It took Axl Rose 14 years to write, record (and according to many reports re-record…and then re-record again), and release Chinese Democracy. Well, guess what Axl, I don’t know if this was the reaction you were going for, but it took me over two years to actually comprehend this mess of an album and then finally appreciate it. It then, using your playbook as a reference, took me another two months to write this blog post. Well, actually it was two months of me telling my girlfriend I was going to write about it. The actual writing part probably clocked in at a few hours.
I bought this album the day it came out. I think the words “Chinese” and “Democracy” were in the first sentence I said that day. I could not wait to hear this album. (Side note: If record stores still opened up at midnight before an album came out, I would have been there. Apparently the only thing that warrants stores opening at midnight is a new Harry Potter. It used to be stoners and their Camaros in the parking lot waiting for the new Metallica album. Now’s it’s soccer moms in their minivans. Sad. ) As I was on the bus going to buy it I couldn’t help but kind of understand how Rose probably felt finally releasing this album. I was 30 and had spent over 10 years waiting for this album called Chinese Democracy. Fourteen years for a new Guns album, almost half of my life! What would it be like to live in a world where Chinese Democracy actually existed? I think I blacked out trying to fathom the concept, because the next thing I knew I was walking out of Best Buy with a copy of Chinese Democracy. Just as I had the first day Use Your Illusion I and II came out, I raced home to listen to it. (Well, it was a little different. I had to have my mom drive me to the record store for Illusion.) I listened to it non-stop for probably the better part of a week. After the hype, the anticipation, and submerging myself in it, I told everyone my thoughts: it sucked.
There is no way anyone could expect this album to be better than Appetite for Destruction or even Use Your Illusion. You really would have no place to even expect it to sound like Guns N’ Roses. Axl Rose was the only remaining member from the original core lineup of GN’R. He was one of the main songwriters, yes, but the two that most influenced the music side of it were Slash and Izzy Stradlin. Slash and Izzy were the Aerosmith and Stones-loving guitarists who shaped the rhythm and sound of the original Guns. Axl added the bombastic elements of Elton John and Queen. The “artist” element, if you will. Which is odd, since Axl also seemed like the most homophobic of the group based on the song One in a Million. The rest of GN’R is what made that raunchy, sexy, rock n’ roll sound on Appetite. Without them…you get Chinese Democracy.
To say this album is over-produced is a gross understatement. There are layers upon layers upon layers of guitar, and every time Rose isn’t singing there is some kind of guitar solo. And speaking of singing, on most of the tracks Rose is singing the same line in different tones. Oh, and there‘s that whole thing of it costing somewhere around 13 million dollars to make. A hefty part of which I’m assuming went to the chicken coop that was constructed for Buckethead to record in. (I would have killed to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.) But when you recruit a guitar player who has never been seen without wearing a kabuki mask and a KFC bucket on his head, you can’t complain. You just build it.
Buckethead was one of the rotating cast of guitarists. I think there were four or five different people that played guitar for the album, some leaving and coming back later. Three different drummers came and went, so you had a rhythm section that was constantly changing, aside from Tommy Stinson, who stayed on the whole time as the bass player. Paul Westerberg will never let him live that one down. Plus, everyone from Moby to Shaquille O’Neal was supposedly on the album at one point. So it seems that there was never a direction for how the album was supposed to sound…which is what it sounds like…and is part of the reason that now, 2 years later I’m singing this albums praises.
It’s obvious Axl Rose was on a big industrial and electronica kick when he wrote a lot of this. However, that can’t surprise anyone since one of his most popular pieces of clothing on the Use Your Illusion tour was a Nine Inch Nails T-Shirt (the others being a kilt, an umpires vest, a feather boa, and an N.W.A. hat) so we knew he was starting to get into something other than what influenced the previous Guns N’ Roses albums…that, or he was always into it and simply fired the rest of the band for constantly giving him shit about his love of Front 242… Regardless of the influence and the overall absurdity of everything surrounding the creation of Chinese Democracy, it is a grand and epic album, and you have to appreciate that, simply because of the fact that nobody makes an album like that anymore. You also have to appreciate the fact that Axl Rose is such a nutjob. Say what you will but Rose does not ever apologize for anything, including taking 14 years to release the most bloated album of all time. The reason for this is that he believes he has nothing to apologize for. Axl Rose isn’t a character. Axl Rose is Axl Rose. And based on what I’ve read, he’s always been that way.
Axl Rose is the reason why anyone bought Chinese Democracy. He’s one of the few real rockstars left, and that’s why an album that didn’t have any of the other original members, that took an obscene amount of time to come out, and that we all knew could not be nearly good enough to justify the wait, debuted at #3 on Billboard. There is just something so badass and intriguing about him that people still love him no matter what. Think about it. It is a known fact that GN’R shows start like, 3 hours late, and might very well end after 2 songs. BUT THEY STILL SELLOUT. Axl Rose has repeadlty had incidents that involve him beating up women. BUT SCARLETT JOHANSSON HANGS OUT WITH HIM UNTIL 4AM AT A CLUB IN NEW YORK , RESULTING IN HER LEAVING HER HUSBAND RYAN REYNOLDS WHO, LETS FACE IT, IS MUCH BETTER LOOKING THAN AXL ROSE THESE DAYS. (There isn’t any documentation that the reason that Johansson and Reynolds divorced is because of Axl Rose. However, if a few months after hanging out with Axl Rose in the wee hours of the morning you leave your husband there’s got to be a connection, and I’m sure Ryan Reynolds punches a wall every time Sweet Child O’ Mine is played at the bar.)
So I’m singing a different tune about Chinese Democracy 2 years later. I guess I’m telling people this because it’s easy to just write this album off without a second chance (or maybe a fifth or sixth). But you really should. I feel strongly about this. It’s not Appetite for Destruction, it’s not Lies, it’s not Use Your Illusion. Hell, it’s not even the Spaghetti Incident? It’s Chinese Democracy and it’s awesome because of both the high points and the lows. It’s all over the internet so it won’t cost you anything to give it another try.
Here are my favorite tracks:
Chinese Democracy: When the chorus kicks in you might punch the person next to you in the face. Just a warning.
Shacklers Revenge: Even better chorus but this time you just want to pump your fist and step on the gas. Plus, at the 2:18 mark of the song there is one of the most exaggerated guitar solos ever, with this background noise I can’t describe, but love. Might be my favorite song on the album
Street of Dreams: One of the two songs on the album that sounds the closest to an old Guns N’ Roses song. Mainly due to Rose’s vocals. They had to have been recorded in 1999 because there is no way his voice can still do that now. If I’m wrong, Axl I apologize. Also the guitar solo sounds more like something Slash would have played. Slower and bluesier. (I don’t think that’s an actual word but I’m allowed to take certain liberties with the English language in this blog.)
Catcher in the Rye: Definitley the poppiest track on the album. I’m not sure if Axl is trying to compare his 40+ self to Holden Caulfield, but I wouldn’t put it past him. The song has a good “Na,Na, Na” bridge that goes into an ending that could only be described as “soaring”…yes, “soaring.”
I.R.S.: The second song that sounds like it might have been written by the original Guns N’ Roses. The most vintage Axl Rose vocals on the album and a good heavy guitar riff. This song sounds like it’s about his large amount of legal issues or something about a past girlfriend. Granted, my tax knowledge starts and ends with H&R Block, but I’m not sure where the Internal Revenue Service would help in this case. I like to believe this song is also about Slash somehow.
Madagascar: This was one of the songs I was most looking forward to hearing. GN’R played a bit of if when they did the surprise appearance on the MTV awards (which was such a big deal to me that I believe I called at least three people to turn on their TV. The only other time I did this was when I called a good friend of mine to tell him that Dawson finally slept with Joey on Dawson’s Creek.) The opening orchestral part makes you think this was supposed to be the biggest song on the album, like November Rain, but somewhere it kind of loses that. The whole song sounds like it’s building up to something that never happens. Still great though.
Prostitute: The other song that might be my favorite on the album and was the one next to Madagascar that I was looking forward to hearing the most. I remember reading an article in the late 90’s where someone was saying that Rose had been struggling in the studio with this song saying it was similar to the song Coma on Use Your Illusion I. That song was one of my original favorites from that album so I spent the next 10 plus years waiting to hear it. I think Rose wanted Madagascar to be this album’s November Rain, but personally I think this track is it. To me it sounds like Rose might have been listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins at the time he wrote this one. Which is fine. So was I. It’s the perfect song for the album to end on. I don’t know if prostitute is a metaphor for how Rose felt about himself, or if it’s about an actual prostitute he knows (either is quite plausible,) but the first lines of the song pretty much sum up the whole Chinese Democracy experience and the last 15 years of Guns N’ Roses.
“Seems like forever, and a day. If my intentions are misunderstood, please be kind. I’ve done all I should”
Don’t worry Axl, I get it. I was wrong and you were right. This is exactly the album you were supposed to make. I understand now and I’ll see you in another 10 years brother…but hopefully with Slash, Izzy, Duff, and Steven (Matt Sorum will be fine also but I’m pulling for Adler).
