Double Talkin' Jive

Nick Kent, who wrote an article for VOX that was published in October 1991, got to hear an advance cassette tape of "everything" from the forthcoming 'Use Your Illusion' records. This was a cassette Izzy received from Doug Goldstein and contained the songs before they were mixed. Kent talks about hearing 'Double Talkin' Jive Motherfucker':

"The sound of suitably raucous guitars heralds the beginning of the first track, the delightfully named 'Double Talking Jive Motherfucker', which showcases a performance of rare spleen from Rose who this time chooses to focus his wrath on chubby little Vince Neil, the "plastic-faced, pussy-assed" singer of rival L.A. 'bad attitude' icons Motley Crue" [VOX, October 1991].

So, an early copy of DTJ presumably contained Axl ranting against Vince Neil? That was news to me.

Soulmonster wrote: [...]

"The sound of suitably raucous guitars heralds the beginning of the first track, the delightfully named 'Double Talking Jive Motherfucker', which showcases a performance of rare spleen from Rose who this time chooses to focus his wrath on chubby little Vince Neil, the "plastic-faced, pussy-assed" singer of rival L.A. 'bad attitude' icons Motley Crue" [VOX, October 1991].

So, an early copy of DTJ presumably contained Axl ranting against Vince Neil? That was news to me.

I hadn't paid attention to this bit in the VOX article.

This is really strange. The band was playing the song live at the time when Kent heard the tape and there wasn't anything about Vince Neil in it. It also was late July and it'd make sense that what was on Izzy's tapes was the final versions of the songs.

Blackstar wrote:

Soulmonster wrote: [...]

"The sound of suitably raucous guitars heralds the beginning of the first track, the delightfully named 'Double Talking Jive Motherfucker', which showcases a performance of rare spleen from Rose who this time chooses to focus his wrath on chubby little Vince Neil, the "plastic-faced, pussy-assed" singer of rival L.A. 'bad attitude' icons Motley Crue" [VOX, October 1991].

So, an early copy of DTJ presumably contained Axl ranting against Vince Neil? That was news to me.

I hadn't paid attention to this bit in the VOX article.

This is really strange. The band was playing the song live at the time when Kent heard the tape and there wasn't anything about Vince Neil in it. It also was late July and it'd made sense that what was on Izzy's tapes was the final versions of the songs.

We really don't know when the songs on the tape were recorded, or more interestingly, when the vocals were added. All it says in the interview is: "To refresh [Izzy's] memory, Goldstein has lent him the only copy of a cassette tape featuring "everything" from the two forth-coming releases." We know Axl had started to add vocals already before November 1990 [NME, November 1990], so maybe the cassette contained songs as they were at the end of 1990?

By July 1991, when Kent heard the tape and the band was touring, the lyrics might have changed.

Or, it could simply be that Izzy told Kent the song was about Vince, which isn't farfetched at all, containing how much both Izzy and Axl presumably detested him.

Soulmonster wrote:
[...]
Or, it could simply be that Izzy told Kent the song was about Vince, which isn't farfetched at all, containing how much both Izzy and Axl presumably detested him.

I think this makes more sense than Doug sending Izzy tapes from months ago. Then again, Izzy said in a later interview that he'd heard My World for the first time when the albums were released. But if he had the attitude described in the article, where he seemed burnt out by the long process of making the albums to a point of not listening to the tapes anymore, it's possible that he had missed it.

We should ask Izzy if he still has the cassette

Soulmonster wrote:We should ask Izzy if he still has the cassette

Or more realistically, talk to Nick Kent. I sent him some questions over FB.

Soulmonster wrote:

Soulmonster wrote:We should ask Izzy if he still has the cassette

Or more realistically, talk to Nick Kent. I sent him some questions over FB.

I also sent a message to Doug Goldstein. Goldstein would btw be interesting to interview. There will probably be lots of things we'd like his opinion on. And he seems eager to talk about his GN'R past.

Yes, there are a lot of things to ask Doug Goldstein that no one has asked yet, and not necessarily all controversial stuff like the relationship between Axl and the rest of the band etc. So it can be an informative interview.

In 2015, Dizzy would participate on Loudwire's "Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction" serries and be asked if it is true that Izzy found a head and an arm in a dumpster outside the studio:



According to Slash (quote above), it was the cops who found the body parts and Izzy just wrote about it. And actually, the lyrics could be interpreted as "THEY found a head and an arm", and not "I found a head and an arm".

Matt would confirm that it wasn't Izzy who found the body parts, and that he was back in Indiana when it happened:

The crime that inspired those lyrics is likely the killing of gay porn actor Billy London ("William Newton"). London was killed on October 29, 1990, and his body parts were left in a dumpster in West Hollywood. The crime was unsolved until this year, when a woman confessed. Read more about it here: https://instinctmagazine.com/you-wont-believe-who-murdered-william-newton-in-1990/