Fixing Guns And Roses Use Your Illusion records and making them better.

So I have been on a Guns And Roses kick lately and I've come to the conclusion that the Use Your Illusion albums are bloated messes with some really great songs. Kind of like Lucas and the prequels. Someone at Geffen needed to come in and send Axl home and strip these albums down to the goods.

That means 12 songs for both records and editing songs. These are my two USE YOUR ILLUSION records as if I would edit them. I still believe they needed to be 2 albums but just fixed.

Let me know what you think.

USE YOUR ILLUSION
SIDE 1
1. Right Next Door To Hell - Take out Axl's F you B before the chorus. It distracts from the song. It's dumb.
2. Dust And Bones - Keep as is.
3. Don't Cry - Take out Axl's long note at end. It's annoying and distracts from song.
4. Perfect Crime - take out Axl'd T minus one and counting. It's dumb
5. Back Off Bitch - Song is way too long. Trim it.
6. You Ain't The First - Leave as is.
SIDE 2
1. Bad Obsession - Leave as is
2. Double Talking Jive - Leave as is
3. November Rain - Too long and take out the synth orchestra - I really prefer the acoustic version as well.
4. Garden Of Eden - Leave as is
5. Don't Damn Me - Trim this song way down. Cool song but it get repetitive.
6. Coma - Trim this song and take out all the doctor and all the voice overs.

USE YOUR ILLUSION 2
SIDE 1
1. Civil War - Great song .. leave as is.
2. 14 Years - leave as is
3. Yesterday - Leave as is.
4. Knocking On Heaven's Door - Trim this song way down to under 3 minutes. Get rid of background singers and sing along. Works in concert but not on album.
5. Shotgun Blues - Get rid of Axl's angry rant at end. Let the song speak for itself dude. I wish I could put something else in this place cause the song is really boring. But I'll leave it for now.
6. Breakdown - Trim this song way down and get rid of Axl's here comes the challenger voice over. Terrible and embarrassing to a great song with cool words.

SIDE 2
1. You Could Be Mine - Start side 2 off with a bang. Why bury this song at the end?
2. Ain't Going Down - Why the hell did they leave this song off? Killer song.
3. Pretty Tied Up - Keep as is
4. Shadow Of Your Love - I know this is an appetite left over but it's a killer song. Put it on here.
5. Locomotive - Killer song but way too long. It feels like it has like 5 solos. Trim this down to a mean / lean song.
6. Estranged - I want to trim this as well but leave as is. It's a great closer.

I got rid of the following songs
Live and Let Die - put this on Spagetti album
The Garden - B - side plus I hate Alice Cooper on it.
Bad Apples - B side
Dead Horse - good song but always skip over it.
So Fine - Keep for Duffs solo album.
Get in the ring - Dated ... I mean does anyone know who Bob Guccioni is anymore lol??
My World - throw in the trash. Never allow anyone to ever hear this song.

 

Not bad! I like getting rid of Live and Let Die...but Knockin' should go too. At the very least get rid of the dumb midsong "phone call."

 

A mini album with the following tracks would have been an outstanding record. Rather than a slightly disappointing 4 sides chocked full of filler.

You Could Be Mine
Estranged
Coma
Don't Damn Me
Don't Cry
November Rain

 

As with Be Here Now, the bloat is a huge part of what makes these albums charming. I'm glad that they didn't take the easy route of giving us Appetite Vol. 2. There are only a few tracks that I really feel compelled to skip (Get In The Ring; You Ain't The First). I enjoy all of the others to varying degrees, overcooked warts and all.

 

Actually wait, Alice is great on "The Garden."

 

COOL RANCH DRESSING

 

I forgot about that ... I'm sorry. That needs to go as well.

 

Dead Horse - good song but always skip over it. Oxymoron? This IS a great song. So is The Garden along with So Fine.

 

I don't want to cut them down to one album. I like 2 albums but I'm getting rid of the annoying Axl crap that makes me cringe.

 

I agree with you on the charming bloat re: GnR...but at least the Illusions have some truly great songs. Be Here Now doesn't have a single classic on it.

Also: I heard "Civil War" on the radio recently for the first time in ages and it knocked me flat. Amazing song.

 

I've often wondered if all of Axl's stupid ad-libs/voiceovers were "unpleasant surprises" for the rest of the band when they finally heard the released albums.

 

My comment on this thread was pretty uncomplimentary to Illusion, but if I had to start on Be Here Now, then I'd be stoned to death by the faithful. I'm sorry but Use Your Illusion is a bit disappointing, whereas Be Here Now is a travesty.

And you're right about Civil War. If I add that to my mini-album tracklist, there's a full-length album there... full of goodness.

 

Honestly I always enjoyed the UYI albums as-is, even with the more lavish production compared to AFD and Lies.

Although I do know Slash mentioned in his book that he had a copy of rough mixes of the Illusions that were more stripped down and pre-Axl overdub fun, and that always sounded intriguing

 

UYI should’ve opened with Dust n Bones and II should’ve ended with Estranged.

 

Someone at Geffen would tell you that they sold millions of these albums upon release. These were double albums and both were immediately multi-platinum, so no that wasn't going to happen.

 

WOW. You have actually gone through every song and 'chopped and changed' to suit YOUR liking!! What a ridiculous thread, these are EPIC albums. G N R was a band of genius AND total excess, and that's exactly what you get with these. Imagine- both these albums were released on the SAME DAY.

 

Uhh no. While somewhat overplayed (there's a reason for this), I would argue 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' is EASILY one of the greatest cover songs ever recorded. Axl's vocals and Slash's guitar work are truly epic on this song.[/QUOTE]

 

I like their cover. But the live version got so much rock radio play (at least around here) that a studio version seemed redundant. And the phone call, yeesh.

 

I get it, the radio has ruined a lot of music for a lot of people. But the studio version can't be redundant, it's the original. And yeah- I'd prefer an epic Bob Dylan cover did not include a phone call interlude, maybe somebody should have reminded Axl that it wasn't HIS song. Then again they probably knew better LOL.

 

I vote for a 3rd volume of UYI and this is my preferred track listing.

 

The live version got a ton of airplay well before they recorded it for Use Your Illusion. Guessing it was done during a radio broadcast around '88?

EDIT: Now I'm thinking it was an edit of this performance from the Ritz '88. "LET THIS ONE BE LOUD!"

 

I'd say the Illusions worked out pretty well the way they are.
To be honest, I’ve never quite understood fans preferring less music from bands they like. Especially GN'R, who were't exactly prolific, but I digress.

The only song I might consider filler, is Don’t Cry (Alt Lyrics). An interesting take, but maybe better suited as a b-side elsewhere.
“My World” is obviously a disaster, but it’s too hilariously awful to consider a real song.
Will occasionally revisit for a laugh, but mostly I’ve been pressing stop, or lifting tonearm, before it begins for almost 30 years now.
Other than that, I let em ride.

A ton of my favorite albums came out in the 90’s, but none that top the Illusions.

 

Fair enough, but many bands play covers live in concert that never get recorded in studio. I would still consider the Illusion version to be the 'official' GN'R cover.

 

In defence of 'My World', it's less than 1:30 and half the song has no vocals, so it's really not that bad lol. It contains some 'industrial metal' type music that actually gained popularity in the following years (Nine Inch Nails?). Definitely not a worthy ending for the Illusion double epic album.

 

Wha? The vocals are the only thing I remember about it. "It's a sociopsychotic state of bliss!"