I don't know why but my obsession starts in 1997, going back past that and I just glaze over.

I found most of the Birdwatch photos but not the one you mentioned.

That and it makes me question the vault material being good / finished.

I think Axl tried to time the market with CD which explains the constant revising of the material. He wanted his lost love missives to be contemporary. So even if CD2 was conceivably good, it's showing up to the nu-metal industrial party 15 years after that party was over. He also probably wasn't keen on signing up for a repeat crucifixion anytime soon.

He should've gotten back with Slash the minute Robin walked but ya know, throw it on the pile.

We're off in the woods again, as we are wont to do.

If Axl could've written lyrics and melodies first, he would've. It's no surprise that Prostitute was a much lauded track (melodies) or that the industrial tinged material was the most inspired (lyrics, actually using band members to their strengths).

It's also unsurprising that Axl eventually finding himself in the producer's chair tinkering with the material only allowed him to further filibuster the release. As you and Alice Cooper say, he seemed to be afraid of the material.

I suppose the long and the short of it was Axl did Axl and the record company was unable to hold the tiger by the tail. No one acted like adults, everyone made bad decisions, everyone acted unprofessionally, and everyone suffered for it.

It's all very strange.

You could argue he was using his mania to fuel himself out of the doldrums. You could also argue he was posturing out of some anti-Slash rage. Yet in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2007 he was still talking about a trilogy of albums and 30-50 songs were regularly mentioned. This isn't the thinking of someone without ideas. Lack of follow through or quality, maybe, but not short of ideas.

As a counterpoint, he had long been disabused of the Industrial GN'R angle yet in 2012-2013 they're still working over Oh My God and Silkworms? Strange.

If gossip is to be believed, the vault material is garbage, but who really knows.

This one is tricky for me.

I get that tensions within the band were high and the band members were moving into new phases in life but the way Chinese Democracy was recorded is virtually no different from the way Appetite For Destruction was recorded. All members came and went as they pleased, only came into the studio when they felt like it, and demanded creative control yet producers deserve a lot of credit for shaping their material into a more solid whole.

I also know of many cases of highly successful people who work remotely yet are still very successful. The stories of runners trafficking discs across the city don't move me beyond the general excess that comes with positions of power. A lot of this stuff is a coach gambling on 4th down. If he gets it, he's a genius. If he fails, he's a fool. Same principle.

I'm quite interested in why the record didn't come out in 2002 and pretty much all of 2004.

I think something happened between February and June 2007 related to the record. The cancelling of their South Africa gig always seemed questionable but Axl showing up to the Mexico show several hours late, fatter, and extremely drunk is the bigger tell.

If second hand stories are to be believed, this angered one Robin Finck and the seams had already started to become undone.

The record company delaying (or rejecting) the album excuse always fell on deaf ears with me in general but especially because of this. If the album had been completed at any step along the way, then the booklet would've been a PDF or AI file on a hard drive somewhere.

That Zodiac is my favorite movie, partly because it's a biography.

The whole saga is strange and actually seems to be getting stranger.

Axl mentioned he wanted to start with lyrics and melodies at the China Exchange but it's bizarre because he never had more power than during the CD sessions. Granted the band was influx but it was often influx because of Axl and his process. You can imagine he has very strong opinions about the creative process but yeah, it's a bizarre situation.

If you don't give him the benefit of the doubt you could speculate he was totally out of ideas and/or in way over his head.

I've always felt like the record was pretty much done by 2000 but you wonder about that material. What was it? Was it all that industrial sound? Then the prolific Chicken Man comes in, are we to not expect he was equally prolific? Did Axl turn his licks loose after him departing?

I mean outside of the Beavan stuff being punched up to Baker level, we have no evidence of the material changing much not to mention Axl being an endless tinkerer.

What's the box, man, what's in the box?!!!!