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Chinese Democracy Is Like Sistine Chapel Says GN’R Manager

added 25 November 2008 at 11.16

Guns N'Roses manager Andy Gould has compared ‘Chinese Democracy’ to the Sistine Chapel in an interview (see below),  “When they asked the guy to paint the Sistine Chapel they didn’t say ‘Can you do it in the fourth quarter?’”, said the manager. “They said ‘Can you do it? Can you make a great piece of art?’”

“It took a long time to make the record, but it’s a great record. Is it worth waiting for? Yeah it is”.

Sounds like a lot of management hot air to us, which is why we thought we’d put Chinese Democracy head to head with Michelangelo’s masterpiece. Here, fact fans, is how they measure up.

Personnel
Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo Buonarroti
Chinese Democracy: Axl Rose, Robin Finck, Bumblefoot, Richard Fortus, Tommy Stinson,  Dizzy Reed, Frank Ferrer Bryan Mantia, Chris Pitman,  Buckethead, Paul Tobias, Sebastian Bach, Marco Beltrami, Paul Buckmaster, Pete Scaturro

Project length
Sistine Chapel: 1508 – November 1, 1512
Chinese Democracy:  1994 – November 24, 2008

Scope Of Work
Sistine Chapel: 12,000 Square Feet
Chinese Democracy: 71.24 minutes

Constituent Parts
Sistine Chapel: 300 Biblical Scenes
Chinese Democracy: 14 Songs

Commissioned By
Sistine Chapel: Pope Paul III
Chinese Democracy: David Geffen

Audience Reach
Sistine Chapel: 10,000 people a day (from figures estimated in January 2007)
Chinese Democracy: No sales figures yet, but MySpace streaming on November 21st reached a peak of 25 listens per second.

The facts speak for themselves, don’t they? So we’ll let the man who started this ridiculous claim speak for himself, too. The interview with Andy Gould is below…

 

Tagged as Guns N' Roses, Releases

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1. Being a huge GnR fan back in the day, I bought Chinese Democracy on pre-order a year or two ago and I have gone through several emotions, excitement, fear, aprehension etc etc...
   
   I was most concerned about listening to the album and feeling disappointed - I put the CD in my PC, made sure everyone in the office knew I was "busy", put my earphones on... A drop of sweat fell down my brow.... I pressed play...
   
   Chinese Democracy is a CRACKING album. One good thing that seems to have come from the long timespan is that you can tell each track is recorded at a completely different phase/timeframe. There should be at least a couple of tracks for everyone on this album. For me - It's every one.
   
   This album will get plenty of playtime from me and will definitely very soon be placed on my all time favourite albums list.
   
   Well done Gunners!!

   Posted by Shelly on 01/12/2008 16:31:36 | report abuse

2. I seriously think Chinese Democracy was a huge let down! I love G N R but I thought this was a pretty sad comeback. I guess Axl Rose can't make a great masterpiece without Slash and the old members backing him up...

   Posted by Leona! on 30/11/2008 14:01:24 | report abuse

3. I bought Chines Democracy and its a decent album, some of the songs are really good some are a little erm well less than what I expected, but only cause its not a hard rock/metal album.
   
   Axl's gone off ona few tangents, where the hell is silkworms? that was one ofthe ebst live songs they did for the album.
   
   But still This I Love, Madagasca, The Street Of Dreams and Prostitute really stand out as Axl at his best. Heres hoping the follow up in 2012 is Better :)

   Posted by Neurie on 28/11/2008 16:00:44 | report abuse

4. I was a fan of G'n'R years back, when they brought out record and it was all fields around here. But my tastes have changed a bit, as has rock scene. Not sure I'll bother getting Chinese Democracy.
   
   But that video, the thing that leaps out at me is how much he look like Joe Pasquale, does Chinese Democracy bear any relation to "I know a song that'll get on your nerves"?

   Posted by Jo Bain on 28/11/2008 11:37:52 | report abuse