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#321 Re: Guns N' Roses » What is your favorite song on CD? » 157 weeks ago
As much as 2001 went wrong...I think 2006 was a criminal waste too.
Remember the vibe back then. People were excited.
The surprise Eddie Trunk radio chat got legitimate interest from people.
Hammerstein Ballroom shows got a lot of attention. Fans were into it. Axl was sounding good.
There was a legit moment for something good to happen there. The shows were good....but there was just nothing...it was like 2 years of cool shows where the set progressively got less CD themed (TWAT went away etc) and then at the end of the tour an absolutely painful silence until the album drop with 2008.
Which was done with absolutely nothing. For another whole year.
I mean it was never going to be the old band, but the songs are good, and the 2006 era band could deliver. It's a shame it didn't get a proper shot. Least we got some good proshots I guess.
The fatal mistake in 2006 was not moving heaven and Earth to get Buckethead back. Ron was good, but he's not iconic in the same way Buckethead and Slash are, and it reinforced the idea that GN'R was a revolving-door operation where Axl needed three guitarists to replace Slash. It introduced delays as Axl felt obliged to add Ron to the album, but he still wanted to respect Bucket's contributions/couldn't bring himself to lose Bucket's guitar parts, so you end up with this Chinese stew of bits and pieces.
And it fucked the promo; you can no longer bill the band as a stable, coherent line-up, the "new GN'R," instead it's a chaotic attempt to replace Slash that's constantly in flux because "Axl can't find anyone good enough." The Better video now needs re-editing to include Bumblefoot, but it's got Buckethead on it as though he was still a current member. Casual viewers will be wondering how many fucking guitarists this band has in it. And then Robin bails and you face the prospect of re-editing the thing again to include DJ Ashba and it looks like there are five guitarists in the band, for crying out loud.
If Buckethead had been there in 2006, the post-Slash era of GN'R would've looked very different.
#322 Re: Guns N' Roses » GN’R 2022 Tour Thread » 157 weeks ago
elevendayempire wrote:Christ, why would they keep Absurd over Hard Skool?
My gueess would be because it's a much easier song for him to sing.
James wrote:Hmm...makes me wonder if they're removing it to open the slot for an upcoming new song.
If one or two new songs are on tap this tour, something has to be ditched....and it won't be the 30 year old songs.
You're giving me false hope for the show I'm seeing in a couple of weeks. I'll be kind of pissed if they drop Hard Skool and don't replace it with something new also.
Maybe they bust out Oh My God, they've had that video with the lyrics playing during YCBM for ages now.
#323 Re: Dust N' Bones & Cyborg Slunks » Praxis reunion » 157 weeks ago
God damn it, it would be like two weeks before I'm in NYC.
#324 Re: Guns N' Roses » What is your favorite song on CD? » 157 weeks ago
I think in retrospect, looking at the shit that was released at the time, the record company was off-base saying they had no songs. There was plenty of interest in what Axl was doing. Release what’s done after Rio and maybe there’s something. But given the dynamics of the industry at the time they thought maybe there’s a blast in curiosity sales but it won’t sell a tour, so let’s hold out for a reunion. They weren’t necessarily wrong.
I've said it many times before, but what they *should* have done was bust out Chinese Democracy or Better at the VMAs. A solid, catchy rocker, instead of fucking around with a medley of old stuff that reminds people of the old band, with the dirge-like Madagascar inserted awkwardly in the middle. Have the confidence to showcase one of the new tracks, in full.
Additional benefit: doing Better or ChiDem means that Axl doesn't blow his voice out on the opening WTTJ scream.
Then drop whichever of those two you played as the single. And if it's Chinese Democracy, for fuck's sake release a radio edit that chops off the intro and goes straight to the guitar chords.
Then drop TWAT as the follow-up. Boom; you've proved that the band can do the hard rock stuff (and showcased the shredding skills of your two lead guitarists), and you've proved that the band can do the big epic November Rain stuff.
#325 Re: Guns N' Roses » GN’R 2022 Tour Thread » 157 weeks ago
Hmm...makes me wonder if they're removing it to open the slot for an upcoming new song.
If one or two new songs are on tap this tour, something has to be ditched....and it won't be the 30 year old songs.
Christ, why would they keep Absurd over Hard Skool?
#326 Re: Guns N' Roses » What is your favorite song on CD? » 157 weeks ago
Should have released in 2001, they missed that for whatever reasons. From what we know sounds like label folk had concerns with whether he had enough "good" songs and were always pushing for a reunion anyways.
I think it's more that they were pushing for a reunion and telling Axl that the songs weren't up to snuff in an attempt to force said reunion. Based on the demos (and the final album) there were plenty of quality tracks to draw on.
#327 Re: Guns N' Roses » What is your favorite song on CD? » 157 weeks ago
The ideal thing to do would've been to settle on a coherent two-guitar line-up in the early Noughties (either Finck and Fortus, or Buckethead and Fortus), and strip back the songs to just the players who were on them. Get Fortus to re-record the guitar lines for either Bucket or Finck depending on which one you've dropped. And make it sound cohesive; get the fucking players in a room and have them record the songs as-live, rather than fucking about layering in overdubs for a decade and a half.
#328 Re: Guns N' Roses » GN’R 2022 Tour Thread » 157 weeks ago
This is really nit-picky, but when they used to play SoD back in 2001-02, there was this really cool bit right at the end of the solo where Robin handed off the last two notes to the other guitarist and they played (I think) chords, lower down the fretboard. On the studio version, and every live version since 2006, they sub in a bog standard pair of notes at the end of the solo and it always sounds... less imaginative, to me.
Compare and contrast:
#329 Re: Guns N' Roses » GN’R 2022 Tour Thread » 158 weeks ago
First TIL and now this.. why Slash, why?
I like what he did with TIL, for the most part. The Orlando 2016 rendition of it, in particular. SoD, though… it's just needless fast runs up and down the fretboard.
#330 Re: Guns N' Roses » What is your favorite song on CD? » 158 weeks ago
TWAT, all day everyday.
