Guns N' Roses "Use Your Illusion II (Germany, Geffen Records, GEFD 24420)"

Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album was released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart album Use Your Illusion I. Both of the albums were released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour. 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 its first week and debuting at No. 1 on the U.S. charts, ahead of Use Your Illusion I's first week sales of 685,000. As of 2010, Use Your Illusion II has sold 5,587,000 units in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Both albums have since been certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA. It was also No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart for a single week. It is the last Guns N' Roses album to feature rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin. It also included the last Guns N' Roses song to feature drummer Steven Adler, who played on "Civil War".

The album has sold 18,800,000 copies worldwide as of March 2018.

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, while "Civil War" 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," a studio version of which would later appear on the band's 1993 release of cover songs, "The Spaghetti Incident?". "Civil War" was released as a B-side to "You Could Be Mine". The song had also been released on a charity album called Nobody's Child, a fund-raising compilation for Romanian orphans.

"You Could Be Mine" was released in June 1991 and is featured in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The song was not released on the actual soundtrack. The band also filmed a video featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in character as the Terminator, with a loose plot featuring Axl Rose as its "target". However, he is saved from termination as he is deemed a "waste of ammo" by the T-800's lock-on system. The original subject matter of the song dealt with Izzy Stradlin's failed relationship with ex-girlfriend Angela Nicoletti.

The Use Your Illusion albums can be considered 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", and both 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 also has at least one track sung by other members of the band: lead vocals on "So Fine" are performed by bassist Duff McKagan – the song, that was dedicated to punk rock musician Johnny Thunders, who died from a drug overdose before the recording of the album.

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. The industrial flavored "My World," the final track, was written and recorded in three hours, with Rose claiming those in the recording room were on mushrooms at the time.

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 fired Clearmountain when he tried to replace the real drums with samples. According to Slash's autobiography, "one afternoon we discovered a notepad of his where he'd notated all the drum samples he planned to mix in over Matt's drum tracks" 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 acoustic guitars in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity. According to Slash "Breakdown" was one of the most complicated songs to record on the album; the banjo, drum, and piano parts were hard to synchronize and drummer Matt Sorum "lost it" a couple of times trying to get the drums just right. The song "Locomotive" was written in a house Slash and Izzy Stradlin rented in the Hollywood Hills following the Appetite for Destruction tours. The song shows the group dabbling in funk metal.

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 particular philosopher. Both covers are the work of Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi. The album's liner notes hide the message "Fuck You St. Louis" amongst the thank you notes, a reference to the band's controversial performance near there at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in July 1991 during the Use Your Illusion Tour.

The title of the album was the focus of a joke on an episode of the sitcom Arrested Development that aired well over a decade after the CD's release. When magician Tony Wonder (played by Ben Stiller) had to come up with a name for his home video, he decided to name it Use Your Illusion II, citing that Use Your Illusion I had already been taken, apparently unaware of the fact that Use Your Illusion II is also the name of an album. In the end, he used the title Use Your Allusion.

The song "You Could Be Mine" was featured in Terminator 2: Judgment Day in a scene in which John Connor listens to this song while fixing his dirt bike at his foster parents' house. The song was also played during the scenes in which Connor rides around the city with his best friend, and over the ending credits (after the theme music concludes). An interesting reference to the band itself takes place in the movie's plot as well, as the Arnold Schwarzenegger character successfully manages to hide a shotgun in a large box of roses and therefore rescues a co-protagonist. Years later, "You Could Be Mine" appears in Terminator Salvation, paying homage to its being featured in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Track listing

1. "Civil War" Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan 7:42
2. "14 Years" Rose, Izzy Stradlin 4:21
3. "Yesterdays" Rose, West Arkeen, Del James, Billy McCloud 3:14
4. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan cover) Bob Dylan 5:36
5. "Get in the Ring" Rose, Slash, McKagan 5:42
6. "Shotgun Blues" Rose 3:26
7. "Breakdown" Rose 7:04
8. "Pretty Tied Up" ("The Perils of Rock n' Roll Decadence") Stradlin 4:48
9. "Locomotive" ("Complicity") Rose, Slash 8:42
10. "So Fine" McKagan 4:08
11. "Estranged" Rose 9:23
12. "You Could Be Mine" Rose, Stradlin 5:43
13. "Don't Cry" (Alternate Lyrics) Rose, Stradlin 4:45
14. "My World" Rose 1:24

Total length: 1:15:55

Issued in a standard grey tray jewel case with a 16-paged glossy booklet, including art, lyrics photos and credits.

Sonopress pressing with clear center and no SID codes.

Recording information:

Mike Clink – production, engineering

Jim Mitchell – additional engineering

Bill Price – mixing

George Marino – mastering

Kevin Reagan – art direction, graphic design

Mark Kostabi – artwork

Robert John – photography

Allen Abrahamson – assistant engineer

Buzz Burrowes – assistant engineer

Chris Puram – assistant engineer

Craig Portelis – assistant engineer

Ed Goodreau – assistant engineer

Jason Roberts – assistant engineer

John Aguto – assistant engineer

L. Stu Young – assistant engineer

Leon Granados – assistant engineer

Mike Douglass – assistant engineer

Talley Sherwood – assistant engineer

Guns N' Roses "Live Era '87 - '93 (2CDS, EU, Geffen Records, 490 514-2)"

Live Era '87–'93 is a double live album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was released on November 30, 1999. The record was the first official Guns N' Roses release since "The Spaghetti Incident?" released 6 years prior in 1993.

The album is certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies.

The album was compiled by band associate Del James. The dates and locations of the tracks are not revealed in the liner notes and are referred to simply as being "recorded across the universe between 1987 and 1993". However, the majority are believed to be from the Use Your Illusion Tour of 1991—1993.

Axl Rose is alleged to have communicated through intermediaries with former Guns N' Roses members Slash and Duff McKagan to select the track list. "The live album was one of the easiest projects we all worked on," Slash noted. "I didn't actually see Axl, but we communicated via the powers that be." Slash notes that the album is "not pretty and there are a lot of mistakes, but this is Guns N' Roses, not the fucking Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's as honest as it gets." According to former band manager Doug Goldstein, the overdubs and retakes were "fixes as opposed to redoing the whole thing", and it was "the original recorded material but Slash spent most of the time re-dubbing tracks.... Axl did a couple of fixes but from what I remember it certainly wasn't every track." Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke, who play on the majority of the tracks, are not credited as band members, but as "additional musicians". Classic-member drummer Steven Adler, who plays on only three tracks, and Izzy Stradlin, who plays on six, are credited as "main band members".

Two popular live songs, "Live and Let Die" and "Civil War" – both played frequently during the Use Your Illusion Tour – are omitted from this release. Songs that were played to a much lesser extent ("Pretty Tied Up" and "Move to the City") are included.

The Japanese and vinyl versions of the album contain a rare performance of "Coma".

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was performed and recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and was previously released on the "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" single.

"Estranged", "Don't Cry", "November Rain", "Pretty Tied Up", "You Could Be Mine" and "Move to the City" were previously released on the band's Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II videos. The live audio from "Yesterdays" was included as a B-side on that song's CD single.

In October 2025, a remastered version of Live Era was announced, arriving on vinyl on November 21.

Track listing

All music and lyrics written by Guns N' Roses, except where noted.

Disc one

1. "Nightrain" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 5:19
2. "Mr. Brownstone" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 5:42
3. "It's So Easy" Guns N' Roses, West Arkeen Appetite for Destruction (1987) 3:28
4. "Welcome to the Jungle" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 5:09
5. "Dust N' Bones" Slash, Stradlin, McKagan Use Your Illusion I (1991) 5:05
6. "My Michelle" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 3:53
7. "You're Crazy" Appetite for Destruction (1987) / G N' R Lies (1988) 4:45
8. "Used to Love Her" G N' R Lies (1987) 4:17
9. "Patience" G N' R Lies (1987) 6:42
10. "It's Alright" (Black Sabbath cover) Bill Ward None 3:07
11. "November Rain" Rose Use Your Illusion I (1991) 12:32
12. "Coma" Rose, Slash Use Your Illusion I (Bonus) (1991) 10:50

Total length: 59:54

Disc 2

1. "Out ta Get Me" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 4:33
2. "Pretty Tied Up" Stradlin Use Your Illusion II (1991) 5:25
3. "Yesterdays" Rose, Arkeen, Del James, Billy McCloud Use Your Illusion II (1991) 3:52
4. "Move to the City" Stradlin, Chris Weber, Daniel Nicolson (a/k/a D.J.) Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide (1986) 8:00
5. "You Could Be Mine" Rose, Stradlin Use Your Illusion II (1991) 6:02
6. "Rocket Queen" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 8:27
7. "Sweet Child O' Mine" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 7:25
8. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan cover) Bob Dylan Use Your Illusion II (1991) 7:27
9. "Don't Cry" Rose, Stradlin Use Your Illusion I / II (1991) 4:44
10. "Estranged" Rose Use Your Illusion II (1991) 9:52
11. "Paradise City" Appetite for Destruction (1987) 7:22

Total length: 1:13:09

Issued in a standard jewel case with a double tray.

Some copies may include a large hype sticker on the front of the case: 'The best of Guns N' Roses live Including "Welcome to the Jungle" "November Rain" "Paradise City" "Sweet Child O' Mine" 490 514-2'.

Guns N' Roses "The Spaguetti Incident?" (USA, Geffen Records,GEFD-24617)"

"The Spaghetti Incident?" is the fifth studio album by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album is composed of covers of older songs mostly in the punk rock and hard rock genres. "The Spaghetti Incident?" is the only studio album to feature rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke, who replaced original Guns N' Roses member Izzy Stradlin (some of Stradlin's parts are on the album) during the band's Use Your Illusion Tour in 1991, as well as the last album to feature guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Matt Sorum, following their departures in 1996 and 1997, respectively (though Slash and McKagan later returned in 2016). It is also their final album to date featuring longtime producer Mike Clink.

It is the only Guns N' Roses album release not backed by a tour. Although generally well received critically, it is the band's worst-selling studio album, having sold one million copies in the United States by 2018.

Initially, the band planned to release an EP of covers in 1992 or 1993; however, they decided to record a full album instead.

To sort of alleviate the pressure of being in the studio, and trying to get the new songs recorded, and all the other fuckin' barrage of fuckin' hassles that go into making a record, we would just get together and jam on old songs, to sort of loosen up. And we ended up recording four songs. And we thought this would make a great EP... So we kept the four songs, finished Use Your Illusions, went out on the road. Then, somewhere along the line, we started recording more of them – in between gigs and stuff – and, at the very end of it, we had 13 songs.

— Slash

Many of the tracks were recorded during the same sessions as the Illusions albums, which were intended to produce three or four albums. Izzy Stradlin's guitar parts were reportedly re-recorded entirely by Gilby Clarke. Slash described the recording as "spontaneous and unpainted", and recording the songs served as "a purpose to alleviate the pressure of making the Illusions records". The band wanted to increase the profile of some of their favorite bands and help them financially via royalties with the tracklist selection, and considered naming the album "Pension Fund". Rose concedes that the proposed title was because the group were "helping these guys pay some rent". Speaking to an interviewer, Rose related the album's motives: "Some of those songs I liked, I got ridiculed and criticized for at the time those songs were out. So, it was kinda like, well, now maybe some of those people will listen to it. It's the energy and the defiance that punk rock had and that it didn't really hit the mainstream all that much. And we are, whether we like it or not, in some ways in the mainstream, so we've got to bring certain songs to people's attention."

The album is a collection of punk and glam rock covers. The album features songs by punk artists such as U.K. Subs, The Damned, New York Dolls, The Stooges, Dead Boys, Misfits, Johnny Thunders, The Professionals, FEAR, as well as T. Rex, Soundgarden and The Skyliners. Of the Sex Pistols song "Black Leather", Slash remarked, "I thought we did a much better version than him [Pistols guitarist Steve Jones]. That's the only song I can say that about." The record has a more scaled-back sound than Use Your Illusion I and II (both 1991); Entertainment Weekly wrote that this was evidence that the group "aims to prove it doesn't need two padded CDs, a horn section and a bevy of backup singers to make a joyful racket".

The lead single, "Ain't It Fun" featured Hanoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe as a guest vocalist.

During the sessions, the band recorded instrumental tracks for "Beer and a Cigarette", originally by Hanoi Rocks. The vocals were not recorded and the song was left off the record because the band did not want songwriter Andy McCoy to receive money. The band also did an instrumental version of "Down on the Street" by The Stooges. This too went unreleased.

The title references an incident Steven Adler had in 1989 while the band was temporarily staying at an apartment in Chicago. Adler stored his drugs in a refrigerator next to the band's takeout containers, which contained Italian food. McKagan explained that Adler's code word for his stash was "spaghetti". In his lawsuit against the band, Adler's lawyer asked the band to "tell us about the spaghetti incident", which the band found amusing and used as the title of the album.

At the bottom of the album cover, a message is written in a code created by the Zodiac Killer. Years later, it was decoded as reading "Fuck 'Em All".

The album includes a hidden track, a cover of "Look at Your Game, Girl", originally by cult leader Charles Manson. The track was kept secret and left off advance tapes sent to reviewers. The inclusion of the song caused controversy, with law enforcement and victims' rights groups expressing outrage. Rose stated "...we wanted to downplay it. We don't give any credit to Charles Manson on the album". Label president David Geffen commented, "[If] Rose had realized how offensive people would find this, he would not have ever recorded this song." Slash mentioned that the song was "done with naive and innocent black humor on our part". Rose stated he would donate all performance royalties from the song to a nonprofit environmental organization. The band was planning to remove the song before learning that royalties would be donated to the son of one of Manson's victims. Geffen Records stated their share of royalties would be donated to the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau.

Although Guns N' Roses never toured in support of "The Spaghetti Incident?", some of the songs were performed live prior to its release. The first track, "Since I Don't Have You", was performed a few times as an intro to songs "Sweet Child o' Mine" or "Paradise City" in 1992 and 1993. "Down on the Farm" was performed once in its full length during the band's 1990 performance at Farm Aid IV. The band later played the track a few times during the Chinese Democracy Tour in 2006. They also played it during their 2023 World Tour, including their headline slot at The Glastonbury Festival, on June 24, 2023. This was a nod to literally performing on a farm. On May 27, 2025, "Human Being" was performed live by the band for the first time in their career. The band performed "Hair of the Dog" once in 1988, and again in 1990, during the only known performance by "The Gak" (a band featuring members of Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Skid Row). "Attitude" was performed frequently during the Use Your Illusion Tour and the Not in This Lifetime... Tour, and McKagan played it with his side project Loaded and his solo career. Other songs played live by McKagan are "New Rose", "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" and "Raw Power".

The other songs were never played live by Guns N' Roses, but might have been played by some of the members' side projects, like Matt Sorum's supergroup Camp Freddy, which plays cover versions of famous songs, as well as Neurotic Outsiders, the supergroup Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum were part of. Guns N' Roses played "Attitude" and—for the first time—"Raw Power" live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April 2014 with Duff McKagan on vocals. "Raw Power" and "New Rose" were played during the Not in This Lifetime... Tour. As of 2026, many of the album's songs have been played sporadically over the decade since the band reunited, with "Down on the Farm" being the most played, and "Human Being" and "Black Leather" receiving their live debuts.

"The Spaghetti Incident?" debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, selling about 190,000 albums in its first week of release, significantly fewer than their previous releases. The album was certified platinum by RIAA on January 26, 1994. Slash contends that the album was "killed" in the US by the controversy surrounding "Look at Your Game, Girl", especially as "everybody in LA and who was 30 or older was in complete upheaval. Not to mention David Geffen, who said, 'Don't work the record'." The album reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, behind Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell.

Reviews of the album in the specialist press were cautious, with Kerrang! deemed the album to be "average". Caren Myers of Melody Maker dismissed the band's desire for credibility and their determination to "impress their authentic punky pedigree" on listeners, resulting in a "hideously sincere effort to honour their roots" that instead reveals "how little they understand them". For Select critic Clark Collis, the group's method of "disinterring...punk classics and subjecting them to the old GN'R treatment" meant recording faithful covers but with extra guitar riffs, resulting in the overall impression of "pub-rockery gone mad". Roger Morton of NME wrote that the knee-jerk reaction to a "Guns N' Roses-go-punk LP" would be to compare it to "George Michael [going] busking", but conceded that it works on a "primal, inebriated, reptilian brain level" and noted how the choice of covers "zig-zags from the obscure to the predictable to the preposterous", resulting in "a bizarre mixture of swagger, nihilism and bad attitood which is as funny as it is exhilarating".

Describing "The Spaghetti Incident?" as "an album of mostly punky cover versions of drunkrock classics", Rolling Stone reviewer Jonathan Gold commented that the album was the band's attempt to "reassert their roots in hard-edged rock & roll — some punk rock, some not — the way that U2 tried to with Rattle and Hum when their 'authenticity' had become suspect. But in recording half an album's worth of punk-rock songs, Guns n' Roses reveal themselves as a glam-rock band, and a good one, as if T. Rex and the Dolls had come out of early punk rather than the other way around." Robert Christgau praised the album in The Village Voice, highlighting the unlikeliness of Fear, UK Subs and Nazareth songs belonging on the same record and quipping: "As someone who never thought punk had much to do with musicianship or musicianship much to do with GN'R, I remain impressed even with the excitement worn off."

Some critics contextualized the material more broadly; Eric Weisbard wrote in Spin that the band's choice of covers demonstrated their belief that "early-'70s metal and its sworn enemy, punk rock, were essentially the same beast, connected through glam and testosterone", and added that while this view was unradical in the wake of grunge, the group's move from metal to punk "took more guts and imagination than Seattle's reverse". Deeming the album an "exercise in nostalgia", Simon Reynolds opined in The New York Times that, by covering punk songs, Guns N' Roses was not only paying respects to bands that influenced them but was "trying to rewrite its place in rock history as a descendant of punk as opposed to heavy metal".

In his retrospective review for AllMusic, music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that, "As punk albums go, "The Spaghetti Incident?" lacks righteous anger and rage. As Guns N' Roses albums go, it's a complete delight, returning to the ferocious, hard-rocking days of Appetite for Destruction." Classic Rock's Howard Johnson finds that only eight of the thirteen songs could be loosely considered punk, with the remaining cuts revealing Guns N' Roses' "traditional eclecticism" by covering songs by hard rock, grunge and doo-wop bands, meaning "that's where the punk rock really exists on The Spaghetti Incident? – in attitude more than music." Johnson believes the album has "stood the test of time rather well" and that its energetic sound showed how the band avoiding becoming "bloated by the sheer enormity of their success". In The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1997), Colin Larkin calls it a "much vaunted collection of covers with a punk foundation" that is nonetheless a "perfunctory affair" mostly notable for the Charles Manson cover and for "lining the pockets of several long-forgotten musicians" like UK Subs, Nazareth, Misfits and Fear. In The Rough Guide to Rock (1999), Essi Berelian deemed it a "trawl through the band's personal record collections" and an "interesting insight" into their influences, chiefly worth hearing for Rose's "hilarious attempt at an English accent" on "Down on the Farm".

"The reviews that greeted The Spaghetti Incident? upon its release in November 1993 veered between the perplexed and the hostile. It sold just a million copies in the US – small change next to Appetite For Destruction, but enough to boost both the profile and the bank balance of those who wrote the songs that GN'R had covered on it."

— Dave Everley, Classic Rock (2024)

Dave Everley of Classic Rock credits "The Spaghetti Incident?" for "[bringing] a load of mostly obscure, mostly punk-rock tracks to a wider audience", and comments that it was "a curve ball from one of the biggest rock bands on the planet". The Guns N' Roses cover of "Ain't It Fun" revived the fortunes of the Dead Boys; as the song's co-writer Gene "Cheetah Chrome" O'Connor later explained: "At that point, the Dead Boys were kind of becoming a footnote. At the time, it was kind of nice that somebody actually remembered us. ... Having your song on a Guns N' Roses album is a considerable chunk of change. I moved down to Nashville, got resettled down there and was able to live and not work for a while. Definitely turned my life around a little bit. It got me through a rough time." Duff McKagan, who was the central inspiration behind The Spaghetti Incident?, released his first solo album Believe in Me in the same season as "The Spaghetti Incident?".

In 2025, Uncut ranked "The Spaghetti Incident?" at number 141 in their list of "The 200 Greatest Heavy Rock Albums". The editors wrote that, regardless of whether the album is "best deemed as a bid for critical reassessment or a cavalier stopgap", the "enjoyably messy" record is, amid slim competition, the group's most satisfying release since Use Your Illusion.

Track listing

1. "Since I Don't Have You" Joseph Rock, James Beaumont, Jackie Taylor, Janet Vogel, Joe Verscharen, Lennie Martin, and Wally Lester The Skyliners 4:20
2. "New Rose" Brian James The Damned 2:38
3. "Down on the Farm" Alvin Gibbs, Charlie Harper, Nicholas Garratt U.K. Subs 3:29
4. "Human Being" Johnny Thunders, David Johansen New York Dolls 6:48
5. "Raw Power" Iggy Pop, James Williamson The Stooges 3:12
6. "Ain't It Fun" (featuring Michael Monroe) Cheetah Chrome, Peter Laughner Dead Boys 5:06
7. "Buick Makane (Big Dumb Sex)" Marc Bolan / Chris Cornell T. Rex / Soundgarden 2:40
8. "Hair of the Dog" Dan McCafferty, Pete Agnew, Manny Charlton, Darrell Sweet Nazareth 3:55
9. "Attitude" Glenn Danzig Misfits 1:27
10. "Black Leather" Steve Jones Sex Pistols 4:09
11. "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" Johnny Thunders Johnny Thunders 3:35
12. "I Don't Care About You" Lee Ving Fear 2:17
13. "Look at Your Game, Girl" (hidden track starting at 2:17 of track 12) Charles Manson Charles Manson 2:34

Total length: 46:03

Recording information:

Mike Clink – production on all tracks except 1 and 11

Jim Mitchell – production on track 11

Bill Price – mixing

George Marino – mastering

Kevin Reagan – art direction; graphic design

Dennis Keeley, Gene Kirkland & Robert John – photography

Guns N' Roses "Use Your Illusion I (Germany, Geffen Records, GEFD-24415)"

Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released by Geffen Records on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart Use Your Illusion II. It was the band's first album with keyboardist Dizzy Reed, and drummer Matt Sorum, who replaced Steven Adler following Adler's departure in 1990, shortly after playing on "Civil War", which appears on Use Your Illusion II. The supporting tour for the albums, the Use Your Illusion Tour, began in May 1991, four months before the release of the albums due to delays in getting the albums out.

The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 685,000 copies in its first week, behind Use Your Illusion II's first-week sales of 770,000. Use Your Illusion I has sold 5,502,000 units in the United States as of 2010, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1992, and its single "Live and Let Die" was nominated in the same category the next year.

The Use Your Illusion albums represent a turning point in the sound of Guns N' Roses. Although the band did not abandon the aggressive sound it had become known for with 1987's Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I demonstrated a more diverse, "hard/art-rock" sound, incorporating elements of blues, classical music, heavy metal, punk rock, and classic rock and roll. This is exemplified by the use of piano on several tracks by singer Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed, as well as on Use Your Illusion II. Use Your Illusion I contains two of the three songs, "November Rain" and "Don't Cry", whose videos are considered a trilogy. The third song, "Estranged", is on Use Your Illusion II.

Another factor in the different sound compared to the band's earlier work is the addition of former The Cult drummer Matt Sorum, who replaced Steven Adler. Adler was fired from the group due to extreme heroin addiction.

A number of songs on the album were written in the band's early days and can be found on a popular bootleg album of early demo tapes known as The Rumbo Tapes. "Back Off Bitch", "Bad Obsession", "Don't Cry" (referred to by Rose during the ensuing tour as 'the first song we ever wrote together'), "November Rain" and "The Garden" are considered part of this group. There is also a cover of Paul McCartney and Wings' "Live and Let Die".

Besides the stylistic differences, another new aspect in Use Your Illusion I was longer songs. "November Rain", an epic ballad, is nearly nine minutes long, and "Coma" is more than 10 minutes. 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. In addition, "14 Years" and "So Fine" from Use Your Illusion II were sung by Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan, respectively.

The band had some difficulty achieving the final sound, especially during the mixing stages of both albums. According to a 1991 Rolling Stone cover story, 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. "If Axl liked the mix, Slash didn't", Price recalled, "and if Slash liked it, Axl didn't... They still hadn't finished the record when their massive 18-month world tour started, so the last half-dozen songs were recorded in random studios across America on days off between gigs."

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

"Right Next Door to Hell" was written after a dispute between Axl and his West Hollywood neighbor, Gabriella Kantor. Kantor accused Rose of hitting her with "a very good bottle of Chardonnay", so he was arrested and briefly held in jail. The charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Timo Caltia (real name Timo Kaltio), who participated in the writing of this song, is a Finnish guitarist, songwriter and guitar tech who once worked with Hanoi Rocks. He'd played a chorus riff of the song at his home while Stradlin was visiting.

"Live and Let Die" was released as the second single from the Use Your Illusion I album and the third out of all the Use Your Illusion singles. A music video was made in November 1991 featuring the band playing live on stage and showing old pictures. The video was also made shortly before Stradlin's departure and it was the last video where he appears. It charted at number 20 on the Mainstream rock chart. The song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance during the 1993 Grammy Awards.

"Don't Cry" is a power ballad and two versions were released simultaneously on different albums. The version with the original lyrics is featured on Use Your Illusion I, while the version with alternate lyrics is the 13th track on Use Your Illusion II. Only the vocal tracks differ, and even then only in the verses. There is also a third version, officially released only on the single for the song, which was recorded during the Appetite for Destruction sessions in 1986. Rose has stated that the song was written about a girl named Monique Lewis (the face tattooed on his right biceps). She was romantically involved with both Rose and Stradlin at different times.

"Bad Obsession" is about tackling drug abuse and addiction, which had haunted the band since before they had become famous. Michael Monroe, lead singer of the Finnish hard rock band Hanoi Rocks and a big influence on Guns N' Roses, plays the harmonica and tenor saxophone on the studio version. A live version from the Tokyo Dome was featured on the Use Your Illusion I DVD as song number six and Rose takes a dig at Stradlin by saying "This a song that we wrote about one year before "Mr. Brownstone" with the help of our friend West Arkeen and some guy that just, I don't know, his name just escapes me", referencing Stradlin.

"Back Off Bitch" was written during the early 1980s by Rose and his childhood friend and future Guns N' Roses bandmate Paul Tobias. The song was later played during Guns N' Roses concerts before the release of Appetite for Destruction. "Back Off Bitch" was written partially about Rose's girlfriend, Gina Siler, who moved with him to Los Angeles in 1982, and eventually kicked him out in 1983, due to his anger issues. It was also demoed several times by the band during this period.

At the end of "Double Talkin' Jive" Slash performs an extended flamenco-style guitar solo. Live performances of this song were stretched from its original three-minute length to more than eight minutes long. The opening line of the song "Found a head and an arm in a garbage can" refers to body parts that were actually discovered by the police in a dumpster in the vicinity of the studio. It is rumored that the body parts found were of porn actor/director/writer Billy London aka William Arnold Newton.

"November Rain" is an epic ballad written by lead singer Axl Rose and released as a single in June 1992. It features a sweeping orchestral backing and is one of Guns N' Roses' longest songs. It was the longest song in history to enter the top 10 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, until it was surpassed by "All Too Well" by Taylor Swift, which reached number one in 2021. Guns N' Roses performed this song with Elton John on piano at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.

"Garden of Eden" was written while the band was rehearsing for an extended period of time in Chicago. There is a music video of the song, filmed in one static take (shot through a fish eye lens) which features a close-up of Rose singing into a ribbon microphone with the band playing behind him, whilst keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Teddy Andreadis (who played the harmonica for the band during the Use Your Illusion Tour) are seen dancing in the far background. There are two versions of the video, both made in 1992. One version has strips of paper flying through the air, and is mostly found on music video sites like Yahoo! Music. The other version has lyrics onscreen, complete with a "follow-the-bouncing-ball", but with no paper flying around. This is the version that is on the Guns N' Roses music video compilation Welcome to the Videos.

"Dead Horse" starts with an acoustic section, which features a guitar riff written by Rose. The electric guitars soon come in for the heavier section which dominates the song. After the final climactic chorus, the opening section is reprised before ending with an audio effect of the song being fast-forwarded. A music video was also made for this song.

"Coma" was written by Rose and Slash about their drug overdoses. It is Guns N' Roses longest song to date. It features hospital sound effects and a real defibrillator.

Both albums' covers are the work of Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi. They consist of detail from 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 the albums is the color scheme used for each album. Use Your Illusion I uses yellow and red. The original painting was titled by Paul Kostabi as Use Your Illusion and also became the title of both albums. Both Use Your Illusion albums' liner notes include the message "Fuck You, St. Louis!" amongst the thank you notes, a reference to the Riverport Riot near there at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in July 1991 during the Use Your Illusion Tour.

Released at midnight on September 17, 1991, the Use Your Illusion albums were among the most anticipated in rock history. Predictions in the industry were of sales reaching the likes of Michael Jackson's Thriller and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., this despite the fact that major stores K-Mart and Walmart refused to stock the albums due to the profanity present. Estimates suggested that over 500,000 copies of the two albums were sold in just two hours. Both albums ultimately underperformed expectations domestically but were still commercially successful, with Use Your Illusion I selling 5,502,000 and both being certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA. Use Your Illusion I debuted below Use Your Illusion II mainly due to the fact that the second album contained the main lead single of the two albums "You Could Be Mine". It was the first time that two albums by one band or artist had entered the US charts at the number one and two spots and Guns N' Roses became the first to have the top two biggest selling albums on the chart since Jim Croce in 1974. The albums also opened as the top two albums on the charts in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Reception to Use Your Illusion I was mainly positive, and it is regarded as the heavier-sounding album of the two due in part to the influence of Izzy Stradlin. Critics praised the highlights of the album such as "November Rain" and "Coma", the closing track, but criticized the amount of filler on the album. David Fricke of Rolling Stone called Use Your Illusion I "so physically assaultive, verbally incendiary and at times downright screwy that it's hard to believe there's a sister disc out there just like it". While he expressed reservations about its inflammatory lyrics, Fricke found the album strong on "riffs, hooks and body-slam sonics" and commended Guns N' Roses' "anything-worth-doing-is-worth-overdoing spirit". USA Today's Edna Gundersen said that it "barely betters" Use Your Illusion II; the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot preferred II, but still considered I "consistently involving". Robert Christgau gave the album a "one-star honorable mention" and named "Don't Damn Me" its best track. However, NME reviewer Mary Anne Hobbs felt that the Use Your Illusion albums contained only five strong songs, with "Double Talkin' Jive" being the sole highlight from I.

Retrospectively, AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine opined that Use Your Illusion I suffers from filler and "overblown" production but deemed it a stronger work than Use Your Illusion II, highlighting "November Rain" and "Coma" as "ambitious set pieces ... which find Rose fulfilling his ambitions". In the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, Ann Powers deemed I "the more propulsive" of the two albums, with the "grandiosity" exemplified by "November Rain" being counterbalanced by Stradlin's contributions as well as other songs in the vein of "vintage G n' R" such as "Back Off Bitch". Rolling Stone ranked both Use Your Illusion records jointly at number 41 on its 2010 list of the best albums of the 1990s.

Track listing

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 and Wings cover) 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" (featuring 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

Total length: 76:09

Recording information:

Mike Clink – production, engineering, nutcracker on "Dead Horse"

Jim Mitchell – additional engineering

Bill Price – mixing

George Marino – mastering

Kevin Reagan – art direction, graphic design

Mark Kostabi – album artwork

Robert John – photography

Allen Abrahamson – assistant engineer

Buzz Burrowes – assistant engineer

Chris Puram – assistant engineer

Craig Portelis – assistant engineer

Ed Goodreau – assistant engineer

Jason Roberts – assistant engineer

John Aguto – assistant engineer

L. Stu Young – assistant engineer

Leon Granados – assistant engineer

Mike Douglass – assistant engineer

Talley Sherwood – assistant engineer