Some things would be better, if we'd all just let them be.

This coming Sunday the world will change. This coming Sunday the world will rock. This coming Sunday the fifteen year wait will be over. Chinese Democracy will be released.

This is not a review of Chinese Democracy. I have not heard it. I am actually listening to it via myspace as I write this. I'm sure you can find reviews everywhere done by folks that are better at such things than myself. My reviews, generally, are limited to buy it or don't buy it. I won't go that far on this one.

You see, Chinese Democracy is bigger than that. For folks of a certain age, Guns n' Roses is the biggest rock band we've ever really known. I mean that. When I was in eighth grade, you weren't getting any bigger than that. Sure Nirvana came along and changed all that, but that's the point.

Nirvana killed the big rock band. Nirvana was against big rock bands. Hell, Kurt Cobain killed himself because he couldn't take it. Axl Rose not only could take it. He wanted it more than anything in the world. That's the kind of shit rock stars do. They are larger than life. Kurt Cobain wasn't larger than life. Kurt Cobain was real life. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are larger than life. Mick and Keith are larger than life. Axl Rose, for a few years, was larger than life.

Granted, in the years between Axl has become all too human. More importantly, Guns n' Roses became a crappy band. I would contend they became a crappy band the day Izzy Stradlin left the band, but that is a fight we can have at a later date. The fact is they were the last of a type of band that was once at the core of rock n' roll. They were the last biggest band in the world.

Think about that. Who is the biggest band in the world right now? I have no idea. Maybe Coldplay? Coldplay? Really? Whoever you name doesn't hold a candle to how big Guns n' Roses was. It's not even close. The world has truly changed.

The world has changed so much that I am currently listening to the new Guns n' Roses album on MySpace. That didn't even exist the last time there was a Guns n' Roses album. It's changed so much that the album is being released exclusively through Best Buy. Would anyone have done that in 1993? In 1993 there were still record stores in malls where you went and bought your tapes or cds. That's right, kids, you went to the store and bought music. The cds came in these really long cases for some reason. Bill Clinton had just become President. It was a wild time, and on days like this I miss it a little.