By ROBERT BISHOP
The plan was to go to Best Buy early to get a good spot in
line for Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy. I assumed at least a few people
would be as geeked for this as I was, but hardly anyone was there. C'mon,
people! Guns N' Roses! Seventeen years since Use Your Illusion!
Then I saw a long-haired guy in a do-rag and a GNR T-shirt
carrying a copy of the album back to his car -- a car with a baby shade mounted
on one back window -- and I knew I wasn't alone.
Sure, a lot has happened
since Use Your Illusion I & II came out (we're not counting The Spaghetti
Incident), but just because I have a kid and a wife and a mortgage and I went
to bed Saturday night at 10:30 doesn't mean I'm too old to rock. Even wore a T-shirt
with a skeleton riding a motorcycle and a devil in the sidecar on it to go get
the album. Yeah.
I got my copy on double vinyl
-- CDs were the norm by the time I was a freshman in high school, circa 1989, so
I'd never really had that moment of excitement of ripping the shrink wrap off a
big rock record the day it came out and racing home to put it on the turntable.
Who knows if I'll ever get the chance to do it again?
It was a cool feeling.
Would've been even cooler if Chinese Democracy had a better cover. It's a bike.
A bike with a basket on it. The significance is lost on me.
Really, Axl? That's the best
you can do? Because the original cover you had for Appetite for Destruction was
a picture of a robot rapist, with another sinister robot with big-ass teeth
looming menacingly above getting ready to do the rapebot in. The Pitch doesn't
advocate rapebots, but I think we can all agree that's a way cooler album cover
than a stupid picture of a dumb bike.
As for, you know, the actual
record, Chinese Democracy is pretty damn good. Not 15-years-in-the-making
good, but pretty damn good nevertheless. "Better" will sound
ridiculously awesome on the radio, even if the verse sounds to me a lot like
"Walk Through the Fire" from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical.
Which is weird, because on the very next song, "Street of Dreams,"
Axl sometimes croons like he's channeling Jason Segel's Dracula puppet from Forgetting
Sarah Marshall. Chuck Klosterman points out in his Chinese Democracy review on The
Onion's AV Club how one line of "Sorry" is sung in the style of a
Mexican vampire, so perhaps Axl was just in a vampire kind of mood. Or maybe
Axl is a vampire. That would explain maybe a year or two of delay, although I
doubt it could be that much harder to make this record working only nights.
When I heard
"Sorry" for myself, I too noticed the Mexican vampire action, but I
kept picturing Axl's multitracked backing vocals being performed by tiny little
henchmen that are miniature Axl duplicates (and BTW, when I think of Axl, he's
always in a kilt), like the Heat Miser and Snow Miser have of themselves in The
Year Without a Santa Claus. "Sorry" also has my favorite lyric on the
album: You close your eyes/All well and good/I'll kick your ass/Like I said
that I would. Totally Axl.
My friend Matt Shaw points
out that "This I Love," in which I hear a Barry Manilow vibe, would
make an awesome video. While the opening piano part plays, we fade in on a shot
of an introspective Axl singing from behind a rain-spattered window. He can
take it no longer -- he and his ex have unfinished business, so the video
follows his journey to her apartment. But when Axl finally arrives, there are
police everywhere -- she's dead! Cut to a shot of Slash and Buckethead. Are they
guilty of this nefariosity? The camera slowly tracks out as Axl delivers the
final line, I'll never say goodbye. Somewhere in all this, there are also
dolphins. Winner of Best Video at the 2009 VMAs, guaranteed.
As soon as side 4 ended, we
put side 1 right back on, and I'll probably keep on listening to Chinese
Democracy. There are times when it sounds absolutely like Guns N' Roses. It's
epic and pseudo-industrial at turns. Other songs veer toward power balladry and
coffeehouse electronica. Oddly, "If the World" sounds just like Us-era
Peter Gabriel. I have no concept of what is going on in "Riad N' the
Bedouins."
I don't have any idea why Chinese
Democracy took nearly 15 years to finish. We've established that it couldn't
have been the cover art. The electronic flourishes for the most part aren't
anything but window dressing, so hopefully they were responsible for no more
than a year or two's worth of delay. (Accounting for no more than 30 seconds of
that time should be Axl realizing that under no circumstances should he use the
tape he has of Shaquille O'Neal freestyling over one of the tracks. Even though
I'm really curious to know that would've sounded like.)
I think the biggest bummer
about Chinese Democracy is what a letdown this whole nonevent turned out to be.
We've been talking about this record for years, it's finally here and ...
crickets. Nothing. Maybe everybody already listened to it when it started
streaming on MySpace last week. But I figured I'd waited this long. A couple
more days wasn't going to kill me.
For the piles of cash Best
Buy has to be forking over to be Chinese Democracy's exclusive retailer, no one
at my local store seemed to be very excited about it. There was a small
sandwich board outside and a display at the front of the music section, and
that was it. When I checked out at 9:45-ish, the cashier told me he'd sold
maybe two or three copies. About five people were in line when Best Buy opened,
but none of them were there for Chinese Democracy.
But I was. And so was that
other guy.
Showing 1-13 of 13
I do not often have the opportunity to debate China and its politics with other Chinese in Australia.
This may sound surprising given that I am married to a Chinese woman, am aquainted with many Chinese, and often have dinner with various Chinese born Australians.
Oddly, I have reluctantly concluded that I have a greater interest in China's history and its current politics than most Chinese that I come in contact with. This is a shame given the richness of the cultural and political landscape that is China.
I find that even my very own wife lacks any genuine interest in discussing the increasing prominence of China's actions on the world stage, and what its internal struggle for democracy means for those living in China. She is more interested in events that may impact her directly, such as the value of the yuan or the performance of the Chinese stock market.
There are however a few people I know who do have very interesting views on China, and who are not afraid to express themselves. These people have grown up in China, and so their views are of paticular interest to me.
Having said that I should state from the outset that not only am I an unabashed Sinophile, but that I also appreciate the difficulties that the Chinese government must deal with in order to keep such a large and diverse nation together.
Unlike many of my highly educated colleagues at my work, I do not take the view that democracy above all is the most important goal of a nation. Quality of life must come first, and it is here that I think the cautious but ultimately benelovent approach of the Chinese government shines through.
Make no mistake, I realise that the government has made many serious mistakes and that poverty and corruption is rampant in China, but I am speaking in relative and pragmatic terms, not in ideal terms.
What has really caught me by surprise however has been the general agreement on this point from those least expected.
Why is this so surpising you ask?
Well, these very same Chinese that I refer to were the same Chinese who as students in Australia in the late 1980s effectively defected from China after the Tianemen Square protests. These people had a rabid resentment for the oppressive Chinese government at the time, so much so that they permanently left China as a result.
These same people now praise the current Chinese government and defend its actions.
Surprising yes, but not remarkable given the changes in China over the last 20 years.
Overall, I think that the general political apathy of most Chinese Australians, and the otherwise supportive attitude towards the Chinese government's iron hold of the vestiges of political power, says a lot about the Chinese, their aspirations, values and their hopes.
It seems that at least for Chinese Australians, health, wealth and happiness is the ultimate goal of life, and although political freedom is a nice to have for most people, it plays little role in the thinking of most Chinese.
http://interacialmarriage.blog...
I do not often have the opportunity to debate China and its politics with other Chinese in Australia.
This may sound surprising given that I am married to a Chinese woman, am aquainted with many Chinese, and often have dinner with various Chinese born Australians.
Oddly, I have reluctantly concluded that I have a greater interest in China's history and its current politics than most Chinese that I come in contact with. This is a shame given the richness of the cultural and political landscape that is China.
I find that even my very own wife lacks any genuine interest in discussing the increasing prominence of China's actions on the world stage, and what its internal struggle for democracy means for those living in China. She is more interested in events that may impact her directly, such as the value of the yuan or the performance of the Chinese stock market.
There are however a few people I know who do have very interesting views on China, and who are not afraid to express themselves. These people have grown up in China, and so their views are of paticular interest to me.
Having said that I should state from the outset that not only am I an unabashed Sinophile, but that I also appreciate the difficulties that the Chinese government must deal with in order to keep such a large and diverse nation together.
Unlike many of my highly educated colleagues at my work, I do not take the view that democracy above all is the most important goal of a nation. Quality of life must come first, and it is here that I think the cautious but ultimately benelovent approach of the Chinese government shines through.
Make no mistake, I realise that the government has made many serious mistakes and that poverty and corruption is rampant in China, but I am speaking in relative and pragmatic terms, not in ideal terms.
What has really caught me by surprise however has been the general agreement on this point from those least expected.
Why is this so surpising you ask?
Well, these very same Chinese that I refer to were the same Chinese who as students in Australia in the late 1980s effectively defected from China after the Tianemen Square protests. These people had a rabid resentment for the oppressive Chinese government at the time, so much so that they permanently left China as a result.
These same people now praise the current Chinese government and defend its actions.
Surprising yes, but not remarkable given the changes in China over the last 20 years.
Overall, I think that the general political apathy of most Chinese Australians, and the otherwise supportive attitude towards the Chinese government's iron hold of the vestiges of political power, says a lot about the Chinese, their aspirations, values and their hopes.
It seems that at least for Chinese Australians, health, wealth and happiness is the ultimate goal of life, and although political freedom is a nice to have for most people, it plays little role in the thinking of most Chinese.
http://interacialmarriage.blog...
Hi,
I think john yaya is right. Because if you pay attention, that is a criticism to China. China is a socialist country and then what kind of democracy they have? None. However, we can see a guns n' roses graffito on the wall as a symbol that even closed countries as China have people that love Guns N' Roses, it means that the people are doing by themselves one kind of democracy!!
Hi,
There is no meaning in the cover
The cover is an actual photo of a backstreet in beijing, china - axl FOUND that bike and that REAL GNR graffiti, and since 2002, he wanted it TO be the gn'r cover.
some chinese fan back in the days just spraypainted the words "guns n' roses" in some random streets in china !
that's HOW cool the cover is !!!
Hi,
There is no meaning in the cover
The cover is an actual photo of a backstreet in beijing, china - axl FOUND that bike and that REAL GNR graffiti, and since 2002, he wanted it TO be the gn'r cover.
some chinese fan back in the days just spraypainted the words "guns n' roses" in some random streets in china !
that's HOW cool the cover is !!!
The bike of significance is the "Fei Gei."
The Flying Pigeon bicycle which is the most widely produced, best selling bike of all time. In Mao's Cultural Revolution, the modern family would own a watch, a radio, a bicycle, and sewing machine. This bike was the family car for the last 50 years and it was not unsual to see a family of five on one bike. Now, these classic bicycles are available in Los Angeles.
www.flyingpigeon-la.com
best chinese democracy article i've read. love it.
i too asked about best buy to see if there was any midnight-sale action. no dice. i guess i'm old-school too.
also, do you remember when MTV premiered the video for 'estranged'? it was pretty much the hugest deal ever. a nine-minute GNR video! completing the trilogy! oh, how times change.
All this bafflement about the bike. Come on, is it really that hard to figure out? Look at the picture carefully. It was taken in China. It's a Chinese bike, and it has two baskets on it to carry cargo; many people in China do use bikes for that purpose. (I should know, I live in Shanghai.) Then look at the graffito: Guns n'Roses, in English. So: documentary evidence of Guns n'Roses fans in China. The relationship to the title track is pretty clear. Bishop, since you couldn't figure this out, here's a tip: try getting out of Kansas City more often.
"we've established that it couldn't have been the cover ar"
ha, best line in all the reviews i've seen
Oh, and as far as the bike cover art? It's a symbol. A symbol for what, I have no idea. Only Axl knows...
Stanley's right: Anyone who really wanted this music (and contrary to your findings I'll bet a lot of people do want to listen to this) bought it online. Even a dinosaur like me gets his music online now.
Robert, I definitely dig the introspective. And, honestly, until I read your article, I thought that I was the only one that picked up a hint of Jason Segal. I loved that movie, so it was cool by me.
The reason that that the lines at Best Buy were pretty insignificant is simple. In this day and age of electronic everything, people simply pointed there collective mice to "Download Now" and clicked.
I may have been the only dork in the country that persistently emailed Best Buy to determine if they had any plans for an old school midnight release at any of the locations near me. The responses were all negative. Oh well.
Anyhow, I bought the album, ripped it to my iPod, and I'm listening to it as I type. It is truly my hope that this album will single-handedly bring the country�s attention to the cookie-cutter sound that is today�s music scene and force a shift from the mainstream. I love it and I�m glad it�s here. I think that it will make music relevant again.
Again�Cool article.
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