Happy Birthday Axl. Enjoy your alcohol responsibly

Possible, although my gut feeling is that it's BH on this track which makes it 03. Having said that if Better was pieced together from different jams like some think I suppose it's possible Better as a song was constructed in the period your suggesting and one of BH's solos was just fitted in there even though he'd long since left GNR.

Whatever the true scenario though it does confirm Better is a newer track than a lot of the other material we have heard. Axl talked of 'big guns' before this song even existed which means the band was writing new songs since 02 and not just tinkering with the same old tracks, and not just new songs but good new songs. Who knows what else they've managed to write in the last 3-4 years? Sorry, If the World? Both tracks were only mentioned in the last 2 years.

Interesting. Possibly a bit of damage limitation on GNR's part there but it wouldn't surprise me if this was true. The whole GNR circus was obviously completely out of control back in 01/02, Axl unsure where to take things creatively, people pulling him left and right to make sure they got their slice of the pie etc. Whilst I'm sure some of those people are still around I think the newest era of GNR activity (06 onwards) was a sign Axl had a bit more control of things. He said himself in 01/02 the band was pushed around and made commitments in terms of tours that he wasn't really ready for, in 06 he was obviously in a much better frame of mind. It's possible things began to change in 04 when he took control of producing the album, but of course BH leaving threw a major spanner in the works which delayed any chance of major progress. 

You'll notice Mysteron or anyone else hasn't said this is false, instead he takes a shot at anyone who wishes to talk about it, the first real detailed info about behind the scenes of CD, like the fans won't want to talk about it. All the work in the world can have been done since these loony times but whilst the same songs get mentioned now as the ones back then it makes this article relevent. The CR article is a small portion of the CD saga from someone who witnessed it firsthand, if people don't like it being known what went on perhaps someone should have put a stop to it at the time. As I said it's only a small portion of the CD tale, hopefully Beta's parting comment is right and one day Axl will tell his story.

I can see now why HTGTH distanced themselves from the CR news last month, they obviously knew this was coming.

Awesome Neemo

I'll definately be buying this.