It’s fashionable to hate on the new Guns N Roses album Chinese Democracy. It’s overproduced, grandiose, pretentious and so forth. Even those who have hailed it a masterpiece are most likely trying to butter up Axl for a possible interview. So, here’s the real scoop from a long time GNR fan who is willing to take the album for what it is. First off, it’s neither a masterpiece nor a catastrophe. In many ways it’s a logical next step from the Illusion albums, although it shouldn’t have taken so long to come up with this batch of tunes. The reality is that, with everyone from the original GNR departed, what I’m listening to is Axl Rose and his singing. Axl’s singing was always the thing that made GNR special. Yes, the band kicked ass, the songs that Izzy wrote were amazing, but it was Axl’s vocals cemented the deal. Well, let me tell you, he sings his fucking ass off on this album. Let me direct you to 3:53 in “Street of Dreams,” a blatant and quite wonderful little cousin to “November Rain,” mixed with a slice of “Estranged.” It’s one of Axl’s finest performances of all time, especially at 4:15 when he completely lets go and rips it as good as he ever did. Axl has said that this is his proudest moment to date, and you can’t blame him. The dude sings his ass off. A good portion of these tracks have been kicking around in some form for years, including “Street of Dreams,” which has been available in live and demo form for some time under the auspices “The Blues.” A month or so before it was released, someone leaked almost the entire album in pretty much finished, mixed form. The final album is different from even those “final” leaks. This includes Axl redoing some of the vocals on the end of “Street of Dreams.” And he improved the shit out of it. Axl’s obsessive tinkering made all the difference in the world. I can’t even listen to any of the previous versions. It’s that much better.
Also worthy is the barnstorming title track (always good in live and demo form) and “Madagascar,” which people seem to think is close to Illusion-era GNR. I give it a six out of ten. I like “I.R.S.” and “If The World.” The former is an Illusion-worthy outtake and the latter is a snaky bit of weirdness that features yet another stellar performance from Axl. The dude doesn’t seemed to have lost a step vocally, and yes this material is even more obtuse and complex and orchestral than even the most pretentious moments on Illusion, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything worth hearing here. If nothing else, Axl put his entire heart, soul, and being into this album and that makes it worthy of a closer listen than the summery critiques from the mainstream press. Give it another listen.
As for books, there have been a number written about GNR, most of them pretty awful. Probably the best GNR book to date is the autobiography of Slash, the only book written from an insider’s perspective.
Granted, Slash doesn’t have many nice things to say about Axl and his account is biased, but it’s still a fascinating read and one of the few to give a fairly honest account of the GNR saga. Another good GNR book is “The Photographic History” by photographer/band friend Robert John, who had fairly exclusive access to the group, especially in the early days.
The book contains no real text, but the photos are amazing. If you’re a fan, this one is a must. Used copies are about ten bucks, which is worth it. Another recent book of note is “Reckless Road: Guns N' Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction" by Marc Canter, a friend to the band when it was first playing in Los Angeles clubs.
Tons of great anecdotes about the early shows here, including how the band worked to tool its sound, image, and live show into a cohesive image. The photos are incredible. The book also gives readers access to a private web site that contains video and audio clips from some of these shows. That in and of itself would be worth the price of admision were the web features more than snippets. Audio/video of full performances would be insane, and it’s good to know that so much of this material was preserved. Instead, you get a tease from a site that doesn’t work all that well in the first place. Frankly, the book is better by itself, but the web features are a fun little bonus. Other than those, almost every GNR book is a rehash of old material, mainly interviews in the mainstream press that were already widely available and well known. In other words, there’s not much additinoal insight. At some, point I’ll get around to writing a more full account of all of these books, but for now, that’s all I’ve got.
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