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Axl Rose vocal track

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jonpall

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I just stumbled onto this and though some of you guys would be interested. This is Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the jungle" with only the vocals and drums and the occasional guitar. Here you can hear very clearly all the details in Axl vocals in this classic song. And it shows you how great he was at his peak. I don't think there are many guys on this planet who can sing this as well as he could:

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I think that was around the time where he started to lose the fine details of how to produce the sound he had on Appetite. It became a bit too whiney, which wasn't that apparant on Appetite and that's why I think many people have forgotten how awesome he was. They remember him for his Use your illusion tour where his voice was often pretty bad. And I think he knew it and I think that was part of why he often came late on stage - he was trying to warm up for over an hour for those type of vocals. Something like that, I think.

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And I think he knew it and I think that was part of why he often came late on stage - he was trying to warm up for over an hour for those type of vocals. Something like that, I think.

I'd love to believe that...but I think he was late to the stage because he's a douche. No respect for his fans. He takes naps before going on, too. And he gets pretty pissy if you wake him, regardless of what time it is. He has an unmistakable voice, but he's a total douchebag.

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Essentially, it's still the produced song with some of the fill tracks missing. There is still processing on the vocal track. I've heard this one and the sound check track, before. As for his voice sounding rough on UYI tour, well, he's singing differently now than he did back then. Likely, that type of distortion was taking it's toll. On Chinese Democracy, he sings clean more often, though he still has some distortion going on, some fry, now and then, too. I can't blame him for changing. He is 2 years older than I am and one has to conserve one's abilities and talents.

Yes, a one of a kind singer and my inspiration.

Reading Slash's biography, one learns that Axl has always been in a world of his own. Generous beyond measure, sincere to the point of social faux pas, he would not show up at shows for emotional and psychological reasons. While GnR was opening for Alice Cooper on a tour, Axl didn't show one night and it had nothing to do with his voice being warmed up, or not. To describe as drummer Steven Adler describes it, "Axl is Axl, and Axl is Axl." As nonsensical as that sounds, it pretty much describes it. I usually take Axl's side and in the whole band, he abused substances the least. But he could be so mercurial and he doesn't do it to tick people off. When he goes off on a rant or not showing, he really doesn't see anything wrong with that. It's not intentional, he just goes off into the Axl zone. That part I don't emulate. But I do agree with him in one thing. Never back down from anyone. When someone confronts you, confront them right back. But then, that was part of my upbringing.

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Axl can sing as high live, on a good night, as he did in the studio, though he was like to change it up, depending on his endurance and capacity.

Here's one of the best live performances of this song, though he doesn't sing as high here as he did on the album. But it's still magical. Trivia for you, the background vocals you here on the "where do we go?" are from Duff McKagan, the 6' 5" blonde bass player. More trivia. Duff had his own punk rock band before Guns and Roses and played guitar and sang then. More recently, Duff has another band called Loaded and he plays guitar and sings lead for that band.

Sorry, I digress.

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Never back down from anyone. When someone confronts you, confront them right back.

Although, he may have regretted trying to bite a female security guard in Sweden, once she proceeded to beat the snot out of him...

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Opaa, yeah, that video and others I've seen pretty much prove that what's written in Steven Adler's book about Axl recording each line seperate is giving a very distorted indication of how well he could sing live and he has actually regained about 99% of his powerhouse voice very recently. F.ex. in that video above, he sings just as well as on the album. It's just that the sound and overall conditions isn't as optimal as in a studio. He vocals in that clip are VERY good. Then again, there are some people who just hate his sound and they'll probably hate Brian Johnson, Rob Halford and Robert Plant. Axl does come off as a major asshole sometimes (and sometimes quite the opposite if one does more than just to scratch the surface of GNR) but back in the day, he was simply untouchable in terms of rock vocals. But that's just my opinion.

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Yeah that's good one from Axl although I don't like Slash's guitar playing in that one, haha but Slash is my idol, I have a poster of him on my wall right now :)

Sure you've seen this too, but this is really good live performance from Axl and the whole band also. It's always nice to share these. Axl has such a good control on his voice on this one and he is a cool motherfucker on stage:

There are so much amazing details in this performance! All the effects he does are just perfect and I don't think it can get much better than this.

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Yeah that's good one from Axl although I don't like Slash's guitar playing in that one, haha but Slash is my idol, I have a poster of him on my wall right now :)

Sure you've seen this too, but this is really good live performance from Axl and the whole band also. It's always nice to share these. Axl has such a good control on his voice on this one and he is a cool motherfucker on stage:

There are so much amazing details in this performance! All the effects he does are just perfect and I don't think it can get much better than this.

i respect your (and everyone else's opinion) of axl rose, but to me he has a "falseness" to his voice on some of his songs....a contrived sound if you will...j.m.o.

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i respect your (and everyone else's opinion) of axl rose, but to me he has a "falseness" to his voice on some of his songs....a contrived sound if you will...j.m.o.

I love Gn'R, but I agree with this 1000%. Axl is probably my least favorite part of Guns.

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I understand what you mean, although I still like Axl's vocals, especially on the Appetite album where I think his voice had the most "beef" to it.

But maybe you'd prefer to hear GNR songs to be sung with a tone more similar to this:

? I actually really like the sound in this singer's voice (Michael Starr from Steel Panther).
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I like Axl's voice for the sheer originality, but his tone gets annoying quickly for me. I'll never deny that he was a powerhouse, but I agree with Raphaels. It's fake. It's no different than death metal screaming, or any other fake voice "vocalists" use to cover up their inabiliy to sing naturally.

But if someone wants to sing and has to make up a voice to do it in, then more power to them, I guess. It becomes their singing voice after a while.

And I'm not saying that Axl CAN'T sing cleanly and powerfully. He can. But in the context of the material he puts out, he hasn't until more recently.

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Yes, after a few years of singing, he started sounding slightly "fake" - perhaps - to some. But I totally disagree with his voice sounding fake on the Appetite for destruction album. Here's one of the tracks, "Out ta get me", just as an example:

. When you scream your heart out, that's as real as it gets. That's how it sounds. And 28 million people can hardly be wrong. They all connected with Axl and his pals in Guns N' Roses. That album still remains the biggest debut album of all time, world wide. I totally respect anyone who has a different opinion, though.
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Yes, after a few years of singing, he started sounding slightly "fake" - perhaps - to some. But I totally disagree with his voice sounding fake on the Appetite for destruction album. Here's one of the tracks, "Out ta get me", just as an example:
. When you scream your heart out, that's as real as it gets. That's how it sounds. And 28 million people can hardly be wrong. They all connected with Axl and his pals in Guns N' Roses. That album still remains the biggest debut album of all time, world wide. I totally respect anyone who has a different opinion, though.

i'm not saying axl wasn't a good vocalist, but his voice has an "axl low" and an "axl high."

and the public loved his "axl high"...no question.

but (just my opinion, and all respect to those who disagree) i don't think you can compare him to guys like paul rodgers, steve perry, freddie mercury, steve perry, or here we go, you knew it was coming folks ......lol!!! lou gramm!!

example: when Lou screamed in songs like juke box hero, it's still Lou's basic tonal quality and timbre underneath the scream.

the scream is gutsy and deep, resonant yet still melodic. it's not a disconnect from his vocal makeup.

his chest to head transitions are so inperceptable it's uncanny. just my opinion.

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As I have pointed out in other bits of trivia leaking out of my head, Axl sang mostly bass, even when he started with Hollywood Rose, which had to change their name because another band was using it. At the time, it was Axl Rose, Tracii Gunns, and Rob Gardner. They changed the name to Guns and Roses. One day, Axl was trying one of the songs (I think it was "You Could Be Mine," which was originally intended to be on Appetite for Destruction) in a scratchy, whiny "falsetto" (as Rob Gardner described it.) Rob asked him to to do that again. And that became the sound he is famous for.

In the autobiography of Saul "Slash" Hudson, he recounts how he was at a local musician's hang-out in Hollywood. He happened to meet a quiet, oddly dressed guy named Izzy Straddlin who was playing in a band called Guns and Roses who handed Slash a cassette tape. He said it was the crappiest sound, as if it had been recorded on a portable tape player with the built-in 5 mm condenser mic. In the background of the music, he heard this high-pitched whine that sounded as if a reel-to-reel or cassette tape was about to break and was stretching across the playback heads. Then he realized that this whine was in tune with the song. He realized that was a human singer doing that. That was his first introduction to the sound of Axl Rose.

Years later, I happened to notice a similarity of sound between Axl Rose and Janis Joplin.

And there were nights that Axl couldn't sing because his voice wasn't up to it. Other times, it was Axl being in the Axl Zone.

Technically, he was born William Rose but his mom re-married when he was small and his step-father adopted him, so he grew up as Bill Bailey (just like the song.) When he was in his late teens, he found that his biological father's last name was Rose, so he had his name changed to William Rose. Later, in high school, he had a band called Axl. As a young adult, he had his name changed to W. Axl Rose.

His mom could be very religious and he was "required" to sing in church choir, where he could sing many ranges and mess with the director's placement of him. But often, he sang bass. His early life was quite troubled, involving physical, emotional, and possibly sexual abuse. Leaving home was the best thing for him.

Of the members of GnR, he has been the most sober. Yes, he drank sometimes. He did some other drugs. But mostly, his substance of choice was marijuana, which seemed to help him concentrate (which lends credence to his admission that he was diagnosed as bi-polar.) He refused to let anything become a habit that could control him.

In Slash's book, his reason for leaving GnR was because he felt Axl exerted too much control. Then, again, most of Slash's time was spent being high and not at all responsible. I think Axl separated himself in order to stay away from that drug scene. There's always two sides to every story.

But his sound was not a studio or mic trick. Here he is with West Arkeen.

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  • 1 year later...

Technically, he was born William Rose but his mom re-married when he was small and his step-father adopted him, so he grew up as Bill Bailey (just like the song.) When he was in his late teens, he found that his biological father's last name was Rose, so he had his name changed to William Rose. Later, in high school, he had a band called Axl. As a young adult, he had his name changed to W. Axl Rose.

So I guess that debunks the theory his name was a very creative anagram of 'oral sex'.

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Ah, Axl.

Even with his flaws, he's always been my favorite of the band. As I've said before, I've always thought of him as the visionary of Guns-n-Roses. The rest from the original lineup seemed like they would have been content putting out ten more "Appetite For Destruction" albums, while Axl was always thinking of progressing.

I recall a few members publicly expressing disdain for the grandiose piano ballads Axl was fond of, as if they had no place in rock-n-roll. Well, rock-n-roll has never been about rules, has it?

As for whether his voice is/was "fake", I would say it's debatable, but it's hard to deny that he's brought unbridled intensity, attitude, and passion to every song he's ever sang, which is what I appreciate most.

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