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- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
Out of released stuff:
TWAT - those screams are Axl's finest moment in the catalogue IMO.
Runners up:
IRS: Just a bad ass rocker, and the Rock Am Ring 2006 version still rocks me.
Madagascar: for the inspirational lyrics.
TIL: One of Axl's most beautiful love songs. Love the remix too, and slash's 2016 takes on the solo.
It's one of those albums with more good songs than you realise I think too, like now I think of it I could list quite a lot of them as runners up lol.
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
My fave song from the final album. My answer to this keeps changing but I'd probably say Better. If I was picking from leaked demo versions I'd say either CD or Catcher.
It's one of those albums with more good songs than you realise I think too, like now I think of it I could list quite a lot of them as runners up lol.
It really does have a lot of good songs, I honestly think the only real stinker is Scraped and even then it's not bad it's just a bit meh (like Anything Goes on AFD IMO). It just lacks a big single, closest it has are CD and Better.
Could it sound better if it hadn't been tweaked and re-recorded loads of times? Sure, for every step forward those additions took, they eventually took a step back.
Biggest example to my mind is TWAT, the improvement by making it longer and adding that Bucket solo makes the later versions smoke the 99/00 demos.... but then they add that weird choir and other shit to the start and take more and more edge off the song. It's still better because the solo elevates it so much but then it loses it's edge.
Same with CD.... that intro scream that was added right before the song kicks in is killer, and the extra solo is a good addition too. But the extra minute long intro, all the little jingles and chimes and other things added to it.... they muddy the song way too much. Even Ron's addition of the fretless slide part - it's actually a good idea, adds a bit of groove and sleaze, but it's just layered in on top of an already messy song. A good idea that could probably have been executed and included in the song in a much better way if bringing it to the table in 01.
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
Chinese Democracy is such a disaster project. There are plenty of good ideas on that album and at some point a lot of them were actually good songs too. The finished product though just completely falls flat. Too much of everything, messy sound and no cohesion. In many ways it feels like an album recorded by different artists over several decades in different countries, which is pretty close to the truth. This is not an album, it's a collection of overproduced songs from various lineups thrown together for accounting reasons.
- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
Chinese Democracy is such a disaster project. There are plenty of good ideas on that album and at some point a lot of them were actually good songs too. The finished product though just completely falls flat. Too much of everything, messy sound and no cohesion. In many ways it feels like an album recorded by different artists over several decades in different countries, which is pretty close to the truth. This is not an album, it's a collection of overproduced songs from various lineups thrown together for accounting reasons.
This. But I also think the overproduction was an attempt to make it sound like a cohesive album. Like at least it’s all overproduced.
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
Yep….said it before and will say it again. We got a Chinese Democracy compilation album. Instead of releasing a 2 cd set of cohesive songs, whoever “ they” is decided to try to do a Chinese Democracy best of which left fans with a mix of songs which aren’t remotely compatible.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
Could it sound better if it hadn't been tweaked and re-recorded loads of times? Sure, for every step forward those additions took, they eventually took a step back.
Yeah it's interesting how the songs change like that. Like a lot of the added solos I like such as having two solos and an outro in IRS and what you said about the title track.
But some of the final versions just feel sort of not quite right. Madagascar is like that to me - it's not even that I mind Axl's character voice in it (although I know some do) - there's just something about it that doesn't quite capture how cool the song would be live on a good night. It's sort of there on the record but something is off. It's like the studio version needed an outro or something to me but then the song worked as is live so I can't really say lol.
Another example is catcher, and I'm not even shitting on bumble cos I don't mind (and kinda like) his take on the solo how he did the brain may melodies but in more of the shreddy style the rest of the record has....so it's not that...but there's something off about the whole song...like the mix or something. Like the demo there's so much feeling coming from the piano and Axl's voice...then somehow I dunno if it's a retake or just burried under so much new stuff but something about the mood of the whole song is different in the final. It's still one of my fav songs of course...but it's interesting how it changed.
There's some weird type of magic in recording I think. In my own hobby stuff i've experienced versions of the same thing, like sometimes something that wasn't right just somehow is right even if it could officially be done better, and sometimes you can just never quite hit what you are aiming for no matter what you throw at it. It's strange.
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
The main problem with it...and I disagreed at the time when Neemo and various others suggested it....the songs needed to either be rebuilt from the ground up with the new(at the time) lineup, including new vocal takes from Axl....re-recorded live in the studio...or just stick with the 2000-04 versions of the songs.
It doesn't matter how good or bad a song is...
You can't just keep adding layers and cutting and pasting all sorts of crap into the material and expect it to still be listenable.
They took the title track....the 2000 version maybe an A- and turned it into a C+...yet it's still one of the best songs on the album!
Catcher went from A+...one of the lyrical highlights of his career up there with Civil War....down to a D.
I said it when I first heard the album and I'll say it 14 years later....
How that got approved as final and wrapped in cellophane will forever blow my mind. Everyone just wanted their hands washed of it.
- FlashFlood
- Rep: 55
Re: What is your favorite song on CD?
Catcher ... the original recording, not the one on the album.
Kind of crazy a leaked cassette tape was better than what was on the album.
