Chinese Democracy

This article is about the Guns N' Roses album. For the political movement in China, see Chinese democracy movement.

Chinese Democracy is a long-delayed album from rock band Guns N' Roses. When 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.

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	Yes
"Chinese Democracy"	Axl Rose / 1999	No	Yes
"I.R.S."	Axl Rose / 2006	Yes	Yes
"If The World"	Del James / 2006	No	No
"Madagascar"	Del James / 2006	No	Yes
"Prostitute"	Press release / 2006	No	No
"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
"Rhiad and the Bedouins"	Dizzy Reed / 2005	No	Yes
"Silkworms"	Dizzy Reed / 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
"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
"Broken"	Internet Source/ Frank Ferrer / 2006
"Checkmate"	Internet Source/ 2006
"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".[1]

Sound

In 1999, "Oh My God" was released on the End of Days soundtrack. It featured current Guns N' Roses members Axl Rose, Dizzy Reed, Robin Finck, and Tommy Stinson, along with then-rhythm guitarist 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. Temporarily replacing Slash was Buckethead, but he left soon after in 2004.

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:

"It's a very complex record, I'm trying to do something different. Some of the arrangements are kind of like Queen. Some people are going to say, 'It doesn't sound like Axl Rose, it doesn't sound like Guns N' Roses.' But you'll like at least a few songs on there." [2]

In an interview in 2006, former Skid Row foontman Sebastian Bach described the album as "Awesome" and explained about a new song called Sorry:

"There's this one called "Sorry" that I can't get out of my head, that's almost like doom metal with Axl singing really clean over this grinding slow beat that is mean....."

The songs that were leaked in 2006, "Better", "I.R.S" (which had leaked before), "Catcher In The Rye" and "There Was A Time" are contrastingly different sounds, with "Better" being a more progressive industrial style of song, "I.R.S" being the classic hard rock which put the Guns on the map in the late 1980's, with the other two leaked songs "There Was A Time" and "Catcher In The Rye" being the signature granduese ballad and guitar riff laden sound which made the Use Your Illusion albums so popular.

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 or 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 [3], production costs for the album have reached $13 million, probably the most expensive recording ever. Mercuriadis, however, refuted the article in a letter [4] 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" [5] 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 [6] was issued on behalf of 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."

Slash has since refuted these claims as untrue in a subsequent radio interview.

On April 1, 2006, critic Chuck Klosterman wrote an April Fool's tongue-in-cheek review of Chinese Democracy at SPIN.com.

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, Rose 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 3 and December 19, 2006. On October 5, 2006, a source close to Rolling Stone claimed that the album had a "firm release date of November 21, 2006". As of November 21, this rumor has proven to be false.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Guns N' Roses manager Merck once again stated that the album will be released on a Tuesday this year, as well as stating (perhaps sarcastically) that it will appear on record shelves without the announcement of a release date. He refused to confirm or deny that the rumored November 21 release date was true.

In the same article, Sebastian Bach stated that Axl had played the album in full to poolside guests in his mansion after the September 23 concert.

On Harley Davidson's official website, a promotional video is set to the unreleased song, "Better".[7] This is thought to be the very first single on the album. As of October 21, "Better" was replaced with "Paradise City". "Better" has yet to be put back on the commercial, although a November press release by Harley Davidson stated that the version with 'Better' would debut in "early November." As of 28th November 2006, Better has yet to be reinstated as the music for the advertisement.

Frank Ferrer was announced as a second drummer in the GN'R lineup, having been an understudy to Brian Mantia throughout the 2006 European Tour, sending mixed messages to fans about Brian's role in the band and keeping everyone wondering if Chinese Democracy is still set to see the light of day this year.

A November 17, 2006 internet article, citing anonymous industry sources, suggests that the album's release has now been delayed until at least February, 2007.[8] The anonymous industry sources apparently were a representative of Universal Music Canada, who was interviewed by Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun magazine. This information was refuted by the band's manager Mercuriadis, who stated that "no one at Universal has made any comments about the release date."

As of November 28th 2006, no further announcement regarding a release date for Chinese Democracy has been made. Although it is known that the album is completed, steming from sources above, (and guarantees from various official persons aside from Axl Rose himself to the album being released this year), it is unlikely that it will be released before the end of 2006. Current pressing and marketing methods for CD's mean that theoretically the album, if it was being pressed at this moment, could be released in time for Christmas. However, the silence from the record company and anyone else associated with the album regarding it's definite release date only fuels specultion further that the album will not be released until January or February of 2007 at the earliest. Hair Nation, channel 23 on Sirius radio, has reporded the album will finally come out on December 19th of 2006, but nothing official has been stated yet.

Title conflicts

On April 1, 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 [9]. 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 Rose 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 [10], 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
Chinese Democracy: A Tribute to an Unheard Album: Preemptive collection of original music compiled by Cornslaw Industries in tribute to the unreleased album.