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Re: "Better" Video Discussion
^Thanks.
After seeing the damn thing, my only question is, 'What's all the fuss about?'
Glad to see Bucket represented there so prominently. Other than that, a rather lukewarm effort from a band with GNR's stature.
What ^ said.
Funny that people waited years for this and the GNR camp made such a big deal about it.
I have no opinion. Very average video. Nothing much to say.
Since people love my inserting Soundgarden into these discussions, here's a video to chew on......
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: "Better" Video Discussion
I always liked the braids. I thought he looked badass with them - especially when coupled with the rock styling in 06 and less of the rap look he had in 02.
However I do recognise that most people didn't like them back then - in fact I remember doing a lot of apologising for them to friends and causals who saw anything of the band.
I think in general public terms - the braids were added to the collective "where's slash, this isn't GNR, why is your face chemically treated?"
However personally...I always thought it was a good look and befitting of Axl's badass attitude.
In general though he does look fitter, cooler, healthier and generally of better appearance in this video than now, I guess he has the benefit of six years youth...but that is what it is.....
As for the video. It's fun conceptually...and this plays like a draft...generally nice...but needs some snappier editing around the performance stuff. With tighter editing would be awesome. I've seen similar bad edits get released - eg Baz's videos on Angel Down...performance video of a killer gig but edited so that onstage action was clearly not from the right parts of the song. I'm sure there's lots of examples of it around too.
To me this is a typical GNR pattern. Things sit so long in development that when they happen it's passed prime. GNR needed a forum and official site 10 years ago, happens now. The follow up industrial album is how many years after industrial music peaked? The world was pumped for chinese circa 02, then again in 06, then it comes out with no promo in 08.
And here...by the time they have a semi cohesive video for a song...3 members of the band in the video are not even in the band....sort of explains why they didn't release it.
Re: "Better" Video Discussion
I think the vid would have been fine to release back then. Looks ok, serves the purpose well. They haven't spent too much on it by the looks of things and why would you nowadays.
It annoys me a bit early on where the live footage of him singing Better is slightly out of sync with the vocals. But other than that it's fine, not great not bad it just does its job. I liked the way they introduced the band too.
NFI why they couldn't have released that at the time. I'm guessing they were just taking the piss when they said Lars needed to sign off on it having now seen the context of his cameo in it. That certainly looked like DTJ in it too!
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: "Better" Video Discussion
I thought he looked ridiculous in 2002 with the oversized sports jerseys and really long braids. His 2006 style was much cooler. In fact, at Hammerstein in '06 he looked cooler than he ever did on the UYI Tour.
Re: "Better" Video Discussion
Wait, the braids are cool now?
5 years of talking shit about them and now they are cool??
the braids were NEVER cool but when he cut them shorter and tied them back it looked alright and in 2006 Axl had a badass rocker look to him. He looked like a clown in 2002 and since 2010 he's been pulling off the geriatric washed up rock sar look very well. I'm just saying look at Axl on stage in 2012 and look at him on stage in 2006. There's a huge difference and it's not about his age. I don't think anybody would ever braids were cool, I'm just saying he looked cooler in 2006 than he does in 2012. And on the flip side he looks way cooler in 2012 than he did in 2002 yet he looked pretty cool in 2001.... so.....
I thought his whole get up looked ridiculous in 02 topped off by the braids. In 06, he was dressing way cooler and the braids were at least shorter. I didn't even look that much in 06 anyways since I was happy with what I perceived as "progress".
Now I just have to laugh at myself seeing as I just talked about "being happy with progress in 2006" during a discussion about a video that leaked in 2012 for a song I first heard that year...
That made me laugh
Re: "Better" Video Discussion
The 06' look was great for Axl at his age, the braids were shortened and pulled back, he was working out and in shape which helped his vocals as well as his body, and the Botox from a few years back was working its magic......the good ole days
Re: "Better" Video Discussion
NFI why they couldn't have released that at the time. I'm guessing they were just taking the piss when they said Lars needed to sign off on it having now seen the context of his cameo in it. That certainly looked like DTJ in it too!
The only logical reason I can think of, and I use the term logical loosely, is the video was indeed being finished up when Axl first mentioned it. At the same time, Robin's status in the band was up in the air. All guess work on my part, but maybe they were caught off guard by Robin leaving and really didn't know what his end game was. Maybe they expected him to come crawling back shortly, so they put off releasing the video since they had nothing planned at the time anyway. Only Robin never returned, and Axl wasn't heard from for another year. By that time, the video was in essence, ancient history.
I know it sounds ridiculous, and it is. But let's face it, the events leading up to and following the release of Chinese Democracy were beyond ridiculous. Robin leaving when he did, probably didn't help move things forward. In a sense, it was back to square one. Once they regrouped with ANOTHER guitarist, the ship had sailed as far as what, if any, original plans for promotion they may have had.
That's one way of looking at it at least. Looking back, I don't really see what harm it would have done to just release the video despite Robin's departure, Axl's state of mind, or the uncertainty of the future. I don't think it would have hurt them at all. Again, I'm just guessing they were expecting/hoping for things to pan out differently than they did. And THAT is probably the understatement of the year right there. 
- emcitymisfit
- Rep: 28
Re: "Better" Video Discussion
There was a 30 second clip on myspace of the video back in 2008, but the fact that Bucket and Brain are featured so prominently surprises me.
My reaction to the whole thing? A video clip with 6 y/o concert footage from an album released 4 years ago and written 12 years ago? With at least 3 members of the band not even in it?
Megh. Might as well have released it in 2008, even to get some MTV2 airtime at 2am or something.
