Here Today... Gone To Hell!

I haven't started a topic here in at least a year, thought it was about time to do so. It?s Friday night and I?m feeling just a little bit nostalgic?

The best frontman survivor game gave me an idea to start a topic here.

As we keep on waiting for our favorite frontman to take over the world like he did 15 years ago, when would you say Axl shined the most?  the 80?s? or 90?s?

The obvious answer would be the illusion days. In the early 90's he became the biggest rock star to come out in 20 years. Riots, tours, interviews, awards, videos...the whole world wanted a piece of him. A new icon was born. I was old enough then to say that I was around when all this happened. I was fortunate enough to see him twice in concert in 92&93.

In 1994, I was around when we all witnessed his disappearance from the public eye.

So when did Axl reach his career peak for me? Well, I have to choose 1989. He was not as big as e became in the early 90's, but the combination of looks, vocals, attitude, stage persona, respect from peers?count a little bit more than his explosion in 1991. That was nice indeed, but if I have to pick one year and one highlight, that?d be 1989 and the VMA?s.

GNR had played Jungle and received and award, MTV had announced Tom petty was gonna close the show with the hit "free falling" as he started to play the first chords, right after the first verse lines, Axl enters the stage and the whole audience goes wild. I'm talking about a 2 minute clapping-dancing-screaming feast. Tom petty couldn't match up with Axl's vocals so he had to walk away from the mike while they were both singing the chorus at the same time.

That moment, right there...I thought to myself, Axl Rose is the coolest  :smoking:  motherfucker I have ever seen in my entire life. His voice was amazing, and so his looks. He did the snake dance (god knows how many times I've tried to mirror that) and wrapped up the show with a rendition to Elvis covering Heartbreak hotel.

That moment, ladies and gentleman, was the peak of Axl's career for me.  :yes:

If you consider yourself a GNR fan and haven't seen that footage, I recommend you don't waste your time and get on your hands on it asap. I have probably seen that footage about 100 times!


How about you fellow members? any thoughts?

If I had to pick a year, it would be 1991, but 1988 and 1992 are pretty good ones too.  The reason why I didn't pick 1989 or 1990 (the years that Appetite and Lies were on fire) is because Guns did little touring at this time and their presence was felt only by listening to records at that point.  But in 1991, a lot of things happened that brought Axl, and not just "Guns N' Roses", front and center.  First was the St. Louis riot in July, which was blamed mostly on Axl.  Then when the Illusions came out in September, Get in the Ring became well-known for its controversial lyrics, so it seemed that not only were Gnr at the height of their popularity (especially at the time of the Illusions release), but Axl himself was on top.  Three years later, he would be seen for the last time for roughly 4 years.

I would say spring/summer 1992. Here in Europe Guns N' Roses was a massive phenomenon. I would say Axl reached his peak around the Freddy's Mercury Tribute/ The Paris-Vincennes show. yeah spring/summer. I really remember that time, I was young, but I live near Vincennes and I remember I saw tons and tons of people with GN'R tee-shirts in the streets of Paris during that period. Everybody talked about Guns N' Roses. That was a great time!

exact year, exact thing that I was going to say!!  :rofl:

I would have to say it was while touring for the illusions. My reasoning would be that while I think appetite might be the greatest album ever recorded as far as ball to the wall rock n roll goes, the illusions were a much more ambitious set of songs. Axl really had alot more to say with them as opposed to appetite so right there he had reached a new plateau that he hadn't touched up to that point. Then while on tour for the records you knew the guy was a rock god because for all his faults, shoing up late if at all, the riot, you still loved the guy. There was nothing he could do to take himself out of your good favor. Plus as much as that pist alot of people off, it was interesting. It was exciting. Something was always going on. I mean Axl and the dolphin even said there was alot goin on. Plus for as over the top as alot of people claim the illusion tour to have been all the concerts I have and have heard clips from sound like it was an amazing experience to have been a part of.

Not yet.  : ok:

ha!  check out my new sig  : ok:


I'm with you on that one. ;)

Right around the Freddy Mercury AIDS concert....Round that time.

Peak? I believe you have to hit your peak to pass it!  :hihi:

i think there's more than onje peak. hopefully there'll be another one soon. ;)

July 1991 was the peak of GNR. The riot happened and it was on CNN and everyone was talking about it. It was insane. I went and seen them 2 weeks after the riot and you had no idea what was going to happen. That was one of the great things about GNR, you never knew what was going to happen. Most people think when 'Illusions' was released that was their peak, but I think their peak was the months following up to Illusions. Maybe that is one of the reasons why Izzy left, he knew it couldn't get any better than that.

He probably hit his peak when he finished recording 'It's So Easy'. :yes:

Sorry, but I'm kinda old fashioned :peace:

1992.

The best is to come with Chinese Democracy.

David Lynch had twin peaks. : ok:


Or maybe the best is to come during the third era after that of Chinese Democracy since they say "what happened twice will happen three times" and "third time lucky".  : ok:

Since we're talking about his career - I'd say '91-'92, since they really peaked at that time in terms of succes (hit singles, album sales. etc). But really, by the end of '91 Nirvana was beginning to take over in my circle, so Guns were no longer considered 'cool'. '89 was a very bad year for them, IMO - when the OIAM controversy almost destroyed everything they had worked so hard for to achieve.

In my personal opinion - '87-'88 was the year it all happened for them. Everything was just right -- the attitude, the voice, the looks -- it just clicked.

As a performer he peaked in 1988. Period. I'm quite aware that a lot of my friends here like the Illusion-era Axl. I just don't get that. 1988 was his peak. Watch the readily available (I'm sure it's all over those p2ps) performance of Jungle at the '88 VMAs. If you have any questions after that, there's nothing I can do for you. The '88 Ritz show is another good one to look at. His TRUE voice was gone by the time of RIR '91 and Illusion-era. I don't even think it sounds as good on the Illusion records, but I know that will piss some people off. So I won't say that out loud. And after becoming a big star he was way too self-conscious to perform with the intensity he had when they were coming up.

As a writer/composer/producer, I'm really hoping he's entering his peak right now. I think it's possible.

Very good point Johnnyblood, but the true peak,at least concerning the worldwide attention on the band, was the leadup to Illusions. Everywhere you looked it was GNR. People talkin about them, TV,magazines,newspapers,etc. I don't think any band has rivaled that attention before or since.

Id have to say 88-90. This was the period when GNR truly became a legendary band. Although there was much downtime involved in this period, the legend and mystic surrounding Axl was taking shape. Coupled with this you had electrifying performances such as MTV awards in 88, Grammys playing "Patience"and Farm Aid. The guy was untouchable and facsinating.

Lol what?! Um, yea... you ever hear about a little band in the 60's called the Beatles? You want to rewrite your last sentence to read something like, " I don't think any band has rivaled that attention since." There, much better.

I would definitely agree with the dude who said the Freddy Mercury show. He was so on that night. Also, even the the bloated UYI tour leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I would have to say that Axl was a motherfucking badass at that Paris show in(1993?). He was pissed, sang with this intensity, and just plain kicked ass and took names. He has never been as on since (and neither was GNR).

That was in 1992, but yeah he sounded much better than the Tokyo dates. Critics & people keep referring to the Tokyo shows as the best ones that time, for me the Paris show is the best from that whole tour.

Madison Square Garden 2002  :D :yes: : ok:

I use to believe it was during the Illusions period Axl had reached his peak.

Then I saw Axl in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock show (12.29.01) and was blown away. Then I changed my mind and thought he peaked there.

Then I saw the MTV 2002 Video Music Awards performance and was blown away yet again with complete excitement and goosebumps. So I changed my mind again. :hihi: :hihi:

So it's best safe for me to not judge Axl's "peak" anymore. Cause I seem to change my mind everytime he brings it to us. I hope I'm blow away again when he releases Chinese Democracy. :yes: : ok:

Those are amazing feelings to have.

Amazing feelings indeed. I'll never forget the feeling of hearing Illusions for the 1st time. Thats why I keep waiting for CD. Only GNR can send that chill up your spine.

89-90, it all went downhill after that.......I still thought he was cool as fuck for years after that, but looking back now he really wasn't.

his best performances came in the late eighties when popcorn was still on drums... the music was just that little bit faster. 
you never know though....we may not have heard the best yet! : ok:

his peak was defenetly 88-90, best performances.

hmmm...me likes dis thread...nice to go down memory lane :)
I wasn't really gnr-concious in the late 80s, so I only knew of them post-N.Rain single...but from what I gather (from old articles/broadcasts, etc) I think Axl's career grew exponentially from the time of releasing AFD until 94, and then a sudden drop in the curve due to his dissapearance. 
How to measure "sucess" is difficult...I mean if we talk dollars, then it's around 1992 or so due to the sales of illusions, the world wide tours, and AFD sales (which are still goin strong 2day)....
but if u measure it by "coolness" or "street cred" then one may say 89 or so (b4 they got all excessive/artistic)
but I think Axl was @ his peak in his carrer in the early 90s...bc: his band was #1, great album sales, huge media coverage, high rotation on music video channels, he was dating a victoria's secret model (such a status symbol for rock stars), he had the $$ to do what he wanted, go where he wanted and take his music to the edge--I mean how many bands out there release their follow up second album (if u don't count lies as a full album) to a hugely successful 1st album, by putting out 2 (!!) albums???  And both being such a departure from their highly popular debut?
Oh if only I could build a time machine and relive the past  :'(   
 ;)

The Ritz (1988): very awesome performance!!

Pukkelpop (2002): at least evenly so!! But maybe this was caused by the excitement of seeing GNR again and the general athmosphere in the crowd!!

I love some of the illusion shows, but hated Axl changing clothes all the time and I couldn't stand Matt...

BTW Great thread!

In regards to performing live, Axl reached his peak around 88-90. Those performances were so raw and are basically what rock music is at it's core.

In terms of popularity, Axl reached his peak when they released the video for November Rain. I remember almost not being able to turn on mtv without seeing that video since it was so long and was played so much. The same went for radio stations that played the song almost non-stop.

Hopefully Chinese Democracy will prove to be the peak of Axl as a song writer/recorder. Hopefully the time it has taken to record the album will have been well spent and result in something truly amazing.

Paris 92 was his peak! That is without doubt an incredible performance. His singing, ranting and stage presence will never be surpassed by another Rock front man in my opinion. Not when compared to that show. No fuckin' way!

The November Rain performance and the rant before Live & Let Die are2 amazing moments.

W.Axl.Rick.

Well Guys, I really think Axl

Well, I Think axl's best moment was, when he performed Live And Let Die... (MTV VMA) There is where no MARTYR's were allowed but Axl... the coolest One...

I was at wembley when they shot that video for the mtv awards,, some fucking kick ass concert
31st aug 91'
But i think he gave better performances b4 then  : ok:

Career peak and best performances are two different things. Clearly the career peak had to be 1992 when GNR was huge worldwide. But ironically 1992, IMO, is not the year of their best shows, or Axl's best performances. The best performances would be in 1988 for sure.

when he said, "I don't know if you pronounce the J, but Heretodaygonetohell for


CHARMO


 :P

I've never seen or heard a performance from Axl i wouldn't watch again.  : ok:

Yeah, ok, but by 1992 they all became the same, and kind of boring. I don't even watch 1992 DVDs, only trade them. And it would be interesting to quantify from  which year DVD boots of GNR are most in demand. I would guess, from my personal experience, the pre-1992 period.

Yep

In terms of accomplishing what i assume Axl's career goals were, I would have to say when u have metallica opening for u on a stadium tour while selling millions of records and dating super models after just having moved into a fucking compound in the malibu hills and mtv is airing entire concerts of your band. Well, I think that's the mountain top. Really, were do u go from there? So his career definitely peaked sometime in the summer of '92.

I would have to say right after UYI was released and before Izzy left. Songs like Coma, Estranged, Locomotive, Civil War, Breakdown, Don't Damn Me and Nov Rain proved that Axl wasn't just a cock rockin' angry David Lee Roth/Vince Neil et al type frontman. He had an emotional depth and an ability to express it that the other hard rockers did not have. The live performances were still stripped down and rockin' as well. Now, after Izzy left, that is a different story-obviously things got a little bloated for awhile :hihi:.