Use Your Illusion

Use Your Illusion I

Use Your Illusion I was the third studio album by Guns N’ Roses. It was the one of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, the other named Use Your Illusion II, thus they are sometimes seen together as a double album. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts, selling 685,000 copies in its first week, behind Use Your Illusion II’s first week sales of 770,000. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7x platinum by the RIAA. Spader Music Magazine listed the album in one of its greatest albums columns.

The Use Your Illusion albums represent a turning point in the sound of Guns N’ Roses. Although they did not abandon the hard rock tendencies vivid in their first album, Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I demonstrated, for the first time, more or less, elements of blues, classical music, and country. For example, lead singer Axl Rose plays the piano on several tracks of both albums. In addition, with the Use Your Illusion Tour, both the music and stage presence of the band became more theatrical, in the tradition of progressive rock. This fact is evidenced by the numerous music videos produced in conjunction with these albums. Use Your Illusion I contains two of the three songs, “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry,” whose videos are generally held by fans to be a trilogy. The third song, “Estranged,” is on Use Your Illusion II.

A number of songs on the album were written in the band’s early days, but were not included on Appetite for Destruction but can be found on the popular bootlegged so-called ‘Rumbo Tapes’, an album of early demo tapes. “Back Off Bitch,” “Bad Obsession,” “Don’t Cry” (referred to by Rose during the ensuing tour as ‘the first song [they] ever wrote together’), “November Rain,” and “The Garden” are considered part of this group. There is also a cover of “Live and Let Die.”

Besides stylistic differences, another new aspect seen in Use Your Illusion I was longer songs. “November Rain,” an epic ballad, is nearly 9 minutes long, and “Coma” is more than 10 minutes long. Another change was the presence of tracks sung by other members of the band (even though certain songs from Appetite for Destruction and G N’ R Lies featured other members on duet vocals): lead vocals on “Dust N’ Bones,” “You Ain’t The First” and “Double Talkin’ Jive” are performed by rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin (on Use Your Illusion II, Stradlin’ sings “14 Years” and bassist Duff McKagan sings “So Fine”).

To achieve the final sound of the album, the band had some difficulty, especially during the mixing stages of the production of both albums. According to a 1991 cover story by Rolling Stone magazine, after mixing 21 tracks with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start from scratch with engineer Bill Price of Sex Pistols fame.

Slash has stated that most of the material for the album was written on acoustics in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity.

Track Listing
1. “Right Next Door To Hell” (Izzy Stradlin, Timo Caltio,Axl Rose ) – 3:02
2. “Dust N’ Bones” (Slash, Stradlin, Duff McKagan) – 4:58
3. “Live and Let Die” (Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney) – 3:04
4. “Don’t Cry” (Rose, Stradlin) – 4:45
5. “Perfect Crime” (Rose, Slash, Stradlin) – 2:24
6. “You Ain’t the First” (Stradlin) – 2:36
7. “Bad Obsession” (Stradlin, West Arkeen) – 5:28
8. “Back Off Bitch” (Rose, Paul Tobias) – 5:04
9. “Double Talkin’ Jive” (Stradlin) – 3:24
10. “November Rain” (Rose) – 8:57
11. “The Garden” (featuring Alice Cooper) (Rose, Arkeen, Del James) – 5:22
12. “Garden of Eden” (Rose, Slash) – 2:42
13. “Don’t Damn Me” (Rose, Slash, Dave Lank) – 5:19
14. “Bad Apples” (Rose, Slash, Stradlin, McKagan) – 4:28
15. “Dead Horse” (Rose) – 4:18
16. “Coma” (Slash, Rose) – 10:13

Use Your Illusion II

Bolstered by the lead single “You Could Be Mine,” Use Your Illusion II was the slightly more popular of the two albums, selling 770,000 copies in its first week and debuting at #1 on the U.S. charts.

The Use Your Illusion albums were a stylistic turning point for Guns N’ Roses . In addition, Use Your Illusion II is more political than most of their previous work, with songs like “Civil War,” a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and “Get in the Ring” dealing respectively with the topics of violence, law enforcement, and media bias. The thematic material deals less with drug use than previous Guns N’ Roses albums. Use Your Illusion I featured mostly songs pre-Appetite For Destruction (with notable exceptions) while Use Your Illusion II featured more tracks written during and after Appetite For Destruction.

The band’s cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” had been released almost a year earlier on the Days of Thunder soundtrack. “Civil War” was debuted at the 1990 Farm Aid concert. That concert also featured Guns N’ Roses playing a cover of the U.K. Subs song “Down on the Farm.” “Civil War” was released as a B-side to “You Could Be Mine.” The song was also released on a charity album called Nobody’s Child. The album was a fund-raising compilation for Romanian orphans.

The first single, “You Could Be Mine,” was released in July 1991 and is featured in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The song was not released on the actual T2 soundtrack. The band also filmed a video featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in character as the Terminator, and a loose plot featuring Axl Rose himself as its “target.” The original subject matter of the song dealt with Izzy Stradlin’s failed relationship with his ex-girlfriend Angela Nicoletti.

The Use Your Illusion albums can be taken as a single cohesive work, and certain elements of Use Your Illusion II underscore this intent. For instance, both albums have a version of the song “Don’t Cry.” Both albums also have one cover song; “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney (Use Your Illusion I) and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan (Use Your Illusion II). Each of them also has at least one track sung by other members of the band: lead vocals on “So Fine” are performed by bassist Duff McKagan and the song was dedicated to Johnny Thunders, who passed away from a drug overdose before the recording of the album. Lead vocals on “14 Years” are performed by Izzy Stradlin (Izzy also sings “Dust N’ Bones,” “You Ain’t The First” and “Double Talkin’ Jive” on Use Your Illusion I).

The song “Get in the Ring” finds the band lashing out at a career’s worth of critics and enemies. Among those referred to by name are editors of several entertainment magazines.

“My World,” the final track, was a surprise to a few members of the band. The track was essentially an Axl Rose solo, and most of the members did not even know it existed until the album was released.

To achieve the final mix of the album, the band had some difficulty, especially during the mixing stages of the production of both albums. According to a 1991 cover story by Rolling Stone magazine, after mixing 21 tracks with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start from scratch with engineer Bill Price of Sex Pistols fame.

Slash has stated that most of the material for the album was written on acoustics in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity.

Track Listing
1. “Civil War” (Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan) – 7:43
2. “14 Years” (Izzy Stradlin, Rose) – 4:21
3. “Yesterdays” (Rose, West Arkeen, Del James, Billy McCloud) – 3:16
4. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan) – 5:36
5. “Get in the Ring” (Rose, Slash, McKagan) – 5:41
6. “Shotgun Blues” (Rose) – 3:23
7. “Breakdown” (Rose) – 7:05
8. “Pretty Tied Up” (Stradlin) – 4:48
9. “Locomotive” (Rose, Slash) – 8:42
10. “So Fine” (McKagan) – 4:06
11. “Estranged” (Rose) – 9:24
12. “You Could Be Mine” (Stradlin, Rose) – 5:44
13. “Don’t Cry (Alternate Lyrics)” (Rose, Stradlin) – 4:44
14. “My World” (Rose) – 1:24