A ratings system to evaluate Chinese Democracy:

[estrangedpaul]

Original Poster, your too liberal with your ratings. 10 out of tens are reserved for Sweet Childs, November Rains, etc. Secondly, you assume every song will improve, in some cases dramatically. For a start, CD will stay as it is. It's being played live and has change just very little other than the intro in the last four years. You think there is gonna be a dramatic change in the next month? I would guess all the songs being played live have been finished. They could sound different on the record but CD, the title track is finished. Madagascar, The Blues all those old songs are finished by now, and while they might sound slightly different on the record, I think a jump of 2 points for those songs is a bit much. I think Rhiad and Catcher are two only likely to show dramatic improvements. Maybe TWAT as well, coz Fortus or someone said they didn't want to ruin that song by not playing it right live or something like that. But basically what you have done is put up all songs by two points. Your being overly optimistic, I'm afraid!

Chinese Democracy Current: 6/10, Potential: 6/10
The Blues: Current 7/10, Potential: 8/10 (if he goes back to 2002 way or if it sounds different on record, both unlikely though)
Catcher In The Rye: Current: 8 Potential: 9
Better: Current: 9 Potential :9 (can't see this changing much from the live version)
Madagascar: Current: 9 Potential: 10 (maybe kinda song hard to replicate live, could be better in studio)
IRS: 7/10 Potential: 7/10 (live version is almost certainly the final version)
TWAT: 9/10 Potential: 10/10 (we haven't heard decent live version yet, demo badly mixed, can't wait for studio version)
Rhiad: 2/10 Potential: 7/10 (bootlegs are too poor, potential to be a good rock song)
Oh My God: 3/10 Potential: 3/10 (not gonna be on CD)
Silkworms: 2/10 Potenial 2/10 (not gonna be on CD)

As for your predictions on General, Thyme and Prostitute, that's just lame. We haven't heard anything about these songs, other than Richard Fortus likes the General and maybe a couple of those songs Buckmeister talked about.

And I'm delighted with your genius comment that its not an exact science. The most sense of the whole post.

[Syd Vega]

I was bored and devised a way in which we can assess CD in it's current form to fans (as per demos and best live versions) vs. the potential each song has.

Heres what I came up with:

Chinese Democracy (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?8/10
The Blues (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?9/10
Catcher in the Rye (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 7/10
Better (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?7/10
Madagascar (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?5/10
IRS (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 6/10
TWAT (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 6/10
Rhiad (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?5/10
OMG (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 6/10
Silkworms (current state) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 3/10

That comes to a 62% rating in terms of what we have heard thus far.
If we exclude OMG and Silkworms which most likely wont figure on CD we get a 66% rating.
If we also exclude Rhiad (which again may not figure) we get a healthy 69% rating.

More interesting is if we look at what potential we believe each song from what we've heard could have. This, I believe, gives a fairly accurate picture of what we are all in for:

Chinese Democracy (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 10/10
The Blues (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 10/10
Catcher in the Rye (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?10/10
Better (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 9/10
Madagascar (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?7/10
IRS (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 8/10
TWAT (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 9/10
Rhiad (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?7/10
OMG (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 8/10
Silkworms (potential) =? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 5/10


Given this, we can say that the potential for these songs is 83%.
Take off OMG and Silkworms and we arrive at 88%
With Rhiad off as well we get 90%.

These songs we have not heard but will likely be on CD,? could have the following potential:

Prostitue? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 10/10
Thyme ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?8/10
The General? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 9/10

If we add these to the others then we still arrive at a very promising 90%.

Of course other factors like cohesion, production, order of tracks and overall feel need to be factored to get a clear picture of a great album. But based on this, things are looking fairly hopeful? Its not an exact science!

Id be interested to see how others rate the songs based on these criteria.

I know you explained everyhing already..but this is the DEFINITION of wasted time  ! can't believe this ! 
"The General" might be a 7,4 or 7,52 though...

[Fusion]

Ehh, what the hell.  I'll do this.  But I won't bother with songs we've never heard, nor with potential.  That's silly talk, let's just stick with what we know.  Also gonna change the rating scale to out of 100 because I think it give more room for different scores.

I'll start off by saying that I think CITR and Better are the best tunes.  I give them an 88.  Everything else is relative.  Why only an 88 and not 100?  Because I don't want to be too liberal with good marks, and you have to leave room for the really truly special songs to get 90s and 100.

Chinese Democracy  (current state) =               65/100
The Blues (current state) =                               82/100
Catcher in the Rye (current state) =                  88/100
Better (current state) =                                   88/100
Madagascar (current state) =                           73/100
IRS (current state) =                                        77/100
TWAT (current state) =                                    82/100
Rhiad (current state) =                                     55/100
OMG (current state) =                                      60/100
Silkworms (current state) =                              40/100

Yeah, that's about right.  Overall it gets a 71%.  Take away Silkworms and it's 74.44%.  Also take away OMG and Rhiad and it's 79.28%.

I guess songs like I.R.S. and Chi Dem get compared to rockers from the past like Nightrain and Brownstone.  They are a bit lacking in comparison.  So their scores are a bit low.  I'd say Better, CITR, and The Blues stacks up well against what the old band did, so their scores show that.  TWAT too...it took time to grow on me but I think it's an amazing song.

[Eppe]

Current state:

TWAT = 10/10
Better = 10/10
Madagascar = 9/10
IRS = 9/10
Chinese Democracy = 8/10
The Blues = 8/10
Catcher in the Rye = 8/10
Rhiad = 6/10
OMG = 6/10
Silkworms = 4/10

[LeftToDecay]

Chinese Democracy (current state) =               9/10
The Blues (current state) =                               6/10
Catcher in the Rye (current state) =                  4/10
Better (current state) =                                   9/10
Madagascar (current state) =                           8/10
IRS (current state) =                                        5/10
TWAT (current state) =                                    8/10
Rhiad (current state) =                                     4/10
OMG (current state) =                                      6/10
Silkworms (current state) =                              3/10

[robinfinckfan]

Chinese Democracy- 7.5/10
The Blues- 5/10...don't care for it all but decent
CITR- 7/10
Better-8.5/10
Madagascar-7/10
IRS-8/10
TWAT-9.5/10
Rhiad-6/10
OMG-7/10
Silkworms-7/10...better than most of it's ratings

[RR Mafia]

You can not, I repete, CAN NOT give music a numerical score!! 

It goes against everything good art stands for. 

[DaNutz]

FINAL tabulations:

Chinese Democracy (current state) =                6/10
The Blues (current state) =                               10/10
Catcher in the Rye (current state) =                  7/10
Better (current state) =                                     9/10
Madagascar (current state) =                            8/10
IRS (current state) =                                         8/10
TWAT (current state) =                                      7/10
Rhiad (current state) =                                      0/10
OMG (current state) =                                       8/10
Silkworms (current state) =                              -1/10

[daviebuckethead]

how can omg be a demo, it was released on the end of days sound track officially, so not a demo?

to save time i'll give all the new songs 8's and 9's except rhiad, silkworms, and omg, whcih i dont think will be on cd

[greendog]

how can omg be a demo, it was released on the end of days sound track officially, so not a demo?

i heard somewhere that axl released it anyway for the film release... and the song was unfinished.

i dont have any quotes, nor have i seen any, this is just what ive heard off other forum people.

[robinfinckfan]

how can omg be a demo, it was released on the end of days sound track officially, so not a demo?

i heard somewhere that axl released it anyway for the film release... and the song was unfinished.

i dont have any quotes, nor have i seen any, this is just what ive heard off other forum people.

I don't know about that but I read an article that he and Jimmy Iovine stayed up all night before the deadline finishing the mix.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/arts/music/06leed.html?ei=5090&en=a13c0fac87670850&ex=1267851600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1156849805-BmOLuky4SLi3+yw3+bjfVw