"The General" | ||||
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Single by Guns N' Roses | ||||
A-side | "Perhaps" [1] | |||
Released | December 8, 2023 | |||
Recorded |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 4:24 | |||
Label | Geffen | |||
Songwriter(s) | Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Brain, Steve Freeman, Marc Haggard | |||
Producer(s) |
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Guns N' Roses singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"The General" on YouTube |
"The General" is a song by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was first released as a "R-side" to their single "Perhaps", and as a standalone single on December 8, 2023. Like the other singles released since the band's semi-reunion in 2016, it was conceived during the Chinese Democracy recording sessions from the late '90s to 2000s.
The name for The General came from drummer Brain, who named it so when the band was eating General Tso's chicken "but when [he] turned it in to Axl he thought it was called ‘The General’ because [he] was kind of making fun of Tommy [Stinson] as Tommy was, the band, you know, kind of like the MD [...] and he thought, like, you know, I was like poking fun at Tommy as being, like, you know, like a general... and I was like, ‘No, dude, it was because we ate general's chicken.’ [4]
"The General" was initially recorded during the sessions for Chinese Democracy. Parts of the orchestral arrangements in the song were played as an intro at the band's shows during the 2000s. [5] The song features former Guns N’ Roses members Brain and Chris Pitman as well as composer Marco Beltrami and guitarist Marc Haggard. [6] Before the song was released, the band performed it live for the first time at the Hollywood Bowl on November 2, 2023. [7] It was later released on streaming platforms on December 8, 2023, [8] and a partially AI-generated music video for the track was released on January 24, 2024. [9] Of the song, Sebastian Bach said:
"I was at a Christmas party at [Axl Rose]'s house last year and he played me all of Chinese Democracy - Four Albums - worth of material. The heaviest song is called The General. It’s so demonic and evil. I’ve never heard Axl sing as high as he does on that - except for maybe on my record." [10]
Bach also said that Rose told him the song is a sequel to Use Your Illusion II's "Estranged", and so part of the group consisting of "November Rain", "Don't Cry" and "Estranged".
Slash said of his contributions to the song "Basically, the material was there, and I just got in there during covid and re-did the guitars, Duff did the bass, and we went from there and just put it out." [5]
Billboard described it as "bombastic". [11] NME described it as "slow-burning [and] soaring". [12] Louder Sound called it "epic" and described it as "a slow-burner" featuring "one of Axl Rose's more anguished vocals" [13] Stereogum described the song as "Other than Axl Rose’s instantly recognizable voice, “The General” doesn’t sound much like classic GNR. The verses match some spindly arpeggios and sitar that remind me of Abbey Road-era The Beatles with something like a trip-hop beat. [3] Metal Injection described the track as having "Korn-esque clean/FX'ed guitars in the verse to a big, angular chorus with a completely blown-out vocal track", calling it "out of the ordinary for Guns N' Roses". [14]
Credits per Apple Music [15]
Guns N' Roses
Additional credits
Darren Arthur "Dizzy" Reed is an American musician. He is the keyboardist for the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has played, toured, and recorded since 1990.
Richard Fortus is an American guitarist. He is a member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has recorded one studio album, since 2002. Fortus has also collaborated extensively with The Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler and fellow Guns N' Roses bandmate Frank Ferrer. Aside from lead singer Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed, Fortus is the longest-tenured member of Guns N' Roses, having been with the band continuously since 2002.
Hollywood Rose was an American glam metal group formed in June 1983. They are best known as the precursor for what would eventually become Guns N' Roses. The group was founded by Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin and Chris Weber, while they were aided during live shows by Rick Marrs, Andre Troxx, Daniel "DJ" Nicolson, Johnny Kreis and Steve Darrow. Rose, Stradlin and Weber, along with Kreis and Nicolson, recorded a five-song demo on January 1984. However, after a number of lineup changes, which includes Weber, Kreis and Nicolson being replaced by Slash and Steven Adler as well the departure of Stradlin, the group disbanded the same year.
Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on November 23, 2008, by Black Frog and Geffen Records. It was the first Guns N' Roses studio album since the 1993 covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?", and their first album of original studio material since Use Your Illusion I and II (1991). It languished in development hell for eight years, delayed by personnel and legal problems, label interference, and the perfectionism of vocalist Axl Rose. It was the first Guns N' Roses album without Izzy Stradlin, Slash, and Duff McKagan, and the first not produced by Mike Clink; instead it was produced by Rose and Caram Costanzo.
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in March 1985 when local bands Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns merged. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic lineup" consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. The current lineup consists of Rose, Slash, McKagan, guitarist Richard Fortus, drummer Frank Ferrer and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese.
Chris Pitman is an American musician best known for his involvement with the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. A multi-instrumentalist, Pitman is known to play keyboards, guitar and drums, in addition to his role as a lead or backing vocalist. Pitman currently fronts alternative rock band SexTapes and previously worked with such bands as Guns N' Roses, Lusk, Replicants and Tool.
Christopher Garrison Weber is an American musician best known as the guitarist and founder of the groups U.P.O. and Hollywood Rose. With U.P.O., he released two albums, No Pleasantries (2000) and The Heavy (2004), while the Hollywood Rose demos, recorded in 1984, were released in 2004 titled The Roots of Guns N' Roses.
The Chinese Democracy Tour was a worldwide concert tour by American rock band Guns N' Roses to promote the group's album Chinese Democracy. It began in 2001, with three U.S. dates and a Brazilian one, while their 2002 tour included Asian, North American and a few European dates. The band did not tour again until May 2006, when it toured North America again and performed a major tour of Europe. The band's tour continued in 2007 with shows in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Mexico.
"Chinese Democracy" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, and the title track from their sixth studio album. It was released as a radio single on October 22, 2008 and was released on the iTunes Store on November 9, 2008. It was primarily written by Axl Rose and Josh Freese. It was the band's first single of original material since "Estranged" was released in 1994 as the final single off the 1991 album Use Your Illusion II.
"Madagascar" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, written by Axl Rose and keyboardist Chris Pitman and featured on their sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy, released in 2008.
"Shackler's Revenge" is a song by Guns N' Roses, and the second track on their sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy. The song was released on September 14, 2008 in the Rock Band 2 video game. The song was written by vocalist Axl Rose, guitarists Robin Finck and Buckethead, drummer Brain, producer Caram Costanzo and engineer Pete Scaturro. It was included as the b-side to the single "Chinese Democracy".
"Better" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their 2008 sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy. It was sent out as the second radio promo from the album, after "Chinese Democracy", but was not commercially released as a single eligible for international sales charts.
"Street of Dreams" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their 2008 album Chinese Democracy. The song is the third promotional song sent to radio stations, but was not released as a commercial single eligible for international Singles charts. From 2001 to 2008, the song was called "The Blues", but was changed to "Street of Dreams" for the album's release.
"Estranged" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, included on their 1991 album Use Your Illusion II. Described as a ballad, the song was released as a single in January 1994.
"Prostitute" is the fourteenth and final track from Chinese Democracy, Guns N' Roses' sixth studio album, released in 2008. The song is written by Axl Rose and Paul Tobias with additional work by Robin Finck.
"There Was a Time" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, written by Axl Rose, Paul Tobias, Dizzy Reed, and Tommy Stinson and featured on their sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy, released in 2008.
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"Perhaps" is a song by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released as a single on August 18, 2023. A limited edition 7-inch vinyl, with "The General" as its "R-side", was originally scheduled to be released on October 27, 2023 but the release was postponed to December 8, 2023. Like the band's previous two singles, "Absurd" and "Hard Skool", the origins of this song date back to the writing and recording process of Chinese Democracy from the late 1990s.