are you talking about this? He kinda screams the verse more than normal.

Rock Am Ring 06 is the show that really shows "Axl still had it".

Like 2006 Axl does those EPIC screams, has rasp for days, still pulls out shockingly awesome stuff at random (eg Sailing Cover), still stalks the stage with his predator attitude, looks older but brings the braids into a distinctive kinda badass look and wears kinda designer rock clothing. Real rockstar vibe from him - but one that sorta felt more like the real evolution of an older Axl rather than 2002 which felt more like Axl trying to be something he wasn't or maybe being pushed into something he wasn't into or something.

Makes you think if the slash house visit in 2004 had gone better, and 2006 tour had been a reunion tour back then you'd have seen some serious shit go down. When you think about the powerhouse Axl was here, and the overdrive way Slash started smashing out albums a couple of years later in 2010...all that energy put into a GNR reunion would have been insane. Not that i'm not enjoying parts of the modern reunion (especially Absurd)..but it would be a different beast before it all got hard like it is now.

As for bumblefoot, I could never say enough nice about him, been lucky enough to meet him on a few occasions and deal with him a little bit and he's been the absolute nicest guy you can possibly imagine. He would never say this, but to my mind he's such a good guy he kinda deserves better than how things worked out. I would have liked to have seen him end up more like a robert trujillo in metallica situation where he might not be the original but is a loved part of the modern experience and set for life. He's also mindblowingly good on guitar in person too. Anyways...be nice to Ron if you meet him in real life, he's cool.

Some of the copyright information would imply that there's a new deal.

......for example if you look at Chinese Democracy the recording is listed as "(c) Geffen Records" whereas Absurd is listed as "(c) Guns N Roses under exclusive license to Geffen Records"

Normal practise is that a record label would own anything recorded while the band was under contract to them....so you would expect in a normal situation....Geffen would own silkworms and the other unused chinese songs....so this copyright makes me infer that some type of renegotiation has taken place....perhaps like the band have collectively bought back the masters to unused recordings, or negotiated some type of new record deal where Geffen gets first look but doesn't have the ability to call the shots anymore.

When you think about how CD was all sunk cost for geffen, which they made back, and how Axl has demonstrated he will wait them to the grave if they force him, and how the band has massive leverage now with the hundreds of millions they make on tour.....it would be fairly easy for them to buy out that old deal now.

Anyway all speculation but it's plausible to me and arguably implied in that copyright notice.

What I wonder though is if YCBM would work these days either.

Everyone knows better than everyone else.

Like i'm a fan of wrestling and everyone knows better than Vince Mcmahon.

I'm a fan of starwars and everyone knows better that George Lucas, then they absolutely know better than Disney.

We all know better than the clowns that made all the Alien sequels, especially that hack Sir Ridley Scott who made the last couple.

I realised recently that absolutely everything I am a fan of, has a collection of people online, all of who seem to engage with the product by finding flaws in it, and all of them know better than everyone who actually makes the products.

Some of it is granted of course, and god knows we know that GNR has given us an absolute litany of valid reasons to get frustrated over the years....but at some level I just enjoy stuff for what it is now.

Is Prometheus as good as Aliens? No...but it has some fun parts. Is Absurd a new Jungle? Nup...but it's kinda fun to listen to regardless.

But what i wonder is - if it really was as good - would anyone notice anyway these days? When was the last time anyone of our age actually liked anything as much as we all liked the 80s/90s classics. Like if you think about it - the twat screams may be harder than anything on UYI but they don't count, the Anastasia solos may be better than AFD solos note for note but they won't count either.

I'm not trying to say absurd is the best song ever or anything, but I dont think it even matters if it is, and it's fun for what it is.

I've not been able to find a stream of tonight yet, but that sounds like an interesting development.