Use Your Illusions 30th anniversary thread

[Spirit]

USE YOUR ILLUSIONS
30th ANNIVERSARY






Released on September 17, 1991, soon to be 30 years ago - kinda crazy when I think about it.

I created the thread for people to share anything related to the albums. Were you already a fan when they came out, or were those the albums that introduced you to GN'R maybe?

Lots of singles and videos, a big world tour, big album sales, new band members, new sound. Any favorite music video maybe?

For me, these albums are kinda special, as they introduced me to the band. By chance, the very first GN'R song I heard was the alternate lyrics Don't Cry. Things just snowballed from there. I like the albums a whole lot, I put the whole thing on par with Appetite, although in a different way - I really like the diversity.

Favorite music video is Garden of Eden, just love the simplicity of the whole thing, and it's just the band having fun. A simple but really great idea for a video.

Let's hope they do something for the anniversary. Hopefully some concerts on vinyl. Maybe some more UYI songs on the current tour as well, like Pretty Tied Up or Breakdown.

Cheers!

[PermissionToLand]

There's just so much great stuff to dig into with these albums. I often forget how good some of the sleeper tracks are, like Breakdown, The Garden, Bad Apples, Dead Horse, Pretty Tied Up...

[Bodhi]

It’s my favorite album of all time(I’ve always treated it as one double album.). I love everything about it, it showcases everything the band is capable of.  For me this is the record that set GNR apart from all of their contemporaries and put them in the legends conversation with The Stones, Zeppelin, etc.. I became a GNR fanatic in 1992 when I was 10 years old, when the records and tour were at their peak, it’s a very special album and time for me personally.  I’m hoping they celebrate the anniversary in some way. 

[cineater]

Master pieces if you ask me.

[Ericnor]

30 years?? Jeez 

I remember calling a music store here in Norway, and they had them in on Friday 13th. Limited number, and I dont think they were allowed to sell them at that day?
Skipped two hours of school and bought them. In both cd and cassette i remember 
Listened to them both all weekend and reading the lyrics inside. (Waaaay before you could Google lyrics)
I remember loving dont cry, november Rain (which i had only listened to the old bootlegs) and actually perfect crime stood out to me. Estranged didnt click immediately, but came in like a hammer at some point but I cant remember when.

Awesome albums anyways.

-Eirik

[Walapino]

Great times! I remember the waiting for the record to come out. I went periodically to my local record store since 1990 asking when the next GNR album was coming out. I heard KOHD on MTV sometime in 89 or 90 and thought it was a new single hehe. A friend in school taped me in a cassette UY2 and I listen to it until i got both CDs shipped from the US to my country (Peru). Good memories for sure. 

[Derick]

When the Illusions came out I already was a fan. The first time a heard them was in 1988 I liked a lot but at that time I didn’t had access to all they songs just a couple of them. Just in 1989 my uncle brings to me,from the US, the AFD K7 tape. So in 1991 I had the opportunity to saw them live in RIR 2(first night only) and that was my first GNR gig ever and also my first live show..I was just a 14 y/o. Anyway, that night they played some Illusions cuts for the first time and I confess that at the end of the show I was kinda “What the hell was that?” about the new songs...That doesn’t sounded GNR. But that feeling didn’t last too long! In less than 24 hours I was totally into those new songs and after that a hardcore fan came to life! So I can say that the AFD was responsible to makes me a GNR fan and the Illusions makes me a hardcore one.

[SlashRxR]

I'm not even 30 years old...haha! but i think i first heard them when i was about 10 years old. My Dad was way more into Appetite & Lies. My mom however was way more into the Illusion records. My whole first year of listening to Guns was only Appetite, Lies, & Greatest Hits... which was fine because I had never heard such amazing Rock N' Roll. When i first heard UYI 1 & UYI2, my whole world changed. They were a different band, which i did not like at first. Here I am 14 years after that, & boy those 2 records are their best stuff. UYI 1&2 are both amazing & perfect in my book. Favorite tracks are probably; Perfect Crime, Coma, The Garden, Locomotive, Don't Cry (Alt.), Estranged... Fuck, they are so great. Saw Guns last month in San Jose & They still rule. I am actually getting the words "Use Yr Illusion" tattooed on me this month. I think of how exciting it must have been for them to be able to create not one, but two amazing records at that time. The memories i have attached to these records are priceless. They changed me as a young man & a musician. Happy to celebrate them always!

[DeadHorse]

I was a huge fan before the Use Your Illusions were released. I remember sitting at home in July 1991 for the premiere of the You Could Be Mine video on Much Music (Canada's Music Video Station). I even remember the time it aired (4pm Atlantic Time) and the VJ Michael Williams  .

I recorded the video on VHS tape, and then re-recorded it to a cassette for my friends and I to listen to.

I did purchase the cassette single a couple weeks later once it was available at The Hudson Bay store ( there were no record stores in my hometown at that time, they all had shutdown   ). The b side was Civil War and that became just as popular as YCBM within my circle of friends.

My favorite video back then was November Rain, but a close second is The Garden. That video matches the song perfectly.

My first 2 cds I actually purchased were the CD singles for November Rain and Yesterdays. My friends made fun of me because I didn't even own a cd player back in 1993.

I have so many memories with those albums.

My funniest memory is that for my first lap dance the stripper actually danced to "Don't Cry"! When my uncle told her it was my first lap dance she leaned into me and said "I hope you don't cry" . It was my 19th birthday, I'll never forget that.

[bigcash2002]

Looks like Matt Sorum is looking to capitalize on the 30th anniversary as well, by timing the release of his new book with it.
Apparently he is covering his thoughts on much of what he experienced during the Illusions Tour, etc.

[Thorned Rose]

Looks like Matt Sorum is looking to capitalize on the 30th anniversary as well, by timing the release of his new book with it.
Apparently he is covering his thoughts on much of what he experienced during the Illusions Tour, etc.

Wrong. The book got pushed back to like March or something.

But on the topic. UYI better be juicy. I know there's 10-12 songs in demo stage we never heard. I want it all out man. We deserve it.

They don't have to even remaster it, but they will.

Then I want 1 full disc of demos, etc... live rare stuff. Like 16 tracks worth, then a live album that isn't fucking Tokyo 92. Just give us something from the Skin N' Bones era man. That would be killer.

[C0ma]

Vanessa posted an Instagram story yesterday where she had several UYI Tour Leg Itineraries that appeared to be labeled with "Axl" and "Amy" (maybe his sister). Seems odd to have them just out like that if not for some project related to the 30th anniversary. I also wonder if careful attention will be paid to the tour which is still one of the biggest and longest tours and an important piece of that albums history. There should be mountain of video footage and images to release some great content.

[Thorned Rose]

Honestly a UYI box set should be easy to do. There's so much stuff from that. Based on them touring from May of 1991 to July of 1993.

Those over 2 years man. That's insane. We should get a lot of goodies. I'm highly interested in high end soundboards from Skin n' Bones era in 1993 mainly, and any and all ideas, demos riffs... etc from 1990.

Would be super cool to get all that Chicago stuff from 1990 on there before Adler left.

[Bridge]

"Axl" and "Amy" (maybe his sister).

Yes, Amy Bailey is Axl's sister.  Stuart is his brother.

The Use Your Illusion albums had some filler tracks, but the good definitely outweighed it.  Some of my favorite GNR songs come from those albums.

Funny story: I can remember listening to the cassettes in some dude's basement, and "Get in the Ring" came on.  Of course, at the end, Duff says "All the Guns N fucking Roses fans who stuck with us through all the fucking shit!"

Dude's mama heard that and came downstairs and was pissed. 

[jaknudsen]

Box set is coming: https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/guns-n-roses-30th-anniversary-deluxe-reissue-of-use-your-illusion-due-next-summer/

[COMAMOTIVE]

Rock and Roll Heaven
Has a little bit of everything.
Still only have about two songs between the two albums that are not for me - otherwise brilliance in my opinion.

[D-GenerationX]

I am most interested in the live concerts.  Let's just hope they are released in a more "as is" fashion than 'Live Era' with all those re-recorded vocals.

To get that whole January 1992 Las Vegas show would be sweet, because I have never seen that one in circulation.  I also think that leg (December 1991 - April 1992) were the best shows from that tour.  Summer 1991 might have had better setlists, but Axl's voice is ROUGH on a lot of them.  He is far stronger shape on that second leg.

Will be cool to get that May 1991 Ritz show.  I have the same copy most of you do, which is decent on sound as bootlegs go, but not ideal.

If they really wanted to pull off a coup, they should release that 2nd of 3 UYI warm up shows.  The one on 5.11.91 from Pantages Theater in LA.  There has *never* been any form of that show in circulation.  And...it contains only the second (and to date, last) live performance of 'Bad Apples'.

[rebelhipi]

I am most interested in the live concerts.  Let's just hope they are released in a more "as is" fashion than 'Live Era' with all those re-recorded vocals.

To get that whole January 1992 Las Vegas show would be sweet, because I have never seen that one in circulation.  I also think that leg (December 1991 - April 1992) were the best shows from that tour.  Summer 1991 might have had better setlists, but Axl's voice is ROUGH on a lot of them.  He is far stronger shape on that second leg.

Will be cool to get that May 1991 Ritz show.  I have the same copy most of you do, which is decent on sound as bootlegs go, but not ideal.

If they really wanted to pull off a coup, they should release that 2nd of 3 UYI warm up shows.  The one on 5.11.91 from Pantages Theater in LA.  There has *never* been any form of that show in circulation.  And...it contains only the second (and to date, last) live performance of 'Bad Apples'.

Same, excited about the Vegas show. I wonder if its video or audio... I just listened to the Ritz bootleg earlier this year, its a very very good and chaotic show. You really can tell they didnt have a setlist and were figuring it out as they went. Which is great.

Ideally the boxet would have one show from 1991 with Izzy. One 1992 show with the full production, and one Skin And Bones show from 1993.

Also id love to see a 3 dvd set from 1992 Faith No More Metallica Guns N' Roses. But i doubt thats ever gonna happen.

[McKenzie]

Summer 1991 might have had better setlists, but Axl's voice is ROUGH on a lot of them.  He is far stronger shape on that second leg.

Exactly. Some people say he sounds like Mickey Mouse now, but at that time he was full Donald Duck. That's why I'd rather have Wembley '91 than Ritz '91, but I understand the releasing of the latter, since it was shot on film.

[GNR4L]

What if they released the new album at the same time and called it Use Your Illusion 3

[cineater]

What if they released the new album at the same time and called it Use Your Illusion 3

I was thinking that, not the name, along with a tour and they all support each other as a reason they are waiting to release shit.  Then again I go with all business models are shot to hell with the pandemic and streaming music.     Anybody who is still alive is doing good.

[D-GenerationX]

Summer 1991 might have had better setlists, but Axl's voice is ROUGH on a lot of them.  He is far stronger shape on that second leg.

Exactly. Some people say he sounds like Mickey Mouse now, but at that time he was full Donald Duck. That's why I'd rather have Wembley '91 than Ritz '91, but I understand the releasing of the latter, since it was shot on film.

Just super scratchy, that summer of 1991.

You can really hear the hell he is putting his voice through on some of those shows in the U.S. in the summer of 1991.

8.3.91 is the best setlist, on paper, that any GNR fan could hope for.  But it's the last show of that leg, and his voice is clearly blown to hell.

[dsaddler78]

What if they released the new album at the same time and called it Use Your Illusion 3

That is funny. Obviously though they would have to record a "new" album together first  . But yeah, this release is gonna be awesome no matter what. UYI Era GNR is and will always be my favorite. I like most others have said, just hope they don't airbrush anything and give us the raw sound. That is why I (and think most you) loved GNR.   

[PermissionToLand]

Yeah the AFD era is overrated. The UYI era was so mysterious and captivating. Just a band living out their wildest dreams and on the absolute top of the world and top of their game. Paris '92 blows any AFD era performance out of the water.

[C0ma]

Yeah the AFD era is overrated. The UYI era was so mysterious and captivating. Just a band living out their wildest dreams and on the absolute top of the world and top of their game. Paris '92 blows any AFD era performance out of the water.

I don't know about that... Just watch or listen back to shows like the 87 and 88 Ritz shows, the energy from the 88 VMA's, the 89 LA shows supporting The Stones. There is a RAW energy in those AFD era shows that is almost impossible to replicate. Axl  performs for 50-70 minutes at 110% like he's fueled by a 50 gallon drum of cocaine. Sure the catalog is light, but that was just pure magic.

UYI era is great, but there was some bloat and RAW Energy tended to transform into recklessly sloppy. There is also magic in those shows, but it wasn't typically cover to cover magic.

I would be hard pressed to consider 87-89 "over rated"

[PermissionToLand]

I don't know about that... Just watch or listen back to shows like the 87 and 88 Ritz shows, the energy from the 88 VMA's, the 89 LA shows supporting The Stones. There is a RAW energy in those AFD era shows that is almost impossible to replicate. Axl  performs for 50-70 minutes at 110% like he's fueled by a 50 gallon drum of cocaine. Sure the catalog is light, but that was just pure magic.

UYI era is great, but there was some bloat and RAW Energy tended to transform into recklessly sloppy. There is also magic in those shows, but it wasn't typically cover to cover magic.

I would be hard pressed to consider 87-89 "over rated"

I'm sorry but you're living in another world; the UYI tour was raw and AFD was just sloppy.

Almost every member of the band said themselves that the Ritz 88 show was a disaster and they sounded terrible. It's a classic example of rock fans calling anything poorly done "raw", as if out of tune guitars are a good thing somehow. It almost seems like a bravado kind of thing, like how guys who hate beer will drink it just because it's "manly". With rock, you get a lot of that in the form of listening to music at painful, damaging volumes, writing music that's just heavy for its own sake with poor melodies, and claiming to enjoy shitty production values.

AFD the record is raw in a good way. But the shows were just sloppy in general, from what I've seen.

[jarmo]

Two different eras. One was basically a band that played in clubs going to opening for others and then headlining shows.

The other era was basically a band that was on their first proper headlining tour for two years promoting their two albums.


Even the UYI tour can be divided into sub-eras. You got the shows with Izzy before the albums came out when no one really knew all those new songs. Then you got the big production era with Gilby and lastly the scaled down back to the basics final era....





/jarmo

[sky dog]

Saw them all! 

[sky dog]

The summer 91 Indiana shows stood out due to the rush of all those new songs…the reaction of the crowd to November Rain  was classic!

[NaturalLight]

Two different eras. One was basically a band that played in clubs going to opening for others and then headlining shows.

The other era was basically a band that was on their first proper headlining tour for two years promoting their two albums.


Even the UYI tour can be divided into sub-eras. You got the shows with Izzy before the albums came out when no one really knew all those new songs. Then you got the big production era with Gilby and lastly the scaled down back to the basics final era....





/jarmo

Great analysis

[Thorned Rose]

Yeah I agree with the UYI stuff. It very much is in eras.

You've got basically in a detailed way... these eras...

-Stuff they did with Steven in Chicago in early 1990.

-The actual recording of the album which took place mainly in late 1990 to early 1991.

-Then the kick off of the tour with Izzy still in the band, with a new drummer in May I think it was of 1991. In Wisc? If I remember right?

-Up to release of records, and the buzz that will never happen again IMO. 2 albums on the same day that big again in a physical format? Never.

-Izzy leaving in Nov of 1991.

-Gilby joining and doing a crazy and sometimes bloated tour for over a year, then the scaled back 1993 Skin N' Bones tour that started in like May or April of 93? That was scheduled to pocket some money as they were all blowing dough big time.

-Then any UYI stuff ends promptly in July of 1993 to my knowledge.


------

What I'm highly interested in is demos, alternate takes, anything from Chicago 1990. With or without Axl. I recall him not being there much at all... right? I'm not all that excited about the concerts Slash mentioned in the interview.

Yeah sure, that would be cool. I want 1993 stuff, I want a DVD in there with random video from the tour, this could be done very well, but I have a feeling it will be just "good" and not something that it deserves.

The AFD 30th was fantastic. Would of been cool to get the RITZ in a remastered way or something on video. But it was great. I'm really hoping they do like a flyer with all the dates played, all the cancellations too... cause it is all apart of the drama and era.

The postponements. I really want this to be killer. I know there's some sweet stuff laying around. We all know it.

I don't want 2 remastered discs, 1 disc of demos or rough mixes that is totaling like 12 tracks, and that's it. That would suck.

Just excited and hoping they go all out. And as I've read it would be amazing if they called the next album Use Your Illusion 3. it would generate buzz and headlines.

Just cause it ties to the 1991 albums. It's been 30 years. Well over that. It's just silly how much wasted time went by. Old Gn'R was dead by 1997, and we've gotten 1 album and 2 songs in 24 years.

Insane...

[PermissionToLand]

What I'm highly interested in is demos, alternate takes, anything from Chicago 1990. With or without Axl. I recall him not being there much at all... right? I'm not all that excited about the concerts Slash mentioned in the interview.

Yeah sure, that would be cool. I want 1993 stuff, I want a DVD in there with random video from the tour, this could be done very well, but I have a feeling it will be just "good" and not something that it deserves.

All of that is subjective. Just because a release isn't what you personally wanted doesn't mean it isn't good. I'd rather have those concerts than the Chicago demos, unless they're significantly better quality than what we have already from Chicago.