Axl Rose

Subject: Axl Rose
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 06:58 AM

I recognize that this is not a heavy metal website. I would like to put aside acoustic,purist prejudices to ask what performers thought of this fellow. Not his actions,just his ability.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 07:43 AM

Who he ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: GUEST,999
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 08:42 AM

He's the lead singer for Guns N Roses.

Years active        1985–present

Members

Axl Rose
Dizzy Reed
Tommy Stinson
Chris Pitman
Richard Fortus
Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal
Frank Ferrer
DJ Ashba

Past members

Ole Beich
Rob Gardner
Tracii Guns
Steven Adler
Izzy Stradlin
Slash
Duff McKagan
Matt Sorum
Gilby Clarke
Josh Freese
Paul Tobias
Buckethead
Robin Finck
Bryan Mantia

They were bigger than sliced bread in the late 80s and early 90s. Lots of media hype and controversy as there always seems to be with metal groups. IMO, he wrote a few good songs by anyone's definition of good, but not recently. If what I saw of his Rio concert is anything to go by, he appears to be caricaturizing himself (as he was in the past) and it ain't working too well. An ongoing retelling of the Elvis saga without the sequins but with the glitz. The music was somewhere between awful and terrible.

imo

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: BTNG
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 09:28 AM

what ability?

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:20 AM

Sweet Child of Mine was a good song and Axl could be a very exciting singer. I found a lot of what he did, like Welcome to the Jungle, abrasive and over the top vocally.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:31 AM

His real name is William Bruce Rose - Like Gok Wan, Axl Rose is an anagram! I'll let you work it out!

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:44 AM

erm......... Earl Sox?

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Becca72
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:50 AM

lax sore?

I was a GNR fan back in the day, but I enjoyed the entire band - nothing particularly special about Axl himself. And now he's just a douchebag...

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: GUEST,Phil B
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:54 AM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtnM-Sk5OMs

Around 4:36

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: olddude
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:56 AM

He is an amazing artist. I wish I had one tenth of his skill for sure. I appreciate fine musicians no matter what the genre is. I do like some of the songs also.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: GUEST,Phil B
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:58 AM

Whoops

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtnM-Sk5OMs

Around 4:36

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: doc.tom
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 06:04 PM

Interesting musician - but why are we discussing him on Mudcat?
"I recognize that this is not a heavy metal website." I'm not sure you do!
"I would like to put aside acoustic,purist prejudices" - please do.
"still to ask what performers thought of this fellow." - better ask the heavy metal guys for a relevant answer!

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: gnu
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 07:13 PM

"Interesting musician - but why are we discussing him on Mudcat?"

Because anyone can discuss anything at this here Café. Ain't it grand?!

On the other hand, I dislike his whiney voice on some tunes. On the other hand, I just checked out YouTube and anyone that can pull over 34M hits on one song can't be a hack eh?

I don't care much for his music but I DO admire his bank account. >;-)

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: michaelr
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 09:40 PM

A buffoon with a strident voice. Bah.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Max
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:14 PM

doc.tom, please provide more tolerance and less curmudgeonly snootery to my guests when you are also a guest in my home. I find it a well qualified inquiry and I wouldn't want people to think that's how we are around here. Thank you.

First couple/few albums were very well written, if that were all Axl, I'd say he has(had) quite a gift. I'm fairly certain he has some sort of mental illness and/or drug addiction ever since though. His behavior and treatment of fans is appalling.

I believe nowadays there is a 50/50 chance of any given concert of his being canceled. Last I read anything about him, was when I was over in England and he was 2 or 3 hours for his set at the Reading Fest (or the other one).

Whatever he was, he is no more.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 10:15 PM

So let us ask the question again - what the hell as this to do with Mudcat?

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: GUEST,999
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 11:30 PM

Mudcat is often a good place for people to get their music questions answered. Sometimes metal, rock, blues, folk, classical. Just the way it is.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Max
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 11:58 PM

I took it as a compliment. As in,

"Hey rock solid, high integrity musicianship and songwriting, vetted by centuries type people... what do you think of _____"

GUEST, what the hell do YOU have to do with Mudcat? I would be ashamed to be associated with you. You are cowardice in anonymity, and provocative-for-lack-of-substance and rude, self-absorbed, entitled-as-if-you-had-authority-to-speak-for-mudcat, unwelcome and unpleasant. You belong here less than this question. (and you should use a different proxy next time)

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 12:17 AM

Speaking as a true musical mongrel, I say save us from the purists. Like fanatics of all posture, they just like to take the fun out of the room. I'm with gnu and Max.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 12:54 AM

Here, here, Lonesome EJ!

I grew up with a classical and folk music purist father, so I listened to rock only in my own bedroom as a kid. When my son wanted to learn guitar, I told him I'd pay for the lessons but asked him to first take classical, to learn the theory behind the music. He agreed because he wanted a guitar and wanted lessons, and after a year or so bought himself an electric guitar. I didn't want him to think I disapproved, I didn't, I just wanted him to have a solid foundation to build from. For several months I watched and listened at his guitar lessons and he didn't mention the new guitar, so one day I asked his teacher if he knew my son had bought an electric over the summer. The response was an interested "Really? What kind?" and they talked for 20 minutes past the end of the lesson about electric guitars, and his teacher suggested he bring that one along next time. They alternated between classical and electric over the next four years. His teacher used to front for some of the local bands in his mis-spent youth. :)

My 19-year-old knows that musical talent comes with many forms of music. I daresay there are as many people here at mudcat who can discourse about talented rock performers as there are who can talk about classical virtuosos. Mudcat is the intersection, where those of us who also have an interest in folk and blues meet. But these types are not mutually exclusive and our conversations bleed over into other types all of the time.

SRS

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 03:48 AM

Axl would be proud of possibly the best version ever of:

Sweet Children of Mine....and Yours and Yours...and.....

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: doc.tom
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:38 AM

Max, no offence. But no-one has answered the question or comment. As it happens, I like the work of Axl - and several others from the rock scene - but I'd rather discuss them on a rock forum.
TomB

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:45 AM

Then we have the Ukelele version from 'Ukes Not Nukes'...

which...ROCKS! :0)

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 06:11 AM

I remember this type of furor when Dylan went electric....As this has raised some unexpected belligerence,perhaps I should say that my question is for those who are interested in vocal performance in general. Perhaps if there are trained singers or voice majors to reply. I would like an evaluation of AXL's vocal range and ability. Is this a question of development,talent, or is this the destruction of the vocal chords?There is a utube site showing the range of the voice.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: gnu
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 06:51 AM

Yo doc... go ahead. Why bother to take the time to complain that this thread exists. Ya don't hafta even read this thread, let alone post to it. Seems like a waste of your time to me. Hmmm... kinda wastin my time too.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Banjiman
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 11:35 AM

I don't know about his ability (sounds a bit screamy at times), but Sweet Child of Mine and the rest of that album was the soundtrack to the summer I spent "over the pond" working on a summer camp and touring around. 1988 if I remember correctly.

Had some of the best times of my life and I can't hear Guns 'n' Roses without being transported back onto a Greyhound Bus, or some seedy (but cheap) motel or the arms of a certain beautiful Puerto Rican lady that I became quite attached too.......

So, I'm grateful to the OP for taking me back there....... away from this misty cold day in Blighty ....... and doc.tom, don't tell my wife I posted this (the bit about the Puerto Rican lady anyway :-)

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 11:44 AM

I love that guitar riff on Michael Jacksons Black and White. We could with a few folksongs with something as memorable as that in them.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 11:48 AM

Are you sure that conversations about Beautiful Puerto Rican ladies have a place on a serious folk forum?
doctom, many of us who have rocked and continue to rock find this forum much more appealing than some chat room where Korn and Molly Hatchet are the topics. My sense of good rock is primarily derived from roots forms, like Blues, Folk, Old Time, Country, and Celtic, all of which can be found growing in fertile ground here, and tended, in many cases, by those same purists who dislike hearing about the pop music outgrowths. Many remember Bruce O, who was an archivist and keeper of the Folk Flame, and couldn't have been bothered with someone as pop as the Byrds, or Dylan, or Guthrie, for that matter. He wasn't interested in my various contemporary interests, but I learned a ton from him, and wouldn't trade that knowledge, even for a mint copy of Revolver.

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Banjiman
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 11:50 AM

"Are you sure that conversations about Beautiful Puerto Rican ladies have a place on a serious folk forum?"

Yeah, it's OK I wrote a song about it...... happy now :-) ?

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 11:51 AM

Not until I hear it!

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: Musket
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 11:54 AM

Sweet Child of Mine is possibly one of my favourite songs of all time.

Seen them perform a few times and to be honest, not all their set gets me in raptures but that song, well....

Interestingly, a bloke used to sing it around the local folk clubs, accompanying himself on accordion. Now that was something, and his rendition of that wonderful song was something else.

Axl? Tortured soul, but sometimes that's the price of genius.

To the blinkered souls typing away on these threads; You'd be amazed how much rock has influenced contemporary folk and of course, vice versa. If you haven't heard of Axl, be assured he ain't heard of you either....

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: michaelr
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 12:10 PM

Genius??? Pleeeeze...

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 12:26 PM

yeah, some of G'n'R was ok..
but at that time if I was in the mood for retro 70's hard rock I preferred "The Cult"...


Anyway, whenever I hear a good trad or early music performance
I always imagine how much better it would sound
with a good vintage fuzz box or analog synth drone...

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: gnu
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 09:08 PM

punkfolkrocker... oh, NOW, there is a line even I can't cross... well, maybe... ya got any licks ta show us what ya mean?

Subject: RE: Axl Rose
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 03:41 AM

Folk music is for common folks!..ALL music can draw from other kinds to express whatever the artist wishes. Often, it's not a matter of 'taste', but rather 'perception deficit disorder'!
We used to have an expression in the studio, in L.A....."You can ALWAYS tell a 'purist'....they're ALWAYS out of tune!"

I remember being introduced to GNR, by a hitchhiker I picked up, driving from California to Colorado. He was NUTS about them...he put in the tape....some of it was really good stuff!

Later, because of certain circumstances, I was privy to their business arrangements....the first album, which went multi-platinum, and all their concerts, they made a total of $126,000 to split between them!!!

I suppose after all that effort, and talent, and WORK, I guess if they had conflicts, and attitudes...it wouldn't be too hard to figure out why!!!

I think it's 'Sweet Child of Mine', the guitar solo, by Slash, is note for note copied from Clapton's solo, from 'Cream's' 'White Room'.

Just some tidbits for ya'...

GfS