Welcome to the Jungle Gn'R Fan Club

[Matt]

The truth about 'Better' (straight from Axl Rose Yes Man #1, Dizzy Reed)

March 12, 2007

By Doug Miller / GunsNRoses.com

The song "Better" has been receiving airplay across the country, but there is no official single release. No one seems to know where the song came from or how it got out. Did Guns N’ Roses purposely leak the track?

"Here’s what I know," keyboardist Dizzy Reed explains to GunsNRoses.com. "We were doing a commercial with Harley-Davidson. Harley was going to do a version using 'Paradise City' and another version using 'Better.' Their Web site even had a version up for like one day with 'Better,' but the version of 'Better' that they had was an unfinished, unapproved demo. That’s why it was removed. The version that’s getting airplay is that same demo.

"Our understanding of how that happened is that an experimental edit using 'Better' in place of 'Paradise City' was somehow accidentally mislabeled as the 'Paradise City' Harley-Davidson video/commercial and was inadvertently released on the internet. We believe the 'leak' came from this source tape and someone with access to it.

"For the record, absolutely none of the songs that have been leaked have come from the band or our organization. None of the songs that have been leaked are anything more than demo versions, works in progress. No final mixes.

"It’s really frustrating working on something as hard as we have and then having it wind up on the Internet before it’s finished. Hearing a demo on the radio really sucks."

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  Someone leaked our demo onto the Internet!!!!  And we've only had the last ten years to work on it!!!!!!  It's not done yet!!!!!

Sorry, Diz', you'll receive no sympathy from me.  Since Halloween-time, when those naughty, naughty people at Harley Davidson leaked your song onto the evil internet, my favorite band Wilco went into the studio, recorded an album, mixed it, and just previewed it, in full, on the internet, to anyone who wanted to listen to it, for free, over two months before it's due in stores.  And this ****-for-brain's bitching about one lousy leak of one lousy demo of one lousy song from one lousy album from one lousy "band."

Not buyin' it, fella.  You guys have a lot more to worry about than what the mean internet people did with your demo.  Give me a ******* break.

[S_A_Longhorn]

Not buyin' it, fella.  You guys have a lot more to worry about than what the mean internet people did with your demo.  Give me a ******* break.

Well, I like the demo version just fine.........and have for over 6 months now. 

[Matt]

Well, I like the demo version just fine.........and have for over 6 months now. 

Have no fear:  There's still plenty of time for them to **** it up between now and when the album comes out in 2011.

[JesseVader08]

2011?  That sounds rather optimistic to me. 

[Sprry75]

Hell yeah!  2011 is gonna ******' raawwwwk with GnFnR!  I can't wait.

[Matt]

Hell yeah!  2011 is gonna ******' raawwwwk with GnFnR!  I can't wait.

(I don't like you.)

[Sprry75]

(I don't like you.)

That's not what you said in the back of your mom's station wagon...

[evenflow]

You know GNR is my favorite band but even i have come to understand that Chinese Democracy will never be released. At this point i don't think it can be. Its too much of a Legend. No matter what happens the reviews will be terrible becuase after so many years the expectations are too high. My final thought about it, i don't think Axl actually has a full album to release. After all these years i think he has the 6 or 7 tracks that have been leaked or performed live. With that said, i would kill for studio versions of Madagascar and the Blues.

[Matt]

You know GNR is my favorite band but even i have come to understand that Chinese Democracy will never be released. At this point i don't think it can be. Its too much of a Legend.

More of a myth than a legend, at this point, I think. 

No matter what happens the reviews will be terrible becuase after so many years the expectations are too high. My final thought about it, i don't think Axl actually has a full album to release. After all these years i think he has the 6 or 7 tracks that have been leaked or performed live. With that said, i would kill for studio versions of Madagascar and the Blues.

Agreed on the reviews--it's gonna have to be a very good record to even come close to living up to the hype, and if all the evil leaked demos and live versions are any indication, they've still got a long way to go. 

Disagreed on the number of songs--from what I've read, it sounds like there are at least a couple dozen tracks that have been worked on to some degree.  I think it has more to do with Axl being a perfectionist nutjob, than anything else.  He's really painted himself into a nasty corner here.

I still think that the album will be out this year, but I think I was (obviously) way too optimistic with the April 3rd guess.  I'm guessing June at the earliest at this point (I'd love to see it released the same day as VR's new one), but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it slipped into the second half of the year. . .

[evenflow]

You know GNR is my favorite band but even i have come to understand that Chinese Democracy will never be released. At this point i don't think it can be. Its too much of a Legend.

More of a myth than a legend, at this point, I think. 

No matter what happens the reviews will be terrible becuase after so many years the expectations are too high. My final thought about it, i don't think Axl actually has a full album to release. After all these years i think he has the 6 or 7 tracks that have been leaked or performed live. With that said, i would kill for studio versions of Madagascar and the Blues.

Agreed on the reviews--it's gonna have to be a very good record to even come close to living up to the hype, and if all the evil leaked demos and live versions are any indication, they've still got a long way to go. 

Disagreed on the number of songs--from what I've read, it sounds like there are at least a couple dozen tracks that have been worked on to some degree.  I think it has more to do with Axl being a perfectionist nutjob, than anything else.  He's really painted himself into a nasty corner here.

I have heard that as well, but from the people i have spoke to, Zakk Wylde and even Bumblefoot, mention that they really have no idea how many songs there are. I hope that there are dozens, and i would love a Chinese Democracy box set  i just have this feeling he doesn't have much done at all. I hope he proves me wrong.

[Reid]

Libertad album cover, release date, and tracklisting...



American Man
For Brother
Gas N' A $Laugh
Get Out the Door
Grave Dancers
Just 16
Let It Roll
Messages (They Left)
Pills, Demons, Etc.
Queen for a Day
She Builds Quick Machines (1st Single)
She Mine
Spay
This Fight (Could be the Last Fight)
Wasted Heart

May 28.

[Matt]

Excellent news.  Doubtful that's the finalized track listing, though.

At any rate, thanks for the update.

Two albums from the Revolvers (is that what we're calling them?  The Revolvers?) before Chinese Democracy = hilarity

[Matt]

Libertad has been delayed by several weeks:

Velvet Revolver Sets July Date For 'Libertad'

April 17, 2007, 2:55 PM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

After scrapping the original May 29 release date, Velvet Revolver has settled on July 3 to unveil its second RCA album, "Libertad." Impacting in mid-May, the first single from the set will be "She Builds Quick Machines," one of the four new tracks the group has been playing of late during shows in South America.

"RCA did a bunch of research on what the first single should be," bassist Duff McKagan told Billboard.com last night (April 16) before a gig in Buenos Aires. "I'm pretty anti that stuff. The band had something they wanted to go with, but RCA just kept coming with it. So we decided, it's fine. It's a great f*ckin' rock song. It has a kick-ass guitar riff, a great chorus, a really big bridge and a great Slash solo."

McKagan is also high on "Last Fight," which he calls "a mid-tempo, really beautiful song; probably something you wouldn't expect from us," as well as "She Mine," described as "a fun pop ditty."

"I think 'Contraband' was a great record," he says of Velvet Revolver's 2004 debut. "It was the right one for us to make as our first record. But 'Libertad' really goes way beyond that musically. I don't think any of us could have made a better record at this point in our careers."

As previously reported, the group was planning to record "Libertad" with producer Rick Rubin but found itself at odds with his approach. Brendan O'Brien ultimately produced the album.

"We all went to dinner last August and shook on it," McKagan recalls of Rubin. "At that point, we had 30 songs. He came down the second week of September and said, 'Okay great guys, now write some more songs.' So we wrote more songs. Another month later, he was like, 'Okay great, write some more songs.' We got up to 50 songs! When somebody tells you to write more songs, you start thinking, 'Well, all of our sh*t sucks.' It's not a good place for a band like us to be at."

"Rick is a great guy," he continues. "We've all known him for a long time. But we just decided, maybe next record, or some other time." Once O'Brien took over, "he inspired all of us to dig in to the parts," McKagan says. "None of us were afraid to bring anything new to the table."

Velvet Revolver begins a short North American tour May 3 in Los Angeles, and European festival dates are on tap through early July. McKagan says fans can expect songs from its members' old bands (Guns N' Roses, Stone Temple Pilots) to crop up occasionally, but less frequently than in Velvet Revolver's early days, when it barely had enough originals to play a headlining set.

"I don't know whether we'll do it the whole tour or once in awhile," he says. "But I know people like to hear them and sometimes we really like to play them. It's songs we wrote, so why not?"

[Scott]

Fingers crossed that Duff "Rose" McKagan has been a lot more involved in the singing and song writing of the latest Revolvers (is that what we're calling them, The Revolvers?) CD

[Matt]

Fingers crossed that Duff "Rose" McKagan has been a lot more involved in the singing and song writing of the latest Revolvers (is that what we're calling them, The Revolvers?) CD

Screw that, I hope he starts working on the follow-up to his solo album!