Sunday 9 November 2008

We Need Axl Rose Back

Almost 15 years to the day since their last Album, Guns N' Roses are finally unveiling Chinese Democracy at the end of the month.
It is shamefully ironic that while all the cool kids were trying to work out who was singing the vocals on 'New Rose' after 'The Spaghetti Incident?' was released on 23rd November 1993, the latest in the type of performer that would fill the intervening years was celebrating her first birthday.
Now i have nothing against Miley Cyrus, (her dad on the other hand should have been cattle prodded into unconsciousness by the first person he played Achy Breaky Heart to) but she is synonymous of everything that is wrong with musicians today, they are just so boringly pleasant.
What Guns N' Roses and bands of that ilk gave us was wild, hard drinking and unpredictable musicians who would soak their cornflakes in Jack Daniels, knock seven bells out of each other while smoking 120 Benson & Hedges and still manage to knock out a guitar riff so sharp it threatened eyeballs when it came on the radio.
I want my rock stars drunk, unkempt and being photographed coming out of nightclubs at 4am, puking over the paparazzi and appearing in the morning newspapers waving two fingers and slurring rude things about Prince William. I want to read about Oasis front men having to have new front teeth fitted after their own are knocked out of their head by an irate German bouncer or John Lydon chasing his scared witless assistant around a hotel because his room didn't have a dividing door.
What we have got is a chart full of Simon Cowell's manufactured dross and the Jonas Brothers with their purity rings. Party on Dudes.
Axl may be the only remaining member of the original Guns N' Roses but we need him back ruffling feathers and inspiring a generation of musicians who rebel and smell faintly of their own vomit.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Axl is a true legend. My teenagers love him.

Agree about Miley Cyrus - they think she is cool, and so do I. She's not too cute, as long as she can get out of the shadow of her father.

Rock has definitely been homogenised. And people thought we 80's punk people were lame!

Don said...

Axl was great in his day but now he's just an aged punk and I don't mean the good/bad kind. All that media attention over Chinese Democracy -- my only reaction was who could possibly give a fuck?

I still like metal bands -- out here in the West our mosh pits are probably nothing like in any working-class English town but it's still a fun place to get a bruise on.

Cody Bones said...

We don't need Axle back, we need a new one

Anne said...

i remember working a show at the santa cruz civic auditorium in 1985.
gun & roses OPENED for the cult.after their set, axl wandered the halls to the sounds of girls oooohing and ahhhing at the sight of him. i didn't pick up on his appeal, personally. he seemed like a pimply, narcissistic twit to me. look how wrong i was? ;)

Jodie Kash said...

Axl ain’t Axl anymore. He's become Mickey Rourke.

As a former head banger banger, I miss the glittery boys, their eyeliner, bare chests. The Emo bands don’t do it for me; they wear the tiniest pants.

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm not a huge G-n-R fan, but let me add that there was infinitely more musicianship in this that "skinny mother-f*cker with the high voice," from Minneapolis--writhing across the stage with penis shaped guitar between his legs--than in all the milk-sop bands that populate the airwaves today.

Oh for some real music.

Falling on a bruise said...

It's not so much the music, although i was a massive fan of Guns N Roses, it's the bland and boring musicians that seem to populate the scene today. Where are the likes of Axl, Rotton, Lemmy, Iggy or Ozzy that make things interesting?

Anne said...

tastes have changed. how else to explain american idol and guitar hero ;) ??

Anonymous said...

Do you guys really actually belief that the 'taste' have change naturally ? Who owns the labels ? and creates public promotions and selective demotions ? Did the 80s has problem regarding the musical transition of the to the 90s ? What has happened right before own own eyes is this abomination of artist creative expression unnaturally predefined shift for the benefits of a certain party ? Find the way against it !