Axl's best worst lyric is, clearly, "It's such a pity that you're such a bitch."

Just makes me think of this:

Oh, I agree that musically the final release is better than the 2002-vintage demos that are floating around - literally every single thing that Bumble does added to the songs, from the fretless on Chinese Democracy to the liquid riff in IRS.

But in terms of the news cycle, Axl would've been better off putting an album out in 2002 - it'd been a long time since the last GN'R album, but it hadn't been too long; he could still be painted as the homecoming conquering hero.

But by the time the album did come out, the media had moved the narrative on; Axl was "the sad old recluse who'd dicked around with the album for over a decade."

And he didn't come out and do any press appearances, interviews, music videos; didn't play the media game, so that the negative (or worse, apathetic) voices were allowed to dominate the terms of the debate.

It's not even as simple as "if it had come out in 2002 it would've been a hit." It's the way the news media works nowadays; go read a book called Flat Earth News, it dissects how the news cycle operates in the modern era, and how easy it is to manipulate the news agenda if you're prepared to play the game. It's mostly about political news, but the same lessons apply to entertainment news too.

Axl isn't very good at manipulating the media - or, more likely, he has no interest in it. And thus, Chinese Democracy sank like a stone. If it'd been released in 2002, the stars were better aligned for it to be a hit - and the media were more interested in playing the "Axl returns the conquering hero" narrative - but he dropped the ball.

I still maintain that if Axl had turned up in 2002 looking and sounding like he did in 2006 or 2009, he would've had a monster hit on his hands - but he turned up out of shape with the braids and the jersey, and the media narrative turned into "let's laugh at Fat Axl." Of course, there were probably plenty of behind-the-scenes tensions, too - wasn't there some beef between Robin and Buckethead the whole time Buckethead was there?

Axl's best shot now is to go into the studio and record a new album with the current band - who all seem to get along - in double-quick time. And promote the hell out of it.

Yeah, for most bands there are two "iconic members" and as far as the general public's concerned, "it isn't the band" without those two.

Most often that's the singer and the lead guitarist - witness the people slagging off Queen touring with Paul Rogers*, when they wouldn't give a fuck if Freddie was still alive and touring with Brian May and a different bassist. Mick and Keef, the Toxic Twins... it's especially ironic with bands like GN'R and Jane's Addiction, where the major creative force is someone else in the band (Izzy and Eric Avery, respectively).

But yes, I reckon the Incredibly Stupid General Public would be entirely happy with Axl touring the current band and calling it GN'R if Slash were in one of the guitar slots. Pillocks.

*To be fair, Queen + Paul Rogers is shit.