TIMELINE:
- Late 2005. An album appears on Amazon with the title "The Very Best of GN'R: Welcome to the Jungle." It is available for preorder. Release date is not set, but instead lists "December 25 2025," the default date for all "undetermined" releases.
- Outside sites start confirming the album through the album label. Media outlets begin to issue articles announcing the album's pending release.
- Ross Halfin posts a blog claiming he spoke to Slash about the "upcoming album" The Very Best of Guns N' Roses.
- Suddenly the album listing on Amazon.com changes from "The Very Best Of" to Chinese Democracy. The URL is the same and the sales rank is the same; apparently the title has changed but the page itself is the same. It is still available for preorder.
- About a week later, it disappears off the site after peaking on the preorder list in the top 50.
- Ross Halfin's blog disappears.
- A couple months pass and then the European tour dates begin to come into fruition, and the "New Logo" makes its first appearance.
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My take:
I think the album was set for release last year along with CD.
I think someone on Amazon got two orders for two different GN'R albums for release on the same day and thought it was a mistake. He probably saww that Greatest Hits had been released the year before and assumed Very Best Of was a mistake on the vendor's part, so he OVERWROTE the entry on Amazon with Chinese Democracy, instead of making a NEW entry on the site for the album.
Then, Geffen/Axl/whoever decided to postpone it and as such all plans were scrapped. Axl decided to go on tour first and they pushed it forward to THIS year.
Meanwhile, the artwork for the abandoned "Very Best Of" was taken and used in advertisements for the European concert. The "New" GN'R Logo is lifted from the Very Best Of artwork and used on GN'R posters and online ads.
And now, I'm expecting our announcement within the next few days/weeks will be that CD is coming out, it's being released alongside Very Best Of GN'R for promotion purposes, AND a single will drop.
Hey man,
Loved reading your insights and the nice little wrap up you did of what happened with Amazon last year. I remember it quite well and I think you got all the details right.
I don't really agree with your take however. It relies on a pretty big assumption, i.e. that someone at Amazon made their own call about two listings they received. They assumed it was the same thing and so overwrote the first entry. I don't know, I would imagine that Amazon most likely has a policy for such cases; and it would probably be that if there is any significant doubt about a listing to contact the record company and have the matter clarified so that the right listing is put up.
My opinions now: to me it doesn't make a lot of sense to release a
Best of alongside
Chi Dem. You are right, it could bring new fans on board, but really the way to promote an album is with a hot single and video. Fans need a reason to want
Chinese Democracy, and that is with songs that are on
Chinese Democracy. Single + video + tour = sales. This is how it's always been done. New fans are more likely to buy the old stuff after they have bought
Chi Dem.
I think what may have happened is the record company threatened Axl with releasing another compilation album so that he'd hurry up with
CD. Or maybe Axl decided to put it out to appease them, since I believe Slash said that this was Axl's choice of tracklisting. Could be in Geffen's eyes that it had to either be the
Best of or something else. Eventually they decided on the latter, i.e. a tour. Maybe it was Axl who decided he didn't want to release a
Best of, and so he proposed the summer 2006 Euro tour instead. It really was a fairly lengthly series of shows to do for a band with no album coming until late fall/early winter. So maybe it was designed to get some pre-promotion going in addition to making some cash for the record company. I also think it's likely Axl had to promise the album would be ready for late 2006, and maybe Geffen had him sign a contract to that effect (they would if they could I'm sure). If Axl failed to deliver then maybe he'd have to pay some sort of penalty or hand the album over whatever state it was in.
This is all my speculation of course. I guess there are many ways things could have gone down. What's funny is that this also really ties in with the whole Slash appearing at Axl's house thing late last year. If that had any truth to it then their meeting may have had something to do with the
Best of. Maybe there was a reunion planned like Minneapolisnewsma speculated but they decided to postpone it.
Personally I believe a
Best of would work better to promote a reunion and they probably want to keep that door open. If they released the
Best of in conjunction with
Chi Dem then people may buy it and want to hear those songs live, but that won't happen because Axl will be playing more Chinese Democracy songs. It's just not a great idea IMO. They don't need the extra promo, as I said the media coverage will be huge regardless and will draw lots of attention to the old hits. Plus,
Greatest Hits is still on shelves if people want to hear those songs. Stuff like Estranged, Coma, 14 Years, Dead Horse, etc...these songs are not going to make people buy the
Best of and then subsequently
Chi Dem. Songs like NR, WTTJ, and SCOM will and those are already on GH.
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