You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
"I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it."
This was a mistake....obviously.
"We've been working on, I don't know, 70 songs."
I will NEVER believe this. Don't care how many times it's said. It was statements like this that brought unnecessary hype/expectations that quickly got out of control.
Axl/new GNR were great at selling bridges. It got dicey when it came time to build them.
Would love to see the timeline where the fans never buy into these comments and the media doesn't jump on the hype and then proceed to laugh in his face about it.
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
nothing is as bad as Get in the Ring....
Disagree. I've always thought Axl was underrated lyrically, and Kurt Cobain was overrated lyrically. I could easily of seen a Kurt-version of GITR in an alternate universe, especially had he lived and broke up with Courtney, or had his relationship soured with MTV and the music industry which he was increasingly conforming to, as well as government causes.
"I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it."
This was a mistake....obviously.
"We've been working on, I don't know, 70 songs."
I will NEVER believe this. Don't care how many times it's said. It was statements like this that brought unnecessary hype/expectations that quickly got out of control.
Axl/new GNR were great at selling bridges. It got dicey when it came time to build them.
Would love to see the timeline where the fans never buy into these comments and the media doesn't jump on the hype and then proceed to laugh in his face about it.
I don't think it was a lie, as much as it was an artist, talking to an interviewer/fan about his musical process.
I agree there was never a vault, and it took me time to believe that, but in hind-sight I don't think that was ever the intention. Music artists, as i've seen, have a tendency to refer to songs from licks, riffs, piano diddies, and pushing them to the side to finish later.
Axl, as well as the band, could've very well had several bare bones ideas for some 70+ songs or so. But times change. Styles change. Opinions change. They could've worked up 70 songs, and scratched half of them as "going nowhere" or "not fitting" or "not interested anymore". And moving on.
Now we're down to 35 songs... well hell that's barely three albums, or CD + CD II + EP. I do believe that Axl has that vault. One more album, plus an EP or LP of some scratched completed new songs and remixes of all of the sessions combined. That's very realistic.
Axl said what he said, it got reported, and the fans, 90% of themselves probably just music fans and not music makers/performers, misconstrued the statement and the media/fans ran with it, and Axl & co. rather than talking it down, let it take on a life of it's own.
The sad thing is there is still fans that believe in it. I think Axl has a Soundgarden "Echo of Miles" sitting at home, but it's nothing more than that, and maybe an album of re-recorded GN'R classics with the different members. That's it. There is no mythical vault.
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
let's just focus on what Ax said in the last year...pulling quotes from 1998 and 1999 or 2006 or 3017 is insane at this point.
5-30-2014.....
“We recorded a lot of things before ‘Chinese Democracy‘ was out” ... “We’ve worked more on some of those things and we’ve written a few new things. But basically, we have what I call kind of the second half of ‘Chinese.’ That’s already recorded.” ... “Then we have a remix album made of the songs from ‘Chinese.’ That’s been done for a while, too. "
that's all we got as of now.... All quiet on the western front today....(and for the record, don't care what any "band members or assorted extras" say!)
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
pulling quotes from 1998 and 1999 or 2006 or 3017 is insane at this point.
Spoilsport 
The Beavan album was the album, or even, the twin albums. For all we know, whatever material it had has been re-recorded over the years - aside perhaps Axl's lead vocals. Personally, my intention was to give a bit of historical perspective to the twin of CD as it was. Axl's the only one whose words carry any real relevance in regards to the albums. It's food for thought, I'd say. If you feel it's insane, that's fair. But that comment kind of bums me out a bit, to be honest.
Given the CD progress is so slow (the understatement of the year), Axl can say things in 2008, which continue to carry relevance as long as the twin album remains unreleased.
The second [album] leans probably a little more to aggressive electronica with full guitars.
[The second album's a] bit meaner in places and darker in some. Robin does a really great Stevie Ray Vaughan-type solo on one track.
The only thing Axl forgot during the decade was 'electronica'. Good for him, as the term has become arcane in the meantime 
In North America, in the late 1990s, the mainstream music industry adopted and to some extent manufactured electronica as an umbrella term encompassing styles such as techno, big beat, drum and bass, trip hop, downtempo, and ambient... By the late 2000s, however, the industry abandoned electronica in favor of EDM, a term with roots in academia and an increasing association with outdoor music festivals and relatively mainstream, post-rave electro house and dubstep music.
Madonna's Ray of Light was coined electronica back in the day. Moby, Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy were also high-profile in that field. Silk Worms is pretty electronica in that respect, whether it's actually any good is another thing. What it does give out is that Axl apparently wanted to do the more traditional guitar-based album first and then move on to a more modernized sound with Guns. I always felt CD was to be something of an intermediate album to him, as the second album would fully embrace a musical background lightyears away from Appetite.
Will CD2 be more like 'Random Access Memories'? Who knows. Before CD's release, I would've guessed the twin to be further down the road in sound. Given the band still tours as an AFDem -configuration, they may retool the existing instrumental tracks to a more hard rock approach and slap Axl's pre-existing vocals on top.
Ides of March was incomplete then, and is still unlikely to appear on the next album
And that loop's been around since 1998, at least. 
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
Not discrediting your work Apex....at all. Just sayin we have a quote from 2014 which may be a bit more relevant today. Your points are well taken as he has talked about the "second" album consistently over the years....the pieces do fit together when taken as a whole.
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
I think all the electronica stuff has been ditched, imo. The band live is getting more and more stripped down than what debuted in 2002. Even songs like The Blues had things pulled off for a more traditional sound.
I would bet Oh My God sounds much different now as does Silkworms. I think Axl said there was a new intro and more guitars on OMG and Silkworms has a new chorus. He's been in the studio very recently and in Vegas, who knows how much has changed sound-wise. But I would imagine all of the songs have evolved or been retooled, not just TWAT, IRS and The Blues, etc.
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
Some time ago I was exposed to some of the scraped songs.. There was more electronica than on Chinese but a long way from anything like Radiohead or NIN or Beck.
More in the vein of silkworms or even prostitute and there was a time and IRS as far as electronic effects go.
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
IRS had a lot of effects, even some digital wind SFX. I wish he would have kept some of those Robin guitar bends. Those were cool, but overall, I think the songs did get better after 99 when Bucket and Brain came on board. 2002-03 was the year to release the album. I have no idea what caused him to delay it. Most of the leaks made up the album.
Chinese Democracy
There Was A Time
Better
The Blues
IRS
Riad N' The Bedouins
Prostitute
Shackler's Revenge
Scraped (aka, Lies They Tell)
This I Love
Madagascar
If The World
These songs were all around back then. Those were all the initial Andy Wallace mixes, which imo, were way better than the released product. That would have been a solid debut album. Why it wasn't released is beyond me. He screwed himself royally continuing to tinker.
Re: The enigmatic Beavan album ('98-00)
Most of the leaked songs make it to the album specially because they were leaked.
Some songs were not for the first batch and ended up on it because they leaked.
But nowadays it's really anecdotal and we'll never know for sure. I'd pay $100 for an Axl Rose extended interview detailing the release behind the curtains and I'd pay $500 for an autobiography of his, covering, specially from 95 to 2008. Leave 62 to 94 for Volume 2.
