Hokeyboy

Could have made one pretty good album out of those two paradigms of mediocrity.

Hokeyboy

I dunno, if only Geoff Tate would rattle off about 1986 Federal Expenditures in more of his tunes...

hdnmickey

Speaking of which, the band definitely owes Stephanie Seymour at least some credit for the success of those albums.

Unclejosh

Not to mention her being made to shit in a kitty litter box if those rumors are true.

bunkaroo

Appetite was the first record I learned how to play front to back and a huge influence on me in HS. When UYI came out, I was just underwhelmed. If I've listened to it a dozen times in my life I'd be surprised. Some good stuff on there, but it is a shadow of the raw energy the first had. I don't mind the epic tracks, but between the many filler tracks and the loss of the edge in their sound, I just never connected with UYI.

Funny thing is, Metallica followed a similar path in the same timeframe from AJFA in 1988 to the black album in 1991. And yet, even though I didn't like the change to their sound at the time, it's hard to deny the black album is a touchstone in metal and contains almost no filler. Of course then they released their equivalent of UYI with Load and Reload, and I'm not even sure there are 12 good tracks on those two combined, but that's a discussion for another thread.

bunkaroo

These days Geoff would most likely rattle off about his favorite wine and the latest addition to his vest collection.

Chrisedge

I took this pic at the 1992 MTV Awards...

Michael T Hudson

Awesome shot.

Mabuse

Disposable camera.

Rival11

This thread made me go back and re-visit these albums. I'm definitely not a fan of guns n roses but I think there are some amazing songs on both of these albums and like Hokeyboy said....should have been one album.

It's crazy how some great songs are on albums with such shitty ones as well.

bunkaroo

That's what happens when you're the biggest band in the world and there's no objectivity let into the production process.

Hokeyboy

Civil War is probably one of the best songs GnR ever recorded. It's easily the best song off of either album. And strangely enough, was released a year before either album dropped. As it was the last song to feature Adler on drums, I'm assuming it wasn't part of the album sessions proper... which, given the overall quality of the Use Your Illusion records, makes perfect sense.

bunkaroo

Always sounded like a "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" retread to me. Never cared for it.

EDIT: I misread your post thinking you meant it was better than anything on Appetite too.

d2cheer

Nope I thought there was a 6 good songs between the both. If I never hear November Rain again that would be fine with me.

cultshock

Yeah, that song originally appeared on the Nobody's Child charity album in 1990, a year before the Illusion albums and they debuted it live at Farm Aid that same year (when Adler was still in the band), it must have been recorded before the Illusion sessions proper. Funny, I was just listening to it today and agree that it's a great song.

hdnmickey

You Could Be Mine also came out long before the albums given it was tied to T2. Like Civil War it sounds much different, and is far better, than most of the others songs on either album.

As for being disappointed in the albums, I do remember being bummed that two of the songs were covers. Which of course was nothing compared to the follow up album being nothing but cover songs.

Barth

Yes, unfortunately this was back when you bought albums for albums. You listened to every song, you judged every song, etc.
Now it's I just want a couple songs off the album. Releasing UYI I and II would never work in today's world. Leave it to Axl and the record companies to make as much money as possible.

Also, I agree on the You Could Be Mine and Civil War. Those songs are stand outs and they were done well before the albums released. They are the only songs in my rotation from that era other than a couple songs from the Lies album.

DVD Josh

I think what you really mean was that it was written long before the albums came out. You Could Be Mine (and Don't Cry and November Rain) were actually written during the AFD sessions.

Use Your Illusion II came out on 9/17/91 and T2 on 6/3 (wide release) and the soundtrack itself on 7/1. So it was only a few months.

cultshock

Yeah, those are all pretty old songs. You Could Be Mine was originally slated to appear on Appetite. I've seen a video of GNR performing an accoustic set before they were even popular and it included a rendition of Don't Cry. And Axl was working on November Rain for years, I remember buying a bootleg CD of demos back in 1989 and it included a nice rendition of November Rain that was just Axl singing and playing the piano (not sure what year it was recorded).

Josh-da-man

Since the band imploded almost immediately after these albums were released, I'm grateful that we got an extra album.

Hazel Motes

I always really dug "So Fine" , "14 Years" and "Yesterdays" especially for the Izzy and Duff vocals on the former two. Neither are great singers, but I love both of their voices.

hdnmickey

Back when many bands used to essentially put out an album every year, three months is long time. Anyway, the point was that we had heard You Could Be Mine months before the album release and I would have been very bummed had they not included that song on one of the two albums. Just like Civil War.

DVD Josh

Yes, in the 60s or even the 70s maybe, but this was much, much, much later. I don't mean to be insulting at all, but your sense of time is very strange. For example, you refer/insinuate to the 2-3 months between the release of the single and the album as a lengthy period of time but then compare 20 years earlier as almost contemporaneous to the GNR era. Just sort of weird to me.

hdnmickey

Many bands I listened to were still releasing albums on that schedule at that point.

TheDude

Hard to believe it's been almost 27 years since Use Your Illusion I & II came out back in September '91. I remember their release as if it were yesterday - I had just started my first semester of college & was rapidly losing interest in G N'R - after having been a huge fan of theirs from around 1988 - 1990. However, I still had a passing interest in the band, and the release of these albums was so well advertised that if you were a music fan at all, you would have to be living under a rock to be unaware that these had been released.

If these albums had come out a year (or more) earlier than they did, I would have been all over them. However, as it was, by September '91 I was getting more into the alternative/progressive music that was big at the time, and as such didn't even buy these albums when they came out. I considered doing so, but didn't have much money (being a poor college student). Also, I read a review of both albums in Rolling Stone magazine (a magazine I had a lot of respect for), which basically stated that they could easily have put the best songs from each album on one CD, instead of releasing two (After hearing the albums years later, I completely agree with this assessment). In any case, releasing two albums - when one would easily have been enough - was an obvious, blatant money-grab. I.e., if you bought one you would almost certainly want to buy the other.

So, over the years my only real exposure to the album at the time were the songs they played on the radio.

However, I eventually bought both albums circa 2008. And, overall, felt they were decent. Yes, there are definitely some strong, solid songs on both, including "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "You Could Be Mine", "Civil War", "November Rain", "Right Next Door to Hell", "Pretty Tied Up", etc. However, there are a lot of just OK songs, and definitely some terrible songs - all of which would probably fit better on a "B-sides" CD - for the hardcore fans.