Jeremy.

Gimmie Shelter.

I like Billie Jean and quite a few MJ songs, but I'd take the best of the Stones over the best of MJ any day of the week.

I used to hate Mick Wall but I've changed my mind about him, I havnt read the book he wrote and I'm not that sure he was in the best place to write a fair balanced book. But I do think he calls it down the line and he has a lot more to his Curriculum Vitae than Get In The Ring, I enjoy his work on other bands.

He did a radio show on Planet Rock around the time of the album release, it was kind of the story about Axl and the making of the cd, with the new songs played through. It was pretty good and very complimentary, even slightly sorrowful about Axl troubles.

I think this place is balanced, far more than other sites at least.

Sorry Atari, I have a lot of respect for Axl but I'm not afraid to put the boot in if I think its merited, same goes for any public figure, friend or family member.
But the problem with Axl is the backlash started in earnest in 1992, and he certainly does get a raw deal a lot of the time, but he has absolutely brought about a hell of a lot of it himself. He was not popular waaaaaaaaaaay back, way before Slash left and way before his book.

It immaterial now, but I genuinally believe around the time of his reamergence at Las Vegas and RIR3 much of the world welcomed him back in open arms. People were excited, keen to hear new music and have a bonafied rock god back in the saddle.
Then began a series of aborted tours, some with major riots, and because of those failures, with no attempt to explain to people what went wrong, and I think the pendulum swung back swiftly toward the "Axl is an asshole" position.

Its not rocket science, forget spin doctoring, propaganda and passing the buck for events in yore.
Go out and perform music, release music, throw out some live dvds or cd, upload cool stuff onto the website - charm us, make us want to go to your shows, open up a little and show some good humour.
The online chats were very neat, and he came across as a fucking diamond for the most part.
Little gestures like that go a long way.

Give people positive things to talk about and leave all the negativity in the past.

I listen to the album a lot actually, Ishould probably knock it on the head for a while and go back to it later to replenish its impact on me.

Also I'm pretty sure I enjoy it more when I dont follow the boards, which is odd, the politics surrounding the album are pretty depressing though.

I was hoping for a more focused album, mabye like a Roger Waters type concept album, where the songs would have to be apprieciated as a whole on the album. I thought the timescale it took to make meant something much more elaborate and generation defining was coming.
I think a lot of us and others detected it straight away, that the album flowed like a compilation album. Its startingly obvious that they have picked out songs from a bundle a chose a running order.

I guess it all boils down to how high your expectations were how much you liked it. Even with the familiarity of the songs over the years, the album still takes a little getting used to, mabye there is too much going on.
I thought the original Blues demo only needed a better mix and different vocals at the beginning.
I loved the minimalistic piano version, the album version I'm still not 100% convinced by.