Use Your Illusion I

For other uses, see Use Your Illusion (disambiguation).

Untitled

Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by hard rock band 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 behind Use Your Illusion II. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7x platinum.

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 so 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. "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").

There are significant differences to be noted between Use Your Illusion I and II. The cover art of these two albums, identical except for color, is very representative of these differences: Use Your Illusion I is red, and has, for the most part an angrier, heavier sound; Use Your Illusion II is blue, and has a softer, more bluesy sound.

To achieve this end result, the band struggled mightily, 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.

The cover was done by Mark Kostabi, who took detail from Raphael's fresco The School of Athens and edited it.

Song information

For info on other songs, see the individual song articles linked in the track listing.

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).

Don't Damn Me

"Don't Damn Me" is the thirteenth track on the album.

At the 5:07 mark, Axl Rose can be heard saying "Smoke 'em if you got 'em!," following a "Alright! That sucked!" This is the only song on Use Your Illusion I that was never performed live.

Bad Apples

"Bad Apples" is the fourteenth track on the album. It has only been performed live twice. According to Slash, the song was written while the band was rehearsing for an extended period of time in Chicago.

Track listing

The album cover was a variation on The School of Athens by Raphael.

1. "Right Next Door to Hell" (Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Timo Kaltio) – 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 (Original)" (Rose, Stradlin) – 4:44
5. "Perfect Crime" (Rose, Slash, Stradlin) – 2:23
6. "You Ain't the First" (Stradlin) – 2:36
7. "Bad Obsession" (Stradlin, West Arkeen) – 5:28
8. "Back Off Bitch" (Rose, Paul Tobias) – 5:03
9. "Double Talkin' Jive" (Stradlin) – 3:23
10. "November Rain" (Rose) – 8:57
11. "The Garden" (features Alice Cooper) (Rose, Arkeen, Del James) – 5:22
12. "Garden of Eden" (Rose, Slash) – 2:41
13. "Don't Damn Me" (Rose, Slash, Dave Lank) – 5:18
14. "Bad Apples" (Rose, Slash, Stradlin, McKagan) – 4:28
15. "Dead Horse" (Rose) – 4:17
16. "Coma" (Rose, Slash) – 10:13

Personnel

• Axl Rose – lead vocals, piano, keyboards, backing vocals, sound effects, acoustic guitar on "Dead Horse"
• Slash – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, 6-string bass, slide dobro, voice box, backing vocals
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, acoustic guitar, percussion, lead vocals on "Dust N' Bones," "You Ain't The First" and "Double Talkin' Jive," backing vocals
• Duff McKagan – bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Dizzy Reed – piano, organ, clavinet, keyboards, backing vocals
• Matt Sorum – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Shannon Hoon – vocals (tracks 4 and 6), 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)