Brian May's solos with Guns N' Roses

Hello, 1st post here

There's been some recent leaks from the Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy sessions from late 1999 / early 2000. There's some Brian May contributions, but I would love to have some help from fellow Queen fans, especially if you play guitar and knows May's tone and playing by heart.

There's three songs out there.

- Catcher in The Rye already leaked back in 2006, but now it leaked again in better audio quality. May already confirmed back then that it was his guitar work.

- Atlas Shrugged leaked two weeks ago. It was supposed to be released in the Chinese Democracy album, but got shelved. This one is clearly May with the use of octave pedal.

- Perhaps is the 3rd track. But this one I'm not so sure it's really Brian May solo. There's no real indication from the original source, so all we got is to find out by ear.

I'm not sure if I can post those songs here, but if anyone is interested, I can send it.

Thanks!

I'm so courious about this tracks

yes would love to hear these songs thank you

From Blabbermouth 2011

QUEEN guitarist Brian May recently answered a number of reader-submitted questions for the April 2011 issue of U.K.'s Uncut magazine. When asked how he got involved in the making of GUNS N' ROSES "Chinese Democracy" album (in 1999, May recorded a guitar solo for GN'R track "Catcher N' The Rye", which appears on "Chinese Democracy", but his efforts were subsequently removed from the final album version of the song), May replied, "I can't remember when I first met Axl [Rose, GN'R frontman], but we invited them to play the [1992] Freddie [Mercury] tribute. They did a fantastic job, and also donated a lot of money to the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Subsequent to that, my solo band supported GN'R on tour and we got on very well."

He continued, "People think of Axl as difficult, but he was always very attentive to me.

"When they were making that album, after God-knows-how-many years, he was talking to [QUEEN's old producer] Roy Thomas Baker, who was doing some production for them at the time, and they came up with the idea of contacting me to help them work out a direction. I flew out to meet him and he played me pretty much the whole album. We had a long night, talking, thinking, figuring out potential directions, and then I had a couple of days just trying things out. I think I played on two-and-a-half tracks, but they didn't end up using my parts. They used about 10 guitarists subsequent to that! I have rough mixes of these tracks somewhere in my archive, but I'm not going to let anyone listen to them, out of loyalty to Axl.

"It was fun, to throw something in there to help out a friend."

Rose explained the decision to keep Brian's track off the album by saying, "There's a few reasons, and none of them all that big and definitely not in spite or to slight anyone. First off, obviously I knew people liked the song, but the Brian appreciation really only showed up in force publicly after we had moved on in GUNS. In fact, not many seemed to care and most comments were aimed at why Slash, in their opinions, should be here. Brian's solo itself is a personal fave of mine and I really couldn't understand, as he's such a rock legend, why it wasn't openly appreciated more at the time. In actuality, all that feel and emotion referred to now had a lot to do with Sean [Beavan, one of the producers who worked on 'Chinese Democracy'] and I and the parts I chose out of Brian's different runs, versions, practice runs, etc., to make sure we had those elements in one version. It's entirely constructed from edits based around one specific note Brian hit in a throwaway take. And though Brian seems to have warmed a bit to it, at least publicly, he was unfortunately none too pleased at the time with our handiwork. I remember looking at Brian standing to my left and him staring at the big studio speakers a bit aghast saying, 'But that's not what I played.' Sean Beavan and I were not in any way trying to mess with Brian, we just did what we do and then try and do our best to stand up for our decisions."

Sent you guys those 3 tracks.

@Holly2003 - I know about those quotes. But there's really no source to backup the claim that Brian May is playing in the song Perhaps.

In Atlas Shrugged is quite obvious it's him, tho. And I believe there's some Axl Rose interview or quote confirming the song had a Brian May solo, but I don't think he had the intention to release this particular version in 2008 (when the song almost made in the Chinese Democracy tracklist). As far as we know, Bumblefoot (one of the Slash replacements) rerecorded the solos, but that also didn't make the cut.

[QUOTE] [b]Voodoochild wrote:[/b]

Sent you guys those 3 tracks.

@Holly2003 - I know about those quotes. But there's really no source to backup the claim that Brian May is playing in the song Perhaps.

In Atlas Shrugged is quite obvious it's him, tho. And I believe there's some Axl Rose interview or quote confirming the song had a Brian May solo, but I don't think he had the intention to release this particular version in 2008 (when the song almost made in the Chinese Democracy tracklist). As far as we know, Bumblefoot (one of the Slash replacements) rerecorded the solos, but that also didn't make the cut.[/QUOTE]

Any chance I could have the tracks as well? Been searching for the past two days but could only listen once to “Perhaps” before it was takem down from YT.
Many tks in advance!!

Hello! I am interested in the tracks as well!

Sent the links.

Please, tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't hear Brian May's tone in Perhaps. IMO, it sounds more like the ex-GNR member and current NIN, Robin Finck.

[QUOTE] [b]Voodoochild wrote:[/b]

Sent the links.

Please, tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't hear Brian May's tone in Perhaps. IMO, it sounds more like the ex-GNR member and current NIN, Robin Finck.[/QUOTE]

many thanks!

I liked Atlas! was expecting another style I feared I wouldn´t like at all, but it was a nice surprise. And you can say Brian´s in there for sure!

Re. Perhaps I agree with you. Nice song, too, but I don´t think that´s Brian.

Nice to hear Catcher in better quality, too!

many thanks again, hope we have a new GNR album with Slash&Duff on board, sooner than later :-)

Thx... "Atlas" and "Catcher" definetly Brian May lay hands on these two tracks, "Perhaps" I would give a clear no!

Thanks guys. Glad you liked it. Some other songs from the same batch leaked too, if you are interested - Hardschool, State of Grace, Silkworms, Going Down (Tommy Stinson on vocals). All very different from each other. And several early demos of the other Chinese Democracy songs too.


About Perhaps: yeah, I don't think it's Brian either. I mean, it could be him playing another guitar and in another setup with another style, but why would you want him to do that, right?

Hey, Voodoochild, I’m definitely interested in those as well! Many tks in advance! :-)

I would be very interested in hearing these tracks as well! Very interesting, never heard them despite a lot of searching. Thanks in advance

Please do send them all my way to! Thanks!

-Chin

Oh just link them here to save you sending out 100's of PMs!
They're not officially released, so there should be no comeback or complaint.