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- AgesOfTheIce
- Rep: 10
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
Scabbie wrote:For all we know he could be writing lyrics for new songs and has moved on. You just don’t know with axl
I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't written any lyrics since 2002.
I agree with this. I used to think he definitely wrote Shackler's in 2007 because it was about Virginia Tech but when you look back at his statement, he said he wrote it about school shooters like the Virginia Tech one, not necessarily that he wrote it about that one specifically.
- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
I do not begrudge the man for releasing songs with unreleased vocals from decades ago. Use the good material…it probably won’t get better.
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
If he hasn't done much lyrics and vocals since 99 they really should just make an extended CD version with Slash and Duff. At least that way we're getting something from them. Like a redux version. Scrap some of the stinkers, put in Absurd, HS, OMG, the General and what else exists that he finished.
- AgesOfTheIce
- Rep: 10
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
There is no song on CD that is worse than Absurd. Even Scraped is better as Bucket's riffs are quite good.
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
I just checked the YouTube link.
After 3 days....
872k views
50k likes
1k dislikesNot bad...but no chance of exploding/going viral.
It's officially dead in the water.
In two weeks+ it has a grand total of....
1.6 million views.
69k likes
1.8k dislikes
GNR's Youtube channel has 9 million subscribers.
In other words, only one out of nine subscribers bothered to watch it....it's actually less because a portion of those views are from people who checked it out of curiosity and aren't even subscribed.
It is a huge sign of how mismanaged they are and how there's no genuine plan/strategy when it comes to these single releases.
When only 10% of your own followers bother checking out your new song, it's time for a change.
Edit
I just checked Absurd....
2.2 million views
68k likes
18k dislikes
Yikes.
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
Josh Freese on Hard Skool, CD title track and Absurd. 16:00 minute mark:
I have transcribed the quote:
Freese: The only reason I know about the track Hard Skool at all is [that] my publishing company emailed me about it, maybe a week ago or a week-and-a-half ago, and said, “Do you know anything about the song Hard Skool? Did you have anything to do with the writing of it? Because it’s coming out” or “it just came out and we want to know what the splits are.” Because I guess it was done when I was in the studio with them. But we recorded so much material, and after I left they worked on so much stuff post me being there. And it was 20 years ago – over 20 years ago now – that I was there, that… There’s a few things that I really had a big hand in on the writing, for instance the title track, Chinese Democracy; I wrote the music to it. There was a few other songs that had working titles that never ended up on the Chinese Democracy record, but were laying around, and I know that at least when we recorded them 20 years ago, Axl liked them a lot. And once again, when I was there they didn’t have any lyrics yet, so they just had these working titles.
So when Hard Skool came out and I listened to it, I went “God, maybe that is one that I wrote that they’ve since… you know, later put lyrics to.” Like, when I was there in the studio with them, the song Chinese Democracy wasn’t called “Chinese Democracy” yet. I think the working title was “Smells like Josh Spirit,” because I wrote it and the chords were really simple – it’s just like kind of these three chords, over and over and over – and someone at one point goes, “This sounds kind of cool, like a Nirvana riff or something.” So it was titled “Smells Like Josh Spirit,” like up on the board where we had all the songs we were working on. Axl hadn’t written any lyrics to it yet, and that didn’t happen until after I left.
So, once again, when I went, “Okay, Hard Skool, let me listen to that, because maybe that’s what this song turned into or that song turned into,” I listened to it and I didn’t recognize hardly any of it, you know… That being said, maybe I did write some of it (laughs) - I mean, because, once again, it was 22 years ago. But there was two or three things that I brought in where I really wrote the majority of the music and I would definitely recognize instantly. As a matter of fact, before the track started playing, I’m like, “I wonder if it’s going to be this one, or this one, or this one,” because there were a few that were pretty cool that didn’t end up getting used, but that wasn’t one of them. Did they release more stuff or just that one track last week? [Brando mentions Absurd and that it was called Silkworms] Oh yeah. I didn’t have anything to do with that one.
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
Josh Freese on Hard Skool, CD title track and Absurd. 16:00 minute mark:
I have transcribed the quote:
Freese: The only reason I know about the track Hard Skool at all is [that] my publishing company emailed me about it, maybe a week ago or a week-and-a-half ago, and said, “Do you know anything about the song Hard Skool? Did you have anything to do with the writing of it? Because it’s coming out” or “it just came out and we want to know what the splits are.” Because I guess it was done when I was in the studio with them. But we recorded so much material, and after I left they worked on so much stuff post me being there. And it was 20 years ago – over 20 years ago now – that I was there, that… There’s a few things that I really had a big hand in on the writing, for instance the title track, Chinese Democracy; I wrote the music to it. There was a few other songs that had working titles that never ended up on the Chinese Democracy record, but were laying around, and I know that at least when we recorded them 20 years ago, Axl liked them a lot. And once again, when I was there they didn’t have any lyrics yet, so they just had these working titles.
So when Hard Skool came out and I listened to it, I went “God, maybe that is one that I wrote that they’ve since… you know, later put lyrics to.” Like, when I was there in the studio with them, the song Chinese Democracy wasn’t called “Chinese Democracy” yet. I think the working title was “Smells like Josh Spirit,” because I wrote it and the chords were really simple – it’s just like kind of these three chords, over and over and over – and someone at one point goes, “This sounds kind of cool, like a Nirvana riff or something.” So it was titled “Smells Like Josh Spirit,” like up on the board where we had all the songs we were working on. Axl hadn’t written any lyrics to it yet, and that didn’t happen until after I left.
So, once again, when I went, “Okay, Hard Skool, let me listen to that, because maybe that’s what this song turned into or that song turned into,” I listened to it and I didn’t recognize hardly any of it, you know… That being said, maybe I did write some of it (laughs) - I mean, because, once again, it was 22 years ago. But there was two or three things that I brought in where I really wrote the majority of the music and I would definitely recognize instantly. As a matter of fact, before the track started playing, I’m like, “I wonder if it’s going to be this one, or this one, or this one,” because there were a few that were pretty cool that didn’t end up getting used, but that wasn’t one of them. Did they release more stuff or just that one track last week? [Brando mentions Absurd and that it was called Silkworms] Oh yeah. I didn’t have to do with that one.
WOW.
He hadn't started any lyrics/vocals before Freese left?
Unbelievable.
No wonder he left. In other words, it's eerily similar to Moby's quick departure....very interested, ready to get things done, but no movement from Axl caused him to bail out of the project.
It also helps explain why both couldn't go into much detail about the material...there were no real songs at that point.
I'm flabbergasted by the fact he didn't know what Hardschool was...and the only reason he knows Absurd is because he heard it like everyone else in 2001.
The story of Chinese continues to get wackier.
I love the "Smells Like Josh Spirit" story.
Re: Hardschool single coming September 24th.
WOW.
He hadn't started any lyrics/vocals before Freese left?
Unbelievable.
No wonder he left. In other words, it's eerily similar to Moby's quick departure....very interested, ready to get things done, but no movement from Axl caused him to bail out of the project.
It also helps explain why both couldn't go into much detail about the material...there were no real songs at that point.
I'm flabbergasted by the fact he didn't know what Hardschool was...and the only reason he knows Absurd is because he heard it like everyone else in 2001.
The story of Chinese continues to get wackier.
I love the "Smells Like Josh Spirit" story.
I don't know...
We do know for a fact that Beavan recorded the vocals to most of the songs that ended up on CD, including the title track - most, if not all, of the vocals in the Village discs were recorded by Beavan.
Beavan and Freese left around the same time. Freese's contract expired in March 2000. Beavan stayed around for a little while after RTB was brought in by the label (which was in April).
I'm thinking that Freese probably had been de facto out by late 1999 (before his contract expired), as he was preoccupied with APC, so he wasn't there when Axl recorded vocals.
