Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Heard the RIR III version first, and it quickly became my favorite of the new songs we had heard at that point.

This one got me really excited about what to come next for GNR, and I think the song itself held up good on the album.

It's been a while since they last played it live I think, hopefully this one returns to the set lists in the future. Got to hear it live myself though.

Bucket's solo is great, one of the highlights from RIR III imo. Last time we saw Axl with a guitar in hand as well... :)

Although I love Axl's backing vocals on the album, I think it would have been interesting to hear Robin doing them as he did live, a little rawer.

I still listen quite a lot to this one.

The RIR III version is still one of my most listened to GNR songs, period.

Really don't play the one from the album all that much.

Solid tune though.  A signature song for the new band, I think.

I totally agree

Still one of my fav guns songs and it is my second fav from the album

But I do wish the album version came closer to the rnr version.

And yes.   More Robin on backing vocals is always a good thing

I Remember MTV 2002

 :drool:

Madagascar and TWAT are epic ballads that fit alongside much of the UYI set...Jot sure why "What we have here...." Was included...Great song though..

My sentiments exactly Spirit.....however, I could have done without Axl's little guitar moment.  ;D

Hahaha

That just looked so awkward.

Playing guitar is awkward to you,  or is this just another case of you taking any opportunity to deride and demean any and all aspects of GNR in your desperate attempt to compensate for your sad little life?

So...anything on the song, or.....?

Was definitely my favorite new song when I first heard them play it at Rock N Rio and I also really enjoyed the album version.  One of my top 5 on CD for sure.

Actually it is a favorite along with Sorry and Prostitute :)

This was one of my favorite G'nR tracks the first time I heard it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought there used to be a audio section with a small selection of downloads on the main page with Madagascar Rio or Boston listed. Either-way Madagascar was the reason I first registered to HTGTH many a year ago.

This is the first Chinese track i have ever heard, this was around early 2006. And i think it was the live version from Boston 2002 which blew my mind and still i prefer that version over the studio one, or any other live version.

Anyway this is a track that works better live i think. This is the only song on the album that i was disappointed with the final product. I dont know what or why but its missing something.

My favorite part is the breakdown with the sampled beat, Martin Luther King speech, you know the deal.

I agree that Robins backing vocals were top notch stuff.

It is one of the definite highlights but the Rio 3 version for me, or any other live version from 2002. They made an absolute mess of the released studio version. When Axl played it at Rio 3 it was the moment that boded so well for cd. This was the song everybody was talking about as I remember. I think it seemed to justify that statement about ''Physical Graffiti remixed by Trent Reznor'' best of all the leaked tracks. But I would only listen to the Rio 3 version these days.

Who has the sad life that they need to immediately respond to every potentially negative comment made about a member of the band...Just because someone is a fan of the band that doesn't mean they need to blindly love everything. They can question decisions, question band members style, dislike songs, dislike members, dislike set lists.

If there wasn't debate of any kind (I agree some goes too far) this would be a pretty boring place. Personally I would rather a little debate than to have every one here act like the construction worker from the Lego Movie and sing 'Everything is Awesome' every time we get a sliver of news.

Back on topic 'sort of'... My first memory of Madagascar is also RIR, while I loved the song I took two things from that show:

1. Axl should have retired his guitar playing after Dead Horse (it did look awkward, No Emily plying guitar isn't awkward, Axl playing guitar while doing his signature snake dance is awkward).
2. I wasn't crazy about the overdub section of the song especially the recycling of the Cool Hand Luke audio. This became my one pet peeves on the album was what I felt was an overuse of 'filler audio'. One of the things in time that I would love to see is a re-release of CD that is done sort of like The Beatles album 'Let it Be Naked' where they stripped back a lot of the Phil Spector over production. 

I would say it was awkard, just in the sence we where not used to seeing Axl play guitar.

I get the same feeling when I watch old Queen footage and Freddie breaks out the guitar for a few songs....   Just seems out of place. 

But just because its looks different, doesnt make it a bad thing.  And I dont think you were saying it was a bad thing.

The only prpblem I have with Axl playing guitar on the live version of this song is, it really doesnt add anything to the song.  Where is in the start of the song Dead Horse you can tell what he is doing.   In this live version if you took his guitar work out, would it make a difference.

Yeah, the only thing that made it look awkward is that there was already three guitar players and  you couldnt hear Axls one.
Remember that Axl plays guitar on the studio version too.

I think I may have a guitar part on the album version.  ;)

Yeah, that's exactly what I was getting at.

I think Madagascar is a classic guns song.

If someone would put out a greatest hits album Madagascar should be in it.

I loved the RIR01 live version,the song has become a classic.I don't mind if they don't play it live so often anymore.
An article i read mentioned that the Martin Luther King quote in the bridge took many years to get publishing rights.

I seem to remember that there were rumors that exactly this was one of the hold-ups to the album release.

If that was the case, Madagascar is probably a very important song to Axl.

I remember reading that as well.

Yet as that was going on, the quote was in a Sprint commercial or some shit.  Long distance calling was "free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, it was free at last."

The amount of money that has been paid out by guns to other artists/copywrite holders is mind blowing.

With all the cover songs and odd samples here and there Guns N Roses has maid many people rich

How much are we talking?

I would just be guessing...  But why not.

So to make my guess a little more educated I will use a couple of things I do know.   Dire Straights had to pay Sting millions for his 30 seconds worth of work on "Money for nothing"   The Stones sued The Verve, over sampling on the song Bitter Sweet Symphony.  Again The Verve is on record saying they had to pay millions and really didnt make a dime off the song.  There biggest hit ever...

So I would say with any over song that GNR put on a album a large portion of that albums sales would go to the original artist.  So depending on that records sales, you would have different costs.  Lies and the UYI and the greatest hits sold tens of millions so the pay out on those albums would probably be in the millions.  Where is albums like TSI and Live ERA sold not so much, so the pay out would not be as much

As for sampling.....   I think there would probably just be a flat fee that is negotiated before the albums release.   Probably in the hundreds of thousands, give or take depending on the sample.

However it gets tricky when its an unapproved sample and the payout of a lawsuit could be huge.   On the album CD a band sued guns for using a sample with out permission...  I dont know the out come of that lawsuit.

Semi-related, and don?t have numbers but, I remember reading somewhere that David Johansen made more money off of the royalties of Human Being on Spaghetti Incident than he did from his entire New York Dolls/Solo/Acting career.

Imagine if there was a video for Madagascar as well.And actual MLK video footage was used !
It could be one waiting to get rights to this day and eventually come out  :)

First new song I heard. Besides Oh My God.

It was on a low quality RealAudio stream on some Brazilian radio station broadcasting RIR3 in January 2001.
It was quite exciting to hear it and I remember thinking it did sound like GN'R, but with a modern twist.

Great song live as well.



/jarmo

Remember hearing this and treating it like a new Gnr single..even though it was just me playing it on a damn VHS tape
Love it - I think the CD version failed vs this one, but still a beautifully structured song...movie lines not withstanding

I'm guessing he did well as Buster Poindexter with Hot,Hot,Hot...