GUNS N' ROSES: New Book 'Watch You Bleed' Due In August

[Albert S Miller]

The only thing interesting now would be if another member of the original band wrote a book.... Axl, anybody?

If Axl wrote a biography, or maybe even Duff would be a good read I'm sure, and probably more credible too.  Maybe after Axl's done with his music career lol...  Anyway will probably buy the book to add to the others, and to maybe pass the time reading it on occasion, prolly doesn't offer much that we don't already no.

K I got the book today. Anyone else get it?  I guess if anything worthy comes up I'll post.

[axlrosegnr]

I got it....horrible, horrible, horrible. Someone else already mentioned it, but the guy didn't even bother to verify his dates. He gives detailed reports about shows that happened in 1992, which are all available on bootleg, and he even quotes Axl wrong. He firmly believes that Appetite was the only good album the band ever made, which I'm not one to judge a persons musical preference, but he basically says the Illusions sucked and the whole world thought the same thing. I'm pretty sure weveryones read the Del James interview that was posted like a week ago....but it makes sense, Davis' only source of info was old magazine and newspaper articles and disgruntled employees. What a waste of money. Either Del or Axl himself needs to write a book about this band. That one, I'll buy.

[faldor]

I got it....horrible, horrible, horrible. Someone else already mentioned it, but the guy didn't even bother to verify his dates. He gives detailed reports about shows that happened in 1992, which are all available on bootleg, and he even quotes Axl wrong. He firmly believes that Appetite was the only good album the band ever made, which I'm not one to judge a persons musical preference, but he basically says the Illusions sucked and the whole world thought the same thing. I'm pretty sure weveryones read the Del James interview that was posted like a week ago....but it makes sense, Davis' only source of info was old magazine and newspaper articles and disgruntled employees. What a waste of money. Either Del or Axl himself needs to write a book about this band. That one, I'll buy.

Thanks for the review.  I already made up my mind I wasn't gonna get it with previous mentions of notable errors, but your review certainly reaffirms that decision.

[Mama Kin]

For those complaining about timeline problems, Davis credits Jarmo by name and this website for the "most credble timeline".

[GypsySoul]

For those complaining about timeline problems, Davis credits Jarmo by name and this website for the "most credble timeline".

Even though he does credit Jarmo for the "most credible timeline", if you compare Davis' timeline to the HTGTH timeline, it does NOT match.   

I'm really not sure whether or not we should be congratulating Jarmo since that author totally ignored the correct info he admits was readily available to him so "CONGRATULATIONS HTGTH ON BEING MISQUOTED!!!" just doesn't seem to cut it. 

[FunkyMonkey]

Book review: Beginning to end, Guns N' Roses biography is flawed

Sep 24, 2008

by Neal Taflinger

According to Steven Davis, most people believe that the origins of Guns N' Roses can be traced to one of two times and places -- the Sunset Strip in 1985, when members of various struggling bands united, or Lafayette, Ind., almost a decade earlier, when Bill Bailey first met Jeff Isbell, before they became W. Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin.

Davis, though, believes the entire chain of events -- detailed in "Watch You Bleed" (Gotham, $27.50), his new biography of the band -- was set in motion by a hitchhiking trip Bailey and a friend, identified only as Paul, took to New York City in 1980. The introduction recounts a story from the trip, and a few pages later, Chapter One begins in Lafayette.

That false start sets the tone for the next 400-plus pages, which lack focus and gloss over important details in favor of non-sequitur tidbits and tangents.

The first chapter is dedicated to the early lives of four of the band's five original members: Axl, Izzy, Saul "Slash" Hudson and drummer Steven Adler. Inexplicably, bassist Michael "Duff" McKagan isn't introduced until much later.

Davis offers some interesting anecdotes here and there, but his narrative is often jarring, such as when he speculates that Rose's biological father may have abducted and molested him early in the singer's life, and moves on without offering any evidence to substantiate the claim.

The book is plagued with such throwaway lines as "(the band) lived off girls, peddled drugs, pulled shameless scams," but Davis rarely if ever deigns to explain what scams the band pulled.

His reporting is so shoddy that it leads me to believe that Davis had little to no access to the band, constructing the text from other sources.

But rather than work around limited access, Davis treats the reader to interjections of his feelings on other bands, the recording industry, and the political climate of America in the mid-'80s. The result is a bloated book whose content doesn't justify the page count.

"Watch You Bleed" is a picaresque tale set in squalor and thick with violence, booze, drugs and underage girls. It offers little to anyone not enamored of Guns N' Roses, but even 15 years after the band ceased to function, that's still a sizable audience.

I expected more, but I guess not every rock biography can be "The Dirt," Neil Strauss' captivating oral history of Motley Crue. Davis is less a journalist than a music critic, unable to get out of his own way and let the story tell itself.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

I listened to this guy spew his rhetoric on the radio.

It must have been 2-3 weeks ago, but I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

He kept calling Axl a crazy guy and praising Slash the whole time.  Every other word was "reunion."

Can we get this guy on fraud or false representation? 

Where's the HTGTH legal team?  Surely slander is against the law....

[Albert S Miller]

I listened to this guy spew his rhetoric on the radio.

It must have been 2-3 weeks ago, but I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

He kept calling Axl a crazy guy and praising Slash the whole time.  Every other word was "reunion."

Can we get this guy on fraud or false representation? 

Where's the HTGTH legal team?  Surely slander is against the law....

All the books are unauthorized

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

I listened to this guy spew his rhetoric on the radio.

It must have been 2-3 weeks ago, but I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

He kept calling Axl a crazy guy and praising Slash the whole time.  Every other word was "reunion."

Can we get this guy on fraud or false representation? 

Where's the HTGTH legal team?  Surely slander is against the law....

All the books are unauthorized

NO SHIT!

It doesn't matter, people still buy into the bullshit and pass it off as fact.

[poorlakers]

Check out jconline.com for article - entertainment section!

[Albert S Miller]

I listened to this guy spew his rhetoric on the radio.

It must have been 2-3 weeks ago, but I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

He kept calling Axl a crazy guy and praising Slash the whole time.  Every other word was "reunion."

Can we get this guy on fraud or false representation? 

Where's the HTGTH legal team?  Surely slander is against the law....

All the books are unauthorized

NO SHIT!

It doesn't matter, people still buy into the bullshit and pass it off as fact.

Only the uneducated fools, but I get the point!!

[Bodhi]

what a piss poor book....i picked it up when i was at borders the other day....flipped through it and found about 10 wrong dates and quotes right at the outset...so i put it down and looked at some magazines instead....pile of shit...