Maps of Music

Use Your Illusion I (1991)

Where the lyrics of Use Your Illusion I take you, and where it was really made.

Use Your Illusion I debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, behind its own sister album, which came out the same day.

Key places

Recorded at A&M Studios (1991)

Recording site A&M Recording Studios — The album article lists A&M Studios in Los Angeles as a studio where Use Your Illusion I was recorded. The point marks the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Record Plant (1991)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — The album article lists Record Plant in Los Angeles as a studio where Use Your Illusion I was recorded. The point marks the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Studio 56 (1991)

Recording site Studio 56 — The album article lists Studio 56 in Los Angeles as a studio where Use Your Illusion I was recorded. The point marks the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Image Recording (1991)

Recording site Record Plant (Los Angeles) — The album article lists Image Recording in Los Angeles as a studio where Use Your Illusion I was recorded. The point marks the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Conway Recording Studios (1991)

Recording site Conway Recording Studios — The album article lists Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles as a studio where Use Your Illusion I was recorded. The point marks the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Metalworks Studios (1991)

Recording site Metalworks Studios — The album article lists Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario as a studio where Use Your Illusion I was recorded. The point marks the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Use Your Illusion I: third studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses
• Released by Geffen Records on September 17, 1991
• Released the same day as its counterpart, Use Your Illusion II
• First album with keyboardist Dizzy Reed
• Matt Sorum replaced Steven Adler on drums after Adler left in 1990

Background

• Use Your Illusion Tour began in May 1991, four months before release due to delays
• Album shows a more diverse hard/art-rock sound than Appetite for Destruction (1987)
• Blues, classical music, heavy metal, punk rock, and classic rock and roll are incorporated
• Piano is used on several tracks by singer Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed
• Songs are longer than earlier work: November Rain nearly nine minutes, Coma more than 10 minutes
• Izzy Stradlin sings lead on Dust N' Bones, You Ain't the First and Double Talkin' Jive
• Adler was fired due to extreme heroin addiction
• Several songs date from the band's early days and appear on the bootleg The Rumbo Tapes

Recording

• Mixes of 21 tracks made with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain were scrapped
• Band restarted the mixing with engineer Bill Price
• Last half-dozen songs recorded in random studios across America on days off between gigs
• Slash says much of the material was written on acoustic guitars at his house over a couple of nights

Cover

• Covers by Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi
• Detail from Raphael's painting The School of Athens
• Only difference between the two covers is the color scheme; this album uses yellow and red

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Los Angeles, California, in March 1985 by Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Tracii Guns and others from L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose.
• The classic lineup of Rose, Slash, Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler was finalized in June 1985.
• Signed with Geffen Records in March 1986.

Members

• Current members include Axl Rose (vocals), Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), Dizzy Reed (keyboards), Richard Fortus (guitar), Melissa Reese (keyboards) and Isaac Carpenter (drums).
• Rose is the only constant member since the band's formation.

Career

• Debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987) sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and became the best-selling debut album in the U.S.
• Use Your Illusion I and II (1991) debuted at numbers two and one on the Billboard 200.
• Chinese Democracy (2008) was the long-delayed album reportedly costing $13 million.
• The Not in This Lifetime... Tour (2016–2018) grossed $563.3 million.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012; the band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: David Fricke called it physically assaultive, verbally incendiary, and at times downright screwy
• Fricke found the album strong on riffs, hooks and body-slam sonics, and praised the spirit of overdoing things
• USA Today: Edna Gundersen said it barely betters Use Your Illusion II
• Chicago Tribune: Greg Kot preferred II but still called I consistently involving
• Robert Christgau gave the album a one-star honorable mention and named Don't Damn Me its best track
• NME: Mary Anne Hobbs felt the two albums held only five strong songs, with Double Talkin' Jive as the sole highlight from I
• Critics praised November Rain and Coma but criticized the amount of filler

Reappraisal

• AllMusic: Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it suffers from filler and overblown production but is a stronger work than II
• Erlewine highlighted November Rain and Coma as ambitious set pieces
• 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide: Ann Powers called I the more propulsive of the two albums
• Rolling Stone ranked both Use Your Illusion records jointly at number 41 on its 2010 list of the best albums of the 1990s

Records

• Debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 685,000 copies in the first week
• Behind II's first-week sales of 770,000
• 5,502,000 units sold in the United States as of 2010, per Nielsen SoundScan
• Certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA
• Nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 1992 Grammy Awards
• Both albums opened as the top two albums in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Released at midnight; estimates said over 500,000 copies of the two albums sold in just two hours.
• Major stores K-Mart and Walmart refused to stock the albums because of the profanity.
• Liner notes of both albums carry a message aimed at St. Louis, a reference to the Riverport Riot in July 1991.
• Rose has said Don't Cry was written about a girl named Monique Lewis, who was romantically involved with both Rose and Stradlin at different times.
• Coma uses hospital sound effects and a real defibrillator.
• Live and Let Die is a cover of Paul McCartney and Wings' song.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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