While other singers, bands and musicians continue to add China as a stop on their world tours, it looks like Guns N' Roses won't get to do that anytime soon. The Associated Press reports that Chinese state media have blasted their song Chinese Democracy:
In an article Monday headlined "American band releases album venomously attacking China," the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn."The album "turns its spear point on China," the article said...
The Global Times article referred only to the title of the album and not to specific song lyrics. The record's title track makes a reference to the Falun Gong meditation movement that was banned by China as an "evil cult" and warns "if your Great Wall rocks blame yourself," in an apparent message to the country's authoritarian government.
Yet confusion remains over whether the album has actually been banned. The AP seems to suggest it has:
China's Foreign Ministry did not respond to faxed questions about the article, although a spokesman speaking on routine condition of anonymity said: "We don't need to comment on that."According to the AFP though, a spokeswoman with the Ministry of Culture appeared clueless about the new Guns N' Roses album:Spokesmen for the Culture Ministry and State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, government bodies that regulate album releases and performances, could not be reached for comment.
China's Ministry of Culture appeared to be immune to the global hype surrounding the album headed by Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose, 46, the only member of the band's original line-up involved in the recording.AFP added:"This is the first time we've heard about it," a ministry spokeswoman said, when asked about the album and reports that it had been banned in China.
"I don't know if they're banned or not," she said. "It might be a rumour."
The album's official site chinesedemocracy.com was inaccessible in communist China and Internet portal Baidu.com blocked music-related searches for "Chinese Democracy".The inaccessibility of the site chinesedemocracy.com may have to do with keyword traps triggered off by the word 'democracy' and have nothing to do with the album itself. Also, MP3 searches for the song on Baidu appear to be working fine within and without China.
Just how subversive are the lyrics of the song Chinese Democracy? Read on after the jump and decide for yourself:
It don't really matter You're gonna find out for yourself No it don't really matter You're gonna leave this thing to somebody elseIf they were missionaries
Real time visionaries
Sitting in a Chinese stew
To view my dis-in-fat-u-ationI know that I'm a classic case
Watch my disenchanted face
Blame it on the Falun Gong
They've seen the end and it can't hold on now'Cause it would take a lot more hate than you
To end the fascination
Even with an iron fist
All they got to rule the nation
When all I've got is precious timeIt don't really matter
Guess I'll keep it to myself
Said it don't really matter
It's time I look around for somebody else'Cause it would take a lot more time than you
Have got for masturbation
Even with your iron fist
All they got to rule the nation
When all we got is precious time
All they got to fool the nation
When all I got is precious timeIt don't really matter
I guess you'll find out for yourself
No it don't really matter
So you can hear it now from somebody elseYou think you got it all locked up inside
And if you beat 'em enough they'll die
It's like a walk in the park from a cell
And now you're keeping your own kind in hell
When your great wall rocks blame yourself
While their arms reach up for your help
And you're out of time
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I just heard the title track about 2 hours ago. Slash sounds terrific, Axel's voice is a bit strained but the anger at Beijing is apparent and the ef el g is prominantly mentioned and supported
You should stick to listening to Hall and Oates' and their classic "You're Out of Touch." Slash doesn't play on this album.
Still flailing at air El Jeffrey?
When was the last time G 'n R was relevant? Use Your Illusion I & II? November Rain? That's summer of 1991. 17 years ago.
Axel's washed up, and Slash (and anyone else who made G N R aside from Axel) have long since left the band.
Incredible how fast China is increasing its presence in every aspect of western life. This album is the result of a year 2008 where not a single month has gone by wo China on the headlines.
When I was a kid listening to "Appetite for destruction" if someone had tell me that one day there would be a GnR album about China I would have never believed it!
Axel is washed up trailer trash (the braids, along with getting one punched by Hillfigger,,, weak).
But you can't ignore the hype, something like 13 million spent, 14 sutdios listed in the credits, simply Amazing. Even the Dr. Pepper fiasco,,
This is the 'test tube baby' of albums. If someone is simply going to cast it aside because it's calculated and contrived than they can go hang out in seedy granola hang outs with all the useless hipsters that are looking for something real.
To me this album represents the epitome of excess, the small cross section where the mania and irresponsibility of rock and roll meets the greed and waste of corporate governance. If in some small way someone cannot get off on that sheer exuberance, than he or she is not human.
Despite the heavenly production values, alot the album does suck. I do like track 7, Catcher in the Rye, and track track 4 sounds like the vampire rock-opera from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which is fun to sing in the shower.
/I clearly have way too much time
Thats the way to go China. Ban those trash that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.
This album is the result of a year 2008 where not a single month has gone by wo China on the headlines.
Uh, sorry, but not quite. Axel's been working on this album SINCE Use Your Illusion. And it's been named Chinese Democracy since at least 1995 or 1996.
It's Axl. And he still sings like a bird. The album name has been around for probably ten years and has nothing to do with China being in the headlines. In fact, I haven't seen much since the end of September...
Axl and Dizzy are still in GNR. Slash, Izzy, Duff, Matt all left. This happened several years ago.
mea culpa. It is Axl.
Whoops, thanks for the correction, I stopped listening to GnR little after Loose your Illusion, and I had no clue this Ch Dem started so long ago (13 years to do an album, what??)
Anyway, it might have a bit to do with China being on the headlines, as Chinabuzz will definitely help them sell CDs. Probably not a coincidence that after 13 years they decide to publish it rigth now. Great timing, the first relatively calm period in China news for the whole 2008, journalists will run to fill in the void with some good old GnR polemic.
My opinion, anyway.
I don't think Axl has an Economist subscription, and I seriously doubt Chinabuzz will help them sell CDs, unless they are targeting SARFT, which I highly doubt. It is coincidence. I learned from the Simpsons this is called specious reasoning.
The album has some good tracks, perhaps a couple even approaching "Get in the Ring." I downloaded it this morning. The only problem getting it was iTunes stupid US-only law.
...the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn."
In truth this is correct.
The West will continue to foment unrest by providing Chinese and other easily impressionable youth populations in countries ripe for controlling with insidious cultural exports such as "Family Guy," cuddle pop, WWF t-shirts, "The Daily Show" (you're allowed to mock the authorities! God forbid!), Britney Spears (toxic), KFC, cheeseburgers and especially the idea of "democracy" where people control their government and not the other way around.
By giving people the power to control the managers of their economic and legal systems, they will be fully under control of the dark evil forces of their own impressionable minds.
The result?
The CCP will be overthrown and Bjork will be elected to lead China into a glorious new age of pop materialism that will last for a thousand glorious centuries! Guns and Roses' new album is just the first step. Soon, with the release of the next Raffi album "Please, Please, Don't Push and Shove in the Subway, Please," "democracy" will totally control the entire world! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
. . . even if this was a very buzzed about album in China, which I'm 100% sure it isn't, would anyone here actually buy a CD that gives G'NR royalties anyways?
Me? I'm going to go back and listen to Appetite for Destruction. Welcome to the Jungle, baby!
Raffi will braid cornrows into his hair for this album as well, like Axl did, which I hear was a gesture of solidarity with the proletariat farmers in Qingdao that work all day in the corn fields.
And I heard Axl's high-pitched squeals refer to the eunuch Zheng He.
where can I buy this "cuddle pop" you speak of?
Coming soon to a cardboard box record shop on Fuzhou Lu.
Nothing special about the music and Axl is an expired artist. The publicity will help the sales of his album though. But folks like me will probably listen to the youtube clip first before buying, and I ain't buying.
this is going to be the hottest selling pirated cd ever to hit shanghai street corners! i wonder when the communist gov is going to realize that banning sh*t just makes it more desirable.