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The Nation's Pulse
Paradise City Lost
Guns N’ Roses’ long awaited new album flopped as original band members moved on, the lead singer grew old, and the fans grew up.
In the biggest letdown since Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s vault, Guns N’ Roses has finally released its long-awaited new album Chinese Democracy. In its first week, it charted at a disappointing three and moved slightly more than a quarter million copies in the U.S.
What went wrong?
It wasn’t the publicity. An official Chinese Communist Party newspaper condemned the GNR release as a “venomous attack,” strangely interpreting the album title as evidence that the band had shifted “its spear point toward China.” Dr. Pepper had famously promised a free sugary drink for every American should the legendarily delayed Chinese Democracy find store shelves by the end of 2008. It did, but America still awaits its free 23-flavored fizzy beverage. As if all that weren’t enough buzz, there is the train-wreck television of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab co-starring GNR original drummer Steven Adler, of whom the best that can be said is that he is not Jeff Conaway.
An answer to what went wrong can be found in Stephen Davis’s Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N’ Roses. Veteran rock journalist Davis paints a picture of musicians who were as much drug buddies as band mates. Guns N’ Roses left a trail of herpes, screwed managers, concert riots, and drug overdoses. The irresistible image of rock n roll’s noble savages, which made Appetite for Destruction the bestselling debut album in history, ensured a fall for the band as rapid as its meteoric rise.
When listening to Appetite for Destruction’s odes to fortified wine, waking up at seven in the evening and going onstage around nine, and an underage girl whose daddy works in porno now that mommy’s underground, one sensed they knew of what they sang. Guns N’ Roses anticipated the current era in which “keeping it real” trumps musical talent. Rapper Rick Ross, who felt compelled to deny past employment as a corrections officer, and soul singer Akon, who manufactured an elaborate biography as a prison brawler and maestro of a stolen car ring, would have paid millions for GNR’s street credibility.
Davis informs that before gaining fame as a rock star, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin was famous among rock’s toxic royalty — counting Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Rolling Stone Ron Wood as customers of his unlicensed pharmacy — through his involvement “in the surge of the Persian brown-colored heroin that had flooded into the L.A. rock scene.” After years of inebriated incoherence, pasty and bloated bassist Duff McKagan’s pancreas exploded in 1994. Lead guitarist Slash actually died from an overdose in 1992 before an adrenalin needle brought him back to life. Drummer Steven Adler got kicked out of Guns N’ Roses in 1990 for overindulging in chemicals, which is like getting cut from the New York Yankees for hitting too many home runs. Singer Axl Rose’s psychopathic outbursts provoked riots from the stage and lawsuits against him alleged severe physical abuse from former girlfriends. It makes one wonder if the entire band would have been better off had the four addict musicians occasionally shared their drugs with the bipolar singer.
Axl’s Hired Guns playing on Chinese Democracy are dwarfed when juxtaposed with all that history. One actually played guitar for Britney Spears and N’Sync, while another of Chinese Democracy’s many ax men is best known for wearing a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket as a hat — an image not destined for Smithsonian cultural iconography à la Slash’s top hat.
The image suffers, but so does the music. The CD sleeve says Guns N’ Roses. The play button says REO Speedwagon meets Elton John meets Nine Inch Nails. The power ballad, persona non grata on Appetite for Destruction, overwhelms the new album. Uninvited guests include Spanish guitars, pianos, and full orchestration. Other than a faint synthesizer on “Paradise City,” the sonic formula of the wildly successful GNR debut was straightforward: guitars, bass, drums — turned up to eleven. Appetite for Destruction’s raw sound was perfectly imperfect. As Stephen Davis notes of Appetite’s producer, “He tried, ideally, to limit tracks to a single take. They called him Mike “That was it!” Clink. His philosophy was to capture the ferocity of the band in full manic episode, not tame the music for commercial release.” Chinese Democracy makes the overproduced Use Your Illusion albums sound like Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols in comparison. In contrast to its famous antecedent, Chinese Democracy bows to trends rather than bucks them. Worse still, the trends it bows to — industrial music, crunchy metal, power ballads — are no longer trendy. Such are the risks of spending more than a decade on fourteen songs.
And it is the waiting, as Tom Petty once said, that is the hardest part. More than the lineup changes, the dodgy music, or the lifestyle excesses, it is the passage of time that has ironically ensured Chinese Democracy’s failure. Like Hitler, Axl Rose made audiences wait themselves into a frenzy. In December 1991, I caught the opening night of a Guns N’ Roses tour at the Worcester Centrum. Following an opening performance by a little-known band from Seattle called Soundgarden, we waited, and waited, and waited. The infamous delays had sparked concert promoters to hilariously prefix ticket show times with “around.” Axl Rose took the stage that night “around” eleven. At the height of the band’s popularity, the tactic attained the desired result of inciting fans into fanaticism. But seventeen years is a wait more tedious than three hours.
Axl Rose is roughly the same age as the incoming president. Since the face of rock-n-roll rebellion dropped off the face of the earth in the mid-1990s, his reincarnations Tupac Shakur and Eminem have come and gone too. Fans that had craved Rose’s personification of all that their parents had warned them against are now parents themselves; and kids who crave a larger-than-life prototype bad boy don’t want one older than their parents. In Chinese Democracy, Axl Rose takes a curtain call 21 years after Appetite for Destruction, only to find that the audience that had waited through concert cancellations, arena riots, and endless delays has finally gone home.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (30) | Leave a comment
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Frank| 12.10.08 @ 8:34AM
The #1 selling album in the world is a failure???
http://www.mediatraffic.de/albums.htm
Wow I wish that I could fail like that...
J. Davis| 12.10.08 @ 9:31AM
Nice piece. GNR was a truly great band, but clearly this album was not worth the wait ...
PJ Doland | 12.10.08 @ 9:32AM
Buckethead might be "best known" for wearing a KFC bucket on his head, but he is an absolute monster of a guitarist. Just listen to any of his recordings with Praxis and you'll see what I mean.
Jeremy Jester| 12.10.08 @ 10:26AM
GNR's and Rose's history notwithstanding, Chinese Democracy has some quality tracks (and honestly some losers too). This fan can appreciate the production values versus the "one take" approach to recordings...both can be satisfying. Comparing this new album to Appetite, is comparing apples and oranges. Some critics, as well as a percentage of fans, want music act to stay the same while others can appreciate the changes over time. Those changes over a career can go either way, that's the art. While some may share Flynn's observation: "Worse still, the trends it bows to -- industrial music, crunchy metal, power ballads -- are no longer trendy." however, there remains a large, dedicated fan base for much music that is not trendy (to include: industrial, crunchy metal and power ballads).
And I have to add, Buckethead (odd as his stage persona may be) is a fabulously talented guitar virtuoso.
Montrose| 12.10.08 @ 10:26AM
GNR= UGH! Rock and Roll opinions are like you know what-everyone has one and everyone is an expert. I remeber a guy who swore, and still does, that Hawkwind was the greatest band ever.
Guns-N-Roses (or is it Gulp-N-Blow) is a pathetic, no-talent band of pure posers and ridiculously ham-stereotyped clowns. Rock and roll itself has always been a quasi-joke, and these Bozos are at, or near, the bottom of the barrel.
I understand the Gitmo boys use Axl Rose's horrific voice shreiking Sweet Child 'O Mine (What a masterpiece!) as torture...no kiddin...
Jarmo| 12.10.08 @ 10:30AM
Aweome article!! I was at that Worcester show too back in 1991. I think it was Gilby's first show.. How the mighty have fallen. Axl is nothing without his old band. He had to much input in the UYI's albums. They could have been so much better. Chinese Democracy is terrible. Hopefully he goes away again. He could have saved some respect if he released this as a solo album.
Ghastlyone| 12.10.08 @ 10:34AM
I wouldn't even waste the time or internet bandwith downloading this trash from BitTorrent. Nearly the whole band is different besides the lone singer, and they still go by the name Guns and Roses?
PJ:
You want to hear a "monster" guitarist? How about Ron Jarzombek from Spastic Ink and Blotted Science. Jorn from Pagan's Mind? Jeff Loomis of Nevermore? or Mats Haugen of Circus Maximus? Now these are god-like guitarists.....not this trash from GnR.
Nick| 12.10.08 @ 10:42AM
I saw the same concert tour, Jan. '92. Phoenix. And by Phoenix,I mean a field in the middle of nowhere about an hour outside of Phoenix. Drove five hours from Ft. Bliss, TX.
During Soundgarden's set G'n'R came on stage buck naked with blow-up dolls. Probably between 8 & 9 P.M. G'n'R still didn't come on stage 'till 11. It was cold. It was crowded. I got separated from the people I was with.
At 24,I thought this was cool. At 41, I find it tedious. I wish I could get those 24 hours back.
I didn't even know they were working on a new album (oooo, how dated, I know) until earlier this year. Probably because I've been watching C-SPAN, History channel, Discovery, etc. for the past 12 years instead of VH-1.
Some might say I got old. I would say I grew up. At least a little bit.
Nigel Assam| 12.10.08 @ 11:17AM
Agree. GNR was a talented bunch of druggies. Too bad they never sorted themselves out to mature into a what could have been a better band sober. Appetite for Destruction still rocks, even when one is in one's thirties!
Nigel Assam| 12.10.08 @ 11:23AM
But I've not bought a metal album for years and won't buy this one. So Axl can't count on my money. True that when one matures, Axl's, and the rest of those guys', antics look ridiculous.
james| 12.10.08 @ 11:27AM
Slash was very good, Axl Rose never was (a good frontman always knows when to keep his mouth shut) and most of Appetite itself was terrible.
This band is a classic one-hit wonder and they are never coming back.
Mike| 12.10.08 @ 4:20PM
I thought the album was good. Of course it wasn't going to be anything like the previous albums. Thankfully, it isn't like Kiss in the 90s or other big bands with lackluster albums.
Really, if Izzy had helped write it, the album probably would have reached its fullest potential.
It isn't as rocking but tracks like "Better" and even the title track make the purchase worth it.
Michael| 12.10.08 @ 4:42PM
Call me fanboy or whatever,
but Axl touched my soul in 1991-1992 and I was one of those crazy hardcore fans.
Now I´m 35 years old and it works again.
I love the album, I love "This I Love" and I love the industrial influences.
It`s a grown-up Appetite straight out of the mind of that W.A.R.-Bastard-Genius.
Sorry, but I understand thie maniac and love his music - shame on me... :-)
axl| 12.10.08 @ 4:50PM
james | 12.10.08 @ 10:27AM
Slash was very good, Axl Rose never was (a good frontman always knows when to keep his mouth shut) and most of Appetite itself was terrible.
This band is a classic one-hit wonder and they are never coming back.
This guy has to be the biggest idiot in the world!!!!!!!
gnr4all | 12.10.08 @ 5:52PM
I don't understand all the haters. If you don't like GnR, why read the article in the first place? This article is interesting, but it really feels like the writer is biased. He's predisposed to not like anything done by the new band. He's an Axl hater. There's a lot of them around. The upside to that is, Axl is someone that evokes an emotionally response from most, whether good or bad. And that beats apathy.
Chinese Democracy is a great album. Not sure why it's not being received as such. As for the album sales, I would think the fact that Britney Spears is again at the top of those charts should tell you that selling albums isn't about musical talent.
And why don't we talk about VR, the pseudo GnR? Their albums were not stellar were they? At best they were STP with abbreviated Slash solos.
AlexAntunes| 12.10.08 @ 6:16PM
It was hard to swallow at first.
The first songs rocked but after "better" they all seemed the same to me, and weird, like the start on "Scrap".
Today I can't tell which song is the best. It fits every mood I might be at a certain moment, just need to press play on the right track and there it is.
It definitely caught my ear.
PS: I am a fan since I first heard "Welcome to the Jungle" in 1987. I'm 33 now.
reto| 12.10.08 @ 6:27PM
Rip van Winkle?
reto| 12.10.08 @ 6:33PM
naaa the album's great-
Axl solo project- why took it so long to come out ?
'catcher in the rhye' for instace dating back to 1998 !!-well,the answer only has Axl.-
Anyway,it's now time for the reunion.
Guns'n'Roses are :
Izzy,Slash,Axl,Steven and Duff !!
IF ONE OF THEM IS MISSNG IT MIGHT STILL GO UNDER 'GUNS' -
BUT WHEN IT'S JUST ONE OF THEM LEFT
IT SIMPLY CAN'T .
Eric D. Dixon| 12.10.08 @ 6:51PM
Amen, PJ -- Buckethead is really the only thing that's ever interested me about Guns N' Roses. I may listen to this album just for him. Then again, I'll probably just pull out Jonas Hellborg's "Octave of the Holy Innocents" again, and listen to Buckethead absolutely shred an acoustic guitar...
Betterred| 12.10.08 @ 9:27PM
I disagree..
Nothing can beat Geraldo for title of the
worst broadcast,
worst human,
worst moustache..
Everytime he opens his mug new lows are made...
Jeremiah| 12.10.08 @ 10:21PM
Interesting....
Conservatives have no taste whatsoever.
William F Buckley used to play Bach on his harpsichord for his dinner guests.
He'd find no friends among you Philistines.
Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, and these freaks with the horrible electronic guitars and heroin addiction and deranged music.
What a motley crew!
aware| 12.11.08 @ 7:02AM
No talent street trash. Typical "mainstream" corporate garbage shoved down the throats of the clueless for easy quick bucks. You have to work hard to find it but some of the greatest music is being made right now, and not by talent-challenged wasteiods who are the favorites of the Media Elites. Jeremiah ...if you want to hear real musical creativity listen to anything by Symphony X, especially V(five). You won't hear this on the radio or in the corporate offices of the "musik" business cause this is dedicated,serious music. These are musicians who don't have time for silly off stage antics and shear stupidity like these "darlings " of the "Entertainment Tonight" types.
"New" GNR, "new" ACDC, "new" Madonna,"new" Britney... What a wasteland full of pretenders!
Elijah| 12.11.08 @ 10:31AM
Slash: Soulful, incendiary player of classic guitar solos.
Buckethead: Soulless, technical noodler of weird noises.
Jeremiah| 12.11.08 @ 3:42PM
The guitar solo is the nearest artistic equivalent of frustrated adolescent masturbation in existence.
Folks,
Go to a music store. Find the classical section. Buy some actual music. Once you learn about music, you'll never want to hear an electric guitar again as long as you live. They're an awful and stupid offense.
aware| 12.12.08 @ 6:40AM
Jeremiah ... I still say if you would look into Symphony X you would have to change your mind. I am a trained musician(Jazz/Classical),my collection has as much classical and jazz as it has rock, and while I agree that most rock is throw away trash, there are many serious musicians making top shelf music in the genre of progressive metal. You won't hear it on the radio because it takes a trained ear to appreciate it. Just download "The Odyssey" by Symphony X. It's a 25 min. piece about the Homer classic with full orchestra and yes electric guitar. You will hear that there are serious and very talented people in the modern music business. Try it and see cause you sound like you have the ear to know.
J| 12.12.08 @ 11:06AM
I have a minor in music and studied much classical music. It only made me love rock and roll even more.
Appetite for Destruction is an incredible album.
Chinese Democracy is an incredible album.
magick2010| 1.25.09 @ 11:22PM
Hey nick I was at the Phoenix concert when they played there two nights in a row. I was a big GnR fan and that two hour wait seemed like a 30 minute wait. But anyways I have no comment on the album and the state of the band. I'll just say that apettite and lies were good albums and that this was a well written artticle with good feedback from the posters. I'm a first time visitor to the site and my first name is Flynn btw.
links of london | 9.10.09 @ 10:39PM
Thanks for your information, i have read it, very good！