The General

by **Soulmonster** Thu Jul 13, 2023 10:54 am

THE GENERAL

Album:
Unreleased.

Written by:
Unknown.

Musicians:
Unknown.

Live performances:
As far as we know, never played live although parts of it has been played as an introduction to Chinese Democracy during live shows [see below].

Information:
Written and recorded during the Chinese Democracy era.

Lyrics:

Quotes regarding the song and its making:

In 2002, composer Marco Beltrami would mention the songs he had worked on, and include The General among them:

[Being asked which songs it were]: A song called "Seven," which is the one that I did the most work on, I actually did some writing on. There was one called "Thyme," one called "The General," one called "Leave Me Alone."

IGN, July 18, 2003

In 2007, Sebastian Bach would talk about the song after having heard it with Axl:

One of my favorite songs — I asked Axl if I could mention the song titles and he said "Fine" — and one of my favorite songs is this song called "The General", which is so… it's by far the heaviest metal tune I think Ι've ever heard Axl do, this slow, grinding riff with these high, piercing vocals, screaming vocals. I was like, "When is this coming out?" And he said, "2012." I was like, "Dude, you're killin' me!" He goes, "Well, this comes out on the third record. It relates to this song, it's a trilogy, this goes with this lyrically." He's got it all figured out, he's just different than other people. He does things on his own time, in his own way, but you know... the world's not prepared for what I've heard from this guy. It's got the grandness and the epicness of "November Rain" but with the snarl, the attitude of "Appetite". Because the album that I've heard, a lot of the drumming is by Brain, who plays so heavy and mean. It's a really... grand is the word for it, but its still got that attitude. There's some great music comin' your way.

Metal Edge (via Blabbermouth), November 5, 2007

In 2008, Axl would suggest people might have heard parts of the song already, probably hinting to it having been played as an opener at live shows:

You may have heard parts of it somewhere.

chinesedemocracy.com, December 13, 2008

And in 2010, this was confirmed when someone on Twitter asked what intros they play at live shows and the official Guns N' Roses account replied:

there are several.. "the General" is probably most played before CD

Guns N' Roses twitter account, December 11, 2010

In 2010, an interviewer would mention to Brain that he (Brain) had written The General, and Brain would not deny this and instead talk about the song:

it's an awesome jam... i hope it's released soon!!!!!! [...] it will come out... the shits to good!!!!!

GNR-Online BR, July 18, 2010

When the release date of October 27, 2023, was announced, Fernando Lebeis, Axl's manager at Team Brazil, would comment on the song briefly on Reddit:

Perhaps is a great song; the General is a monster. [...] Axl and the guys made it possible! Axl is quite the human.

Reddit, August 18, 2023

by **Soulmonster** Fri Aug 18, 2023 6:31 am

Ooooooh, looking forward to getting to work on this page.

by Stiken Fri Aug 18, 2023 7:43 am

Been thinking about this the last couple of hours...is The General an instrumental song?

by **Soulmonster** Fri Aug 18, 2023 9:36 am

Stiken wrote:Been thinking about this the last couple of hours...is The General an instrumental song?

There is a soundclip someone recorded at a party where the song was allegedly played, and vocals can be heard.

by ludurigan Fri Aug 18, 2023 7:16 pm

it is so hysterical how all the axl yes-people have been saying for years that song A is great and song B is a monster etc

and then song A and B are released

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