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- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Super-Speculative Reunion Thread.
The trouble is, Axl is fighting against an ingrained perception. The general public looks at a band, sees two "key members" and considers them to be the heart of the band. Most often, it's the frontman and the lead guitarist;
That's VERY true....it's also the case that for the original GNR, while to us fans..each member had a clear impact on the writing, style, influences and direction of the band, to the casual listener, two things are imediately obvious about the band: #1 Axl's unique voice and #2 Slash's distinctive playing. Now i'm not saying that to rag on duff or steven or izzy who are also fundemental in their own ways, but I do think that basicly because Axl and Slash were so distinctive sounding...you know like you *know* when Axl sings and you can *tell* a slash solo....anything with them together would be accepted as GNR without a doubt to 99% of the general public I'd say.
Now I understand Axl + Slash will never happen now. And i really love the new album, but yeah, he does wage a war with that public mindset of what consitutues a band.
Re: Super-Speculative Reunion Thread.
My thing with Axl and Slash is: it is very rare in music when u get two guys who compliment each other so perfectly
Bucket is an amazing player and he comes "close" but on CD, my main problem is how the guitar tones don't really perfectly go with Axl's voice....... I can't really explain it but when Slash would do a solo, it was like an extension of Axl's vocals. Axl's vocal tone over top of Slash's guitar tone was just a heavenly one of a kind sound that can't be duplicated.
When Axl sings over a Robin Finck solo, it just sounds off........... same with Ron and sometimes Bucket. solos are great but the tones just don't quite match up
Take TWAT for instance. Amazing solo by Bucket, but when Axl comes in screaming "I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" the guitar if it were Slash playing would be accenting Axl's voice a la SCOM or NR and making your ears and heart explode whereas Bucket doesn't do that and his guitar kind of goes down and gets muddled inside the production.
Same with Catcher and TIL. Axl has these amazing vocals and the guitar comes in and takes a big shit on the emotional high u are feeling.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Super-Speculative Reunion Thread.
Good post, I hear you. And you are right. You remind me of me, three years ago.
But it's not said and done for you, because you actually accept Axl and session musicians as GN'R.
That's fine, and perfectly your decision to do so.
Thinking about this more now.
Well for me it's more that whatever this new thing is, GNR, nu-GNR, W.A.R. (as steven likes to call it), or whatever, I really like the quality of the music comming out of it. So it's not that i'm choosing to accept it as GNR as such as overall in my life I don't focus on names so much.
Don't think i'm some kind of new era fan exclusively.
Belive me...If you knew the absolute reverance I hold the original line up in, and how much I worship and adore all GNR records, from AFD all the way to TSI....it's safe to say I need a life overall 
So to an extent, I can see what people like Buzz and You mean when you say "this isn't GNR" because it's a very different thing now, and I loved the old way things were intensly too.
So a part of me thinks it's strange they kept the name, but then I can listen to new-gnr, and while there's differences, I can see some similar stuff too.
Getting metaphysical I guess like, I've always seen GNR as a hodge-podge of different musical factors pulling at each other. And so if you define GNR as the original AFD sounds - then you can look at any of the subsequent projects and find the simlar parts from the players who are around...and the missing parts from the people that arn't.
The difference from me is that I tend to enjoy all these things.
You know. Like take "Speed Parade" on Snakepit 2. Listen to the guitars on that puppy...it's so clearly slash. You can hear it's the guy who played similar parts on "bad apples" or "right next door to hell". Or more recently...."Let it Roll" from VR....the last few seconds of solo on that outtrol could easly be from somethign on AFD even if the overall song isnt. I notice that there's no axl, etc...but I still enjoy it.
I listen to the Adler's Appetite cd and I can hear adler's cow bell and classic drum fills straight out of AFD almost....but I hear it's not slash and axl with him too.
Likewise I listen to twat or "this i love" and I can hear that it's written by the man with the same tourtured emotional responces who gives us Estranged and November Rain or Breakdown.
I guess what i'm saying is....I like snakepit, VR, the new GNR, the original GNR....i just like it all....now I'll grant the new GNR is different from the old...but I personaly gave up caring about the name thing long ago....I just want to listen to songs I really like now...and while in 1993 I would have liked Axl and Slash to resolve things...right now....well...I'm loving what they're each making on their own enough that if they're happy this way...so be it...they can each name their band "pink doorbell" and i'll be like 'wierd' for a second then forget it..and rock out to some of the best music in creation...
So i feel this way about GNR too. Maybe it's strange that Axl kept the name...but at the end of the day...to me CD is a fucking killeralbum...and that's good enough for me.
Re: Super-Speculative Reunion Thread.
I used my Batman Begins analogy for GNR
I absolutely love the Tim Burton Batman movie. Watched it for almost 20 years before Batman Begins came out...... went to the theater and I had what my idea of Batman was, so ingrained into my head, that I absolutely hated Batman Begins. I realized I hated it cause I was judging it for what it wasnt instead of enjoying what it was.
I find the same similarities with GNR. When I listen to CD, Its like I hear it for what it isn't sometimes instead of enjoying it for what it is......
Its like Axl's vocals,piano and melodies are GNR but the rest of it is foreign.
So its like, If i never heard any GNR album or lets just say I was a casual fan, I am sure CD would be the greatest album ever...... but I can't help hearing a song like TIL and wondering "HOLY FUCK" Imagine Slash on this.
Kind of like a TV show, u get use to a certain actor playing a character, if they were to replace the actor but keep the same character it just isn't the same.
reminds me of the dukes of Hazzard when they replaced Bo and Luke with Coy and Vance...... same show, same concept, same story lines but it just wasn't the same.
Re: Super-Speculative Reunion Thread.
Exactly. Monkey makes a good point, but I think what he's forgetting, is the concept of different music, but with the same band.
If it was Axl, Slash, Gilby, Duff, Matt & Dizzy (that last generation of the old band, we'll say), and they all recorded CD, it'd be a totally different thing.
Here you 3/6 original band members, making a new album, and a new rebirth for THEY'RE IDEA (not Axl's) of Guns N' Roses. As a group
But when it's just Axl, and whatever session musician he hires to back him in the studio... that's called a solo album. The name becomes very important, because the name is sacred. The name takes on a life of it's own. It represents something to each, individual person, that loves that band.
I think had that 2002 band become a major success, I would've been right there saying, "this is Guns N' Roses". Because in that instance, you have all of the pieces for a 'reboot' of GN'R for the next generation with Axl & Dizzy coming along for the ride. Robin, Tommy & Chris all had a big hand in the album's production from day one, Bucket came in and really brought the quality up and added depth, and frankly since Steven & Izzy, the drummer & rhythm guitarist have always been replaceable.
Had that band released CD back in the early 2000's, continued to tour and record, and that was Guns N' Roses, I would not be here saying what i'm saying right now.
Any shred of credibility they had, Axl went "PULL!" and shot it out of the sky.
The fans took two roads with this, after this occured. Some went back to 1993, and said "this was when GN'R last roamed the earth", while others continued on to support "Axl's vision". Hell, even within new band fans, there are factions of people that only accept the 2002 variation, and others 2006. Hell some like 2006 w/ Brain, but no Frank. It eventually just becomes laughable.
They've just lost ALL credibility at this point. And the only existance of GN'R that still has it, is the old band. That is still the embodiment of Guns N' Roses.
For me, Chinese Democracy and this whole new Guns thing is kind of like Halloween III. I watched it, I highly enjoyed it, I loved it in fact, I see what you were trying to do and bravo for trying to do it, and i'll hold the film (album) very dear to my heart, and in fact it just might be one of the finest works under the name Guns N' Roses.
But I want Michael Myers back. That's pretty much my feelings on the matter.
