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- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
Some of those songs I haven't heard but I think Messages should be near the top of any list. That song just begged for Izzy and Axl.
Damn, forgot Messages... Will add now.
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
I used to march for Izzy. Told everybody how many classics he had written, how he had the most credits on the albums after Axl.
Then I realized that while that was true, my favorite GN'R songs were in a larger degree written by Axl or Slash. The big hits were usually written by them, the deep cuts were written by them and more often than not they were also heavily involved in the songs Izzy wrote.
That's when I knew why Izzy's solo material was so boring. He needs Axl and Slash to elevate it from his very basic structure. Without them he's just another Americana singer song writer, and if you're not into that, you won't be into his solo work.
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
Izzy was great. I think he needed to be around for GnR to live, at least in the 90s. His first solo album truly tapped into the alternative music spirit, much moreso than Spaghetti Incident. I heard 117 degrees was great, I should download it thru Amazon, always wanted to. I think also just being that 'Axls friend' yet musician in the band he saw things, and kept things together, thru both sides.
I always speculate about his departure. Seemed interesting it was so close to the UYI release. Always wondered if something on it was the final straw, either My World, or the double version of Don't Cry (was it his song & Axl redid it?).
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
I think also just being that 'Axls friend' yet musician in the band he saw things, and kept things together, thru both sides.
I think this is really important and overlooked. Sure Axl, Izzy, Duff and Slash create great music together and by themselves. If you remove Izzy though from the equation, does the band even last long enough for Axl, Duff and Slash to build a relationship in the first place?
They did afterwards, but their's a chance it gets too problematic before they record a first album together and even realize that they have something worth sticking together over.
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
I think this really important and overlooked. Sure Axl, Izzy, Duff and Slash create music together and by themselves. If you remove Izzy though from the equation, does the band even last long enough for Axl, Duff and Slash to build a relationship in the first place?
No. The chances of GNR even existing in the first place were practically zero and it comes down to a mere quirk of fate. These guys playing in various different bands that implode at different times and then they decide to just give it a go themselves. Hell...that infamous drive on the 85 tour almost did them in. They stuck it out.
I always speculate about his departure. Seemed interesting it was so close to the UYI release. Always wondered if something on it was the final straw, either My World, or the double version of Don't Cry (was it his song & Axl redid it?).
I'll never forget his exit. Sad. I knew it would never be the same again. Some people like to minimize his departure but it was literally breaking news on MTV. The story about him pissing on an airplane was on CNN.....yet revisionist history tells us nobody knew him. 
IMO he just felt the band got too big and the egos too massive. Also factor in the drugs.
I am glad he stuck around long enough for the first part of that tour. It sucked not getting to see them in 87-88 but had he bailed in 90-91 before the tour and Gilby or Navarro brought in, wouldn't have been the same. I was one of the nuts who went to the concert only interested in UYI. It had been hyped to the moon for 3 years and reading month after month how it contained "massive epics" like November Rain, The Garden, Estranged, Locomotive,Breakdown, Coma; Izzy doing vocals on Dust N Bones, 14 Years, DTJ, and Pretty Tied Up(yes the mags claimed this at the time), Duff vocals on So Fine and Attitude, and "balls to the walls rockers" like Perfect Crime, Garden of Eden, Back Off Bitch, and bringing up that incident with his neighbor inspiring RNDTH, list goes on.....how could the hype not drive you insane? Funny....back in 91 Baz was bragging about listening to the albums long before release just like he would do 15 years later with CD.
People give Del James a lot of shit on these forums but he did some incredible articles in RIP Magazine at the time. Still remember some of it(he labeled the songs above "massive epics". Lonn Friend did some killer articles as well.
In hindsight I wonder if Axl told RIP to push Shannon Hoon. He was a nobody at the time yet kept being mentioned as being on several tracks.
Considering the fact UYI was supposed to have all three versions of Don't Cry(and about 1/3 of TSI) is crazy in hindsight. That DC demo is amazing but they were really pushing that project to the limit.
In hindsight I wish the alt Don't Cry had been used as its B side and include one of the TSI covers that was supposed to be on UYI instead(Attitude, Black Leather,New Rose, IDCAY....or finish Aint Going Down which was also originally listed as being on the track list.
IMO if the net/Itunes had existed at the time, UYI would have been three albums instead of two. They weren't fucking around and wanted to make history. They did.
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
I dunno, I'll always be in the camp that feels UYI should've been 1 album. Then a b-sides 'Incesticude' type album released a year later. Songs like The Garden, Back Off Bitch, Garden of Eden, So Fine etc were just always expendable. I get it, the epics took up too much time for 72 minutes for CD & cassette at the time, but even Coma & Locomotive could've waited a year.
Still a great double album, I just wanted something more concise at the time. Before we get OT on what could've or couldn't have made this happen I believe there was a thread about that way back we could revisit if needed.
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
And that doesn't even include the uncredited input...for instance, to me the rhythm of oiam makes the song...and that is izzy 100% (at least I've always envisioned that it was) if I could find that slightly overdrive (tele? ES335? Filtertron? P90?) guitar tone in my amp I'd never dial it out again...Cuz it's fucking brilliant
In general I think Izzy had this magical "sleazy" sound and very loose style of playing that quietly helped defined the quintessential guns sound
Slash slung an LP and cranked a marshall and went with it ... izzy, I think experimented a bit more
I'm pretty sure that guitar in oiam is slash. I remember Axl saying Slash's guitar was the reason he sang the way he did on that song
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: What a GNR set list/discography without Izzy Stradlin looks like
Neemo wrote:And that doesn't even include the uncredited input...for instance, to me the rhythm of oiam makes the song...and that is izzy 100% (at least I've always envisioned that it was) if I could find that slightly overdrive (tele? ES335? Filtertron? P90?) guitar tone in my amp I'd never dial it out again...Cuz it's fucking brilliant
In general I think Izzy had this magical "sleazy" sound and very loose style of playing that quietly helped defined the quintessential guns sound
Slash slung an LP and cranked a marshall and went with it ... izzy, I think experimented a bit more
I'm pretty sure that guitar in oiam is slash. I remember Axl saying Slash's guitar was the reason he sang the way he did on that song
All acoustic guitar was Slash the electric rhythm was Izzy from what I recall. That is one of Slash's best solos. A fucking killer taste filled acoustic solo
