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GasLightStreet
Matt Sorum is a fantastic rigid drummer - zero swing.
And this is eactly the drummer Slash wanted : a hard-hitter who could play 3hrs gigs. Imo that was part of Slash's vision for the band after 1990 :turning it into a Led Zeppelin influenced act.
An impressive singer (Plant ---> Axl Rose) a virtuoso guitarist (Page ---> Slash) and a powerhouse drummer (Bonham ---> Sorum) that was the plan.
In that Izzy had very little room to exist. And live, his guitar was very low in the FOH mix in 1991.
Said differently : in 87-89 the band was Stones-influenced : twin guitars, short gigs, subtle swinging drumming by Adler.
In 91-93 it was Led Zeppelin influenced. It didn't last long.
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VoodooLounge13
GNR might be the only band that surpasses the Stones in carting around a tour of past hits and is no longer really relevant to the modern music world. The Stones at least invented Rock Royalty and have so many things on which to base their laurels. For GNR much of the legacy hinges on Axl’s drama and shenanigans. They put out some great music and are - or were - incredible live but 5.5 albums worth of material mostly made 30+ years ago makes even our boys look prolific.
Very harsh in many ways imoQuote
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VoodooLounge13
GNR might be the only band that surpasses the Stones in carting around a tour of past hits and is no longer really relevant to the modern music world. The Stones at least invented Rock Royalty and have so many things on which to base their laurels. For GNR much of the legacy hinges on Axl’s drama and shenanigans. They put out some great music and are - or were - incredible live but 5.5 albums worth of material mostly made 30+ years ago makes even our boys look prolific.
Well, there is what Mike Love drags around as his pathetic excuse as "The Beach Boys". Mick's fear was the Stones turning into them in 2002! Mick's fear came true right at the time he stopped caring about it.
GNR though. There's probably nothing they can do now in terms of new music that will grab anyone. The newest material they've released was unlistenable. Way back when it mattered they had a drive (until Axl wanted to be Elton and gave birth to the biggest waste of music ever released in rock with November Rain). Now they're just a fat and ever expanding reissue of the same butter roll bag.
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Markdog
I remember Izzy saying nothing really worked song wise with Sorum. Izzy can play straight ahead or with great groove. Sorum just isn't a groove player at all. I could see sorum jumping straight ahead on new groove ideas and it just not working. Yes, he can play the timing, and even fills but the groove is everything in most great songs.
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RollingFreak
Guns N Roses needs Izzy. For the reasons gotdablouse mentioned, but also just any real GNR fan knows that. If you don't, which there are a lot of those GNR fans, I truly don't think you understand the music you claim to love.
Axl is a prima dona but a hell of a singer and frontman. Even nowadays, although I wish he talked and addressed the audience more. So much wasted opportunity. If they could ever get him off the couch and into the studio, I still think it would be great cause he'd have better material than what he had with Chinese.
Slash was my idol, and in the last 10 years he's really fallen off my pedestal. Guy is still great. He's a fantastic guitar player and has made some great music with Guns, Snakepit (truly underrated) and Velvet Revolver. But when he came crawling back to Axl, agreed to play Chinese songs without insisting on any of his stuff (which is as GNR as Chinese is) and generally just letting Axl run the show and NOT reunite properly, you kinda realized he's just a cash whore and pretty spineless. Glad they exist in the form that is out there today, but Slash lost all credibility to me. I never thought he'd do the reunion wrong and I don't not see him now, but I'm not gonna lie and pretend he did a 180.
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RollingFreak
Sorum got much much better by the time he was in Velvet Revolver. He's not Adler, but he was more reliable and sounded fine to be their full time drummer. Adler is Adler, perfect for what they were but couldn't do everything. Sorum could, so he passed in my book. The first Velvet Revolver album is fantastic, even without Izzy.
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VoodooLounge13
GNR might be the only band that surpasses the Stones in carting around a tour of past hits and is no longer really relevant to the modern music world. The Stones at least invented Rock Royalty and have so many things on which to base their laurels. For GNR much of the legacy hinges on Axl’s drama and shenanigans. They put out some great music and are - or were - incredible live but 5.5 albums worth of material mostly made 30+ years ago makes even our boys look prolific.
Well, there is what Mike Love drags around as his pathetic excuse as "The Beach Boys". Mick's fear was the Stones turning into them in 2002! Mick's fear came true right at the time he stopped caring about it.
GNR though. There's probably nothing they can do now in terms of new music that will grab anyone. The newest material they've released was unlistenable. Way back when it mattered they had a drive (until Axl wanted to be Elton and gave birth to the biggest waste of music ever released in rock with November Rain). Now they're just a fat and ever expanding reissue of the same butter roll bag.
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VoodooLounge13Quote
GasLightStreetQuote
VoodooLounge13
GNR might be the only band that surpasses the Stones in carting around a tour of past hits and is no longer really relevant to the modern music world. The Stones at least invented Rock Royalty and have so many things on which to base their laurels. For GNR much of the legacy hinges on Axl’s drama and shenanigans. They put out some great music and are - or were - incredible live but 5.5 albums worth of material mostly made 30+ years ago makes even our boys look prolific.
Well, there is what Mike Love drags around as his pathetic excuse as "The Beach Boys". Mick's fear was the Stones turning into them in 2002! Mick's fear came true right at the time he stopped caring about it.
GNR though. There's probably nothing they can do now in terms of new music that will grab anyone. The newest material they've released was unlistenable. Way back when it mattered they had a drive (until Axl wanted to be Elton and gave birth to the biggest waste of music ever released in rock with November Rain). Now they're just a fat and ever expanding reissue of the same butter roll bag.
I can't really count Mike Love's version of the Beach Boys as an official still in tact version of a band. Is he the only original in the band, or is Al Jardine with his version? I've never been interested in seeing them live, so I've never paid much attention.
Interestingly enough, when it came out, I was not a fan of November Rain. Now, as I've gotten older, I've grown to appreciate the song for the opus that it is. It's really a great song. I enjoy it immensely. Back then, I think it was played to death. I rarely hear it on the radio anymore, and I don't often listen to UYI these days - I have both the singular versions, and the single combined edition, which is great too, though it does omit some of my personal faves.
The song that I actually think is overblown and has not held up well is Civil War. I liked it some back in the day. These days I just find it annoying, mostly I think due to Axl's vocal performance on it, though the music I don't think is all that tremendous either.
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RollingFreakQuote
VoodooLounge13Quote
GasLightStreetQuote
VoodooLounge13
GNR might be the only band that surpasses the Stones in carting around a tour of past hits and is no longer really relevant to the modern music world. The Stones at least invented Rock Royalty and have so many things on which to base their laurels. For GNR much of the legacy hinges on Axl’s drama and shenanigans. They put out some great music and are - or were - incredible live but 5.5 albums worth of material mostly made 30+ years ago makes even our boys look prolific.
Well, there is what Mike Love drags around as his pathetic excuse as "The Beach Boys". Mick's fear was the Stones turning into them in 2002! Mick's fear came true right at the time he stopped caring about it.
GNR though. There's probably nothing they can do now in terms of new music that will grab anyone. The newest material they've released was unlistenable. Way back when it mattered they had a drive (until Axl wanted to be Elton and gave birth to the biggest waste of music ever released in rock with November Rain). Now they're just a fat and ever expanding reissue of the same butter roll bag.
I can't really count Mike Love's version of the Beach Boys as an official still in tact version of a band. Is he the only original in the band, or is Al Jardine with his version? I've never been interested in seeing them live, so I've never paid much attention.
Interestingly enough, when it came out, I was not a fan of November Rain. Now, as I've gotten older, I've grown to appreciate the song for the opus that it is. It's really a great song. I enjoy it immensely. Back then, I think it was played to death. I rarely hear it on the radio anymore, and I don't often listen to UYI these days - I have both the singular versions, and the single combined edition, which is great too, though it does omit some of my personal faves.
The song that I actually think is overblown and has not held up well is Civil War. I liked it some back in the day. These days I just find it annoying, mostly I think due to Axl's vocal performance on it, though the music I don't think is all that tremendous either.
I think Mike Love still has Bruce Johnston, and always has in his incarnation, which is about as legitimate of a member as you can find there. I don't think the others, rightly, speak to him anymore. Al Jardine and David Marks I think regularly or sometimes tour with Brian, and with Dennis and Carl gone thats all the living "real" ones.
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gotdablouse
Yeah I don't think UYI has aged that well, unlike Appetite. It's just lacking in memorable tracks and terribly bloated, a bit like Oasis's "Be Here Now". Stuff like "Get in the Ring" might have generated interest at the time but now it's embarrassing TBH and sums up all that had gone wrong with this band.
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gotdablouse
Yeah I don't think UYI has aged that well, unlike Appetite. It's just lacking in memorable tracks and terribly bloated
That would be, what, about two years before the release of Appetite for Destruction?Quote
GasLightStreet
until Axl wanted to be Elton
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gotdablouse
Yeah I don't think UYI has aged that well, unlike Appetite. It's just lacking in memorable tracks and terribly bloated, a bit like Oasis's "Be Here Now". Stuff like "Get in the Ring" might have generated interest at the time but now it's embarrassing TBH and sums up all that had gone wrong with this band.
The thing I always hold in mind while judging the Illusions albums is it was a dump of everything they had at that time. They threw it all out there. Not all of it was good, some of it has aged badly, some of the production and vocal overdubs bad at the time have aged really badly. They lyrics are cringe in places, but at least they threw it all out there. What they really had was one good double album.
Be Here Now sounded bloated back in the day but had some really great tracks. The truck drivers change on a few tunes and length of the tunes made it sound more bloated than it really was.
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dcba
That was not what a double-album was supposed to be : Exile or "Blonde On Blonde" only have A-grade material. Obvious hits & deep cuts but great stuff.
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dcba
From Sorum's book :
"The next night [1993-01-15], it was time for our first gig. Ronnie was there, backstage, and one of us said, “Ronnie, you want to come up and play ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ with us?”
“Oh yeah, I know that one, yeah, yeah!” he said.
“Cool,” said Slash. “It’s really easy, like three chords—G, D, C, and A minor.”
“Oh, A minor,” said Ronnie, “the saddest of all the chords.”
Ronnie’s appearance onstage was memorable to say the least. During the first eight bars, he just walked around the stage with his guitar hanging from his shoulder and a cigarette at one corner of his mouth.
Then he went over to Slash and put an arm around him, nodding at the crowd. He moved on to Duff after that, and did the same there. When he finally played a chord, it was the wrong one. In fact, he didn’t play a single chord right— three chords, and they were all wrong. But he looked cool as shit"
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dcba
From Sorum's book :
"The next night [1993-01-15], it was time for our first gig. Ronnie was there, backstage, and one of us said, “Ronnie, you want to come up and play ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ with us?”
“Oh yeah, I know that one, yeah, yeah!” he said.
“Cool,” said Slash. “It’s really easy, like three chords—G, D, C, and A minor.”
“Oh, A minor,” said Ronnie, “the saddest of all the chords.”
[...]"
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xke38Quote
dcba
From Sorum's book :
"The next night [1993-01-15], it was time for our first gig. Ronnie was there, backstage, and one of us said, “Ronnie, you want to come up and play ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ with us?”
“Oh yeah, I know that one, yeah, yeah!” he said.
“Cool,” said Slash. “It’s really easy, like three chords—G, D, C, and A minor.”
“Oh, A minor,” said Ronnie, “the saddest of all the chords.”
[...]"
Not everyone's opinion as to A minor being the saddest of all the chords (or keys):
video: [www.youtube.com]