Guns 'N Roses Falls Short Of No. 1, But Axl Reigns Victorious

Posted at 1:00 PM Dec 03, 2008

By Kenny Herzog



The saga of Guns 'N Roses' Chinese Democracy went through three stages: conjecture and rumor, post-confirmation philosophizing on the album's significance and, finally, the brass tacks of Billboard-chart business and how the much-obsessed-over LP performed. Somewhat fascinatingly, its actual musical quality became almost incidental, particularly after 17 years of arbitrarily leaked portions of the eventual songs.

And alas, every Rose has its thorn, and for Axl, it was the two-headed prickly monster of Kanye West and Taylor Swift, who superseded the ginger-rowed riot-starter at No. 1 and 2, respectively.

However, Democracy still moved a remarkable 261, 200 copies, and in this writer/lifelong G 'N R obsessive's biased-yet-somewhat-researched opinion, proved an extraordinary redemption for the beleagured frontman.

 
Think about it: Over the last 15 years, Axl disappeared into almost total obsolescence, relegated to Syd Barrett-like hermetic fringes and the occasional, and embarrassing, re-emergence into public view. He put zero promotion into Democracy (believing, as a sublimely self-absorbed Axl is prone to do, that the mystique of his next project would carry its own weight), only released it through one commercial retailer and went up against the pop world's most reliable chart-buster in Kanye. And still sold 5,000 more copies than Velvet Revolver's much more strategically hyped debut, Contraband, moved in 2004. The latter of which was up against significantly less daunting competition and, it's worth noting, in an era when birck and mortar retailers still had a ubiquitious impact on overall album tallies.

So, Axl, it may take as many years as you required to craft Democracy before we can objectively decode its musical merit. And you may behave like a privately creative mad genius, even though the intellect within your lyrics and concepts are cringeworthily pedestrian. And you may have also been responsible for fucking up the chemistry of a group that could have actually kept real rock 'n' roll alive before it ceded to post-grunge schlock that's resulted in a legion of Daughtrys and Three Doors Downs. But as far as all the tell-all back and forths about whether Slash and co. needed you more than vice versa, you've more or less settled that question without uttering a sensationalistic word.

And on some larger, more poingant level, I now feel I can make peace with the definitive end of rock demagoguery as I once knew it, and move forward bravely into the digital age.