AXL Rose – Chinese Democracy

(my comp crashed 3 times while writing this...how appropriate)

I won't be told anymore That I've been brought down in this storm And left so far out from the shore
That I can't find my way back My way anymore

In terms of mind boggling statistics there has been enough written about Guns N Roses, Chinese Democracy. 14 years, 15 studios give and take a few years. Am not even going into the fact whether it was worth it. For that matter can anything in the pop culture be worth that much? How does one put a tag or a rating on a work which has obviously consumed not just time but the artist himself.

No, I won't be told anymore That I've been brought down in this storm And left so far out from the shore
That I can't find my way back My way anymore No I...I
Forgive them that tear down my soul
And bless them that they might grow old
And free them so that they may know That it's never too late

What would it take for this man to just give up and get the damn thing out? To move on? How many changes of his team, studios, labels, hairstyles would it take to just say fuck it am done? What bullheadedness was needed to ignore the kind of changes which have taken in the music scene, whole sub genres of music have risen and fallen in that time. What was the quest for perfection or imperfection that he was looking for? What mythical Holy Grail drove him?

Oh the many times What seem like a memory I've searched and found the ways you use to lure me in
I've found the ways, oh why it had to be Mired in denial, and so afraid
If we ever find it true That we had the strength to choose I'm free of all these chains We held together

There were certainly enough of us out there who kept track of this. Actually that’s a lie, most of us remembered G ‘N’ R as this guy in a red bandana and white shorts running amok on stage while a guy with wild hair, a top hat and a dangling cigarette seemed to absorb the madness and channel it though one wailing note after another. We were certainly not prepared for the revolving door of musicians both known and obscure (the number of people who have been credited on the album might need its own website).

Until the day when the name of the album itself started to become mythical, a mirage, a derisive term even. Making its way up the list of works awaited for the longest time, shoving aside pretenders. Seemed the second coming of Elvis would happen sooner.

Would it even stand up to scrutiny…end up as a joke when it finally appeared on the shelves? Can anything live up to this kind of promise, waiting?

I won't be told anymore That I've been brought down in this storm And left so far out from the shore
That I can't find my way back My way anymore

Am not even getting into the merits/demerits of the album (for the record I am obsessed). He certainly still has the voice, the wail, the guttural intensity. Rolling Stone magazine remarked that AXL needed a wall of guitars for what Slash and Izzy would conjure up. The songs are likeable enough, wavering between the brilliant and the pedestrian as any “good” album would. But this certainly isn’t an ordinary album is it?

No, I won't be told anymore That I've been brought down in this storm And left so far out from the shore
That I can't find my way back My way anymore

AXL is a true rock star. That makes up for a lot of things. I have wailed enough times that the only super group of my times had split up too way ahead of its time. And the front man who could step into the ranks of the greats in any era (in terms of the attention he generates at least) was busy obsessively turning knobs in an unnamed record studio. He creates interest, obsession, condemnation, anger but never ignored. Oh we had all listened to appetite for destruction with a sense of wonder and worship, marveled at the perfect conflagration of music, promotion and hype that was use your illusion and were all equally bewildered by the spaghetti incident. But where would the Chinese democracy land up in this scale? Was he even worried about the reception?

The answer of course is NO. AXL is one of those once in a generation deviants who leads public opinion, not follow it in the manner of a market researched manufactured product. If he was to crash and burn then so be it.....but crash and burn he would...on his own fucking terms....

Of course the fact that i listened to the damn album obsessively could be that i bought into the wait...bought into the fact that this had to be freaking awesome.....

This song in red...Madagascar, has been performed by G N R over the last few years. With samples from cool hand luke, Martin Luther King Jr and visuals of katrina, starving Africa and Nelson Mandela this would be a outrage against the injustice around, a U2esque paen to those fighting to turn the world.....but I dont think so. Its almost like this is the tracing of the ordeal that was Chinese Democracy.....

No, I won't be told anymore That I've been brought down in this storm And left so far out from the shore That I can't find my way back My way anymore
http://www.gunsnroses.us/chinesedemocracy/madagascar.htm
what do you think?