Here Today... Gone To Hell!

What will the 3 covers be? I'm guessng the bike one Axl has mentioned, the bandanna shirt from Vegas and the Chinese Dragon from last tour.
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=106897

well, i'm guessing different colors? Like contraband was? Very excited to the cover art as well!  :love:

The bike: problably not.
The bandana one: not a chance.
Chinese dragon: can't remember I've seen it.

I think we're gonna get a big shock for all 3 covers. I have no inside info on this, I just think all 3 are not only going to be different, but better then anything we've made up through the years.

The only thing I hope for is a BIG BAD ASS GNR logo on each.

Guess im buying this thing 6 times then. At least ill be buying all 3 vinyl as i collect them. Maybe ill only buy 1 copy of the cd on the first day.

I would be disappointed if it were the bandana design, or anything we've seen before. The artwork isnt the reason I'm buying the album, but GNR had some sick covers back in the day, UYI may be my all time favorite. The merchandise for the 2001 tour was incredibly cheap/cheesy looking. Not a fan of the chinese lettering at all. I understand it ties everything together, but the GNR logo is the best in the biz, leave it alone. I'd like to see some sort of throw back to when bands had artists create the album covers(Example: Metallica - Master of Puppets), instead of junior graphic designers and the clip art feel to everything released today(Example: Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist).

I also think it will be the same cds and the same covers, with just different colors. But at this time anything can happens! ;)

Guys, if you go to the Best Buy web site and click on Chinese Democracy (Cover A) , Format: CD, then add it to your wish list....a small image appears. This is most likely the cover art for disc A, too bad I can't enlarge it.

could u post it?
im not registered at Best Buy


EDIT: Thanks GNFNR!

Wooow! There it is! Looks GREAT!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9111016&st=Chinese+Democracy&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1925065

It's the bike and grafitti

YAY !!! Things are moving ! Cover looks good !

Here I didn't need to add to wishlist, just by clicking in the cd cover a I can see the pic. But I don't think it's official, seems lame to me, but check it out for yourselves:

(http://d.imagehost.org/0643/9111016.gif)

(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/adamkinney/a.jpg)

I zoomed in and cut it in PAINT.

oops already posted

Axl said quite some time ago that an image they were using at the live shows of a bike with 'GUNS N' ROSES' spray painted on the wall nearby was going to be the cover of the record.

I think it's fucking great.

Don't you think that the "GUNS N' ROSES" and "CHINESE DEMOCRACY" are too simple, I mean, the picture isn't so bad, but it seems like a fanmade cover! And how would this image be used with other colors? Unles there's 3 different covers! :beer:

Strange that that is almost the same bike/graffiti pic from the Amazon.com 'fanmade' cover...

This is the pic that they first talked about in Hong Kong 02, right?  And someone made a fan version cuz no one could find the actual pic.

we only can wait now

If they have any sense, (which they have I'm sure) the 3 versions will, when put side by side create a bigger picture. ie you need all three to complete the picture, but any one will stand alone as art in its own right.

Would seriously hate the 3 colour variations, due to lack of imagination, but I'm sure I'll get over it, if it is  : ok:

You mean like UYI?  ;)

WOW!  I can't believe its up on Best Buy's site...this is crazy...

Yeah this is totally crazy exciting the cover looks great!

Yes ! And someone = Will, webmaster of GNRFrance.net ;)

I can't believe they keep the same cover ! That's so cool !!!

Serious question here. When going to a chinese restaruant, you always set chinese art in them, is just me, or do they always appear very oblong (not almost square ie like A4) thats part of my reasoning for the three parts to complete the picture idea. I think the cover is gonna be some chinese art, or possibly the terracota army....

I assume since Best Buy has this exclusive, they wouldn't do what amazon is doing and put up fan-made art, right?  I guess this must be it!  I wonder why just one cover is shown thus far...

If I'm not mistaken, Amazon allows for customers to post album art. Best Buy posted this pic themselves.

i like the idea of multiple images forming a larger picture. id seen it done on comic books a couple times, and always liked it when you put them together to form the larger picture.

example: http://www.uncannyxmen.net/covers/showgallery.asp?fldAuto=104&ID=aoa&title=Generation%20Next (http://www.uncannyxmen.net/covers/showgallery.asp?fldAuto=104&ID=aoa&title=Generation%20Next)

They were different though, they had 1 on the first and 2 on the second as well.

seriously though UYI is a great cover and have the UYI tour tee-shirt that looks tie-dyed. It's my bestist ever T-Shirt that I wear to gigs only these days as its fading and I don't want it to fade no more. Have plenty of others that I wear all the time.

The first thing that came to mind looking at that pic is ...

Here Today ... Gone To Hell in a handbasket!

That's one big-ass basket.  :hihi:

haha yeah i thought the same thing,

sorry I didn't read all the posts but is this the real cover or fanart ?

(http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/en_US/images/musicmoviegame/pdpimages/9111016.gif)

that's on the best buy website listed as cover A.

thx for merging all the posts in the same thread now I look stupid  :hihi:

so, it's real ? hmm...I remember some years ago the rumor about this cover...the bike in china...

So whats the deal with that picture of that chinese bike at bestbuy.com?

The one that looks like an album cover - fake?

naa, i think this may be the real deal!  : ok:

The first thing that came to my mind is...'you never forget how to ride a bike'...intentional irony?  I am sure it is.

Not bad, not great in anyway. I hold out hope the other covers are more impressive

i hope it's fan art cause that cover is lame.

Anyone wanna analyze that photo any further? (If it's real), it's obvious that the huge basket on top of a bike is a metaphor for something.

Don't think of it as "just a lame bike with a lame basket and some spray paint in the background".  ::)

And we haven't seen the other 2 yet. Maybe it'll make more sense when we see them.

(*edit*

sorry I can't count.) ::)

Mabye its a big basket purely because this is a genuine photograph of a genuine bike leaning against a genuine wall with Guns N' Roses spray painted on it.

Its not like a staged photoshoot.

Or mabye its because the image on bestbuy.com is a bit squished :drool:

I always liked the description that Axl gave, I liked the simplicity of the idea.

Was there any audio or quotes of when he described the album cover?

As I said before, the picture isn't so bad. But the "GUNS N' ROSES" and the "CHINESE DEMOCRACY" have too much of a MS Word look... And let us not forgert that it can also be a fucking joke by Best Buy... :hihi: I mean, is too good to be true that they would give away the cover like that, it was so easy... :drool:

yeah, there is almost nothing on this that speaks back to all the current text styles and designs of all current gnr imagery. this is leading me to beleive it might be fake.

But if you think of it as art, it could be interpreted in many ways.

im pretty sure the story goes.... someone took a picture of this bike, and it happened to be that gnr was spray painted in the background.

I don't think it's fake, why on earth would they want to fuck with us like that?

Yeah but most people who buy the record won't know that. They'll think of it as a piece of art. That's what I meant.

Yes of course :) , I just don't think that when we get to see a proper version of that image people will be saying "wow thats a big basket!"

Mabye your right, but from my own perspective I never really wondered about the basket. I wonder who the person was that spray painted the wall, if they are still alive or now dead, what they thought of Shackler's Revenge......

But it did make you think of something, and that's good. Because if a piece of art is really lame, you won't think about it after you leave the website/gallery/record store/wherever you happened to view it.

But it's of course much more than just a piece of art, because you need to think of it as an album cover (maybe one of three). But I don't think we can fully judge it before we've heard the album. Maybe from a 'commercial' point of view, which is one of my concerns... Will it stand out? Are people who aren't familiar with gnr going to buy the record because the cover art looks cool? And so on.

If you think about it, its pretty cool. Imagine you are Axl Rose and you are in China, and some motherfucker has sprayed Guns n' Roses on a wall where there first born, if femail often get abandoned or worse killed. Think about the people and the restriction they have getting the internet to log onto the net to view sites we take for granted. Think about Tianoman (sp?) square, think about the tibeten Monks.

In a country with such appression, if I saw that as Axl may have, I'd be fuckin' honoured. Chinese Democracy sounds just like Axl's own experience of life. Every fucker says Axl did this, or is that, he doesn't want to make trouble he just wants to entertain people (to paraphrase Leeds 2002), I guess he relates with these chinese people who have a life that is like living in a goldfish bowl..

That album cover is awesome. I love it because it's random but its simple, there's nothing to interpret or expect from it.

I wonder if there are other covers, what they will look like..

Who is going to be the first person to write a review so guys???  :peace:

If I had an account I'd give it Ten Thumbs Up.  :beer:

well, the cover won't predict what the content of the album will be.  i was hoping for a pic of the band, but then again, there's too many members and former members to be in a single photo.  i for one can't beleive that this is finally going to happen!!!!!!!

Yea I hope there is a photo of the band in the album cover art work. 

I know everyone is excited because there is actually a cover now, but this cover is disappointing. I don't think it sucks but way too simple, especially for GNR. It's like after all these years the best you could come up with is a black and white picture of a bike and a wall. Wow how Original. There were so many people on this board that had so many cool ideas, way better than this. I hope this is really not the cover. They should have done something controversial... kind of like when they did AFD cover which caused a huge uproar with the whole rape scene thing.

I like the cover.  It's elegant, classy, and pretty cool, when you consider the (theoretically) contents of the music it contains.  I know a lot of people have put together cool cover ideas on this forum, but I think they all sort of miss the awesome simplicity and coolness of this cover.

I think its a cool cover. And im sure it looks even better in real life, when you see it. Then u really get the right perspective of it.. wonder how the backside of it looks like, and the inside.. Looks like expencive chocolate

a bit simple, yes, but i like the idea of it. but like someone else said, the font looks like it came from a word program. it could have been a bit better.

i like this cover!!!

I don't know about you guys but....I'm more concerned about the content of the album, not the cover!! C'mon guys, we've been waiting 15 years and some of you feel the need to bitch about the damn COVER! Wow. I for one am excited as hell right now, I could give a shit less what the cover looks like. :)

That's right. As I said in my other post, I think its great because its anonymous, simple and straight forward, you can't really interpret it or try to look for a hidden message.

I'm not sure why people are expecting so much, just for the album cover. What do they want? The liner notes inscribed on a gold tablet?

If the bike art is the/a real cover this would explain why its taken so long to get the album done.

Axl clearly knows what he wants (he talked about this cover in 2002)and doesn't take second best. The drum score on one of the songs, (can't remember which) was mentioned as needing a specific sound, an autitorium (sp?) sound in IIRC. The complexity of the drum track was mentioned also.

If the album has been done with this intensity all the way through, which I think it has, this will be a fantastic achievement. Does anybody recalled Goerge Lucas of Star Wars fame, not filming one of the films because the technology hadn't been developed to film it? I think Chinese Democracy has been delayed for similar reasons.

Have to say Respect to Axl if this is the case. The shit and fucking aggro he's endured to nurse his Baby to the finish line would kill off a lesser man. Well done sir, I bow to your patience   :love:

Now get your ass over to the Isle of Wight, you know you want too!

 Best buy only have two cover variations on there now, when did the other one vanish?

two? I can only the see one cover? The one with the bike, black and grey?  :)

We're not talking about 20 something wannabe rockers here, so the album cover doesn't need to have sex,drugs&rockn'roll written all over it. JMHO.

I've read by many bands that laboring over particular albums too long became detrimental to the process, and the album suffered for it. Not saying that'll be the case with CD, I've heard most of it and think it'll be great but I'm not sure it's a great approach. Your George Lucas reference for example(though it's 2 different worlds), the first 3 are classics, and the last 3 suck. Artists are normally there own biggest critics, but you have to know when something is done and when it's time to walk away from it.

sorry i didnt mean there were two pictures on there.....
i meant before they had 3 variations listed, cover A (Bb) B(Bb) C(Bb)
and now its just cover A(Bb) and B(Bb) both on cd and vinyl, so now theres 4 listings instead of 6

I really admire Axl for sticking with his original vision if that is the album cover.

I thought over the years he would have changed the cover, but he seems to have stuck with it :peace:

A reliable source in ChineseDemocracy.com has confirmed this cover as official.

But I mean, there will be three covers, so now I'm anxious for the other 2. Maybe that's why the album has 3 covers, Axl might have got 2 other ideas for the cover, so as he couldn't decide among the 3 he chose to release them all together!

I was told by a best buy rep, that there will be 3 covers in total, and that CD will be on vinyl also.

I'm very psyched. Anyone have any other covers?

(http://www.panacek.chytrak.cz/CDcover2.jpg)

So what do you think, is this cover b? I hope it is, it's cool.

On my image isn't something holding that red rope, becouse in vids there are only few pixels of it.


This image reminds me of this transmitter in prague

http://data.turistik.cz/!/imgnew/cile-2008/45967/13489920080421063301.jpg (http://data.turistik.cz/!/imgnew/cile-2008/45967/13489920080421063301.jpg)
http://data.turistik.cz/!/imgnew/cile/45967/6492520070809115342.jpg (http://data.turistik.cz/!/imgnew/cile/45967/6492520070809115342.jpg)

If that second one is the cover, I will be dissapointed.

I mean it's okay. I like the original cover.

It's not bad but the original one is great, simple and very gn'r

I don't think that is the alternate.

I second that. The bike cover is absolutely fantastic!

i really doubt the star/fetus image will be the second cover.

ANyone else think that all the different covers and the vynil copies are being put out their so the hardcores can buy 1 of each and help raise the total sales for the album? Don't all different versions sales add up together for the total amount of CD sold?

Yes.

I didn't realize Axl had ever mentioned a bike being on the cover of Chinese Democracy. When/what exactly did he say? Can someone provide a link?

I find the album cover intriguing. All the times I've dreamed/fantasized about the day I'd walk into a record store and see Chinese Democracy sitting on the shelves, I never imagined that it would have a bike on it. I always imagined the image being louder, more intense. But I like the simplicity of it. And you know that it isn't just some pic of a bike . . . The image has meaning to Axl, to the album, or he would not have chosen it. I'm just wondering, what might that meaning be?

The huge ass basket makes me think of all the people--- musicians, producers, whatnot--- that have had their hand in making this CD.

August 14th, 2002 - Hong Kong, China @ Hall 3, HKCEC (Summer Sonic 2002)

Before GN'R played Chinese Democracy, Axl told a little anecdote why the new album is called "Chinese Democracy". He said it was because he saw a photo taken in Hong Kong, which he's using as the new album cover. Then he showed it on the video screens. It was a black and white picture of a bicycle with a basket, and in the wall behind it, someone had grafittied "guns n roses".




/jarmo

Wonder who took the picture and if it was done professionally.

Great story and it fits gn'r perfect. Every little detail has it's story and all the pieces fall into place!

Legendary!

Off topic, but when is the Jarmo 'tell all' book coming out?  You know it all! Put that scumbag Mick Wall where he belongs!  :hihi:

The simplicity of this cover is unexpected, and rather...ordinary...could be done in Photoshop in about 10 seconds.  Not attacking it - don't really care if he uses a plain brown wrapper (I think its the text/solid line that is bothering me)...I am in this for the music, and from what I have heard, it is going to be killer...crayon cover or whatever.  Bring it on! :peace:

Looking at the position of the Guns n Roses on the wall, it appears (to me at least) to be over a big drop, ie not stood on the pavement to write it. Which begs the question, who did it, was it somebody who loves to place their art in often hard to reach places Blanksey ? perhaps

We must be looking at different pics, because the one I see is clearly an alley or side of a building...I think the point is that someone in a wholly repressive martial society took the risk of expressing their love for GnR...probably hit a chord with Axl.

I wonder what the alternate cover is gonna be? I like the bike picture and grafitti.  :D I can't imagine the other one beeing totally different, like perhaps different colors? Or a different picture in the same style? Curious.  ;D  but what do I know.

I remember that in RIR 3 during one song there was a Chinese flag with the Guns n' Roses name on it. It was very simple, but I just loved! I wish it could be one of the covers...

Anyone know if the vinyl is best buy only? im in uk and dont want to miss out on the vinyl...............

Looks like for now we have a bit of a mystery with the A/B/C Album covers...anyone care to fill us in?  BestBuy miscue, or change of plan?   :nervous:

I am still convinced that Axl has 3 albums, and a plan to release them...eventually.  For now:  We've got at least one in the chamber!