Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Normally i wouldn't start a thread just about one song, but in reading the reviews you all are giving, i have noticed that many of you consider this to be one of the weaker songs on the album. I have listened to Contraband about 15 times and i think Spectacle is the best rocker on the album (followed by STB or DIFTK). Who agrees that Spectacle is an intense, awesome song? It's funny, because of all the songs that i see as being the most Guns N Roses (which were none the first few times i listened), this song is it, probably because i identify the angry tone and defiant lyrics as very Axl. Love it!


On another note, does anyone else agree that the bridges (all of them) are among the stronger elements of this album?

I do...I love the chorus and it has one of the best solos of the rockers as well.  


Yes...

I love Spectacle, it's probably my favourite rocker along with Superhuman.

I like seeing all these different discussion threads about favourite VR songs.
It's almost like sitting a bunch of GN'R fans together and asking what's their fav UYI song, nearly everyone has a different favourite.

"Motherf**ker yeah!!!"

Im one of the people that think its the weakest song. I guess its a matter of taste... however I used to skip it all the time but now Im finding myself liking it a bit. Maybe time will make it a favorite or maybe I just need to get bored with the rest of the songs ;)

I love it!!! and the solo is soooo good!

There's not one song I don't like on the album!

IMO SMF is the weakest maybe cos it's so old and it's tired

I love Spectacle too... at first I thought it was one of the weaker songs, but now it's one that I look forward to when listening to the album. Awesome solo.

I am pretty indifferent to this song right now.   I don't dislike it or like it. It just hasn't jumped out at at me all, but sometimes songs hide on an album for awhile then jump out at you. Damn I fucking love that and  judging from these post it looks like it may happen.  Can't say there is anything I don't like on teh album, but I do find myself skipping Falling To Pieces..

this is one of my favs on the album with superhuman and loving the alien.......i just love the verse to death

Oh man, this song is so fucking intense!  I love it.  Really, I can't believe people were actually calling this "average."  Nobody, I mean nobody, rocks this hard anymore.  Scott and Duff have great vocal chemistry, and Slash's solo is one of the insane he's ever done.  Everything about this song is near God-like.  "Motherfuckers, YEAH!!!"

I do like this song quite a bit, I think it really rocks. This album is just great to me, I can't really skip any of the songs, they're all good.

And on a side note, I absolutely love the re-mixed Set Me Free. It's really subtle but it just makes it that much better to rock out to, I f'n love that song :)

its interesting for me to read so much praise on this song

cause right now its my least favorite, however im sure in a couple weeks ill see how great it is,

its weird isnt it? i mean i loved big machine right off the bat and its my fav rocker but ive seen some that dont like it

just like spectacle is my least fav but uall are goin crazy for it

just like chili peppers by the way, the last song i liked off that cd was venice queen and now its in my top 5 chili peppers songs of all time

im gonna keep listening and i cant wait till i see the appeal like u all do

I prefer Big Machine Live. It's a great song to hear live. You don't get that sense of WOW when you just hear it on the album

Spectable was one of my fav. songs of CB since the day i heard it. As someone else said earlier, a great vid could go along with that song. Don't want to begin to think about a vid. for FTP :drool:

Maybe the song just hasn't caught on for me, but I just find Spectacle to be an incredibly boring, stereotypical rock song.

Hell yeah, this is in my top 5 or 6 for sure. Spectacle is cool...

I know what ya mean.  I started getting into the song after hearing it live - it was intense! 8)

Yeah, I was lying in bed listening to FTP when my alarm clock went off this morning, and I can just picture the video with Slash with his Les Paul slung low between his legs and he's ripping into the solo... : ok:

Yeah, I love this one. This and Big Machine are the two that I didn't get at first. Spectacle is intense. If you're unsure about it, listen to the instrumental part. Tune Scott out for a few listens. The band grooves almost as gnarly as early Stooges. Nasty, nasty stuff. Whew! Then listen to the vocals again and the song as a whole makes more sense. To me anyway. Yeah Badgirl, definitely a cool song. I haven't read too many of the reviews here, but the ones I have seem to be fixated on the ballads and the two singles. People listen to the rockers and only hear Scott's choruses, as though there's nothing else to the song. Listen to the fucking guitars, boys and girls! Heavy ass shit. Lots heavier than much of UYI, even.

From the first time I listened to Spectacle I loved it.  This song is so akin to early GN'R.  Albeit not an original, Reckless Life is a great example of what I'm talking about.  Listen to the first 10 seconds of Spectacle, then do the same for Reckless Life.  This brings in a raw punk element that makes this album what it is.

~M

I agree with you from the begining. When I heard BIG MACHINE live in Detroit the energy and pulse was raging through this song. It was like a Red Bull for my EARS. But then when I hear the studio version something is missing. I cant quite tell, I like BIG MACHINE, but its not the same as it is live.

I agree with Loretian. Spectacle is boring...I skip it everytime I listen to Contraband.


As for the bridge comment, I agree. Pretty much all the songs in Contraband follow the formula verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-solo-chorus.

Yeah, but Chinasky, one could describe Appetite in much the same way.... most of the songs are loosely structured around one or two main riffs, a verse-chorus-verse lyrical setup, some kind of slowed up breakdown/jam type-thing right before the end, then a crazy ending.

That description certainly applies to Jungle, ISO, Nightrain, OTGM, Brownstone, Michelle, Think About You, SCOM, You're Crazy, Anything Goes, and to some extent Rocket Queen -- which is more like two songs made into one. Paradise City is a little bit different structurally, but not much.

So, do you skip over all those songs when you listen to Appetite just because they follow a formula? And if you say, "yeah, well Appetite is different...", keep in mind that it took about a year, and the release of SCOM single, before most people were able to absorbe Appetite. And only now, 15 almost 20 years later, are people beginning to regard it as a classic. And it ain't because they did anything original.

So when you consider Slash wrote a large amount of the material on Appetite, and he wrote a large amount of the material on Contraband, maybe you should listen a little closer to the Contraband material before you slag it off as boring.

Yeah, I see what you are saying, but with Cotraband that formula is even more noticible. That was the first thing that stroke me when I listened to Contraband for the first time. Call the lyrics or maybe the melodies, the songs seem to be different from one another in AFD.



No, I skip Spectacle, Big Machine and a few others because I don't like them. Sometimes I play the whole album ( just trying to give those mentioned songs another try, but still don't dig them) In another words, It doesn't have to do with the song structure. It does have to do with the song quality.


True, but I'm not discussing that. However, I don't believe Contraband has the potential to become a classic ( if by classic we mean albums like "AFd", " Back in Black" or  "Nevermind") no matter how many years pass by.



I do believe it was original. It was far different from everything heard at the time. It didn't become an icon of a generation ( as grunge did) but musicwise, there was nothing just like it.


Could be true. I may have rushed with this one too much. Maybe not. Believe it or not, I gave contraband a few listens already ( at least ten the whole album) and that's the impression that I get.

I hear you Chinasky, that's cool. It's just that I find this record way WAY more exciting than Slash's and Duff's solo stuff... and it took me a few listens (casual listens, not hardcore analytical listening) before I could see what they were trying to do with each of the songs and to appreciate the chemistry of the band.

When I dowloaded those Chilean radio samples I actually singled Spectacle out as a tosser, so it took me a few listens to get into it too. Same thing with Big Machine, which is now my favorite song on the album and one of the coolest rockers I've heard in years.

Anyway, it's all good dude!  : ok:

It's definitely much more exciting than the solo efforts. I do see some similiraties ( as I posted in another thread) but way better.

I dunno, this opinion of mine may as well change a bit when I see them live ( according to HTGTH news, VR will play in Spain around September  : ok:)

I dont care if AFD was written the same way or not...nothing compares to it, and Cb isnt even in the same world as AFD.

AFD might be oridinary in  structure but it still is unique. That is why its one of the greatest albums of all time.

Its a boring album because 10 yrs from now there wont be one song on there thats on the radio playing. I guarentee it. Its cool if you enjoy it and you dig it but it doesnt come close to AFD or any other classic music or sound. Its just a rocking album for the moment. And thats not a knock. Its just what it is.

Just because Slash was a part of AFD and it has the same "structures" as CB doesnt mean jack shit. Theres a shitload of reasons why AFD is what it is and CD isnt.

Did slash say in an interview recenetly that it wasnt hard to make an album, Verse,chorus, and then a solo. (in regards to the new GnR CD not out yet) I believe I read it in a magazine spin or guitar. Not sure. So maybe he does follow a formula... a formula for success

Spectacle is one of my fave...great song

I think Spectacle is a weak song but the album as a whole has grown on me more. It's a Seattle glam mix for me, but not overly gnr inspired