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Re: GNR according to The Manual
The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) is an instructional book written in the late 80s by the seminal British acid-house duo Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, known by many names, the most recognizable of them being KLF. Their goal was to pass intel on how an act could invade the British charts all the way to the top. Still good reading, it has a few passages that ring deceptively true to the state of GNR now.
SINGERS PRODUCING
If you already think you are a great singer and a well happening front person, then we have a problem. It means you will have the sort of ego that will render it totally impossible for you to be objective about everything else that has got to be done.
Singers have historically made the worst producers of their own work. The reason for this is simply that singers have to become so emotionally involved in their performance it cancels out any sort of over view. At the very least they need a musical partner that can give them some direction.
If a singer was able to have this calculated view of their own work the end product would undoubtedly come over as cold and empty. So if you do see yourself as a singer, find a partner fast before going any further.
TARDINESS
Singers – good or bad – are invariably a problem. They not only make incredibly bad time keepers which can lead to disasterous consequences when you are facing a jam-packed schedule during the period when your record has entered the Top 30 but not yet made Number One, they also tend to confuse their role as singer of songs with that of would-be world leaders.
FRONTMAN APPEARANCE
When it comes to TV. performances singers make obvious focal points for the cameraman, thus the viewers at home are forced to watch. This is not because what is coming out of their mouths is of any great importance, it is just the 'easy option' -tradition of the medium.In fact, most singers on Top of the Pops make complete prats of themselves. The viewers at home amuse themselves discussing this pratishness, either the size of the singer’s nose, his taste in shirts, the dickhead state of his haircut or their shagable qualities.
This last example is usually done in such a disparaging and sexist way that it hardly inspires any real admiration. That said, you will need an act to go on TV. with. People will need some sort of human focal point to relate to.
ON NOSTALGIA BANDS
Once or twice a decade an act will burst through with a Number One that hits a national nerve and the public’s appetite for the sound and packaging will not be satisfied with the one record. The formula will be untampered with and the success will be repeated a second, a third and sometimes even a fourth time.
The prison is then complete; either the artist will be destroyed in their attempt to prove to the world that there are other facets to their creativity or they succumb willingly and spend the rest of their lives as a travelling freak show, peddling a nostalgia for those now far off, carefree days. These are the lucky few.
Most never have the chance of a repeat performance and slide ungracefully into years of unpaid tax, desperately delaying all attempts to come to terms with the only rational thing to do – get a nine to five job.
And how did KLF do it? Glitter beat mixed with Doctor Who.
You think they have a point?
Re: GNR according to The Manual
my KLF memory is of listening to one of their albums when @ uni & one of my roommates came in pissed off & said, "what shite are you listening to now?!"
i actually thought they were quite good & interesting.
& those excerpts are weirdly otm re: axl.
Re: GNR according to The Manual
I don't think Axl has trapped himself into being a nostalgia act, as I just heard several people the other day on the radio ranting about "hating" when popular bands turn around and play ANY new stuff when people pay to hear the hits.
Axl knows what he's doing, problem is... it's gutless. A true "artists" would play his album front-to-back and tell everyone else, including his label to FUCK OFF.
That's why I don't believe Axl has the vault he's claimed anymore. I think CD was a bluff and that was his ace... it's gone now.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: GNR according to The Manual
I've got this theory that Axl's moved on in his personal interest musically to things that don't go with Classic GNR.
My theory:
* He clearly got uninspired working in the old band's classic rock mould.
* He was interested in electronic stuff
* He's said he likes to compose from melody not having complete songs to add words to.
* multiple producers said lots of Axl's stuff was instrumental
* On chinese seems as much time went into stuff like ochestration/effects/cutting and pasting takes than traditional song formulas.
* Back when he talked of 3 albums he said the 1st was the most like old GNR and then they got progressively experimental.
So my theory - Axl is smart giving general public fans what they want - the hits - and to make that work the new band has to get as UYI like as possible - hence DJ being like Slash - richard looks like Izzy - the classic rock marketing of it - dangerous etc - covers added are similar stuff like Ac/Dc
He does have a vault - but the vault is at odds with this - it's stuff like Silkworms, maybe Blood in the Water...experimental and moody ochestral pieces that suit a film....or are kinda progressively techno style and not at all like AFD.....
So he's kinda in a bind...it's past the time to reinvent GNR as a new modern and industral act....so he needs to do what he does and be a classic rock legacy act....but creatively and in private he works on stuff that's not classic GNR sounding at all...but it's hard to play the vegas show then release your new techno album.
Just a theory.
Re: GNR according to The Manual
I've got this theory that Axl's moved on in his personal interest musically to things that don't go with Classic GNR.
My theory:
* He clearly got uninspired working in the old band's classic rock mould.
* He was interested in electronic stuff
* He's said he likes to compose from melody not having complete songs to add words to.
* multiple producers said lots of Axl's stuff was instrumental
* On chinese seems as much time went into stuff like ochestration/effects/cutting and pasting takes than traditional song formulas.
* Back when he talked of 3 albums he said the 1st was the most like old GNR and then they got progressively experimental.So my theory - Axl is smart giving general public fans what they want - the hits - and to make that work the new band has to get as UYI like as possible - hence DJ being like Slash - richard looks like Izzy - the classic rock marketing of it - dangerous etc - covers added are similar stuff like Ac/Dc
He does have a vault - but the vault is at odds with this - it's stuff like Silkworms, maybe Blood in the Water...experimental and moody ochestral pieces that suit a film....or are kinda progressively techno style and not at all like AFD.....
So he's kinda in a bind...it's past the time to reinvent GNR as a new modern and industral act....so he needs to do what he does and be a classic rock legacy act....but creatively and in private he works on stuff that's not classic GNR sounding at all...but it's hard to play the vegas show then release your new techno album.
Just a theory.
A realistic and damn good theory too
Re: GNR according to The Manual
monkey you give him far too much credit.
it's long past time you shoulda stopped apologising for him.
he's not giving anyone what they want - people want killer rock songs, all he's doing is parading old hits to a dwindling level of interest.
he's nothing but a fuckin pussy.
Re: GNR according to The Manual
I'd be willing to believe he's got a vault of weird shit, and i'd also be willing to believe that Axl thought CD was his most classic GN'R sounding album he had, and "if they didn't like that, then i've got nothing for them". I'd buy that too.
But if Axl truely wanted that music out there and to make a break, he'd do what i've suggested for years. Negotiate a reunion, buy securing the vault for himself. The label gets their reunion, maybe even the promise of a reunion record to tour behind for a few years. Axl gets his face and name turned babyface again the press for a new reunion, and then Axl can take every nugget he's got walk out the door and release it under "Axl Rose", and be as experimental and instrumental as he wants, while he tours the old hits with the original writers/performers.
I always thought he was an underrated piano player, i'd love to hear an instrumental album or an album full of Michael Mann film neo-noir synth music, or maybe even an album full of throwback John Carpenter 80's electronic ambient stuff. Whatever Axl wants to do. But he's got to realize releasing THAT kind of music under the name Guns N' Roses will never EVER happen. Uni won't allow it.
