I think it's unnecessary and inaccurate to discount Chinese Democracy as a Guns N Roses album. It is every single bit as much a Guns N Roses album as the two "Illusions".
Right. But I hardly think you can count the last five years. What have they done? It's easy to stay "together" when you're not really working.
And I wholeheartedly disagree with this as well as your previous assertion. Heck, there are multiple threads in which most are lamenting the latest Yes album - and their current incarnation has way more right to use the traditional band name than does any incarnation of Axl's band since around 1997.
It's "okay" for you to disagree that Chinese Democracy is a Guns N Roses album, in much the same way that it's "okay" for people to disagree that the world is round. But the facts still remain: Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N Roses, and the world is indeed round.
and again 5 of the 8 guys on stage with GNR now have been in the band since 2002. so for 12 years the lineup has hardly changed.
Yes I realize that - Chinese Democracy is a studio album by a band called Guns 'n Roses. But many feel using the GnR name for that album is a farce and it is GnR in name only. I can't believe I had to spell that out for you.
Right - and let us see how productive that "band" is. I predict the next 5 years will be similar to the last - nothing. No new material and hardly any live shows. Again...easy to "stay together" when you're not really doing anything together. My bar band is more active than them.
I know, but a lot of people feel a lot of ways about a lot of things. Feelings are subjective, facts are never are. There are people who thought that the Dio/Appice lineup of Black Sabbath wasn't really Black Sabbath. And yet they were every bit as much Black Sabbath as the Paranoid lineup.
Hardly any live shows? since 2010 GNR has played 202 shows. why do you keep posting your opinion as fact?
But that's what a forum like this is all about - subjective opinion. Sabbath were still hugely popular with Dio fronting them. GnR in their current incarnation? Judging from the FACT that they played a little dump of a place here in a Toronto show last year that largely went under the radar - vs. selling out sixty thousand seat venues on the Illusion tour in the early 90s - and I think the FACTS speak for themselves. Chinese Democracy has been a failure. A local used CD shop which accepts almost EVERYTHING wouldn't take my copy off my hands. They can barely even be given away. The public largely DOES NOT accept them as Guns n Roses. You may, many don't. No opinion is any more legit than any other - but the public has spoken and you are no smarter than them, despite what you might think. To many including myself, they are GnR only in the sense that Axl owns the naming rights and remains the vocalist. That's it.
Right - 202 shows and not a hint of any new material in almost 5 years. What'd they do the remaining 1500 days?
There have been lots of hints. They just put out a live video and are discussing whether to put out a remix album or a follow-up to Chinese next.
EVERYTHING you have said is inaccurate and ignorant. Why are you still here? You've been proven wrong multiple times.
Why? I have the same opinion on their current incarnation - although once again a band with half of the members of their classic era is a heckuva lot more representative than is Axl and his current band of cronies.
because they go around touring with nothing new. they only have 1 album in the last 30 years. the only play 1 song live from it anymore.
Perhaps you didn't understand my post. I'm agreeing with you. As I said - I have the same opinion on their current incarnation. I would not shell out a cent to see them now. They are "Pete and Roger trying to play their own songs with a different rhythm section and make a few more bucks", at least IMO. I'd rather listen to the awesome albums, see Pearl Jam or a good tribute band play their classic tunes...or play their songs with my own band. So...the exact same opinion I have of the current incarnation of GnR. But I would also say that as currently constituted, with what most would call the two most key components of their classic era band, they are more "The Who" than Axl's current band are Guns n Roses.
Oh, why you are absolutely right sir. GnR are as strong as ever, they continue to blaze a trail of sold out stadiums and enduringly popular releases, Chinese Democracy will go down as a landmark recording and their current lineup is indeed widely viewed as one of the best hard rock bands of all time.
Hey, it's great that they're "doing fine" and I don't really care either way. Their classic Appetite / Illusion period created such a huge fan base that they had a large enough buffer to sustain their slide and remain on the outskirts of relevancy.
Seems like you care about whether they are massively popular. As a band grows and matures, a band can rely upon a fan base that follows the band along musical paths where the band leads them. Good for GNR for "keeping it real" for thirty years. We celebrate GNR and cast aspersion on the trolls who desperately cling to relics of their own tattered musical dreams for the band. Good for GNR for not listening to people like you who can't hold a candle to GNR's managerial prowess.
I don't really care about whether they're popular, but thanks for presuming. I only care whether I like them. I loved their classic era albums and thought Chinese Democracy was a turd. It sounded to me like Axl in full-on self-indulgence mode with a bunch of yes men as his band. GnR's managerial prowess? Holy jeez...what does that have to do with anything? I suspect they're Axl's yes men too. Hey - as you yourself pointed out - his "sweat equity" has earned him the right to call all the shots. Just don't call us trolls if we view such a "band" as an Axl Rose solo act.
