Hard School

Lyrics (most of it - maybe one or two mistakes):

All cautions made
Every chance was given
No effort spared
To save what we had

All in good faith
I would not hesitate
To extend myself
And lend you my hand

But you had to play it cool
Had to do it your way
You had to be a fool
Had to throw it all away
Too hard-school
And you thought you were here to stay
If that weren't true
it wouldn't matter anyway

As tempers fade
And lies forgiven
??????
? break what we had
And in its place
A storm is lifting
I would've thought you could be more of a man

But you had to play it cool
Had to do it your way
You had to be a fool
Had to throw it all away
Too hard-school
And you thought you were here to stay
If that weren't true
it wouldn't matter anyway

(Solo)

(Bridge)

But you had to play it cool
Had to do it your way
You had to be a fool
Had to throw it all away
Too hard-school
And you thought you were here to stay
If that weren't true
it wouldn't matter anyway

(Solo)

Too hard-school
And you thought you were here to stay
If that weren't true
it wouldn't matter anyway

I really like the frenetic drumming throughout the song. Very sharp fill by, I assume, Josh Freese. And I don't agree with those who say this is obviously a demo. I think it is ready to be released, although Axl know no bounds to tinkerings and may disagree. Someone on mygnrforum had analysed the song and pointed out it was compressed and this and that, also indicating it has been finalized.

Anyway, love the song. I actually like the breakdown in the middle with Finck and Huge's guitar interplay. Nice melodies. But especially the ending with the simple guitar riff that goes upwards while Freese is drumming away in the back, and then Axl's singing of the last chorus with Finck's high, melodic tones in the back. Could have dropped Bucket's tapping at the end to make it a bit less "crowded".

Interestingly, in this interview from July 1996, Duff talked about the band (likely minus Slash) working on a song for a Charlie Chan movie: http://www.a-4-d.com/t4304-1996-07-25-the-howard-stern-show-interview-with-duff-and-steve-jones

As you know, when Axl in 2008 was asked about the song 'Checkmate' he said the working title was "Jackie Chan." Of course, in 2000 when the song leaked its title was "Hard School", but it could be that Axl remembered it by its first, working title, "Jackie Chan". That the song was worked on very early is also implied by the fact that it seemed to be completed by 2000.

The May-July sessions of 1996 was without Slash, he played with them for a few weeks in August/September as the last thing he did before he left the band. The vocals of the song seems to be about Slash, so maybe Axl wrote them when Slash left?

Any thoughts?

@Soulmonster wrote:Interestingly, in this interview from July 1996, Duff talked about the band (likely minus Slash) working on a song for a Charlie Chan movie: http://www.a-4-d.com/t4304-1996-07-25-the-howard-stern-show-interview-with-duff-and-steve-jones

As you know, when Axl in 2008 was asked about the song 'Checkmate' he said the working title was "Jackie Chan." Of course, in 2000 when the song leaked its title was "Hard School", but it could be that Axl remembered it by its first, working title, "Jackie Chan". That the song was worked on very early is also implied by the fact that it seemed to be completed by 2000.

The May-July sessions of 1996 was without Slash, he played with them for a few weeks in August/September as the last thing he did before he left the band. The vocals of the song seems to be about Slash, so maybe Axl wrote them when Slash left?

Any thoughts?

I think all this is very likely. It must have been one of the "12 rockers" Duff had referred to in other interviews of that time. It's possible that Axl had written it with Paul Huge/Tobias during the band's unofficial hiatus.

Unless Axl referred to it in 2008 just jokingly like that because he was a fan of Jackie Chan and it had nothing to do with the song Duff was talking about.

I like to think it is a Paul Huge song, too. But who knows?