GNR Song Writers

[GitFuckedUp]

Greatest Hits says:

Civil War (McKagan/Rose/Slash/Stradlin)
You Could Be Mine (McKagan/Rose/Slash/Stradlin)
Don't Cry (McKagan/Rose/Slash/Stradlin)
November Rain (McKagan/Rose/Slash/Stradlin)
Yesterdays (Arkeen/James/McCloud/McKagan/Rose/Slash/Stradlin)

The Illusions Albums say:

Civil War (Slash / Duff McKagan / W. Axl Rose)
You Could Be Mine (Izzy Stradlin' / W. Axl Rose)
Don't Cry (Izzy Stradlin' / W. Axl Rose)
November Rain (Rose)
Yesterdays (West Arkeen / Del James / Billy McCloud / W. Axl Rose)

What's with the discrepancies, and who really wrote the songs?

[slashnbuckethead]

it looks like they just gave credit to all the gnr members for all the songs and then added anyone else involved.

[Izzy]

I would go with the notes in the UYI booklets, the band put them together - that GH is crazy enough as it is.......

[matt88]

I think cos it's the greatest hits they wanted to recognise the whole band as putting input into all their songs

But the Illusions are prolly right

[bolton]

i don't understand this,because every song was written by singer,bas  player,guitar players and drumer.
axl wrote lyrics and piano on november rain,but slash do guitar solo.

[Izzy]

i don't understand this,because every song was written by singer,bas  player,guitar players and drumer.
axl wrote lyrics and piano on november rain,but slash do guitar solo.

There referring to the lyrics

As for who wrote what on which songs - there are people on this board who would tell u Axl did the drum parts.....

[jarmo]

My guess is that on the Greatest Hits they credited the people who get money from Guns N' Roses Music (their publishing company), while the UYI credits actually say who wrote most of the songs.



/jarmo

[alwaysoutparading]

Axl's bible back in the day (The Platinum Rainbow i think) said that you can only copyright melody and lyrics so whenever a band he was in would write a song, no matter who wrote the guitar riffs, if he wrote the melody and lyrics, he would want credit for it. he would say "well i wrote the melody and lyrics, so its my song" and I think the Illusions credit who wrote that, but of course Slash was writing his own guitar parts, Duff his own bass lines, etc..

so on the GH, they gave them all credit.

*that bit about the platinum rainbow is from Over The Top by Mark Putterford. good book...

[Mikkamakka]

For me it was a sign that something is wrong in the band that they credited the UYI songs the way they did, however it's obvious that Slash had a really big part in NR, Estranged, The Garden, Breakdown, You Could Be Mine, and maybe even in Double Talkin' Jive (I just cannot imagine Izzy writing the guitar solo) and Pretty Tied Up. As I think, Duff was also 'undercredited'.

[Mutherfunker]

As for who wrote what on which songs - there are people on this board who would tell u Axl did the drum parts.....

What the fuck are you saying? Axl didn't play drums? Yeah, right like anyones gonna believe that bullshit! Adler was fucked up so Axl layed down most of the drums for AFD. As for UYI, Sorum couldn't produce sound by farting on a snare drum so it's a good job Axl was there to clean up.

Oh, and those live drum solos..... that was Sorum sitting there with Axl behind him poking his arms from under his armpits and doing the drumming!  

Anyway, it's clear that UYI booklets are correct as the band put them together. GH is a joke in so many ways.

@#$%Muther

[volcano62]

This is one of the reasons why I don't listend to GN'R Greatest Hits, It's fucking bullshit, November Rain was and always will be Axl Rose's song.

IMO Use Your Illusion I and II credits are accurate. GH was ceated by some jack ass millionaire behind a desk that compiled this piece of crap.

Don't get me wrong, this peice of crap was branded with the GN'R logo and still sold pretty well.

[loretian]

I would assume the Illusion credits are correct, and the new credits have more to do with royalties, like jarmo said.

Of course, each member wrote their own bass line, or drum line, or whatever, but coming up with a part that fits into a song isn't the same thing as actually writing a song.

Axl, or Izzy, or anybody can sit down with a single guitar, strum some chords and just hum a melody and that's it, a song is written.  Later on the drum parts get added and the bass line is written and the singer comes up with lyrics and so forth.  The person who sat down with the guitar and came up with the melody at the beginning is the primary songwriter, though, and usually the person who would be credited for writing the song.

[Dizzy]

I'm with everybody here, the UYI credits are the accurate ones.  Every band member on the "Making of Don't Cry" video stated that Axl and Izzy wrote the song.  During the "Who wrote 'Don't Cry'?  I did!" comedy bit, Duff came out and said "I didn't!"

[Mikkamakka]

Without Slash's solos, NR and Estranged would be no more than a boring song. Slash made them classic. Same for The Garden.