Old GNR Would Have Gotten Boring

[M&S]

They were too enamoured with blues based hard rock numbers. I've seen no evidence that Slash or Izzy are capable of writing anything other than old-fashioned hard rock, and neither of them seem particularly good at it anymore. Slash's solo album sucked alot of dick and was vastly inferior to Chinese Democracy in almost every respect. Even the Illusions were filled with samey sounding tracks from Izzy and Slash, who both became lazy, uninspired songwriters after they had their lucky break courtest of W. Axl Rose. Axl was the only one who seemed interested in honing the songwriting craft and it was his contributions that raised the UYI albums out of the depths of mediocrity. I truly believe that Axl was the heart and soul of GNR. His lyrics, vocals, and vocal melodies made GNR stand out from the crowd. The rest of the lineup were no different and no more talented than any number of other hard rock musicians.

So basically, I think GNR's breakup was a good thing. The old band were restricting Axl's ambition and pigeon holing GNR into some hard rock cliche... Regardless of whether you like Chinese Democracy or not, you have to respect that it's daring and ambitious... unlike Slash, Duff, and Izzy's generic fuckin' crap post 1990. Thank god GNR never became another Judas Priest/Iron Maiden/Kiss/Aerosmith... churning out the same cliched garbage year after year.

Thoughts?

My thoughts exactly,by the end of the Illusions tour and throughout the Skin n' Bones tour, it was basically going through the motions,ChiDem is complex and wildly varied,

unlike the formulated fungus that the "alumni" have released,

Thanks for pointing this overlooked fact out in such detail,well said

[Axl Knows]

I agree on the breakup in most respects but I did enjoy the new Slash record. Ultimately what happened was better for all parties involved.

I thought the new Slash record was as generic as they come. Not surprising considering it was written by the world's number.1 media whore. Slash makes Gene Simmons look like a true music lover and nonmaterialist.

I wouldn't go that far dude.

I would. Infact, Slash and Gene have ALOT in common.

[Axl Knows]

But guys, take a look at Slash's garbage solo career, THAT is what he wanted to turn GNR into... Another vehicle for self promotion.

[Bruno P.]

This forum is full of posers with too loud voices. Saying the same popularity bullshit over and over won't make Slash better than, let's say, Buckethead. The popularity argument should belong to a Britney Spears vs Lady Gaga discussion.

I mean, listen to the new Godfather theme by Slash. He's throwing notes everywhere trying to sound fast - but where's his big creativity? He forgot it with Axl n' Izzy. Because, ya know, without them he's an (above) average guitarist at best. You all know that, even if you like his playing and his songs.

Yes, I'm glad GnR broke up. Now Axl has a much better guitar combo in Ron, Ashba, Paul and Richard

[sweetness]

implying the new band doesn't bore the hell out of us... after all these years

[Nintari]

Again, two obvious and transparent threads made by the same person. I think it's pretty easy to see what's going on here.

You're only calling these threads transparent because you disagree with the sentiment and because you hate new GNR. You wouldn't be calling this thread trolling if I were running new GNR down, would you? So why don't you debate the point instead of trolling my thread?

Is there any other reason why you'd create two controversial threads? Threads that you and I both know are nothing but bait? Because that's what they are, bait. I'm not accusing you of having a pro old or pro new agenda. I don't think that's it. I think your only agenda is to create shit slinging debates.

Sadly, the people in this thread apparently aren't smart enough to figure that out before taking the bait.

[Allen8R]

Again, two obvious and transparent threads made by the same person. I think it's pretty easy to see what's going on here.

You're only calling these threads transparent because you disagree with the sentiment and because you hate new GNR. You wouldn't be calling this thread trolling if I were running new GNR down, would you? So why don't you debate the point instead of trolling my thread?

Is there any other reason why you'd create two controversial threads? Threads that you and I both know are nothing but bait? Because that's what they are, bait. I'm not accusing you of having a pro old or pro new agenda. I don't think that's it. I think your only agenda is to create shit slinging debates.

Sadly, the people in this thread apparently aren't smart enough to figure that out before taking the bait.

But you have to admit, it's lots of fun to serve him his ass on a silver platter and laugh at his pathetic attempts to talk back.

[Axl Knows]

Again, two obvious and transparent threads made by the same person. I think it's pretty easy to see what's going on here.

You're only calling these threads transparent because you disagree with the sentiment and because you hate new GNR. You wouldn't be calling this thread trolling if I were running new GNR down, would you? So why don't you debate the point instead of trolling my thread?

Is there any other reason why you'd create two controversial threads? Threads that you and I both know are nothing but bait? Because that's what they are, bait. I'm not accusing you of having a pro old or pro new agenda. I don't think that's it. I think your only agenda is to create shit slinging debates.

Sadly, the people in this thread apparently aren't smart enough to figure that out before taking the bait.

My only agenda is to encourage interesting discussion. But I guess you have a problem with that.

[Jakey Styley]

I agree, look at all the other old bands. They suck now. Slash has proven that he can't get ambitious with his songwriting and without izzy GNR would've sucked.

Edited July 15, 2010 by ItsSuchACrimeUKnowItsJAKE

[Axl Knows]

But you have to admit, it's lots of fun to serve him his ass on a silver platter and laugh at his pathetic attempts to talk back.

That's funny considering I owned your easy-to-wind-up ass a minute ago... Note to Allen8R, if you're going to question someone's education, check your spelling first. And if you're going to criticise someone for being cliched, make sure you don't then come out with the generic "mom's basement" comments...

Edited July 15, 2010 by Axl Knows

[Allen8R]

I love how you had to edit that post because of a spelling error. Weak.

[Axl Knows]

I love how you had to edit that post because of a spelling error. Weak.

Actually I edited it to add this in...

"Note to Allen8R, if you're going to question someone's education, check your spelling first. And if you're going to criticise someone for being cliched, make sure you don't then come out with the generic "mom's basement" comments... "

Ouch, you just got merked. Don't argue with the big boys son.

[M&S]

But you have to admit, it's lots of fun to serve him his ass on a silver platter and laugh at his pathetic attempts to talk back.

That's funny considering I owned your easy-to-wind-up ass a minute ago... Note to Allen8R, if you're going to question someone's education, check your spelling first. And if you're going to criticise someone for being cliched, make sure you don't then come out with the generic "mom's basement" comments...

Now that is a true statement, and I agree with "axl knows" everything he said, everyone he told off,and he has saul "mediawhore" hudson pegged to a T, this is an interesting discussion topic but the slash-defenders can't take the truth.

[jonah]

I am glad they broke up, But Slash's solo album is amazing compared to CD, and I've seen 5 shows on the CD tour, but I would still choose Slash's album over CD even though I loved CD, I haven't seen Slash's solo band yet, saw him 3 times with VR which I thought was great live but the 2nd album sucked balls, like 2 good songs on it, 1st album was decent, but the solo album is fantastic, wish he would just keep that up for the next 20 years

[Zanedog]

Thank god someone had the balls to say Old Saul is overrated, and I agree with almost everything Axl Knows said. What did Slash really contribute to the band compared to Axl, Izzy, and Duff??? Yea yea he had some popular solo's, but he is almost as replaceable as say Dizzy or Teddy zig zag. The guy did pratically nothing in the lyric process and never did anything besides guitar, unlike Axl, Izzy, and Duff. Duff co-wrote, sang lead vocals, and played bass. Izzy co-wrote and wrote many songs, sang, and played guitar. Axl well of course sang, wrote, played guitar once in awhile and his voice made GNR as famous as they are. Are you telling me that you would love Guns N' Roses if Slash was with a bunch of horrible bandmates?? Just look at how great "Spaghetti Incident?" did without Izzy, but with the god known as Slash. Then compare the album's greatness to Chinese Democracy where the heavenly Slash wasn't in.

Anyone can play guitar; not everyone can sing or write powerful lyrics.

[Estranged Reality]

since statisticaly Slash is surpassing CD in every way.

You forgot the part where CD has sold more copies and has a higher average score in critic reviews. Nice try though.

There was this little album called Contraband...

scott = vr

No, Scott = Libertad.

Anyone who thinks he controlled Contraband's sound doesn't know much about his sound.

He even admitted in a recent interview that he never felt comfortable making that kind of music because it "wasn't his thing."

[Jackie Moon]

since statisticaly Slash is surpassing CD in every way.

You forgot the part where CD has sold more copies and has a higher average score in critic reviews. Nice try though.

There was this little album called Contraband...

scott = vr

No, Scott = Libertad.

Anyone who thinks he controlled Contraband's sound doesn't know much about his sound.

He even admitted in a recent interview that he never felt comfortable making that kind of music because it "wasn't his thing."

i like scott but contraband was awesome while libertad sucked, so scotts dismissal was for the best.

the next VR album will be very interesting.

[Rovim]

Thank god someone had the balls to say Old Saul is overrated, and I agree with almost everything Axl Knows said. What did Slash really contribute to the band compared to Axl, Izzy, and Duff??? Yea yea he had some popular solo's, but he is almost as replaceable as say Dizzy or Teddy zig zag. The guy did pratically nothing in the lyric process and never did anything besides guitar, unlike Axl, Izzy, and Duff. Duff co-wrote, sang lead vocals, and played bass. Izzy co-wrote and wrote many songs, sang, and played guitar. Axl well of course sang, wrote, played guitar once in awhile and his voice made GNR as famous as they are. Are you telling me that you would love Guns N' Roses if Slash was with a bunch of horrible bandmates?? Just look at how great "Spaghetti Incident?" did without Izzy, but with the god known as Slash. Then compare the album's greatness to Chinese Democracy where the heavenly Slash wasn't in.

Anyone can play guitar; not everyone can sing or write powerful lyrics.

This is just so wrong.

[Zanedog]

Thank god someone had the balls to say Old Saul is overrated, and I agree with almost everything Axl Knows said. What did Slash really contribute to the band compared to Axl, Izzy, and Duff??? Yea yea he had some popular solo's, but he is almost as replaceable as say Dizzy or Teddy zig zag. The guy did pratically nothing in the lyric process and never did anything besides guitar, unlike Axl, Izzy, and Duff. Duff co-wrote, sang lead vocals, and played bass. Izzy co-wrote and wrote many songs, sang, and played guitar. Axl well of course sang, wrote, played guitar once in awhile and his voice made GNR as famous as they are. Are you telling me that you would love Guns N' Roses if Slash was with a bunch of horrible bandmates?? Just look at how great "Spaghetti Incident?" did without Izzy, but with the god known as Slash. Then compare the album's greatness to Chinese Democracy where the heavenly Slash wasn't in.

Anyone can play guitar; not everyone can sing or write powerful lyrics.

This is just so wrong.

yea it is

[ThinkAboutYou]

Libertad had a few good ones

let it roll, just sixteen, mary mary, gravedancer, pills Demonds & etc

Edited July 15, 2010 by ThinkAboutYou

[Naupis]

I for one am happy that Slash has never resorted to trend chasing like Axl did in the late 90's trying to sound like every other metal/industrial sounding band at the time. We already had one Nine Inch Nails, we didn't need another.

Slash showed a tremendous amount of range and versatility on his album.

Gotten is musically possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of music any of them have ever done, By the Sword is like GNR meets Zeppelin and is entirely epic, Starlight is a truly beautiful ballad, Nothing to Say is Slash's take on a metal sound, and to top it off he showed he can even do a killer pop song in Beautiful/Dangerous.

Want to hear Slash do classical music, check out his take on Rachminov with Vocalise, it is freaking amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dD4IWGOlRs

Slash has shown through all his various projects that he can play just about any style of music, and the people that think he is only capable of the same monotone blues rock just aren't listening.

[Nick83]

So what would have happened to old GNR had they stayed together? Impossible to say. I think maybe they would have made one more great album, and then they would have been done. I base that off of Axl's interview where he said he thought they were capable of making a 1996 version of Aerosmith's Rocks album.

Axl knew the band was having a difficult time of creating anything worthwhile. That's why he brought in Zakk Wyle and Paul Huge. He wanted to mix up the chemistry and inspire the band, particularly Slash, but Slash was obviously dead set against the idea.

Then when Axl wanted to modernize the sound, the others just wanted to play the same old rock and roll. To be honest with you, I think that had there been some quality, worthy rock music being created by the band, Axl would have gone with that, but it just did not exist. We can also take a look at the music produced by the other members since then. None of their music came close to GNR quality.

So the next step is modernizing the sound, making and keeping GNR relevant. Modernizing the sound doesn't mean selling out or trying to copy what others are doing either. I think Axl saw the capabilities of electronic music, demonstrated by others, and naturally thought they could reinvent the GNR sound using these influences.

Axl was always correct before. I think that the rest of old GNR should have followed his lead. I think it would have been awesome and super successful. I think Axl had the right idea to be honest.

[Chris 55]

They were too enamoured with blues based hard rock numbers. I've seen no evidence that Slash or Izzy are capable of writing anything other than old-fashioned hard rock, and neither of them seem particularly good at it anymore. Slash's solo album sucked alot of dick and was vastly inferior to Chinese Democracy in almost every respect. Even the Illusions were filled with samey sounding tracks from Izzy and Slash, who both became lazy, uninspired songwriters after they had their lucky break courtest of W. Axl Rose. Axl was the only one who seemed interested in honing the songwriting craft and it was his contributions that raised the UYI albums out of the depths of mediocrity. I truly believe that Axl was the heart and soul of GNR. His lyrics, vocals, and vocal melodies made GNR stand out from the crowd. The rest of the lineup were no different and no more talented than any number of other hard rock musicians.

So basically, I think GNR's breakup was a good thing. The old band were restricting Axl's ambition and pigeon holing GNR into some hard rock cliche... Regardless of whether you like Chinese Democracy or not, you have to respect that it's daring and ambitious... unlike Slash, Duff, and Izzy's generic fuckin' crap post 1990. Thank god GNR never became another Judas Priest/Iron Maiden/Kiss/Aerosmith... churning out the same cliched garbage year after year.

Thoughts?

Cool! I think the opposite

[star]

The new Slash album is so much better than Chinese Democracy on all sorts of levels.

I have to disagree with the 1st post.

[bloodyhell1]

im sure slash and duff are glad the band broke up, probably be dead otherwise