Axl Rose's Long Road to Democracy in China

Apparently, Axl Rose has lost his patience (pun intended) waiting for China to become a complete democracy before releasing the album Chinese Democracy, which has been in the works since 1994. Although release dates have come and passed since 1996, this one seems for real with radio play of the title track, Best Buy's massive marketing campaign, and the release of the song "Shackler's Revenge" for the Ridley Scott/Leonardo DiCaprio film "Body of Lies". Being a Guns N' Roses fan since my teen years, I will probably fork over my cash to buy it, even though I know deep down inside that the Guns N' Roses I grew up with is only a long lost memory. Instead of focusing on the music on the new album, I instead feel like focusing on what took a band from having the charisma, fan base, and stage presence to potentially become bigger than the Rolling Stones to breaking up and becoming the glorified Gn'R cover band that it is today.

Like a lot of artists who achieved mega stardom, Axl Rose got caught up in his personal music legacy, worrying about what others thought, and simply tried too hard after the "lightning strike" success of 1987's Appetite for Destruction. While recording the tracks for the 1991 released albums Use Your Illusion I and II, he even said that he was going through every track with a fine toothed comb. His obsessive perfectionism eventually squeezed all the fun and life out of a band that showed occasional glimpses of being perhaps the most exciting performance oriented act you could see in a lifetime. This lead Slash, who only enjoyed jamming, and eventually bassist Duff McKagan to walk away saying, "this is Rock N' Roll, it's supposed to be fun; this isn't fun anymore."

What Axl Rose has failed to realize is that the reason for Appetite for Destruction's meteoric rise through the charts, which he owes all his fame and wealth to, was that the album was created with no agenda, no planning, and just letting the music and emotion come out naturally. It was like a phoenix which rose from the ashes of years of pent up raw emotion yearning to come out.

As any die hard fan of Guns N' Roses fan would know, the band started with a dream and a boy named Bill Bailey (AKA Axl Rose) catching a Grey Hound bus to escape an oppressive situation at home. In the book W.A.R. the Unauthorized Biography of W. Axl Rose by Mick Wall, Rose was quoted as saying that in the 1980's he thought the band could be big, but not the biggest. Quite simply, they were just playing to play without a care in the world for what critics thought. Rose once stated in a documentary that he didn't care if Appetite for Destruction sold one copy as long as they wrote the kind of music they were motivated to write. It is that kind of attitude that must return if Guns N' Roses will ever reclaim their magic, which was spontaneous, unrehearsed, and frighteningly real.

Surely, Chinese Democracy will rise to the top of the charts mostly due to the holiday shopping season and out of shear curiosity. Also, when they tour in 2009 as a glorified Gn'R cover band, they will probably be a more exciting act than most other bands you can see today. However, with no Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler, they will be missing that "X factor" that allowed them to conquer the world. It is my only hope that after Chinese Democracy finds its way to the dust bins of music store racks along with the Illusion albums, the original members of Guns N' Roses will put aside their differences, get together, and reclaim their magic for one last bash. Perhaps when they are inducted into the Rock N' Roll hall of fame in 2012, this might happen. They were once called the last great saviors of Rock N' Roll, and I can only dream that it may still happen, as unlikely as it seems.

Sources-

Rolling Stone Magazine

W.A.R. The Unauthorized Biography of W. Axl Rose by Mick Wall