ron2
Posted : 3/15/2009 5:52:11 PM
More stuff.
The Dobie looks to be 1 year old or less. They like running along the fence and she is a sweetheart, offering sniffs. Shadow can't help his loud bark, even when it's not a mean bark but more like social conversation. Forget about having an inside voice right now. She has cropped ears and a docked tail, excellent coloration and form and a temperment to die for. She's a lover, not a fighter. It won't be long until she can make Shadow use his inside voice. I have a theory, The female of any species is the "dominant" one, so to speak.
I haven't posted much here in a while but I still check in, now and then. I know I explained it before and I don't expect people to understand and that's okay. I have been a fan of Guns and Roses since the beginning and I really like the new album, Chinese Democracy. So much, that I got on a GnR forum and have been busy hurting feelings and ticking off young'ns over there. There are some so young they didn't know AC/DC had another singer before Brian Johnson. Anyway, the album has affected me and I needed a place to express it. Ticking off others was just a bonus.
They have a more lax mod of language and content and there are some exchanges that can make this place look like a tea party. Welcome to the jungle. It's not just a song, it's a way of life.
Guns and Roses contains only one original member, the founder of the band, lead vocalist W. Axl Rose. The first to leave the band was Steven Adler, the drummer. He was fired because his heroin addiction was interfering with the ability to complete the work required. He was replaced by Matt Sorum, from the Cult. Izzy Stradlin, rhythm guitar, Rose's longest and oldest friend from Lafayette, IN, left next. Drugs took their toll and sobriety was at odds with the large consumption of other members. After Use your Illusions I and II, they reach a creative impasse. The music you hear on those last albums and Chinese Democracy was the next logical direction and Slash wasn't into that. Slash, the lead guitarist left. He was the one most often saying that Axl is a control freak but, in actuality, he want to control the output of the band just as much. But Axl Rose owns the name Guns and Roses and it is his band.
Duffy McKagan was the last classic line-up member to leave. He's more of a punk musician. And has a punk band called Loaded. Later, Slash, McKagan, and Sorum formed Velvet Revolver, which is really Slash's band but they are having a hard time holding on to a singer. I think it was a mistake to bring on Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots. They had an open call for singers and I email the website and never received a reply as to submission format, etc.
Chinese Democracy is the collaborative effort of a number of musicians. It is also an example of everything that could go wrong during the production of an album and perservering and completing it, anyway. From arranging other musician's schedules to fending off frivilous and unsuccessful lawsuits from Slash and Steven Adler. Some of you have seen Steven Adler on the recent season of "Sober House." Yes, that is what Rose had to put up with for years on end. Of the members, Rose is the only one to not abuse, other than having an occasional drink or a cigar once in a while. He is a singer.
And I identify with that. I also sing. In fact, I think I sing better than I play guitar, even though I have played guitar longer. The voice is part of the body and you have to take care of the instrument. There's an old saying. Everyone but the singer gets to party. Rose is only about 1.5 ot almost 2 years older than me. He is 47 this year and is still hitting high C. I, too, can do the same. I will be 45 on Thursday. You can't maintain that range and power if you abuse the body. As far as being a control freak, he got that label because he expected people to show up sober enough to record or play and not be so drunk they found the stage by accident.
W. Axl Rose was raised as Bill Bailey by his mother and adoptive step-father. He later found out his real father's name was Rose and change his name to William Rose and later, to W. Axl Rose. During regression therapy, he came to understand that he had been sexually abused by his natural father. And emotionally and physically abused by his step-father, meanwhile having to pretend everything is okay while he was in church choir. Now, he has little use for white-washing. When someone asks what he thinks of his former bandmates, he gives his unvarnished opinion. He has also learned that the best way to handle a dsyfunctional relationship is to not continue it. Therefore, there will be no reunion of the "original" line-up. And truth be known, he actually started the band with Izzy Stradlin and Tracii Guns of LA Guns, hence "Guns and Roses."
Plans for a tour are still on-going and talk of another album persist. Chinese Democracy was released through Universal Records with Interscope Mgmt. But Interscope has failed greatly. Rather than spend more time on a $13 million album suing Interscope for breach of contract, GnR mgmt did an end run and got an exclusive distribution deal with Best Buy. US slaes are slow but the band is huge in Europe, South America, and Scandinavia. The debut album, Appetite for Destruction, was released in 1987, didn't start moving until 1988 and was monstrous huge by 1989, two years later. I expect Chinese Democracy, a landmark album in its own right, will do the same.
"Prostitute" ( as in selling out your principles) from the album, Chinese Democracy, by Guns and Roses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SZP4Tb5qtE&feature=related
ETA: Most of the piano playing on this album is Rose. One other long time member remains in the band, Dizzy Reed and he handled most of the orchestration and symphonic orchestra bits, from strings for accents to the symphonic stretch at the end of this song.