Use Your Illusion ('compact')

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autumnan
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Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#1 Post by autumnan » Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:36 am

Hello everyone,

First, I hope you are all safe and well, my sympathies to folks who have experienced casualty among their friends and family during the pandemic.

It's been a long ol' time since I've posted here, although I regularly check in on the Jane's thread (fwiw). However, as a consequence of the lockdown I've had time on my hands to piss around with things that normally just stay in the backyard of the mind! One that came up this week was: what if Use Your Illusion were reduced to one great album instead of two bloated ones? I'm sure many of you have had this discussion before, and there may be a thread about it here somewhere, but I just couldn't be bothered to look.

Anyway, so I put together a sequence of my own on Spotify (link below) and thought I'd share it with you guys. Cause I think it's actually fucking awesome!

Side A / B

1. Right Next Door to Hell (3'02")
2. Perfect Crime (2'23")
3. Double Talkin' Jive (3'22")
4. Civil War (7'42")

5. Yesterdays (3'16")
6. Locomotive (8'42")
7. Don't Damn Me (5'18")

(total running time = 33'45")

Side B / C

8. You Could Be Mine (5'44")
9. Coma (10'14")
10. So Fine (4'06")

11. The Garden (5'19")
12. Pretty Tied Up (4'48")
13. Estranged (9'24")

(total running time = 41'15")

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7gdy7 ... ehWW7Hmx_A

In my opinion this sequence makes a brilliant double album. If you looked at it as two 12" records there is space for an extra track in the first half, but I like the symmetry of running times (even if the number of tracks is higher on A / B due to the sequencing of shorter punkier songs on the first side).

I like not having Don't Cry, November Rain, either of the covers and some of the 'straight' rock tracks in the mix, but did find cutting 14 Years, Get In The Ring and Bad Apples a hard choice. I didn't originally have Don't Damn Me in the sequence either, ending record one with Locomotive (one of my all time faves), but reviewing the running times and noticing there was a big difference between record 1 and 2, I revisited it and, most importantly, realised it's the TITLE TRACK of the album (in the bridge), so actually it HAS to be there. As a result I appreciated that track more and now think it completes the sequence perfectly.

I hope you will enjoy listening to it as much as I did!

Look after each other people x :rockon:

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intertwoven
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#2 Post by intertwoven » Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:37 am

Yeah, "Locomotive" has risen to the top of my favorite songs over the years, and have heard similar from others. Gotta wonder if it would have been a hit if they made one of those big-budget videos for it.

And yeah, we've definitely had a similar thread on here years ago. I remember it was interesting how different people's version of a one-disc UYI would look. Everybody had their own unique tracklist.

I'd say "Breakdown" is a track missing from yours that would definitely be on mine. Honestly mine would be probably look close to UYI II as it is but with "November Rain" taking the place of "My World". :lol:

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Mescal
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#3 Post by Mescal » Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:36 am

Bad obsession, november rain, shotgun blues, dead horses, get in the ring are definitely favourites!

Locomotive is indeed a killer track ... that intro ....

Don't care too much for 14 years, so fine, yesterdays, ....

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Mescal
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#4 Post by Mescal » Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:49 am

And Estranged is the best track they've ever written ...

I want that song played at my funeral

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Matz
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#5 Post by Matz » Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:30 am

I think the only really good song in that collection is Civil Rain. Estranged is just alright to me, the rest are mediocre jams at best. Guns only made one good album: Appetite

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Mescal
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#6 Post by Mescal » Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:13 pm

Can't say I agree ...

Appetite is great, but saying it's the only good thing they did? No

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Larry B.
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#7 Post by Larry B. » Sat Apr 25, 2020 1:26 pm

Civil Rain is definitely their best song.

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intertwoven
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#8 Post by intertwoven » Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:37 pm

"What's so civil about rain, anyway?"

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drwintercreeper
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#9 Post by drwintercreeper » Sat Apr 25, 2020 6:20 pm

dammit, great minds think alike

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Matz
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#10 Post by Matz » Sat Apr 25, 2020 7:31 pm

intertwoven wrote:
Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:37 pm
"What's so civil about rain, anyway?"
:lol: shit, I first wrote November rain instead of Civil War for some reason and then when I realized it didn't fix it right.....I'm sick (not corona I hope) please forgive me

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Bandit72
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#11 Post by Bandit72 » Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:30 am

Locomotive is without doubt in my top 5 GnR songs ever. Matt did a killer job on that track. I wish they had played it live when I saw them in London.


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Bandit72
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#12 Post by Bandit72 » Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:03 am

Found this too which is pretty fucking cool.

LOCOMOTIVE FOR THE WIN! :lolol:


clickie
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#13 Post by clickie » Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:46 am

intertwoven wrote:
Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:37 pm
"What's so civil about rain, anyway?"

"What we've got here...is failure to precipitate."

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autumnan
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#14 Post by autumnan » Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:45 pm

clickie wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:46 am
intertwoven wrote:
Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:37 pm
"What's so civil about rain, anyway?"

"What we've got here...is failure to precipitate."
:hehe: Brilliant.

I found it quite difficult denying Civil Rain its place as the opener. I only had UYI 2 (on cassette) back in the day and only heard 1 in passing on friends' stereos, so it's always been track one for me.

It's a personal thing this, obviously, so I don't suppose any of you would choose exactly the same sequence as me. Has anyone actually listened to it in this order though?

Funny thing about sequencing, I wonder if some of its kudos as a skill has diminished, with linear album listening being so disrupted? Now everyone's a DJ?

I have beautiful memories of Jane's albums whilst on psychedelics. Ritual was playing when I first came up on mushrooms. Later I heard NS on LSD and had the classic moment of 'clarity' as it dawned on me exactly what made the sequence of songs on that record so perfect. :blah: :blah: :blah:

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Artemis
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#15 Post by Artemis » Fri Nov 04, 2022 3:15 pm

Rather than start another GNR thread, I'll use this one.

Next week will mark 30years since Use YOur Illusion I & II was released. I still have the cassette tape version.

For the fans, a reissue:
The new version of “November Rain” is only one of the many nuggets included in the various Use Your Illusion reissue packages. The Super Deluxe Edition is the real prize for diehard fans and collectors, and retails for $499.98. In full, the set features 97 songs, including 63 previously unreleased tracks.

In addition to the original albums, previously unreleased concert recordings from a show in New York in 1991 and Las Vegas in 1992 are spread across eight 180-gram vinyl LPs (each being newly mixed from the original multi-track tapes). The included Blu-ray disc features the complete “Live in New York” concert film, freshly transferred from 35mm film prints to 4K UHD and presented in 1080p 24fps HD, in its entirety, along with audio mixed in Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround, and PCM 48kHz 24-bit stereo.
https://consequence.net/2022/11/guns-n- ... on-stream/

The new version of November Rain with 50-piece orchestra


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Mescal
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#16 Post by Mescal » Thu Nov 17, 2022 2:25 am

Well, so the box set has been out and I've been listening a lot to GnR these last few days.

Honestly that Ritz live show that is included (warm up gig in a small venue before the UYI tour) sounds killer.

They're playing a lot of the UYI songs, still hungry and without the big production, back up singers etc ...

Gives you an idea how the songs could have sounded with a more AFD kinda production than the bloated thing it became.

clickie
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Re: Use Your Illusion ('compact')

#17 Post by clickie » Wed Jan 04, 2023 11:15 am

Do you think it's true the old stories you hear about Jane's and Guns crossing paths walking out from the recording studio

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