Guns N' Roses - Live Era '87–'93 (1999)

Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles formed in 1985. Their classic lineup, as signed to Geffen Records in 1986, consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler.

Live Era '87–'93 is a double live album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was released on November 23, 1999. The record was the first official Guns N' Roses release since "The Spaghetti Incident?" released on the same day in 1993. Former guitarist Slash notes that the album is "not pretty and there are a lot of mistakes, but this is Guns N' Roses, not the fucking Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's as honest as it gets."
The dates and locations of the tracks are not revealed in the liner notes, and are only referred to simply as being "Recorded across the universe between 1987 and 1993". However, the majority of the tracks on the two CDs are believed to be sourced from the extensive Use Your Illusion Tour of 1991-1993.
Axl Rose is alleged to have communicated with former Guns N' Roses members Slash and Duff McKagan, through intermediaries only, in selecting the track list. In an interview Slash stated that "the live album was one of the easiest projects we all worked on. I didn't actually see Axl, but we communicated via the powers that be."
Two former members who play on the majority of the tracks, Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke, are not credited as band members in the liner notes, but as "additional musicians", while original drummer Steven Adler, who plays on only three tracks on the album, and Izzy Stradlin, who plays on only six songs, are credited as "main band members."
Two popular live songs, "Live and Let Die" and "Civil War", which were both played heavily during the Use Your Illusion Tour, are omitted from this release, while songs that were played to a much lesser extent on the tour ("Pretty Tied Up" and "Move to the City") are included.
The Japanese and vinyl versions of the album contain a rare performance of "Coma", Guns N' Roses' longest song to date.
The song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was performed and recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and was previously released on the "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" single.
"Estranged," "Don't Cry," "November Rain," "Pretty Tied Up,", "You Could Be Mine" and "Move To The City" were previously released on the band's Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II videos. The live audio from "Yesterdays" was included as a B-side on that song's CD single.
The original pressing of this album contained a manufacturing flaw. At the 6:13 mark of "Paradise City" on Disc two the song skips to a part more near the end of the performance and repeats several times before finally correcting itself and finishing normal.

Disc one
1. "Nightrain" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 5:18
       Written-By - Rose/Stradlin'/Slash/McKagan 
       Las Vegas, USA; January 25, 1992
2. "Mr. Brownstone" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 5:42
       Written-By - Stradlin'/Slash 
       London, UK; August 31, 1991
3. "It's So Easy" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 3:28
       Written-By - McKagan, West Arkeen 
       Paris, France; June 6, 1992 
4. "Welcome to the Jungle" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 5:09
       Written-By - Rose/Slash 
       Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1993 
5. "Dust N' Bones" (from Use Your Illusion I, 1991) - 5:05
       Written-By - Stradlin'/McKagan/Slash 
       New York City, USA; May 16, 1991 
6. "My Michelle" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 3:53
       Written-By - Rose/Stradlin' 
       London, UK; August 31, 1991
7. "You're Crazy" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 4:45
       Written-By - Rose/Stradlin'/Slash 
       Tokyo, Japan; December 10, 1988 
8. "Used To Love Her" (from G N' R Lies, 1988) - 4:17
       Written-By - Stradlin' 
       Tokyo, Japan; December 10, 1988 
9. "Patience" (from G N' R Lies, 1988) - 6:42
       Written-By - Stradlin' 
       Mexico City, Mexico; April 24, 1993
10. "It's Alright" (Black Sabbath cover) - 3:07
       Written-By - Bill Ward 
       Houston, USA; September 4, 1992
11. "November Rain" (from Use Your Illusion I, 1991) - 12:29
       Written-By - Rose 
       Tokyo, Japan; February 22, 1992 

Disc two
1. "Out ta Get Me" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 4:33
       Written-By - Stradlin'/Rose/Slash 
       London, UK; June 28, 1987 
2. "Pretty Tied Up" (from Use Your Illusion II, 1991) - 5:25
       Written-By - Stradlin' 
       Tokyo, Japan; February 22, 1992 
3. "Yesterdays" (from Use Your Illusion II, 1991) - 3:52
      Written-By - Rose/Arkeen/James/McCloud 
       Las Vegas, USA; January 25, 1992 
4. "Move to the City" (from Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, 1986) - 8:00
       Written-By - Stradlin'/James/Chris Weber 
      Tokyo, Japan; February 22, 1992 
5. "You Could Be Mine" (from Use Your Illusion II, 1991) - 6:02
       Written-By - Stradlin'/Rose Tokyo, 
       Japan; February 22, 1992 
6. "Rocket Queen" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 8:27
       Written-By - Rose/Slash/McKagan 
       Las Vegas, USA; January 25, 1992 8:27 
7. "Sweet Child o' Mine" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 7:25
       Written-By - Rose/Stradlin'/Slash 
       Paris, France; June 6, 1992 
8. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan cover from Use Your Illusion II, 1991) - 7:27
       Written-By - Dylan 
       London, UK; April 20, 1992 
9. "Don't Cry" (from Use Your Illusion I, 1991) - 4:44
       Written-By - Stradlin'/Rose 
       Tokyo, Japan; February 22, 1992 
10. "Estranged" (from Use Your Illusion II, 1991) - 9:52
       Written-By - Rose 
       Tokyo, Japan; February 22, 1992 
11. "Paradise City" (from Appetite for Destruction, 1987) - 7:21
       Written-By - Rose/McKagan/Slash/Stradlin' 
       Las Vegas, USA; January 25, 1992 

Bonus Track

This track was released as the twelfth track on the first CD of the Japanese edition, and as the eighth side on the four LP vinyl editions.

12. "Coma" (from Use Your Illusion I, 1991)
       Written-By - Slash/Rose 
       Omaha, USA; April 10, 1993 10:48 

Band members

• W. Axl Rose – lead vocals, piano on "It's Alright" and "November Rain", whistling on "Patience", whistle on "Paradise City", backing vocals on "Dust N' Bones"
• Slash – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar on Patience, talkbox on "Dust N' Bones" and "Rocket Queen", backing vocals
• Duff McKagan – bass, acoustic guitar on Patience, backing vocals
• Dizzy Reed – keyboards, piano, synthesizer, percussion, backing vocals (1991–1993)
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Dust N' Bones" (1987–1991)
• Steven Adler – drums (1987–1988)

Additional musicians

• Matt Sorum – drums, backing vocals (1991-1993)
• Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar, co-lead guitar on "Nightrain", acoustic guitar on "Patience", backing vocals (1992-1993)

Backing musicians

• Teddy Andreadis – backing vocals, harmonica, percussion, keyboards (1991–1993)
• Roberta Freeman – backing vocals (1991–1993)
• Tracey Amos – backing vocals (1991–1993)
• Diane Jones - (1991-1993)
• Cece Worrall – horns (1991–1993)
• Anne King – horns (1991–1993)
• Lisa Maxwell – horns (1991–1993)

Notes

Released: November 23, 1999 

Recorded: June 28, 1987 and December 10, 1988 (1991–1993) 

Genre: Hard rock, heavy metal 

Length: 133:02 

Label - Geffen Records 

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Guns 'N Roses - Chinese Democracy (2008)

Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on November 23, 2008, by Geffen Records. It was the band's first studio album since "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993), and their first album of original studio material since the simultaneous releases of Use Your Illusion I and II in September 1991. Despite debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Chinese Democracy domestically undersold expectations. It received generally favorable reviews from music critics. The album achieved international chart success and has sold over one million copies in Europe.
In 1994, Guns N' Roses' progress on a follow up to The Spaghetti Incident was halted due to creative differences between members. Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, and Gilby Clarke all resigned or were fired from the band in the mid '90s.
Vocalist Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed were the only members from the previous lineup remaining by the time production had started. A new lineup, consisting of Rose, Reed, guitarists Robin Finck and Paul Tobias, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Josh Freese, and keyboardist Chris Pitman began working on the album in 1997. Initially intended to be released in 1999 or 2000, the album was re-recorded completely in 2000. The album was worked on by multiple lineups of the band, including later members Bryan Mantia, Buckethead, Richard Fortus, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, and Frank Ferrer.
Personnel and legal reasons, as well as Rose's alleged perfectionism caused the album to be delayed multiple times, including missing an announced March 2007 release date, before being released in November 2008. With production costs reportedly eclipsing $13 million, the album is the most expensive rock album ever produced.
The production is so dense that it's hard to warm to, but it fits the music. These aren't songs that grab and hold; they're songs that unfold, so much so that Chinese Democracy may seem a little underwhelming upon its first listen. It's not just the years of pent-up anticipation, it's that Axl spent so much time creating the music constructing the structure and then filling out the frame that there's no easy way into the album. That, combined with the realization that Axl isn't trying to reinvent GNR, but just finishing what he started on the Illusions, can make Chinese Democracy seem mildly anticlimactic, but Rose spent a decade-plus working on this he deserves to not have it dismissed on a cursory listen. Give it time, listening like it was 1998 and not 2008, and the album does give up some terrific music -- music that is overblown but not overdone.
True, those good moments are the songs that have kicked around the Internet for the entirety of the new millennium: the slinky, spiteful "Better," slowly building into its fury; the quite gorgeous if heavy-handed "Street of Dreams"; "There Was a Time," which overcomes its acronym and lack of chorus on its sheer drama; "Catcher in the Rye," the lightest, brightest moment here; the slow, grinding "I.R.S."; and "Madagascar," a ludicrous rueful rumination that finds space for quotations from Martin Luther King amidst its trip-hop pulse.
These aren't innovations; they're extensions of "Breakdown" and "Estranged," epics that require some work to decode because Axl forces the listener to meet him on his own terms. This all-consuming artistic narcissism has become Rose's defining trait, not letting him move forward, but only to relentlessly explore the same territory over and over again.
And this solipsism turns Chinese Democracy into something strangely, surprisingly simple: it won't change music, it won't change any lives, it's just 14 more songs about loneliness and persecution. Or as Axl put it in an apology for canceled concerts in 2006, "In the end, it's just an album." And it's a good album, no less and no more.

Track lising

01.  "Chinese Democracy"  - 4:43
02.  "Shackler's Revenge"  - 3:37
03.  "Better"   - 4:58
04.  "Street of Dreams"  - 4:46
05.  "If the World"  - 4:54
06.  "There Was a Time" - 6:41
07.  "Catcher in the Rye" - 5:53
08.  "Scraped"  - 3:30
09.  "Riad N' the Bedouins"  - 4:10
10.  "Sorry"   - 6:14
11.  "I.R.S." - 4:28
12.  "Madagascar"  - 5:38
13.  "This I Love"  - 5:34
14.  "Prostitute"  - 6:15

All lyrics written by Axl Rose. 

Credits
Axl Rose – lead vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, piano, guitar
Robin Finck – guitar, keyboards, acoustic guitar
Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal – guitar
Chris Pitman – sub-bass, keyboards, synthesizers, bass and drum programming, backing vocals, twelve-string guitar, drum machine and string machine, mellotron
Tommy Stinson – bass, backing vocals, arrangements
Dizzy Reed – keyboards, backing vocals, synthesizers, piano
Bryan "Brain" Mantia – drums, arrangements, drum machine and drum programming
Buckethead – guitar, acoustic guitar, arrangements
Paul Tobias – guitar, piano, arrangements
Richard Fortus – guitar
Frank Ferrer – drums
Josh Freese – arrangements

Additional musicians
Marco Beltrami – orchestra and arrangements
Paul Buckmaster – orchestra and arrangements
Suzy Katayama – arrangements, French horn
Sebastian Bach – backing vocals
Patti Hood – harp
Engineer – Caram Costanzo
Mixed By – Andy Wallace, Axl Rose, Caram Costanzo
Producer – Axl Rose, Caram Costanzo

Notes
Release date: November 23, 2008
Recorded: 1997–2007, Battery Studios, Bennett House, Can-Am Recorders, Capitol Studios, Cherokee Studios, Electric Lady Studios, IGA Studios, Studio at The Palms, Rumbo Recorders, Soundtrack Studios, Sunset Sound Recorders, The Town House, The Village, Woodland Ranch
Genre:  Hard rock ·
Length: 71:18
© 2008

Label - Geffen/Black Frog

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Guns N' Roses - The Spaghetti Incident? (1993)

"The Spaghetti Incident?" is the fifth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album comprises covers of older punk rock and hard rock songs, and is the last to feature guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum. "The Spaghetti Incident?" is the only studio album to feature rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke. Many of the tracks were recorded with original Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin during the Use Your Illusion I and II sessions and then were later re-recorded with Gilby Clarke. Those tracks were previously intended to be included in a combined “Use Your Illusion” album, consisting of three (or possibly even four) discs, instead of the two separate discs they ended up being.
In 1992, the band prepared to release the leftover cover tracks as an EP, with Gilby Clarke replacing Stradlin's guitar tracks. They later decided on making the album a full release and recorded several more tracks for it. Bassist Duff McKagan sings on many of the album's tracks and Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe appears on "Ain't It Fun" as a guest vocalist. This was the last Guns N' Roses album to feature lead guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, drummer Matt Sorum, and the only album to feature Gilby Clarke. It was also the band's last studio album. During studio sessions the band recorded a cover of "A Beer and a Cigarette" from Hanoi Rocks but the song never came out.
On the bottom of the cover art of the album, there is a code written with the Zodiac Killer's symbols, which has been deciphered as "fuck'em all".


01. "Since I Don't Have You"   (Joseph Rock, James Beaumont)  - 4:20
02. "New Rose"   (Brian James)  - 2:38
03. "Down on the Farm"   (Alvin Gibbs, Charlie Harper, Nicholas Garrett)  - 3:29
04. "Human Being"   (Johnny Thunders, David Johansen)  - 6:48
05. "Raw Power"   (Iggy Pop, James Williamson)  - 3:12
06. "Ain't It Fun" (feat. Michael Monroe) (Cheetah Chrome, Peter Laughner)  - 5:06
07. "Buick Mackane (Big Dumb Sex)"   (Marc Bolan, Chris Cornell)  - 2:40
08. "Hair of the Dog"   (Dan McCafferty, Pete Agnew, Manny Charlton, Darrell Sweet)  - 3:55
09. "Attitude"   (Glenn Danzig)  - 1:27
10. "Black Leather"   (Steve Jones, Paul Cook)  - 4:09
11. "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"   (Johnny Thunders)  - 3:35
12. "I Don't Care About You"   (Lee Ving)  - 2:07
13. "Look at Your Game, Girl" (Hidden track starting at 2:17 in "I Don't Care About You") (Charles Manson)  - 2:34

Released:  November 23, 1993
Recorded at:  A&M Studios, Record Plant Studios, Rumbo Recorders, CanAm Studios, Sound Techniques, Triad Studios, Conway Recording Studios and Ocean Way Recording[citation needed]
Genre:  Punk Rock, Hard Rock
Length: 46:03
Label:  Geffen Records
Producer(s):  Mike Clink, Guns N' Roses, Duff McKagan, Jim Mitchell

Personnel
W. Axl Rose – lead vocals, keyboards
Slash – lead guitar, co-lead vocals
Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, lead vocals and drums
Matt Sorum – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Dizzy Reed – keyboards, piano, percussion, backing vocals
Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar
Michael Monroe – co-lead vocals
Mike Staggs – additional guitar
Mike Fasano – percussion
Richard Duguay – lead and rhythm guitars
Eddie Huletz – backing vocals
Blake Stanton – backing vocals
Eric Mills – backing vocals
Rikki Rachtman – backing vocals
Stuart Bailey – backing vocals
Carlos Booy – acoustic guitar

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