Use Your Illusion I
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| Use Your Illusion I | |||||
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| Studio album by Guns N' Roses | |||||
| Released | September 17, 1991 | ||||
| Recorded | A&M Studios, Record Plant Studios, Studio 56, Image Recording, Conway Studios, Metalworks Recording Studios, Skip Saylor Recording (album mixing) 1990-1991 | ||||
| Genre | Hard rock | ||||
| Length | 76:04 | ||||
| Label | Geffen | ||||
| Producer | Mike Clink, Guns N' Roses | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Guns N' Roses chronology | |||||
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Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was the first 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.[1] Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7x platinum by the RIAA.[2] Illusion I has sold 17 million copies worldwide. Spader Music Magazine listed the album in one of its greatest albums columns.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Overview
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 part of 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.[4]
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.[5]
[edit] Cover
The cover art of both "Use Your Illusion" albums is a detail of Raphael's painting "The School of Athens." The highlighted figure, unlike many of those in the painting, has not been identified with any specific philosopher.
The only difference in the artwork between Use Your Illusion I and II is the color scheme used for each album. Use Your Illusion I uses the warm colors red and yellow, and has for the most part an angrier, heavier sound; Use Your Illusion II uses the cool colors blue and purple and has a softer, more bluesy sound.
Both covers are the work of Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi.
[edit] Song information
[edit] Right Next Door to Hell
Timo Caltia who participated writing this song is a guitarist, songwriter and guitar-tech expert who once worked with Hanoi Rocks. He had played a chorus riff of the song at his home while Stradlin visited there. Caltia was bothered by his irritating neighbour and was trying to make a verse including words "living next door to hell". Later Stradlin asked a permission to take the riff for his new song. Royalties from this song helped Caltia to buy himself a new house in London.
[edit] Dust N' Bones
This is the second track on Use Your Illusion I, it was written by Slash, Stradlin and McKagan. It is the first song on the album that is fully sung by Izzy Stradlin doing lead vocals. It is also the first song to feature Dizzy Reed on Piano.
[edit] You Ain't the First
"You Ain't the First" is the sixth track on the album. Unlike most tracks on the album, electric guitars are nowhere to be found in the song - instead, acoustic guitars are used, similar to side two of G N' R Lies, and also giving the song a folk rock feel, which is added to by the tambourine (played by Tim Doyle). The song is also notable for being the only song in the band's catalogue that is entirely in waltz time. It is also fully sung by Izzy Stradlin.[6]
[edit] Double Talkin 'Jive
This is the ninth track on the album, it was written by Stradlin and fully sung by him. At the end of the song there is a short acoustic guitar solo.
[edit] Don't Damn Me
"Don't Damn Me" is the thirteenth track on the album. This is the only song on Use Your Illusion I that was never performed live.[7]
[edit] Bad Apples
"Bad Apples" is the fourteenth track on the album. It has only been performed live twice.[8] According to Slash, the song was written while the band was rehearsing for an extended period of time in Chicago.[9]
[edit] Dead Horse
Dead Horse is the fifteenth track on the album, it was performed live several times during the Use Your Illusion World Tour and hasn't appired since, It was also one of the few songs on the album that Axl Rose wrote solo, although the song was never released as a single, a music video was made.
[edit] Coma
This song is the sixteenth and final track on the album. It was written by Rose and Slash. It is the longest song done by the band at 10:15, even though it lacks choruses. It has only been performed live four times, possibly due to its length and the pain it causes Rose singing it.
[edit] Track listing
| # | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Right Next Door to Hell" | Izzy Stradlin, Timo Caltia, 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" (feat. Michael Monroe) | Stradlin, West Arkeen | 5:28 |
| 8. | "Back Off Bitch" | Rose, Paul Huge | 5:04 |
| 9. | "Double Talkin' Jive" | Stradlin | 3:24 |
| 10. | "November Rain" | Rose | 8:57 |
| 11. | "The Garden" (feat. 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 |
[edit] Personnel
- Axl Rose – lead vocals, backing vocals, synthetizer programming, piano (track 10), keyboards (tracks 3, 12), sound effects (tracks 5, 12), keyboard orchestra (track 10), acoustic guitar (track 15)
- Slash – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, 6-string bass (tracks 1, 3), voice box (track 2), dobro (track 6)
- Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar (tracks 6, 9)
- Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals (tracks 2, 6, 9), percussion (track 7)
- Matt Sorum – drums, percussion, backing vocals
- Dizzy Reed – organ, piano, keyboards, clavinet, backing vocals
[edit] Additional personnels
- Shannon Hoon – backing vocals
- Johann Langlie – synthesizer programming, sound effects (track 16)
- Matthew McKagan, Jon Trautwein, Rachel West, Robert Clark – horns (track 3)
- Tim Doyle – tambourine (track 6)
- Michael Monroe – saxophone and harmonica (track 7)
- Stu Bailey, Reba Shaw – backing vocals (track 10)
- Alice Cooper – vocals (track 11)
- West Arkeen – acoustic guitar (track 11)
- Mike Clink – nutcracker (track 15)
- Bruce Foster – sound effects (track 16)
- Susanne Filkins, Patricia Fuenzalida, Rose Mann, Monica Zierhut-Soto, Michelle Loiselle, Diane Mitchell - bitches (track 16)
[edit] References
- ^ Hasty, Katie. "Kanye Edges GNR, Ludacris For No. 1 Debut". billboard.com. Dec 3, 2008.
- ^ RIAA's top albums
- ^ Spader Music, Greatest Albums Column, Vol. 143: March 2003, p. 12
- ^ Cover Story: Guns N' Roses Outta Control : Rolling Stone
- ^ Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. pp. 298-300
- ^ You Ain't The First
- ^ "Garden Of Eden". www.gnrsource.com. http://gnrsource.com/songinfo/uyi1/goe.htm. Retrieved on 2007-08-07.
- ^ Bad Apples
- ^ Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 262
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