Guns n Roses: Critical Rehab

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2012/10/30/axl-rose-on-gnr-music-more/1669329/

Supermodel girlfriend Stephanie Seymour and original Guns guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan "did more damage to my ability as a writer. To those three, it was all crap. It beat me down so much. At the time of the (Use Your Illusion) tours, Slash and Duff said, 'You're an idiot, you're a loser.' I didn't write for years. I felt I was hindered for a very long time. I was also trying to figure out what I wanted to say, when it's right to be venting and when you're digging a bigger hole. Lyrics on Chinese took a long time."

I have my doubts.

Axl bought a zoo!

i don't have any doubts that the lyrics took a long time. every account of making the album was like 'we worked on the basic tracks for that song for years before we heard axl sing on it.'

That quote is a weird thing to say too, because he has a number of songs on the UYI albums in which he was the only credited writer, including at least 3 (Dead Horse, November Rain, Estranged) that were released as singles. xxxpost

oh, and "Yesterdays" too!

I think the discussion was more like "Hey Axl these are great lyrics but do we really need an overdub of 'Cool Ranch Dressing?'"

Yeah I have a feeling it's more that Axl has a weird way of interpreting feedback/criticism of any kind. Or conversations in general. Dude is hella paranoid in that regard, it seems.

Like you see versions of conversations repeated by different band members and Axl's always the one interpreting it as 'they all said I sucked so I fired them' and the parties are like 'we just told axl he should keep working on the lyrics, what he had was a really good start'

poor axl!
http://imgur.com/Sjycm.jpg

HAHA

from the way Slash's book told it, it sounded like Axl kinda holed up and did most of the UYI vocals away from the rest of the band and they didn't really hear much until the album was done and mixed. so if they were insulting him on the following tour it was probably because he was delaying every show for hours.

Maybe if Axl had just spent a little longer on the "Chinese Democracy" lyrics it would have been a huge smash.

Because it was the lyrics that held it back.

Heard Axl recorded the vocals one syllable at a time.

I;n sure Axl thinks they rushed Chinese Democracy out and it's not really finished

still waiting for Izzy's memoir.

He actually spent a lot of time recording one syllable per private press LP, then had DJ Shadow sample it. Then in the end it wasn't what he wanted, so he just used ProTools.

Schedule was so behind that the "Chinese Democracy" released were just the demos. You should have heard what Axl wanted it to sound like, had the label just shown a little ... patience.

yeah can we please have an Izzy bio. Pleeeeease.

I ordered Ju Ju Hounds album, should be showing up tonight :D
It's only available as an import, apparently. Not v expensive. I guess it went OOP in the US?

I saw a review on Amazon calling that album the 90s "Exile on Mainstreet"

I listened to it for the first time the other day and I was shocked by how good it is (upthread I think?). I'd heard it was good, and it has a lot of good/glowing reviews but I was still kinda skeptical. But yeah, it's the real deal. Verrrrrrrrry stones. ie my wheelhouse, lol

"Shuffle It All" got a lil MTV rotation, i asked for (and received) the CD for Christmas 1992.

Wow, just came across this interesting audio-- Izzy's isolated track from "Welcome to the Jungle"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUSFOxhxtLI&feature=related

Izzy album, the first one, iirc, is no better or worse than the first couple of Black Crowes albums.

What I love about the guitars on "Appetite" is that they are so, so far from the virtuoso precision of the day. They're sloppy but awesome.

don't know the albums but BC were a pretty killer singles act in that run

They sort of approach as Izzy, actually. Stones-y riffs, vibe over precision, etc.

Same sort, that is.

The first couple of Black Crowes records are good. No problem with that comparison, though there's more early Aerosmith sound in the Ju Ju Hounds.

Stones/solo Keef by way of Black Crowes, yeah I'll buy that.

So... I have a lingering question from my youth... When Axl enjoins us to feel his serpentine, is he like talking about his dick and stuff

didn't you read the interview, he has a zoo.

hm... so the jungle is literal. huh.

exactly.

I write him a note every so often reminding him that serpentine is an adjective and that verbs traditionally want a noun, so probably "serpent" is the better call if he ever gets around to a rewrite, or perhaps "serpentine penis" if he wants to draw out the line a little

those 'motivational poster' memes that use adjectives and nouns interchangeably are just further proof that axl was a prophet

http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mBfIQBzimbjXlnhBp6RwvlQ.jpg

Now a race of snake people in LEGO Ninjago.

serpentine: a mineral or rock consisting essentially of a hydrous magnesium silicate usually having a dull green color and often a mottled appearance

serpentine: a mineral or rock consisting essentially of a hydrous magnesium silicate usually having a dull green color and often a mottled appearance, usu. found in the jungle

serpentine: a mineral or rock consisting essentially of a hydrous magnesium silicate usually having a dull green color and often a mottled appearance, usu. found in the jungle

Appetite for Destruction was the first album I ever bought. When I was a kid, I thought "You're Crazy" was about someone endearingly wild and free-spirited. I now realize that I was probably wrong.

lol well axl is endearingly wild and free-spirited

Seems appropriate: Axl suspended above the audience playing grand piano, equally isolated from band and audience:

http://instagram.com/p/RlgYAuNDua/

Izzy joins GnR on stage in Vegas: http://www.spin.com/articles/guns-n-roses-end-las-vegas-residency-izzy-stradlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quHICrZTzrk

Vegas would seem like a perfect place for Axl, in a compound with 20-ft-high walls next to Penn's.

Good old Izzy.

Love Axl wandering around in the distant background and then trotting back to the front whenever there's a chorus. It's like he's doing a tribute to the Mah Na Mah Na sketch from the Muppets.

that's...just how "14 Years" goes though?

axl sounds pretty good in that clip with izzy!

like izzy's threads too, he looks slick