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Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
slashsfro wrote:I'm going to defend this a little since I've been listening to them a bit lately. While there's too much stuff on those albums, the really great tracks are really worth multiple listens and are more interesting than some of the AFD tracks which I haven't heard in years. I don't think there's enough hit singles in those albums to be honest, probably not enough hit rockers.
It was too ambitious. Two albums at once was unprecedented. The fact that they were so huge and millions were waiting probably the only reason the label allowed it to happen.
Just because they could doesn't mean they should....
Like everyone else....I loved it. The excitement getting to hear those albums was off the charts.
Hindsight gives you a different perspective.
I don't think there's enough hit singles in those albums to be honest, probably not enough hit rockers
There's not.
It's two albums of epics and deep cuts. The only thing approaching a Jungle type rocker is YCBM.
Don't Cry
November Rain
The Garden
Coma
Breakdown
Locomotive
EstrangedThose tracks were hyped to the moon for two solid years. You have to include them.
That's about 55 minutes.
Include YCBM as the single to kick things off... we're now over 60 minutes.
We're running out of room.
Obvious tracks to leave off...save for B sides or junk em....
My World
Don't Cry alt
Shotgun Blues
Get in the Ring
You Ain't the FirstCivil War and KOHD never should've been on the albums. No one cared about that version of KOHD anymore and only use Civil War as the B side of YCBM.
Only one Izzy song is necessary. Pick one. I think Dust N Bones is the best one and even had single potential if he hadn't bailed.
Now we're at 65 minutes.
Double Talking Jive immediately became a permanent part of the set list. It should've been rerecorded with Axl on vocals.
69 minutes.
Just barely enough room to squeeze in two more songs....one which also become a permanent fixture in the set list and the other was a moderate hit and might have been bigger had it been released earlier in the cycle.....
Live and Let Die
YesterdaysThe disc is now full.
Yes...there's other good songs but they're not really necessary and can either be used as B sides or save them for a future album.
Alternate universe UYI...
You Could Be Mine
Don't Cry
November Rain
The Garden
Coma
Breakdown
Locomotive
Estranged
Dust N Bones
Double Talking Jive
Live and Let Die
Yesterdays
That’s one hell of an album.
I was too young to know any of this stuff was going on at the time...the hype seemed legendary.
Still makes me scratch my head...they did the double album and produced 30 published songs and haven’t been able to produce 30 total tracks in 30 years.
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
That’s one hell of an album.
Indeed.
Having said that....
Even a condensed album of epics has issues.
This isn't Dark Side of the Moon. Fuck...it's not even The Wall.
Certain songs become redundant. Does an album that contains Coma really need Locomotive? Does an album that contains Don't Cry and November Rain really need Estranged (or vice versa)?
Probably not.
- jimmythegent
- Rep: 30
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
One thing that gets overlooked is that it wasn't just two albums released at once - it was 2 double albums! With that said, I think a smarter option would have been one 60 min album released first with a clutch of b-sides + another full length album one a year later again with plenty of b-sides also. Then a boxset including live cuts, spaghetti cuts , b-sides, demos plus all the material at the end of the tour...
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
That’s one hell of an album.
Indeed.
Having said that....
Even a condensed album of epics has issues.
This isn't Dark Side of the Moon. Fuck...it's not even The Wall.
Certain songs become redundant. Does an album that contains Coma really need Locomotive? Does an album that contains Don't Cry and November Rain really need Estranged (or vice versa)?
Probably not.
Had they trimmed the fat, made both albums 12 tracks, UYI would still be killer with two albums. People forget, UYI was supposed to be a film and box set. You have to admire the ambition, but I think the compromise hurt it in the end that they had too many ideas/contributions, and they tried to cram it all into the albums instead of making two great stand alone albums.
- metallex78
- Rep: 194
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
You guys are nuts, I’m glad we got two full albums from that band in UYI. There are so many different styles and influences going on, there’s a bit of something for everyone. And Slash rips on every song too!
You guys keep saying that it would have been more successful if they had released one single album, but as it is, they were released as two full double albums, and debuted at number one and two in the charts and sold in the millions regardless.
- jimmythegent
- Rep: 30
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
And Slash rips on every song too! .
It really is a Slash masterclass. Other's have their moments but the common thread is Slash and he really is MVP across the Illusions. Sad that he has never remotely got close to that level since...
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
You guys keep saying that it would have been more successful if they had released one single album, but as it is, they were released as two full double albums, and debuted at number one and two in the charts and sold in the millions regardless.
I never said that.
At midnight Sept. 17th, 1991, almost a million teenagers across the country were lined up outside record stores.
It went gold in what was it....two hours?
That's fucking Beatlemania with a dash of Thriller.
My point is that the albums have not only not stood the test of time but have slipped out of the Zeitgeist.
Then it veered into vaporizing a portion of its bloat.
The only way you could possibly get those albums more successful than they were is to release them the summer of 1990.
It wouldn't have even needed a tour to help fuel sales.
It's not talked about much anymore but the world went bat shit bonkers for them as we entered 1990....
The insane media hype
Civil War/Down on the Farm at Farm Aid
Civil War released on that charity album
New KOHD on Days of Thunder
Radio so starved for more fresh material they once again raided old B sides like Whole Lotta Rosie to keep it going
Since no videos were done for Civil War and KOHD....a big mistake IMO....MTV raids the Ritz show for the second time and cherry picks a few songs to throw into rotation
1990 shows how massive they truly were. Throwing 2-3 year old songs into heavy rotation as if they were top 40 hits was unprecedented. I don't think it's happened again since and that was 30 years ago.
1988 was the wrong year to alleviate the pressure with an EP. AFD was still the top selling album! In 1988, the only real pressure was to keep a steady flow of copies of AFD on the shelves.
I'll never forget when Lies hit. I was going to Payless for something and there it was....the vinyl on display. Did my Ric Flair strut over to it and grabbed it.
I think it was $7.99.
I'm entering one of my patented tangents....
To wrap it up....God himself couldn't have intervened in the fall of 91 to make those bigger.
However....the devil could have intervened and killed the records.
How?
By waiting until the summer of 92 to release them.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
Isn’t November Rain the highest view count video of the 90s on YouTube, well over a 1.6 billion views? Sure, Shotgun Blues and My World may be great obscure trivia questions in 2021, but to say UYI has no staying power is to ignore the huge success and rotation of many of those songs on every rock station across the world.
Re: Guns N' Roses & related STUDIO SESSIONS - a definitive collection (?)
Alternate universe UYI...
You Could Be Mine
Don't Cry
November Rain
The Garden
Coma
Breakdown
Locomotive
Estranged
Dust N Bones
Double Talking Jive
Live and Let Die
Yesterdays
I dump LALD and Don't Cry. Sorry, Don't Cry hasn't held up at all. It's not awful but fucking hell it just kind of sits there and is just average. I try to fit in Dead Horse and Don't Damn Me somewhere in there. Maybe one of Breakdown or Locomotive goes. As much as I want to maybe cut off the Garden from this list, the Cooper involvement in the song almost gurantees it stays.
