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#141 Re: Guns N' Roses » Slash: GNR has not written any new music, everything completed is CD 2 » 237 weeks ago

If Absurd and Hard Skool is anything to go by, it looks like they have picked songs that were written mainly by Axl (and/or Dizzy, who is still in the band) and could be redone to such an extent that they wouldn't have to give writing credits to NuGnR members - and, on the other hand, Slash and Duff could get a credit. If that's a pattern (and I think it is) and not just a coincidence, I suppose songs like Atlas and Perhaps fall in the same category, but I don't see how songs that were (instrumentally) written entirely by former members could fit in. Because there couldn't be an album with Slash/Duff and the songwriting credits on ASCAP and the similar databases being all Finck, Buckethead, Stinson, etc. - they can't get away just by putting "written by Guns N' Roses" in the liner notes, as these databases are in the public domain. I also don't think Slash and Duff would have agreed to do it otherwise.

So there may be an album of "leftovers," but not necessarily exactly the same that was intended to be released as "CD2".

#142 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 239 weeks ago

When Axl did the interview with Rolling Stone in late November 1999 (published early Feb. 2000), the title track was already called "Chinese Democracy". It's not clear from the description if any of the songs had vocals yet, but it seems at least some of them had lyrics:

Song after song combines the edgy hard rock force and pop smarts of vintage Guns N Roses with surprisingly modern and ambitious music textures. In addition to the album's almost grungy title track, tentative song titles include ''Catcher in the Rye,'' ''I.R.S,'' ''The Blues'' and ''TWAT,'' which he says stands for ''there was a time.'' Another song, called ''Oklahoma'' - heard tonight only as an instrumental - was inspired by a court date with ex-wife Erin Everly.

#143 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 239 weeks ago

James wrote:

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.

#144 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 239 weeks ago

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.

#145 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 241 weeks ago

Vale wrote:
monkeychow wrote:
Sky Dog wrote:

Still adding and deleting layers in 2021. You can’t make this shit up. 4



But I'm glad we're getting the left over tracks with Slash and Duff...but it does sound like the plan is they just mute the original bass/guitar lines and over dub slash - which is a shame cos songs like Atlas and so on would be awesome but need a rearrangement IMO.

I agree, better this way than none of the stuff. Releasing it this way might also open the possibilities for a Chinese Boxset one day in 2050 with the original players...

Regarding the rearrangement of the songs: Let us not forget that even the Finck/Stinson/Buckethead band could have still rearranged theses recordings from the version we heard. Just look at Silkworms..thanks to the Bumblefoot version we know the structure had been changed before Slash & Duff came on board. And the same thing could have happened with Hard Skool. Maybe the section after the first chorus that was new to us now wasn't something Slash & Duff brought to the table, but was already there with Robin/Bucket or at least with Bumble/DJ... Also in terms of complete vocal tracks, I think we're down to Atlas and Perhaps. By putting vocals on some of the other tracks the song structures could easily have been rearranged by 2004/2006/2008

I think the drums may be a giveaway on whether the arrangement is new or not.

On Hard Skool, even though the structure hasn't changed radically compared to the Village demo, the arrangement is quite different, so they couldn't have kept Josh Freese's drums. And the fact that they didn't use Brain's drum track from a presumed post-Village version either (like they did on Absurd), indicates that the arrangement of the Slash/Duff version is new.

#146 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 241 weeks ago

metallex78 wrote:
Blackstar wrote:

I don't visit their merch site often, but the more classic-looking UYI shirts must have been on there for a while - I'm sure I'd seen them listed before the new anniversary merch was added.

They certainly weren’t listed with the 30th anniversary fugly stuff when they made the social media post last week. If they were I probably wouldn’t have complained so much about merch they were selling to celebrate it.

Yes, they definitely weren't listed as part of the anniversary stuff, but they were among the regular shirts they were selling - at least that's what I remember.

#147 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 241 weeks ago

I don't visit their merch site often, but the more classic-looking UYI shirts must have been on there for a while - I'm sure I'd seen them listed before the new anniversary merch was added.

#148 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 241 weeks ago

The "Guns N' Roses was here" t-shirts can also be seen in official newsletters from 1989/90:

http://www.troccolitm.com/FnClb.html

#149 Re: Guns N' Roses » Hardschool single coming September 24th. » 241 weeks ago

"Guns N' Roses was here" was definitely on official t-shirts during the AFD tour in the US and elsewhere. It was usually accompanied by tour dates. It was even commented on in the press of the time, e.g. in this clipping from the Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1989:

1989_045.jpg

It has been used even during NITL (but without the rape image from the original AFD artwork).

*

About the "EP": I think the media have just confused the fake EP rumour at the Steve Hoffman forums with the actual release, which isn't being marketed as an EP by the band - and it really isn't, it's a CD single.

#150 Re: Guns N' Roses » GN'R 2021 Tour Thread » 241 weeks ago

metallex78 wrote:

Damn, Axl sounded terrible. I was really hoping for its live debut he’d do it a little bit of justice, but that was Mickey all the way through.

That was a struggle to watch it all the way through.

Did he say anything about the song before or after?

Before they played it he said that it was supposed to be played earlier in the set, but there were issues with his IEM. Then he introduced it as "a song about lower education" (I was hoping he would say more about it or at least for a better introduction, but oh well).

After the performance he said, “That was interesting. That was something. What that something was, I’m not exactly sure.”

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