When Guns and Roses first appeared on the scene, I despised them. I think the way that it actually worked was that I saw them for the first time on the MTV Music Awards first, where they played something close to live. It was the most terrible live performance I'd ever seen on TV, even somehow more horrible than Keith Richards and Bob Dylan "jamming" on the closing stages of Live Aid, a performance which made me wonder who played lead on all those Stones songs after all. I read later that Guns And Roses were mad drunk when they did the MTV gig and I guess that sort of made their crappy musicianship easier to understand.
Somehow, in the intervening years, I became a G-N-R fan, and the opening riff on Welcome is almost my favorite rock opening riff, maybe even better than the opening riff on AC/DC's It's a Long Way To The Top. Unbeknown to me, after he was born, when we were bringing Jackie (TJA) home from the hospital, John (14) took his iPod headphones off, turned the volume down, and slipped them into TJA's ears, and made it so the first rock song TJA heard in his life was Welcome to the Jungle. Very cool.
I did two things today that I had never done before: visited MySpace and also listened to a song off G-N-R's newest album Chinese Democracy (on MySpace). I'm in familiar territory now because I found it hard not to dismiss the modern G-N-R effort based on two things: this isn't really G-N-R as it's only Axle on this record and jeeez it doesn't sound that great. The visceral, raw quality of G-N-R's early work is gone, which is natural I guess, because it's now 2008 and they aren't a desperado rock band wanting only to party and play.
I'd heard Tommy Stinson interviewed on the Lefsetz podcast last year and he talked about working on this album. I found Stinson an odd addition to G-N-R in any version. It's like ... let's get a guy from The Replacements to play lead on Guns and Roses (on the next episode of The Twilight Zone).
Being young and hungry has its advantages for an artist. I'm glad I didn't have to see James Dean trying to replicate his performance in Giant, and hope I never have to see the Go-Show on a Ducati at Elkhart at age 39. At the moment I think Axle and the new G-N-R are sort of sliding into the position the Stones have occupied since about 1983: trying hard at times to replicate that early hungry for success motivation, but unable to let go of the Ferrari long enough to do so.
I hope Axel never does a reality show like Gene Simmons. I would be very sad if I learned of this.
To me, the opening guitar riff on Welcome sounds just like thunder. And that is so cool.
Somehow, in the intervening years, I became a G-N-R fan, and the opening riff on Welcome is almost my favorite rock opening riff, maybe even better than the opening riff on AC/DC's It's a Long Way To The Top. Unbeknown to me, after he was born, when we were bringing Jackie (TJA) home from the hospital, John (14) took his iPod headphones off, turned the volume down, and slipped them into TJA's ears, and made it so the first rock song TJA heard in his life was Welcome to the Jungle. Very cool.
I did two things today that I had never done before: visited MySpace and also listened to a song off G-N-R's newest album Chinese Democracy (on MySpace). I'm in familiar territory now because I found it hard not to dismiss the modern G-N-R effort based on two things: this isn't really G-N-R as it's only Axle on this record and jeeez it doesn't sound that great. The visceral, raw quality of G-N-R's early work is gone, which is natural I guess, because it's now 2008 and they aren't a desperado rock band wanting only to party and play.
I'd heard Tommy Stinson interviewed on the Lefsetz podcast last year and he talked about working on this album. I found Stinson an odd addition to G-N-R in any version. It's like ... let's get a guy from The Replacements to play lead on Guns and Roses (on the next episode of The Twilight Zone).
Being young and hungry has its advantages for an artist. I'm glad I didn't have to see James Dean trying to replicate his performance in Giant, and hope I never have to see the Go-Show on a Ducati at Elkhart at age 39. At the moment I think Axle and the new G-N-R are sort of sliding into the position the Stones have occupied since about 1983: trying hard at times to replicate that early hungry for success motivation, but unable to let go of the Ferrari long enough to do so.
I hope Axel never does a reality show like Gene Simmons. I would be very sad if I learned of this.
To me, the opening guitar riff on Welcome sounds just like thunder. And that is so cool.