+1 Live and Let Die. Yeah, I'd forgotten about that one. It was epic.

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There you go bro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ8Z55YKbaU

CC

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Well I dont see G&Rs getting back together anytime soon. Axle still cant make a move or tie his shoe without his brainwashing guru or whatever you want to call the person who controls his every move.

I saw them a month and a half apart with Izzy the first time and six weeks later again but with Gilby. Izzy has a thing about touring . Well CC you would know this better than me as you are friends with him but I new it was trouble when he left because a lot of people dont know how much he wrote in the band. Most of my favorite tracks from Use your Illusion 1 and 2 were Izzy songs like Dust and Bones, 14 years,Bad Obsession and Pretty Tied Up, plus it was nice when he took the mike as it showed the depth of the band. The second time all those songs were omitted though musically they were just as powerful.

Slash has always been a terrific lead player and he stood far away from the 80s pyro and flash way of playing to deliver great old greasy Rock and Roll just the way I love it and that is why he stood out and sounded fresh. And he also finds the perfect notes to solo with especially on a ballad with the perfect touch of natural and harmonic minor scale lines. He is like Page gear wise -basically Les Paul straight into a Marshal.Growing up in the 70s and seeing so many great lead players do there 10 minutes of wanking off on pentatonic licks over and over got to a point you did not want to hear a solo spot anymore. But Slash's God Father based solo spot was refreshing and mind blowing at the same time.

Breaking down his soloing style the harmonic minor speed run right before the wah solo on Sweet Child is brilliant as is the Harmonic minor frenzy at the end of November Rain and the main solo in that song in C major, is a schooling on perfect note selection over a chord progression. Also the triple time ending on Paradise city is another education in blues based rock soloing.

I did not care for Snakepit or Velvet Revolver though and that is where I lost touch. Sometimes it takes a bunch of guys who cant get along or really cant stand each other to make great music and G&R was the last true great band for me. I get so mad even bringing them up as by now they should have almost 3 decades worth of work instead of 3 great albums an EP and a horrible punk cover album.

I found Slash's tone on the Grammy's to be awfully thin and nasally and when I think back to that big thick fat and creamy tone he had in the day I agree with you guys his playing could be so much better these days, and gone also is the vicious but melodic way to his playing. I like the cat as a person though and I will always think of him as a fantastic player .But it is the big shame of what they should of been that bothers me the most. By the way Appetite for Destruction is in my top tem of greatest albums ever, and thats saying a lot.

AFD is the ultimate for me too.

I'm not friends with Izzy man, I wish I was, I know Gilby and I'm mates with Steve Adler and have on occasion met and spoke with Duff.

It was a double edged sword as it was drugs that ruined the band but ultimately that life style is what made them so real and the music so dangerous. They were as talented and deep as The Stones but with the energy of The Sex Pistols. If that line up had continued one of them would have died for sure.

Slash's tone sounds so horrible now and he is milking a band that he chose to quit. He is a parody of himself, he really is. At least there is emotion and excitement to Chinese Democracy albeit a completely different flavour. I still say Izzy's albums are amazing, that guy guy can play, write and sing. Duff's output can be good too.

They will get back together, just not for a while and as friends they DO ALL SPEAK to one another. Just not as artists. They have a rule too that no more than 3 original members will play on stage together either which is one of the reasons Slash didnt get up at the AFD 20th anniversary show. Kind of like a gentleman's agreement if you will. So that they are never just one guy down.

It'll be a few years before it happens though. Slash has to stop trying the radio friendly thing, the other guys don't bother with that. He's going the way of Aerosmith in terms of losing all artistic integrity and just becoming another brick in the wall. Plastic.

Here's to pure Rock n' Roll and lets hope someday we get another TRUE legendary blues based rock band. Hopefully with one of us forum guys or gals in it!

CC

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Hmmm, sounds like you need to check out the answer, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL3gIO624X8

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Not quite there. I know those guys very well too.

CC

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CC Did you ever see G&Rs live? I have seen just about every great band there was from my first concert at Madison Square Garden which was Thin Lizzy (with Gary Moore on guitar) opening for Queen in 76 when I was 14. Guns and Roses on the two nights I saw them were up there with anyone and were a vicious force which is the best way I could describe them.

The only tortures thing was both times they did not take the stage till after 11pm.lol but also they played till 2:am and held nothing back. The thing that upsets me is they should of been one of the greatest bands of all time. They were the biggest band in the world at one time but they lost all these years and we lost a lot of great music that would of been made.

To show just what an impact they had there name, reputation and music is still so relevant and this is from a band that only put out 3 albums of original music and two of them were released on the same day. I hope you are right and the original core get back together and I say core because though I think the guy is a sweetheart there is no way Steve Adler can stay straight. But man it would be huge if they did.

I did Stray. I saw them with Izzy when I was but a pup in 91. I was 9 years old and me and my friends got our Dads to take us just when Guns were the coolest thing in the world. A baptism of fire is an understatement! Saw another 2 GN'R line-ups and have seen and played with various solo and pairing ventures but nothing compares to when I saw Axl, Izzy, Slash, Duff with Matt and Dizzy Reed.

You are right, we could have had a lot of music had they stayed together but as I posted earlier, if certain things didn't happen my life would literally be different which is crazy plus I love those 10 Izzy albums.

CC

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WOOOOOAAAHHH. So are u all saying that u think the old GNR will get 2gether again?? B/c I would love 2 see it happen, but I kinda dout it...I mean Axl seems 2 b the reason they broke up, am I right?? Wait...y did they break up??? B/c I thought Axl wanted to go like n a new direction in music & Slash & the others didnt...but im only 16 so i dont know!!
Someone correct me!!

Drugs are the reason Steve was fired.
Drugs and how big they got was the reason Izzy quit.
Slash couldnt control Axl as well as Izzy could and with a lack of material after Izzy's departure Slash and Duff quit.
Slash reiterates time and time again that it was Axl's doing but Slash had the opportunity to take control, as did Duff. They were both too drunk to do it though and that band nearly killed all of them.

After being around guys that long you need a break. They had families and health to consider before anything which people seem to overlook.

Axl is of a very Bowie frame of mind in terms of developing and modernising things and he is extremely ambitious while thinking outside the box.
Slash is just a pure rock n' roll blues guitarist as is Izzy.
Duff is just a punk, again Izzy has elements of that too.

Slash is the one not considering it out of sheer pride apparently. Axl has said he would do a few shows but not til he has the GN'R tunes he's been working on the last 20 years out of his system. Izzy is as careless as ever as he can turn up and play with either any time he wants while releasing an album every year. Duff plays with both VR and Izzy as well as Loaded and would simply follow the main 3's decisiions as always.

It will happen but not for a while. Classic GN'R's undoing is down to all 5 of them. Steve wasn't fit to play cos of drugs and the 3 guitarists left on their own accord. No one sacked them.

Axl has stuck to his vision despite the critics and credit where its due y'know?

CC

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OOOOooooooooh ok(;
Thanks I understand now, I already knew y steven left, but "from what I had heard" Axl was like a controlling maniac, who didnt listen to anyone else's ideas...but it all adds up now. ....Axl is a lil controlling (i think) but he lives for his music & the stage, which is a good thing, he does seem like a musical genius(;

But is there news of GNR reuniting again?? Like Slash, Axl, Duff, & every1 else??

p.s. thanks every1 for puttin up with my ignorance

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"being a rock star is the intersection of who you are, and who you want to be." -Slash

There is no official news and wont be for years. I just know what I know from personal sources and an amalgamation of others.

CC

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What did you think of Chinese Democracy, Celtic?

btw I was reading this article about Axl last night and I've got to say I agree with most of it;

Thank God For Axl Rose
by John Ostronomy

Thank God for Axl Rose. Say what you want about him – that he worked on “Chinese Democracy” for too long, that you don’t think his band should be called Guns N’ Roses, or that you think he goes onstage too late – but this is rock 'n' roll, and I like Axl even more for doing things HIS way. Whether it’s defending his entourage in an airport scuffle on the way to a tour date in Taiwan or reportedly exchanging a Twitter barb with a former bandmate over reunion rumors and the Haitian earthquake, right or wrong – it’s not my or anyone else's business to decide – Rose is one of the only rock stars that hasn’t lost what made me love them in the first place.

On Wednesday night, Guns N’ Roses performed what Rolling Stone magazine called a “marathon gig” in Winnepeg, Canada in support of their platinum selling 2008 release, “Chinese Democracy.” Although I loved Guns since I first saw them from the front row at Boston’s Paradise rock club in September ‘87, the current band lineup is as cool, talented, and interesting as any I’ve ever seen.

This supergroup has spent so much time rehearsing in Los Angeles, that they can knock out three-plus hours of new and old GN’R classics at a moment’s notice. Lead guitarist, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal is like no other musician I’ve ever heard. You can literally detune every tuning peg on his Gibson Les Paul headstock, and he’ll instantaneously transpose his fingerings on the fretboard. Bassist Tommy Stinson is someone I admired since my high school band covered the Replacements’ version of KISS’ “Black Diamond,” and between keyboard players Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman, guitarists Richard Fortus and DJ Ashba, and drummer Frank Ferrer, I’d be hard pressed to assemble a better band. Sure the classic lineup including Axl, Slash, Duff, and Izzy were, as Slash recently described it, “a real force together,” but that was in the past, and the new Guns members are more than qualified to keep the name Guns N’ Roses alive. In an open letter to the fans, Rose quoted Stinson as saying, “We're not lettin' what took so much blood and heart get turned to $@!& and dust.”

Guns’ “marathon” Winnepeg concert, their first North American date since the release of “Chinese Democracy,” contained over twenty songs in addition to extended solos and member spotlights. The mix of staples like “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Paradise City” with new “Chinese Democracy” cuts like “Shackler’s Revenge” and my personal favorite, “Better,” proved to satisfy even the most critical of fans.

After the KISS reunion in 1996, I hadn’t felt more excitement surrounding an artist until ten years later when Rose was rumored to be recording “Chinese Democracy” in New York City in the Spring of 2006 and Talking Metal began our series of “Guns N’ Roses Stakeout” podcasts. Who would have thought that the stakeouts would lead to a special thanks on “Chinese Democracy” for lending the band a Marshall amp and a Les Paul? Only in rock 'n' roll…

http://blog.mtvmusic.com/2010/01/15/tha ... -axl-rose/

I think its amazin personally. This I Love makes me cry at the solo every time. I love Sorry and Prostitute too.

I still see it as GN'R same way as I like all incarnations of Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac. It's not the usual Guns where I can just pick up my guitar and play along to it. Its very challenging and I think the lyrics for the most part are brilliant. But as I keep saying, Izzy is the way to go.

CC

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CC - thanks for all the info you've put forth on this thread. GNR has always floated around as one of my top 2-3 bands.

With my rather straightlaced officer and a gentleman Air Force career getting going about the same time GNR was getting big (87-89), these guys were the antithesis of how I was living my life. I loved every minute of listening to them or reading about their self-destruction, and wished more than once I could swap places with them. (Slash and Tracy Lords for example ) They can go fly jets - I'll go on tour...

Even with my fairly uneducated knowledge of rock bands and how they worked, I could see these guys had something that not a lot of others had. Following them the past 20+ years has been interesting to say the least.

I think it's way cool the insight and opinions you, straycat and others are bringing to the board on this one. I appreciate it!

RickyD

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