The problem with TWAT for me is the supposed chorus of "it's been a long (wrong) time for me" part...the guitar chords are hamfisted and the chorus is just weak. The verses are great, but the chorus sucks. That is the difference between it and Nov Rain as far as the first half of the song goes. Both outros are perfect in my opinion, but the first half goes to Nov Rain just because of the chorus.:rock:

James, the songs are good...you are not polishing a turd. You are taking an inherently well written song, spinning it in 200 different circles, then throwing a dart at a dartboard to figure out what version you like best. The songs had meaning in early 00, they got progressively homogenized by 02 and 06 and 08.:headbang:

Regarding the bass, we all talk about how Madagascar was best at Rio. I agree, but I also think that Chinese Democracy and The Blues were better at Rio as well. Go back and listen to those quicker paced versions. I believe that that was the band Tommy signed up for. The bass and drums on those versions are rocking and Tommy is clearly jacked up to be on that stage and his bass is very prominent in the mix...that is Tommy's type of music. CD sounds kind of punk and The Blues is just a nice mid tempo song. Madagascar is fucking epic and Tommy is locked in with Brain all throughout Bucket's killer solo. By 2002, the life had been sucked out of those three tracks in my opinion.:mad:

James, see, in my circles Duff was just kind of seen as a fuckup, drunk, good timing bassist. Izzy was always seen as cool and definitely important. I had a group of about 12 guys that went to see the Ju Ju Hounds when they came to Atlanta in 92 I believe. I think people retroactively place more importance on Duff because he was a part of the final Gnr partnership-Axl/Duff/Slash.

On Niven's comments, I think history has shown that Axl clearly had a plan to get the name. Which, from a business standpoint, does protect his long term interests.