Today is the day when hard working Americans traditionally take a break.  For those of us on the east and west coast, we generally head to the beach to enjoy one of the last long summer weekends in the sun.  In the Midwest, people flock to the numerous lakes and rivers to toss back a few drinks and enjoy the unseasonably warm summer that we are having this year.  Children are dreading their return to school, if they have not already returned.  Parents are scrambling to the nearest paper supply store to pick up Trapper Keepers and calculators for their ungrateful progenies.  There is however, one man who is not doing anything today.  That man is of course W. Axl Rose (aka William Bruce Rose Jr.)

In 1999, Axl, with his newly reformed lineup, released "Oh My God" which was featured on the "End of Days" soundtrack.  Despite a great performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger and an even great one from C.C.H. Pounder, the song failed to contribute anything to the movie.  It was a lame industrial metal song released two years after anybody cared about industrial metal.  The importance of the song was actually it's implied symbolism as the first track in a new era of the eighties greatest rock band.  It was announced that a new album, "Chinese Democracy", would be released shortly thereafter.

In 2001 several appearances were made by the revised Gn'R lineup.  At the Rock in Rio festival, Rose made the following comment:

I know that many of you are disappointed that some of the people you came to know and love could not be with us here today. Regardless of what you have heard or read, people worked very hard (meaning my former friends) to do everything they could so that I could not be here today. I say fuck that. I am as hurt and disappointed as you that unlike Oasis, we could not find a way to all get along."

Thus began a long tradition of Axl blaming everybody in the world, except for himself, for his inability to produce a 10 track album or three consecutive tour dates.  In September of 2002, the world saw what had become of Axl, when he made a surprise appearance with yet another revised version of Gn'R, at the MTV Video Music Awards.  He looked older and more grizzled.  The band sounded decent, but Axl's voice left much to be desired.  Despite all of this, it gave Guns N' Roses fans a tiny shred of hope that one of their favorite bands might yet be back.

Over the next few years, release dates were announced, singles were released and concerts were scheduled.  The release dates got amended and eventually retracted.  The singles went the way of the Dodo.  The concerts were sometimes cut short by riots (thank you Philadelphia) or by Axl's inability to show up, or general stubbornness.

The name "Chinese Democracy" is something of a joke in the music industry at this point.  Many of us would be curious to see what the final product would sound like.  Unfortunately, when you create hype lasting 8 years, you simply cannot live up to it.  Axl could reunite with Slash, Izzy, Duff and Matt tomorrow, and there would be no way that they would be able to bring back the glory days.

According to HMV.co.uk there will be an official release of "Chinese Democracy" on September 17th in the U.K.  I will believe it when I see it...but I probably won't buy it.