This article is about the Guns N' Roses album. For the political movement in China, see Chinese democracy movement.
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Chinese Democracy is the famous name of a long-delayed album from Guns N' Roses that remains in production. When(ever) the album is finally released, it will mark the band's first album of original material since the 1991 dual releases of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II.
The album has been rumored to have a "firm release date" of November 21, 2006. [1]
Track listing
| Confirmed for Chinese Democracy | |||
| Title | Source / Year | Demo | Played Live |
| "Better" | Axl Rose / 2006 | Yes | Yes |
| "Catcher in The Rye" | Richard Fortus / 2006 | Yes | No |
| "Chinese Democracy" | Axl Rose / 1999 | No | Yes |
| "IRS" | Press Release / 2006 | Yes | Yes |
| "Madagascar" | Press Release / 2006 | No | Yes |
| "Sorry" | Sebastian Bach / 2006 | No | No |
| "The Blues" | Axl Rose / 2006 | No | Yes |
| "There Was a Time (TWAT)" | Axl Rose / 2006 | Yes | Yes |
| Confirmed as not being on Chinese Democracy | |||
| Title | Source / Year | Demo | Played Live |
| "Oh My God" | Yes | Yes | |
| "Riyadh and The Bedouins" | Dizzy Reed / 2005 | No | Yes |
| "Silkworms" | Dizzy Reed/Chris Pitman / 2005 | No | Yes |
| Confirmed titles from Chinese Democracy sessions | |||
| Title | Source / Year | ||
| "Ides of March" | Dave Dominguez / 2005 | ||
| "Leave Me Alone" | Marco Beltrami / 2002 | ||
| "Oklahoma" | Axl Rose / 2000 | ||
| "Prostitute" | Paul Buckmaster / 2004 | ||
| "Seven" | Marco Beltrami / 2002 | ||
| "The General" | Marco Beltrami / 2002 | ||
| "This I Love" | Dave Dominguez / 2005 | ||
| "Thyme" | Marco Beltrami / 2002 | ||
| Rumored titles from Chinese Democracy sessions | |||
| Title | Source / Year | ||
| "Atlas Shrugged" | Sp1at / 2005 | ||
| "Cock-a-roach Soup" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "Closing In On You" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "Friend or Foe" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "Hearts Get Killed" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "Never Had It" | Classic Rock Magazine / 2002 | ||
| "No Love Remains" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "Quick Song" | Sp1at / 2005 | ||
| "Something Always" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "Strange Disease" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "Suckerpunched" | Kerrang! / 1999 | ||
| "This Life" | Classic Rock Magazine / 2002 | ||
| "Today, Tomorrow, Forever" | Classic Rock Magazine / 2002 | ||
| "Zip It" | Classic Rock Magazine / 2002 | ||
| "Zodiac" | Sp1at / 2005 | ||
Composer Marco Beltrami worked on orchestral arrangements for "Thyme," "The General," "Leave Me Alone," and "Seven" in October 2002.
Composer Paul Buckmaster worked on arrangements for "Madagascar," "The Blues," "There Was a Time," and "Prostitute."
Axl Rose said in a January 2006 interview with Rolling Stone that his favorite songs on the upcoming album are "Better," "There Was a Time," and "The Blues".[2]
Sound
In 1999, "Oh My God" was released on the End of Days soundtrack. It featured current Guns N' Roses members Axl Rose, Tommy Stinson, and Dizzy Reed along with Paul Tobias and then-drummer for the group Josh Freese. Dave Navarro and Rose's guitar instructor Gary Sunshine also did guitar work on this industrial-sounding track.
Former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash is reported to have left the band in large part because of the change in musical direction, which at the time was reported to be industrial rock music similar to Nine Inch Nails, a style that Rose had long been a fan of.
The songs which the band performed during the 2001-2002 tour varied heavily in sound. "The Blues" and "Madagascar" were "November Rain"-esque epics, while "Riyadh and The Bedouins" and "Silkworms" were progressive-industrial songs. The album's title track, "Chinese Democracy", can be best described as grunge. Rose said in an interview during the 2002 Chinese Democracy Tour that the band had yet to bring out their "big guns" with regards to songs they had played from the album.
On January 13 2006, Axl Rose spoke about the album at Korn's tour launch party:
Leaks
In September 2003, radio DJ Eddie Trunk played a new Guns N' Roses song titled "IRS" on his syndicated radio show Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk. This was at the insistence of his in-studio guest Mike Piazza, who had apparently received a CD in the mail containing the track. Trunk described the song as "...Use Your Illusion-era stuff, with some modern flares to it. The song had a loop track in the beginning, but then, when it kicked in, it was that same dramatic Guns N' Roses hard rock". The band's management issued a cease-and-desist order against Trunk, leading him to strip replays of his broadcast of both the song and references to it.
In April 2005, an excerpt of the song "IRS" leaked on the Internet. The band's management referred to it as a "low quality demo", but it was most likely a recording of Eddie Trunk's broadcast of the song from 2003. Eddie Trunk confirmed that "Better" and "Catcher in the Rye" were not on the CD he played "IRS" from in 2003.
In February 2006, full studio demos of the songs "Better", "Catcher in The Rye", "IRS", and "There Was a Time" leaked online. Brian May would confirm on his blog that he recorded guitar for the "Catcher in The Rye" demo in 1999. Axl Rose would later comment that May's guitar may not be present on the album version of the song.
A 16-second clip of an alleged new song titled "Checkmate" was posted online in May 2006, but was never confirmed as being authentic.
In May 2006, two new demo versions of "There Was a Time" and "IRS" surfaced, different from those released in February. Both are claimed to be from 1999.
Production and collaboration
Long time Guns N' Roses producer, Mike Clink, is said to have worked on the album during its conception. Former Killing Joke member and Verve producer Youth also worked on the album. Songwriter and producer Moby turned down an offer to work on the album.
In 1997, Sean Beavan joined Axl Rose in producing the album, which was at the time focused on industrial tracks. Beavan left the project in 1999, at which point former Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker was brought in to co-produce with Rose. Baker left the project in February 2002 after re-recording the album with intentions of producing more epic sound. Rose then became sole producer of the project, re-recording the album yet again.
The band has also worked with numerous collaborators over the years, including guitarists Brian May and Dave Navarro. As mentioned above, Marco Beltrami and Paul Buckmaster worked on orchestral arrangements for the album.
NBA star Shaquille O'Neal rapped on a song with the band. He took a break from his own recording session and found Dizzy Reed and Josh Freese working in the same studio. "I saw Guns N' Roses listed on the bulletin board in the lobby of the studio so I stuck my head in to check it out," said O'Neal. "They asked me to join them, so I started freestylin' over their track. It was the first time I ever performed with a rock group, and it felt good." The collaboration was recorded, but will reportedly not be included on Chinese Democracy.
Length
There has been some conflicting information about the length of the album. At London, Docklands UK in August 2002, in which Guns N' Roses played a set, Rose stated that the album was to contain eighteen songs with ten bonus tracks. Bassist Tommy Stinson said in a November 2004 interview that the album contained "ten or eleven" songs.
In December 2004, Guns N' Roses' manager Merck Mercuriadis became the CEO of Sanctuary Music Group. In January 2005, Rose signed a publishing deal with Sanctuary, which covered past and future work by Rose, including "dozens of new tracks Rose has recently recorded for Universal Music."
Axl Rose said in January 2006 that the band was working on 32 songs, of which 26 were near completion. Of those 32 songs, Rose said 13 will be featured on Chinese Democracy.
Current status
According to a March 2005 New York Times article [4], production costs for the album have reached $13 million, probably the most expensive recording ever. Mercuriadis, however, refuted the article in a letter [5] and claimed that the newspaper's sources for the article had not been involved with the project for "six to nine years."
Axl Rose filed court papers on March 3, 2006 to ask for "ownership of all creative works" [6] by Guns N' Roses. The band's manager Merck Mercuriadis would state that, "This will not delay the new album - quite the opposite - tying up these loose ends allows us to get on with it."
A press release [7] was issued on behalf of Axl Rose on March 6, 2006 in response to legal suits filed by former band members Duff McKagan and Slash. The press release lashed out at Slash:
- In October of 2005 Slash made an unannounced 5:30 AM visit to Axl Rose’s house. Not appearing to be under the influence, Slash came to inform Axl of the Velvet Revolver band members: "Duff was spineless," "Scott was a fraud," that he "hates Matt Sorum" and that in this ongoing war, contest or whatever anyone wants to call it that Slash has waged against Axl for the better part of 10 years, that Axl has proven himself "the stronger." Based on his conduct in showing up at Rose’s home, Axl was hopeful that Slash would live up to his pronouncements that he wanted to end the war and move on with life. Unfortunately that did not prove to be the case.
On April 1, 2006, critic Chuck Klosterman wrote a tongue-in-cheek review of Chinese Democracy at SPIN.com. It was an April Fool's Joke.
On May 5, 2006, Axl Rose appeared on Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk, stating that Chinese Democracy would finally be released in Fall 2006 with an accompanying North American tour. The band has recently finished playing a summer tour in Europe and have started a North American Tour to promote the album.
According to the new guitarist, Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal, Buckethead's parts have not been re-recorded.
During a backstage interview at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards on August 31, 2006, Axl once again stated that Chinese Democracy will be released this year.
Guns N' Roses are currently touring North America. In a press release regarding this new Chinese Democracy Tour, it cryptically states, "As for Guns N' Roses forthcoming "Chinese Democracy" album, the only comment at this time is that there are 13 Tuesdays left between now and the end of the year". This implies that the album will be released sometime between October 3rd and December 26, 2006. On October 5th, 2006, a source close to Rolling Stone claimed that the album had a "firm release date of November 21st, 2006". This is said to have been confirmed by the band itself. The fact that the band's website has recently been re-launched serves to imply that Guns N' Roses are set to make a significant return.
Singer Sebastian Bach had this to say: (from Rolling Stone.com)
“It was mind-blowing,” says Bach, who is opening for Guns n’ Roses on their upcoming North American arena tour. “It’s a very cool album – it’s badass with killer screams, killer guitar riffs, but it’s got a totally modern sound. The word for it is ‘grand.’ It’s fucking epic. He’s reinvented himself yet again.” The album includes some tracks that have been played live or leaked onto the Internet, including the poppy “Better” and the hard-hitting “I.R.S.” “There’s this one song called ‘Sorry’ that’s almost like doom metal with Axl singing really clean over this grinding, slow beat that is fucking mean,” says Bach. “I cannot get it out of my head.”
It should be noted that the popular unoffical GN'R site "Here Today Gone to Hell" was asked to remove all comments from Rolling Stone.com
Title conflicts
- In 2003, punk rock band The Offspring announced that they would be naming their upcoming album Chinese Democracy as a dig on the long delayed Guns N' Roses album [8]. The Offspring lead singer Dexter Holland elaborated that "You snooze, you lose. Axl ripped off my braids, I ripped off his album title". The Offspring renamed their album Splinter prior to its release. The band's explanation for the album name change was that once they decided to call the album "Chinese Democracy", the recording and production of their album ground to a halt - again poking fun at Axl and the delays in releasing Chinese Democracy.
- In July 2005, a band from Kansas called The Ants along with Nashville's Ole Mossy Face released a split EP titled Chinese Democracy. According to a press release [9], the album has "everything and nothing to do with the delayed and yet to be released Guns N' Roses album of the same name".
- In September 2005, the Finnish band The Dogshit Boys released their fifth album, also bearing the name Chinese Democracy.
- In 2006, New York bubble-gum punks Kitty & The Kowalskis released an album called "Chinese Democracy" on AMP Records.
External links
- GunsNRoses.com - Official website of Guns N' Roses
- Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy: April Fool's Day review by Chuck Klosterman at SPIN.com