a recording of Shaquille O'Neill rapping. Aren't we sorry that's been delayed.

September 2002: Still no Chinese Democracy, but Axl appears on the MTV Video Music Awards anyway. He sports inexplicable dreadlocks, a very tight face, and leads the new version of Guns N' Roses, featuring the inexplicably KFC bucket-wearing guitarist Buckethead. Chickens would protest this but they're too busy beating their little wings and cracking up.

September 2006: Axl, looking like a combination of Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall, movie musical star Russ Tamblyn, Heat Miser and the dude from that lame reggae group Big Mountain, introduces The Killers at the VMAs. Rumors of a fall 2006 release date for Chinese Democracy persist. Those holding their breath change the oxygen in their tanks.

October 2006: A Buckethead-less Guns N' Roses begins their Chinese Democracy tour, named after an album that has still not come out yet. That's pretty crazy. But not the craziest thing Axl's ever done.

GUNS N' ROSES — 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the BankAtlantic Center, 2555 Panther Parkway, Sunrise. Tickets: $39.75-$77.75. Phone: (561) 966-3309.

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Sorry for bringing this topic back up. I ended up emailing the chick who wrote this article. I told her I was very disappointed that she never mentioned the fact that the cd was coming out this year (gave her the Rolling Stone info as well as some more). She actually wrote me back. She said she was a huge GnR fan, and was certain that she mentioned the cd coming out. She said it was an ommission. But she will be at the concert dishing out the review for the show. She said she would be sure to mention the upcoming release of the cd in the review. I guess we will see. 3 more fucking days to go!!!

Edited by mimnaugh
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