― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 10 March 2003 04:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 March 2003 04:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 10 March 2003 04:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 March 2003 04:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 10 March 2003 05:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Monday, 10 March 2003 05:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 March 2003 05:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― slutsky (slutsky), Monday, 10 March 2003 05:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 10 March 2003 05:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
A new question: How's The Spaghetti Incident? I've always wondered if maybe it secretly kicks total, inauthentic ass.
― Sam Jeffries (samjeff), Monday, 10 March 2003 09:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
Flesh and Blood by Poison was best rock album of the 90's. followed by Slave to the Grind by Skid Row.
Novemeber Rain is one of the best songs ever written.
― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 March 2003 10:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 March 2003 10:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 10 March 2003 10:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
1. Pretty Tied Up2. Yesterday3. Get in the Ring4. November Rain5. You Could Be Mine6. Civil War7. Garden of Eden (that's the one with Alice Cooper?)8. Dust'n'Bones9. Estranged10. Back off Bitch11. Knockin' on Heavens Door
― jel -- (jel), Monday, 10 March 2003 11:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 10 March 2003 11:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
trying for the first time to listen to these back to back. wondering if that will make UYI II make more sense to me.
― why i am an anarcho-sandwich artist (Neanderthal), Saturday, 18 June 2011 23:27 (twelve years ago) link
man what happened to these guys after appetite
― j., Sunday, 23 June 2013 01:05 (ten years ago) link
I really love UYI 1, like UYI 2. I mean "Right Next Door to Hell" coulda fit right on Appetite.
UYI missteps with the ballads and the pretension, but I can listen to either disc and have a good time. T'aint no Appetite tho you're right.
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 23 June 2013 01:15 (ten years ago) link
so torpid
― j., Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:21 (ten years ago) link
@Steven_Hyden 20 JunThe best way to enjoy the USE YOUR ILLUSION albums: Imagine they are GNR's TUSK, and Izzy is Lindsey, Axl is Stevie, and Duff is Christine.
― some dude, Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:23 (ten years ago) link
I revisited the record due to this thread. Wish I had that 20 minutes of my life back.
― More Than a Century With the Polaris Emblem (calstars), Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:44 (ten years ago) link
So you only listened to one song?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:45 (ten years ago) link
haw
i keep UYI2 in the car, shit still bangs
― some dude, Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:46 (ten years ago) link
say whatever you want about this album. Listen to two minutes of Chinese Democracy and you'll see a true rock bottom.
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:47 (ten years ago) link
f'real
― some dude, Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:47 (ten years ago) link
I am a well-documented crazy person, but I listen to Chinese Democracy more often than the Illusion albums.
― 誤訳侮辱, Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:50 (ten years ago) link
I like most of each Use Your Illusion album. It reminds me a bit of Xgau's review of "Sandinista!:
Sandinista! [Epic, 1981]At $9.99 discounted, figure sides five and six as a near-freebie sweetened by great cuts from Timon Dogg and a grade-school duo. Compare "Apple Jam" (you know, on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass triple, now there was a prophetic title) invidiously to the run of their dub ramble. Listen to Sandinista Now!, the promo-only one-disc digest Epic has thoughtfully provided busy radio personnel, and note that you miss (in my case) "Rebel Waltz" and "Let's Go Crazy" and "Something About England" (and who knows what in yours). Note that you also miss the filler and assorted weirdnesses which provide that heady pace and/or texture. Then note as well that the many good songs aren't as consistently compelling as on previous Clash albums, though God knows "The Sound of Sinners" is a long-overdue Christer spoof and words about reading are always apt and the romanticization of revolution is an inevitable theme. And conclude that if this is their worst--which it is, I think--they must be, er, the world's greatest rock and roll band. A-
Except for the world's greatest rock and roll band stuff, of course.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 23 June 2013 13:39 (ten years ago) link
Wow this must be the shittiest version of these albums to exist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_Your_Illusion
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 23 June 2013 13:41 (ten years ago) link
Certified platinum!? I've never heard of that. Does Axl know !?!?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 23 June 2013 14:01 (ten years ago) link
Don't Damn Me still ranks as one of their best. Civil War, too.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 23 June 2013 14:24 (ten years ago) link
i've seen the comp before and puzzled at the track selection, at least the wiki explains that it was all songs with no curses to be sold at places like walmart, makes a little more sense now.
― some dude, Sunday, 23 June 2013 15:00 (ten years ago) link
ugh, "the garden," so terrible
― paula deezen (get bent), Sunday, 23 June 2013 16:42 (ten years ago) link
death to all customized tracklistings that omit "locomotive"
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Sunday, 23 June 2013 17:25 (ten years ago) link
have there been any high-profile critic "callouts" in the rock genre since "Get in the Ring"? really think that was the height of GNR's ridiculousness, but just curious of what other examples the genre may hold (not looking for rap, obv, cuz the genre is sort of based on calling out other people in song).
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 23 June 2013 17:36 (ten years ago) link
"I Killed Christgau With My Big Fucking Dick"
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 23 June 2013 17:58 (ten years ago) link
But since? Hmm, no one gives a shit about critics anymore.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 23 June 2013 17:59 (ten years ago) link
I heard the new Daft Punk album is going to be an album-long takedown of Greil Marcus.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 23 June 2013 18:49 (ten years ago) link
i feel like artist/critic beefs are MORE common in the internet era, but when it's so easy to just tweet that so-and-so punks in the press can suck your dick, it probably feels less urgent to write a song expressing the same sentiment. probably the most high profile recent example of a star dissing a writer in song is Taylor Swift's "Mean," but Bob Lefsetz isn't called out by name and stretches the meaning of the word 'critic.'
― some dude, Sunday, 23 June 2013 19:09 (ten years ago) link
I love "Get In The Ring" so much, mostly for how little effort it makes to rhyme. My favorite line:
"I don't like you/I just hate you/I'm going to ... kick your ass!"
Runner up: "I got a thought that would be nice/I'd like to crush your head tight in my vice- PAIN!!"
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 23 June 2013 19:41 (ten years ago) link
― Neanderthal, Sunday, June 23, 2013 2:47 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
there are great songs on CD, come on man
― Matt Armstrong, Sunday, 23 June 2013 20:47 (ten years ago) link
Even at its best that album makes the two Illusion albums sound like Albini jams.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 23 June 2013 20:50 (ten years ago) link
There are? Xpost
― Neanderthal, Sunday, 23 June 2013 20:52 (ten years ago) link
yeah Better and There Was a Time are fantastic songs, let them into your heart bro
― Matt Armstrong, Sunday, 23 June 2013 21:08 (ten years ago) link
i think i've tried on three separate occasions to make a satisfying single disc edit of this record and i guess i like the garbage on it too much, current edit is 14 songs, 1 hour 22 minutes
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Thursday, 7 January 2016 21:04 (eight years ago) link
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Sunday, June 23, 2013 10:25 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
me otm
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Thursday, 7 January 2016 21:05 (eight years ago) link
Locomotive might be my favorite song on both discs. Definitely top 5 for me.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 7 January 2016 21:49 (eight years ago) link
w/ most of UYI it's very easy for me to separate the good songs from the bad songs but "Locomotive" is like half awesome with a really lousy chorus (or at least i hate the offbeat Deep Downer vocal on the chorus)
― some dude, Thursday, 7 January 2016 21:59 (eight years ago) link
"locomotive" is my favorite gnr song
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Thursday, 7 January 2016 22:03 (eight years ago) link
xpost Yeah, but I love how it hits that super-weird odd-tempo groove. Plus, it's half coda, and the coda is great.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 7 January 2016 22:22 (eight years ago) link
it's almost like the only thing that justifies these albums is the fact that they exist all bloated and tiresome as they are, NONE of the songs are as good as ANY of the songs on 'appetite' but put them all together and throw in some holdover enthusiasm and 90s nostalgia and it's like, well, just let them be what they are
― j., Friday, 22 July 2016 00:49 (seven years ago) link
this was his shitty defense of it at the time:
"I used words like police and niggers because you're not allowed to use the word nigger. Why can black people go up to each other and say, "Nigger," but when a white guy does it all of a sudden it's a big put-down. I don't like boundaries of any kind. I don't like being told what I can and what I can't say. I used the word nigger because it's a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word nigger doesn't necessarily mean black. Doesn't John Lennon have a song "Woman Is the Nigger of the World"? There's a rap group, N.W.A., Niggers with Attitude. I mean, they're proud of that word. More power to them. Guns N' Roses ain't bad. . . . N.W.A. is baad! Mr. Bob Goldthwait said the only reason we put these lyrics on the record was because it would cause controversy and we'd sell a million albums. Fuck him! Why'd he put us in his skit? We don't just do something to get the controversy, the press."
― Neanderthal, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 11:34 (seven years ago) link
It's a really good song! That whistling melody in the beginning. The way the intro slams into the verse riff. The piano in the outro. Musically it's one of my favorite G'n'R songs.
I can understand and identify with One in a Million to the extent that it's about wanting to maintain your privacy and personal space when you're out in public. That's a pretty compelling subject. It could easily be about cat-calling. Doesn't make it jake that Axl uses the n-word or about 8 other things he said!
― how's life, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 11:52 (seven years ago) link
Los Angeles by X lyrically covers similar ground to One In A Million.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 12:52 (seven years ago) link
xxpostsyeah, his defence was clearly lame but I guess he was not educated enough to express his thoughts on that in a better way. and he was young also. not easy to tackle such complex and touchy issues when you're a 20something rockstar under pressure (one might argue he could have avoided going there, then !).anyway, I don't know him but it doesn't seem like he's racist or homophobic.
going back to the UYI albums with this thread, I agree that "Locomotive" is a weird beast : the first part is okay but kinda messy and the ending has a great feeling. I like their funky tracks, though.were there many other LA metal bands with that funky touch ? I have next to no idea about that scene...
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 13:10 (seven years ago) link
One thing that surprised me in Duff's book is that when they were a local LA band before they got signed some of GN'R lived in the same shitty apartment complex as Sly Stone. Guess Sly was down on his luck financially as early as the mid eighties.
― DavidLeeRoth, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 13:54 (seven years ago) link
aw. that's sad. considering how shitty their apartment seemed to be... maybe he could have joined them !
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 14:38 (seven years ago) link
"And on the keys Mr. Sly F'N Stone!"
― DavidLeeRoth, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 14:45 (seven years ago) link
"gimme some funk!"https://media.giphy.com/media/6kYIDxnVIRmik/giphy.gif
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 14:47 (seven years ago) link
they would have been named Guns n'Stone Roses !
going back to my question, it really doesn't seem very common for all these 80s sunset strip metal bands to incorporate some groove and funk in their sound.
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 14:49 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, the Crue did it a lot. I think it's that the shitty ones who couldn't play fast found it easier to slow things down and go for the groove. Like, they were rarely funky, just sort of lazily groovy. With this exception:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqP76XWHQI0
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 14:57 (seven years ago) link
oh, ok, thanks !this aspect never seems to be put forward in these bands (or again, maybe it's because I just don't know enough about that scene).
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 15:39 (seven years ago) link
xhuxk used to talk about funky hair metal a lot
― Blowout Coombes (President Keyes), Tuesday, 26 July 2016 16:11 (seven years ago) link
yeah one in a million is really problematic, but earlnash is right to point out that X's "Los Angeles" never really gets the scrutiny it probably deserved, esp in light of exene's later views and billy zoom's politics
― Steve Gunn Mann-Dude (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 26 July 2016 16:46 (seven years ago) link
also back to these albums it seems so logical that a one-disc edit would be perfect but everytime i try to do it i realize that it's just a big giant sometimes brilliant overreaching mess and should remain so
― Steve Gunn Mann-Dude (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 26 July 2016 16:47 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I think that's a great observation! I had always viewed Los Angeles as mocking the woman it talks about. Like, they're making fun of her because she left over trifling bigoted shit. But now I don't know if that's the correct interpretation, esp given Billy Zoom and Exene.
― how's life, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 16:58 (seven years ago) link
i forgot that i had made a uyi edit earlier this year and after the work i put into it it doesn't even fit on a single disc. so i basically 100 percent agree with this
here it is anyway https://open.spotify.com/user/unbornwhiskey/playlist/6A9Eke80frKBChaUT0qXvL
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Tuesday, 26 July 2016 17:44 (seven years ago) link
earlnash is right to point out that X's "Los Angeles" never really gets the scrutiny it probably deserved
?? this song's been talked about a lot - see "We Got the Neutron Bomb" etc, how's life interp is def correct
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 17:47 (seven years ago) link
well sure i'm sure that's what X says but there was a real xenophobic, right wing element to LA punk and hardcore and obv it's way more complicated than "X was racist/X was not racist"
― Steve Gunn Mann-Dude (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 26 July 2016 18:28 (seven years ago) link
there was a real xenophobic, right wing element to LA punk and hardcore
Which I've seen John Doe comment on quite sharply in interviews in the past - he at least definitely saw X as descended from North Beach poets etc. and thought bands like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks were thugs fucking up their arty little scene. (Not quite sure where Fear falls in this whole thing - they were both obviously satirical and quite reactionary at times IMO.)
― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, 26 July 2016 18:36 (seven years ago) link
well sure i'm sure that's what X says
the song is about a specific person (Exene's former roommate or something iirc), they go into the song's source/meaning at length
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 18:43 (seven years ago) link
I think it's safe to say that John Doe and Exene were collectively smarter/more self-aware than Axl Rose
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 18:44 (seven years ago) link
I think for anyone writing a song about such racial angst is a tough subject. Such a brutal song about serial killers or misogyny would probably not hold up to as much scrutiny. I think this is probably more the case as stated before "yeah, his defence was clearly lame but I guess he was not educated enough to express his thoughts on that in a better way. and he was young also. not easy to tackle such complex and touchy issues when you're a 20something rockstar under pressure (one might argue he could have avoided going there, then !)."
― earlnash, Thursday, 28 July 2016 02:52 (seven years ago) link
Mr. Bob Goldthwait
― pplains, Thursday, 28 July 2016 02:56 (seven years ago) link
"One a Million" is absolutely indefensible and also kinda brilliant. I can't think of another rock star as simultaneously compelling and repellent as Axl Rose. He was always at his best/worst venting his spleen, and he was never more of a motormouthed megalomaniac than on the UYI records. That's one reason why, for me, they've proven more durable than Appetite - which hardened into a classic rock totem at least 15 years ago - even though the band's initial spark is dying and both albums are super inconsistent.
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Thursday, 28 July 2016 06:22 (seven years ago) link
I can't think of another rock star as simultaneously compelling and repellent as Axl Rose
I think it's in Duff's book where he talks about how Axl couldn't stand people being "okay" with him. They either had to love him completely or hate him completely. He speculates that this is why Axl would make fans wait for 4 hours for the band to take the stage at their shows.
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 28 July 2016 17:46 (seven years ago) link
Mission accomplished by Axl in that respect although this semi-reunion tour has people talking about him in a positive light for the first time in at least two decades.
― DavidLeeRoth, Friday, 29 July 2016 10:50 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, but what if he's ... using an illusion?
What if he's... using your illusion?
― pplains, Friday, 29 July 2016 13:20 (seven years ago) link
Now now, there's room for everyone to use your illusion, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 29 July 2016 15:04 (seven years ago) link
Axl can use my illusion when he prises it out of my cold dead hands.
― and all the politicians making crazy sounds (snoball), Friday, 29 July 2016 20:09 (seven years ago) link
GNR was incredible live. Axl is in surprisingly good voice, his pitch is solid, he has a lot of power behind his high notes. on occasion when he sings more quietly, you can tell his falsetto isn't what it was 30 years ago, no, but I didn't expect him to be able to pull off some of the things he did. he didn't cheat and let his female backing vocalist take the high notes.
I didn't care for Chinese Democracy but I will say "This I Love" and "Better" were great live (the title track to CD is still meh, sorry). "You Could Be Mine", "Coma", "It's So Easy", "Nightrain", "Live and Let Die", "Civil War" were also favs.
they also thankfully skipped "Patience" which I've never liked.
― Neanderthal, Saturday, 30 July 2016 13:56 (seven years ago) link
if you're only an Appetite fan, tho...it may not be for you. they play 8 Appetite songs but that comprises like a third of the show (it was almost 3 hours long, with very little pause).
― Neanderthal, Saturday, 30 July 2016 13:59 (seven years ago) link
UYI dominates my list.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 October 2017 12:43 (six years ago) link
As discussed upthread, I've tried the one-album idea and, yeah, it doesn't really work. Not because it doesn't leave enough room to include some great tracks (for instance I have never liked the Macca and Dylan covers and could gladly edit them out) but, on the contrary, because the selected tracks aren't THAT good so it ends up being not really better than the messy 2 album and has less charm, somehow.
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 20 October 2017 13:07 (six years ago) link
how about an EP, then?
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 20 October 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link
How about just a pile of 15 or 20 singles?
Anyway, Locomotive is awesome. I love Axl's insane syntax.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 October 2017 16:46 (six years ago) link