Indeed. I think Axl's mistake was really giving a shit what the media thought.

It may have been in fashion to bag hard rock for a while, but who really cares, Ac/Dc always released similar sounding albums for decades and while people make snippy comments about it in the album reviews and in the media they always sell well.

Do the snakepit songs but with Axl changes, then do TIL and some of Axl's ballad type stuff and if it sounded too much like UYI3 then tell the media to go fuck themselves again....lol

Part of the problem though is that Axl didn't seem to recognise the role of Izzy's replacement as a rhythm guy.

He had Paul do leads on Sympathy for the Devil - wasn't like he came in and over dubbed the Rhythm parts.

Likewise his other choice to add to the band - Zakk Wylde....not exactly known as a rhythm guitarist.

It's not hard to see why Slash felt disrespected. The people brought in were actively threatening his role within the group.

Here's my take on the Alien Franchise:

Warning - includes spoilers for the series.

Alien

Pros: The movie that started it all. What would have been a typical B grade monster movie beautifully crafted into an  art movie that is still entertaining as genuine horror. The political and sexual subtexts are cleverly incorporated to a thrill fest. Interesting vision of the future in terms of corporate dominance, distrust of AI etc. The use of the H.R. geiger imagery was overwhelming genius and of course is what really created this whole franchise and set the whole mood.

Cons: Not many. Our computer technology was unforeseeable at the time of this movie and so their monochrome-industrial-scifi is no longer a credible vision of what will be our future. That said - it presents a marvellous fantasy future of it's own - to people of my age there's something enjoyable about a future of that type of technology - and so this isn't really a problem.

Aliens

Pros: Perhaps the most impressive sequel ever. This movie was a sleeper when you consider the change in directors and that a sequel to a monster movie like Alien was likely to be bad. However James Cameron did something very clever - he saw how well Alien operated in its genre...and so moved the sequel to a new genre. It doesn't try and beat Alien at it's own game - which to my mind is why it works - it's complimentary not a replacement. Amazing casting, amazing dialogue, interesting meshing of the themes of the first movie with some new aspects like motherhood, the corporation having blended with a Japanese corporation too, the mecha tech stuff. Pretty much amazing to pull off this movie in 1986.

Cons: Like with Alien - there's not much to say. Closest thing I can think of again is that certain things dated unexpectedly - such as the indoor smoking board members of Weyland Yutani. However if that's what I don't believe about a 30 year old movie with this plot line...then we're doing pretty well!!!

Alien 3

Pros: This movie has incredible mood. There's something just awful about the vibe of it and it works to really hit you in the gut in almost every sequence. Taking the art-house approach of sacrificing Ripley was in keeping with the high-art tone of the first film. I also like it didn't attempt to out-fun Aliens but went back to a more sinister vibe. The art direction in this movie is great too. Stuff just looks beautifully bleak. Bishop 2 was a fun idea to link it to the last movie, and there's a lot of great imagery - such as the iconic "face to face with the alien" shots.

Cons: The nihilist tone of the movie - while it's strength - is also it's weakness - it's just too nasty for most audiences. I can deal with Ripley sacrificing herself, but the killing of Newt and Hicks seemed to unnecessarily invalidate the previous movie. I'm fine with them writing them out but I would have gone a different direction - like them being jettisoned and we never know what happened to them. Meanwhile I felt this movie kills people just as they became interesting - eg the Drug addict doctor. After a while it becomes jarring to watch - perhaps by intent - but it makes it hard to love the film. The "assembly cut" is superior I think, and watching the making of one learns a lot of the problems of this movie came from the studio rushing development. Overall it's the movie I love to hate. I hate what they did - but they maybe the did well to make me hate it! There's something very good about it...

Alien Resurrection

Pros: The choice of Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct was inspired at the time. His previous movies such as "The city of lost Children" had a surreal and macabre look that suited the alien mythology perfectly. One of the interesting things about this franchise was that each instalment had fresh and cutting edge directors. Jeunet delivered a movie that looked wondrous. This is one of those good fun adventure movies. The water scenes were a great idea.

Cons: The story. Perhaps it's still the fault of Alien 3's plot choices...but it seemed somewhat of a hard sell to bring Ripley back. Worse...Joss Wheedon's script feels a bit like fan fiction. The themes feel shoehorned such as the A.I. now being Father, the burning of the androids modems, and a bunch of things that feel like Joss was writing up his on feminist fan fic. It doesn't help that the characters in this movie were essentially reused in firefly. Or that the newborn feels like a gimmic designed to copy Jim Cameron's introduction of the Alien Queen as a 'twist'. Meanwhile the company is written out for no apparent reason. Problematic for me. Overall though this is one of those guilty pleasures. I dislike all the things I've just said about it. But it's one of those movies it's trendy to hate yet I can ruthlessly enjoy with every screening....so it's really hard to say.

Alien vs Predator

Pros: The designs in this movie are actually pretty cool. There's a lot of fun moments - the pyramid etc. It was great to bust out Lance again as Wayland. Having him be sick was interesting.

Cons: I tend to agree with James Cameron that a "vs" movie lowered the artsy nature of the franchise to B grade. Although I like Predator (well ok I like Jessie and Arnold) I don't really think of them as on par with the stuff in Alien, so it was always going to be a problematic mashup. Basically I can kinda enjoy it just because I like the Alien but it's not the way I wanted them to go. Hard to accept them as real story canon so to speak - I just take them for what they are. This movie was also a bit tame for an Alien film.

Alien vs Predator 2: Requiem

Pros: The studio seemed to be less worried about making kids stuff this time and let the filmmakers get a bit nasty. It's more watchable than it should be...

Cons: The film makers were trying too hard to shock. Killing pregnant women etc. Just all seemed a bit try hard - especially when placed with the thin plot - which was really just the problem that the "Vs" concept has no place to go. Overall it has it's moments - but you can't take this seriously as a quality movie.

Prometheus

Pros: Somewhat of a reboot it was clear the studio wanted quality this time. The return to Ridley was a shame in a way considering the tradition of using edgy and young filmmakers - but it made great sense as an attempt to get this series up off the floor and back on track. This movie looks visually grand. The new synthetic David was a master piece. The general feel of this movie started to fit back in with the originals rather than the AvP digressions.

Cons: There's a sense this movie didn't know what it was doing. Watching the making of - it seems the scriptwriters wrote it to be an Alien Prequel, then it was decided to make it a stand alone story, then it was decided it would be a stand alone story but in the same universe as Alien, then it kind of became an Alien reboot, and what we ended up with was something awkwardly in the middle. Overall though my major issue was making the Alien turn out to have been invented as a bio weapon by the Engineers who also made humans. It takes us from a universe where we know 3 distinct species (Space Jocky, Xemomorph and Human) to everything being related to each other. I liked the original concept that the Alien was a just a natural parasitic animal - like the fucked bugs and stuff we have here on earth. I liked that they came across something dangerous like that exploring and that it had already injured another unknown mysterious race - and humans want to weaponise it now.  So the "Engineers made the humans and the Alien" sort of spoiled a lot of parts of the first movie to me in terms of the mythology.

Alien Covenant

Out in a few weeks. Looks a bit like the studio let Ridley make a Pometheus sequel but demanded he get back to the main franchise. Also looks a bit like he is going to challenge Jim Cameron's additions now by addressing colonists and so on. Looked very fun on the trailer but who knows how it will turn out.

It's also notable that this movie is being produced at the expense of the rival "alternate Alien 3"  concept film neill blomkamp had wanted to produce. So the pressure is on for the studio to deliver for fans.

Alien Isolation (ps4)

While i'm ranting about Alien couldn't help but give this game a plug. It's survival horror set in the Alien Universe. If you're a fan of the series I highly recommend it! The mood is perfect.

It did sound like he was just hitting chords progressions around a solo as people do as part of their solo spot.

It's curious that the same progression with the same inflection was subsequently used though.

Did someone independently come up with the same riff by chance? Was the song adapted from an unused Slash-GNR demo lying around? Did a later guitarist watch GNR boots as part of rehearsing and like the sound of that progression?

We'll never know I guess. But its strange for sure.