And now we’re on to 1987. This was a massive year at the top end of rock. It’s pretty crazy – the albums Hysteria, Appetite For Destruction and The Joshua Tree sold a combined 75 million copies worldwide. Two of those albums didn’t really gain steam until a year later, but that’s a different story.
Things were moving on musically in the later 1980’s. A lot of bands seemed to be chasing the brass ring and not quite grabbing it. Acts that had vital, fresh albums a few years back were now stagnating. There’s still plenty of good music to be found, but in retrospect, the signs of the coming nuclear assault of 1991 were already there by ’87.
But there’s no need for massive analysis of everything. All I really need to do is pick five songs I really like from 1987. Not necessarily my five definitive favorites, simply five of my favorites. This is a fast and loose exercise so let’s get into it.
Mötley Crüe – Wild Side
The Crüe got back to form after a bit of a letdown a few years prior. Wild Side is a heavy, pounding track that outlines the sleazier part of life. Not everything was fast women and good times in the ’80’s, there was a seedy side to things and Wild Side captured the grit and grime of the streets at night. This is one of my very favorite Crüe songs.
Guns N’ Roses – Welcome To The Jungle
1987 was the year GnR were thrust into the wider world. It would take them a bit to break, but break they did, to the tune of selling 30 million copies of Appetite For Destruction. The tune that really gets me going is the album’s opening track. It is a monster song, and much like the one from their bitter rivals above, relays how the big, bad city can swallow you whole. This threw a whole new level of intensity into the rock scene and made titans out of Guns N’ Roses.
Whitesnake – Still Of The Night
David Coverdale was not to be left out of the big winnings of 1987. Gambling his whole fortune on the album he’d just crafted, he would be paid back in spades as his album sold 10 million copies. While honestly just a song about a romp between the sheets, this is laid out with great care, featuring movements and interludes and the dynamite guitar of John Sykes. This song could be considered Whitesnake’s greatest triumph, though that’s not a question I’m here to discuss today.
U2 – Where The Streets Have No Name
U2 were big winners from 1987, bringing in a haul from their 25 million plus selling The Joshua Tree record. I’m not the band’s biggest fan but there’s no doubt that the album is a piece of work and that this song is absolutely stunning. This is simply a massive rock song packed with emotion and imagery that is too vivid to escape.
Dio – All The Fools Sailed Away
By 1987, Ronnie James Dio was operating without his wunderkid guitarist Vivian Campbell, who departed the band in acrimonious fashion. Though Dio’s “golden era” would be over, he was still capable of striking gold, as he did on this magnificent track. It’s a splendid quasi-ballad that stands alongside his prime cuts as one of his best works.
That wraps it up for 1987. Just two more years of the golden 1980’s to go, then things get really, really different – both in music and in my tastes.
Awhile back I had a look at the songs that Iron Maiden have not played live. It was a fair run through a decent portion of their catalog and kind of a fun exercise to guess what might actually see the light of day on stage versus what almost certainly will never get played. The idea for it came from a Loudwire article, and the site has struck again with the “songs never played live” series. This time the subject is Guns N’ Roses, as the title of this post probably hinted at.
Now this will be a radically different post – GnR only have four songs never played live. I was a bit shocked by that information. While the band were relatively inactive for a long time and do only have what qualifies as four full-length studio releases plus some originals on an EP, four is a very surprising and low number. It means they have run through the vast majority of their catalog in a live setting.
It’s not surprising that all of Appetite For Destruction has been played live, they probably took care of that in the late ’80’s as their star was burning super hot. The GnR Lies EP also has a few original tracks and all have been played live at least a few times, including the mega-controversial song One In A Million. And if we fast forward to 2008’s Axl-led spectacle Chinese Democracy, we will find that those too have all been played live. As a note, this doesn’t count cover songs, so that one thing they released in the mid-90’s before they split isn’t on here.
Yes, in order to pinpoint the unplayed songs we need to visit 1991 and the infamous Use Your Illusion double albums. It is these two discs that all four of today’s songs hail from. It’s honestly more shocking to me that they only didn’t play four of these songs.
Way back when I started this site I did a pretty in-depth dive into the UYI albums. That saga began on this post for anyone interested in a far deeper dive than what I’ll get into today.
This post is pretty quick and simple. Four songs, let’s see what they are and whether or not Guns N’ Roses should throw them in a setlist someday.
Don’t Damn Me
This is the lone unplayed cut from Use Your Illusion I. It’s not a song I’m all that into. It isn’t horrible but there’s nothing special about it, at least to me. It would be “fine” in a live setting but also the band has a billion other songs that are way better so this would be taking up space. I could see them playing it one day just to knock it off the list.
Get In The Ring
This, like the rest of the list, is from Use Your Illusion II. And this one surprises me. This is a massive, swear-filled diss track aimed at the music media who Axl and company despised at the height of their fame, which was roughly 1989-1991. I suppose opinion is divided on this song as opinion is on everything, but I and plenly of other people always really liked this one and I’m honestly a bit floored that they haven’t played it out.
And don’t be fooled by the live crowd chanting in the song – Axl had a June 1991 crowd specifically chant “Get In The Ring” in order to record it and use on the album. This wasn’t done live even though crowd noise is involved.
It wouldn’t shock me at all if the band decided to give this one a go. I could see them maybe not doing Axl’s rant that names off a bunch of journalists and maybe that was one reason why they didn’t play it. But I’d say this one really ought to get some stage time.
Shotgun Blues
Another bit of a surprise and for me a total badass song. I always liked this one and I think it’d work great live. I don’t know what gives here and this is one they need to get into a setlist ASAP.
My World
The final song on UYI II is a total pile and I feel the exact opposite about it as I do about Shotgun Blues. I’d be mad if I heard this shit live, that could be mitigated if they were doing it for the sole purpose of totally clearing their unplayed queue. The better move would be to drop it from the album so it doesn’t count on this list anymore.
Well, that’s about it. Honestly not a lot here and that’s totally fine, I was feeling kind of lazy anyway. I have a feeling that GnR are the type to actually track this kind of stuff and they might throw down on these just to say they’ve played all of their originals live. Or maybe not, I don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised. And since their ticket prices are well outside of my reach I don’t have to be worried about shelling out hundreds and being stuck hearing My World live.
But the fact is this – they didn’t act alone. While the death of hair metal wasn’t a grand conspiracy, there were multiple assailants on the scene. And one of those assassins was born and bred in the same scene hair metal came up in – the Sunset Strip of Los Angeles.
What if hair metal didn’t really kill itself (again, we’ll get to that on Friday) but what if it was killed by itself? It begs questions of what hair metal really was and wasn’t, but there’s no doubt that a late ’80’s band left such a mark on the rock scene that it would leave other bands incapable of topping it.
Suspect Two – Guns N Roses
The biggest of the LA bands would hit in the late 1980’s with the monstrous Appetite For Destruction album. While a bit slow to catch on, this collection of tunes would eventually set the world on fire and propel GnR towards “biggest band on Earth” status. The album has gone on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide and is often found on “best album ever” lists regardless of genre.
Guns N Roses were a product of the Sunset Strip and Appetite… certainly was a hard rock/heavy metal document. It is debatable whether the band fits the “hair metal” term, though. They certainly do in general sound and geography, but their brand of rock snarled and snapped a lot more than even the most weighty hair metal offerings.
Many critics and fans do not include GnR on the hair metal roster. This seems to be often fueled by hair metal being seen as a negative term, and bands who are “better” than the moniker are left without having to wear it. It’s the same argument metal fans make when they say someone like Limp Bizkit isn’t metal, but in reverse – spare the band from the term in the case of Guns N Roses, rather than the term from the band.
I can’t really look at things that way, though. I do think Guns N Roses fits the “hair metal” scene and sound. I look at hair metal for what it is – a music scene in a place and time. Sure it has both positive and negative connotations, but the scene can be explored on a semi-objective basis.
It isn’t really fair to classify every mid- or late-80’s band as hair metal, but in the case of Guns N Roses I do think they fit the bill enough. They had the sleazy look and the party hard attitude that went with the scene. Axl Rose wasn’t just a primadonna, he was the absolute head of that table. The band brought with it chaos and drama that other acts could only hope to get a portion of.
The issue at the end of the day is music, of course. Is Appetite For Destruction a hair metal album? I can see the argument either way. The music is bigger than a lot of hair metal and the songs are bounds above the standard fare rock of the time period. The tunes move in a very aggressive direction not often found in the hair metal hordes. Even their “ballad,” Sweet Child O’ Mine, is a much more rounded song that a lot of formula-ridden hair ballads of the day.
And therein lies the point. Appetite For Destruction was such a hard rock monster that it couldn’t be replicated or even contended with. Whether or not it is a true “hair metal” album doesn’t matter – it is adjacent enough to the scene that every band out there had to contend with it. It was a juggernaut incapable of being touched, even by Guns N Roses.
And barely anyone came close to even touching the surface of GnR’s success. Motley Crue would have a hit with their 1989 record Dr. Feelgood, but that album was something of a victory lap for the band and did not approach Appetite’s greatness in any way. Of anyone, perhaps only Skid Row even scratched the surface with their 1991 effort Slave To The Grind. It was another ferocious album that bent the genre and established the group as having prime chops, but that record still did not threaten to unseat Guns N Roses as having made the biggest statement in hard rock.
Guns N Roses themselves would not touch Appetite For Destruction again. Their proper follow-ups were the Use Your Illusion albums – some great songs and clear marks of the excess of rock music, but also very bloated records that tend to crush under their own weight. (For more of my thoughts on those albums, revisit my series on them starting here.) The band would splinter apart in the mid-90’s and only reunite a few years back as a quasi-nostalgia act, with seemingly little new to contribute.
I do feel Guns N Roses is guilty of contributing to the death of hair metal. There was just no way anyone else was going to top Appetite For Destruction. Whether or not the group was really “hair metal” themselves isn’t relevant – maybe it was an inside job or maybe they were just close enough to the scene to take what worked about it and amplify that a thousand times over. Either way, the band are especially guilty of setting the bar so high that the scene they were born of could not cope.
Tomorrow – a suspect not often discussed but one that looms large over the crime scene.
Axl looks like the dude from Soul Asylum in this vid
I spent the week paring down the monstrous Use Your Illusion albums from Guns N Roses into one lean, mean fighting disc. Here is Part One and Part Two of that effort, and here you can find the results of my labor.
With that out of the way but the topic still fresh in my mind, I wanted to take a moment and review my favorite songs from the records. There isn’t any more lead-in than that needed so let’s get right into it.
#5 – 14 Years
This is the song Izzy Stradlin sang the verses on, though an unfamiliar listener could be forgiven for not knowing that since Axl’s voice can take on so many different forms. There is no official confirmation but rumors suggest that the song is about Izzy and Axl’s friendship. Izzy left the band during the tour cycle for Illusion and the band did not play the song again until Izzy did a guest spot on the reunion tour.
For me it’s just a cool song that I always liked. It has no real personal meaning for me – I mean, I was 14 when the records came out so I had no “14 years or silence or pain” to relate to, just dumb kid stuff. It’s a song that I’ve always playlisted or whatever and when I revisited these albums it was one of the first ones that really jumped out at me.
#4 – November Rain
Yep, the epic, grandiose, and also ridiculous and over-wrought hit is one of my favorites from the albums. This song and video was such a complete spectacle that it was hard to turn away from. Cake fights, explosions, and cars driving off cliffs while Slash solos – what more could you ask for?
I guess this song is about Axl and his personal relations with women. I don’t really know, it’s a bit hard to derive meaning from all the bombast. I do know that when it rains in the winter I always get this song stuck in my head. I think that’s an inevitable part of life for anyone around when this was all the rage.
#3 – You Could Be Mine
The lead single from the records had a glorious tie-in with thehotly-anticipated Terminator 2. The resulting video interspersed movie footage and also some original content, climaxing when the Terminator’s target screen gives a funny message after scanning the band.
The song is a badass rocker that outlines what must have been a crazy relationship. Nothing wrong with redlining things once in awhile, that’s what youth is for. But yeah, it’s a great song and a signature tune for me from these albums.
Interesting that the band didn’t officially upload the video. I guess money and rights issues between them and the studio.
#2 – Estranged
This long epic was always one of the highlights of the double set. It (I think) served as the final single release for these records before the band moved to an uninspired covers album before effectively breaking up for 20 years.
The song is magnificent – with slowly-building movements that incorporate some of Slash’s most tasteful guitar work and very poignant lyrics from Axl. The song builds to a monumental finish around the 7-minute mark – this is the part where Axl jumps off the ship and does his swimming with the dolphins thing in the video.
I loved the song when it first hit, but Estranged has also taken on new meaning as I’ve gotten older. When the albums released I was 14, when the video for this song dropped I think I was 15 or 16. The word “estranged” is something I would have had to look up in a dictionary. I didn’t know the first thing about it.
But all these years later it’s a different story. Sure, estrangement usually refers to either spouses or parent-child relationships. But it can still apply in a broader sense to personal interactions as a whole. As time wears on, we will lose family, friends, lovers, and other people. One day, often without knowing it, we’ll have said the last things we’re ever gonna say to each other. It’s not a matter of death – everyone’s still around living their lives, it’s just that people have fallen away. Maybe some reconnections can and should be made, but by and large there is very much a “ships passing in the night” vibe to how people come together and fall apart.
In this age of pandemics, climate upheaval and social-political unrest, it’s tough also not to consider the personal relationship aspect of life. We’re all twisting and turning toward something that doesn’t really look good, but also the past is dead and gone. Might as well have a bit of midlife crisis on top of the endless supply of existential dread.
Why must it drift away and die? I don’t know, but that’s the way it goes.
#1 – Civil War
It’s time for the champion to come claim its crown, and this battle was never in any real dispute.
Civil War has always been my favorite track from this era. The song is both melodically beautiful and powerful, a masterful attack on the military industrial complex and a look at the formation of unrest and discord through society.
I didn’t quite understand all of that back then but the song always leapt out at me. And now that I do, perhaps barely, understand what it’s about, I’ve noticed I’m far from the only one to gravitate towards it when these albums get brought up. Hell, they play this song on the radio a fair bit these days, even if “radio play” doesn’t mean what it used to.
Rock music doesn’t always have to be high-minded. It can be dumb and fun, both of which are in ample supply on the Use Your Illusion records. But rock is often at its best when it does cover the deeper, darker threads of existence. And Guns N Roses are in top form on this song.
Well folks, that just about does it for my exploration of the Use Your Illusion albums. It was a very interesting time for me to come of age in, both with this ultimate realization of the band’s grandiose plans and the antithesis to that bombast that hit the airwaves at the exact same time. It was pretty fun and sometimes head-scratching to go back through these ambitious albums and the wide variety of songs on offer. I didn’t feel many were that great but there are some absolute masterworks to be found here.
In terms of further explorations of double albums, well, I know there is other work to be done. My next cutting room floor project is sitting on my CD shelf right now (sorry, Trent). I also have a future idea that pushes the bounds of the definitions here but I’ll see how that goes a bit down the road.
To close – thank you, rock stars, for thinking we need these massive double records. If nothing else, it gives me something to write about.
This is the pivotal part of my arduous task to cut the Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion albums into one leaner, more epic record. For those posts, check out where I carved up Use Your Illusion I and then over here for Use Your Illusion II.
Let’s begin with a list of the songs that I have automatically placed onto the final cut.
Live And Let Die
November Rain
Civil War
14 Years
Get In The Ring
Estranged
You Could Be Mine
This gives me a 44:51 runtime. I have 25:09 I can fill, so let’s review our pretty big pile of “maybes” that I’ll be choosing from.
From Use Your Illusion I
Right Next Door To Hell
Dust N Bones
Don’t Cry
Perfect Crime
Bad Obsession
The Garden
Garden Of Eden
From Use Your Illusion II
Yesterdays
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Shotgun Blues
Pretty Tied Up
So right off the bat I see two that are going on – Don’t Cry and Shotgun Blues will make my final cut. This puts the runtime at 52:58.
I can now easily place the top two from the maybe pile on this record no problem. Right Next Door To Hell and Dust N Bones have made the cut. I’m now at 60:58 running time, leaving me 9 minutes of space to make a final decision.
3 songs stick out to me that I would put on here, but one doesn’t make it. The Garden, Yesterdays and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. Time constraints won’t allow both The Garden or the cover song on here, though Yesterdays is a perfectly safe runtime and makes the album.
The choices are a cover song that was a single from the record and a signature track for the band for a while, or a second-tier track with a rock god Alice Cooper as a guest.
I see various arguments that could be had here. One cover song is enough. Alice Cooper, c’mon man. But The Garden isn’t really as good as Knockin is. I loaded up with songs from II enough already, let I have a bit more representation on the final cut. My version also has almost all of the album’s singles piled on here. Is it that the singles are the best songs or that I just remember them more and I’m not paying enough mind to the deep cuts?
In the end I did what any person faced with a great, difficult decision has to do – I flipped a coin. Heads to The Garden, tails for Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. The result was heads – The Garden makes the final cut.
I now have my own version of a definitve representation of Use Your Illusion. 13 songs, a runtime of 69:36 (nice!) and the songs I think stand out and offer the best listening experience.
Now I have one more chore – album sequencing. These songs need to be in an order that flows well. This is gonna take a second.
You Could Be Mine
14 Years
Dust N Bones
Yesterdays
Live And Let Die
Shotgun Blues
Right Next Door To Hell
Civil War
The Garden
Get In The Ring
Don’t Cry
November Rain
Estranged
Ok – being real, I didn’t put a ton of thought into it. I did want You Could Be Mine to lead off the album, I felt like the lead single should kick things off and it’s the perfect opener. I wanted a bit of space between the two real aggro songs, Right Next Door To Hell and Get In The Ring. Of course, Shotgun Blues is also pretty aggro so that didn’t really work out. And I wanted the 3 songs that comprise the video trilogy to conclude the album. I do sort of wonder if Get In The Ring should really be right before Don’t Cry but I’m gonna roll with it.
I noticed something as I was having a pain in the ass time building the playlist for this – I did a lot of unintentional staggering of songs from between the two records. Only the first 2 and tracks 11 and 12 are from the same original album. It was a bit of a headache to jump back and forth between both records to make the playlist. (Yeah, total first world problem, I know)
In the end I feel like I got what I wanted here. The songs that didn’t make the cut could serve as B-sides to the plethora of album singles. Let’s be real – a lot of that stuff should have been B-sides anyway. That’s why I’ve had to undertake this great work.
So there we have it – my definitve version of Use Your Illusion. Let me know what you think – did I curate it properly or did I do a total botch job on it? What essential cut to you did I skip and what bloated carcass of a song that I’m into do you think sucks?
Tomorrow – my five favorite songs from these albums. Spoiler alert – they’re all on the final cut.
Yesterday I began the daunting task of turning the two massive Guns N Roses records from 1991, the Use Your Illusion series, into one awesome album. I’m playing with a run time of 70 minutes so that I get a bit of a challenge out of it.
Before I get busy on the cutting room floor I do want to cover the fact that the record label already did what I’m doing. There is a version of Use Your Illusion that is a single-disc album that clocks in at 63 minutes.
But their reason for doing it and my reason for doing this don’t line up – I am trying to make an all killer, no filler version of these albums. The record label did it because the big box retail stores wouldn’t stock records with the dreaded “Parental Advisory” sticker so they cut a clean version for retail.
I’m here to tell you – here at The Crooked Wanderer, I like to cuss. I use colorful language from time to time. My records will never be in stock at Wal-Mart or …. oh yeah, the rest of the old big box stores are dead now.
Anyway, back to the task at hand. I’m going to evaluate the songs on Use Your Illusion II and decide what automatically gets included on my final version, which songs will carry on to the next round for consideration and which will hit the cutting room floor right here and now. Let’s rock and roll.
Guns N Roses – Use Your Illusion II
Civil War (7:42)
So Doctor Strange can review 14 million scenarios where the Avengers take on Thanos and find exactly one where the good guys win. But the good doctor can’t find even one scenario where I leave Civil War off of the final record.
This is easily one of my favorite Guns N Roses songs. Not just in relation to the album its on but in consideration of their entire catalog. It absolutely has to be on the album.
14 Years (4:21)
I always dug this Izzy Stradlin-led jam. It’s smooth, rollicking and pretty kick ass. I could maybe it but the fact is it would be the first one on the pile I grabbed to put on the record so let’s just do it now – it has to be on the final cut.
Yesterday (3:16)
One of the double album’s many singles and a very nice song. I am going to maybe this because of time considerations but I have a feeling it’ll work its way on the list in the end.
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (5:36)
Of course the band were gonna cover one of Bob Dylan’s most well-known and oft-covered cuts. (GnR had previously done this song live and in studio). This was a well-executed rendition that updated the song for the 1990’s. I don’t know what the whole speech thing in the interlude is about but it’s whatever. I’ll maybe this because things are gonna get tight in the final battle for space on this record and I don’t know if 2 cover songs are the way to go on a single album.
Get In The Ring (5:41)
This is an interesting one. On one hand, it’s petty as all hell and shows Axl’s less than savory side in full light. On the other hand, the media always were, are now, and always will be a total pain in the ass so I can understand where he’s coming from.
And in the end I gotta roll with it. Gotta go with the good, the bad and the ugly and honestly it’s a pretty killer track. Get In The Ring has to be on the final cut.
Shotgun Blues (3:23)
This is a really cool song that I always liked. I have to maybe it due to time constraints but it’ll certainly be a contender when we get to the finish line.
Breakdown (7:04)
Ok so this song is all right. Has some slight callbacks to “Sweet Child O’ Mine” through some guitar inflections and it’s overall a decent tune. But it’s also a hard NO because it doesn’t have the same weight as other stuff here and it’s a bloated corpse at 7 minutes.
Pretty Tied Up (4:47)
It’s a pretty cool song and I certainly can appreciate the subject matter. I will have to maybe it and I kinda feel like it gets lost in the shuffle, it’s a bit meandering compared to the heavy hitters there are to deal with.
Locomotive (8:42)
The song is pretty badass but there really just isn’t room for something nearly 9 minutes long that doesn’t totally rule. This feels like more of a b-side to me, so it’s a NO.
So Fine (4:06)
This Duff-led song is ok but I don’t really need to dwell on it too much – it’s a NO. Don’t really have room for it. I do think the world of Duff though, he seems like such an awesome dude.
Estranged (9:23)
The last video in the Del James trilogy, and the most self-indulgent one where Axl swims with dolphins or some shit.
And it’s also one of the best songs on the album. Epic, powerful and builds to a super heavy conclusion. This absolutely has to be on the record.
You Could Be Mine (5:43)
This was the lead single for both albums. A tie-in with the summer movie blockbuster Terminator 2 – Judgment Day brought both the band and movie front and center in the cultural landscape of 1991. The song is a total banger and is probably the most well-executed hard rocker on both discs. It 100% has to be on the final album.
Don’t Cry – Alternate Version (4:44)
As covered in the first part, the original version of Don’t Cry is in the maybe pile. As such, there is no room for the same song with some different stuff going on in it. This one is a NO.
My World (1:24)
The over-wrought albums end with a weird electronic music, quasi-rap thing from Axl. I am overall an album-oriented listener and as such I find little interlude things to be fun and sometimes interesting. But no chance in Hell should an album end on something like that. This is not essential listening by any means so it gets voted off the record. NO
So now I have a pile of have to’s and maybe’s. Adding up the times of my have to’s I get a running time of 44:51. That leaves me with 25 minutes to fill for a 70 minute album. Even with me including several of the longer songs I have plenty of room to work with.
It’s also worth mentioning that yeah, I obviously favor the second album. It does bog down some in its middle section but it picks back up with a few of the best songs on either record. I never really had sat and wondered which of the two I liked more but I think we have that answer right in front of us.
So now I have my lists. Tomorrow the exercise concludes with the work of picking through the maybe pile to see what fills out the record. Then Friday I’ll give some time to discuss my 5 favorite tracks overall. My bloated 4-part exploration of these 2 bloated albums is getting ready to round the bend.
Don’t you just love when a band releases a double album? It’s two albums’ worth of stuff, it has to be twice as good as just one, right?
Right?
I’m sure good double albums exist that don’t need an editor’s touch. I’m not sure I’d do anything to The White Album. We now have legacy groups like Iron Maiden and Tool offering what are, in any technical sense, double albums.
But often the double album is simply an exercise in indulgence. And I can think of no greater amount of indulgence than that found on the 1991 double set from Guns N Roses, the Use Your Illusion series.
It’s true, these are more two separate albums released at the same time than a double album. But it’s the same difference so we’ll roll with it. It’s also going to be the 30th anniversary of these albums on Friday the 17th so it’s a fun time to go back through these.
My purpose here is to turn these two monster albums, with a total running time between them of 2 hours and 32 minutes, into one album. I have to use a time calculator for the first time in my life for this. Very thrilling.
Now a standard CD can hold up to 80 minutes of music, though in the past many were 75 minutes or something like that. For the purposes of this exercise I’m going to use 70 minutes as a running time cap. No way I can use vinyl as a metric for this, both of these chonkers were each double LP efforts.
What I will do is go through each disc track-by-track. I’ll offer a bit of discussion on each song and decide whether it has to be on the comp, maybe it can be on there, or it definitely isn’t going. After a post for each of the albums I’ll do a third one to reveal my final choices. For fun I’ll also do my own top 5 songs from the records as some bonus content.
Just like these albums, this exercise is gonna run a little long, so let’s hit the cutting room floor.
Guns N Roses – Use Your Illusion I
Right Next Door To Hell (3:02)
A nice opening track, I always like when bands come right in with the heat. It’s funny that the very first song on the biggest band in the world’s monster double effort is Axl bitching about a neighbor but hey, it’s that rage and fire that keeps ya alive sometimes. This is a solid maybe for me and honestly more probable than anything to end up on the final edit.
Dust N Bones (4:58)
Pretty smooth and nice tune. It also goes in the maybe pile because I don’t know how much room I’ll have to work with at the end and I can’t definitely say this song has to be there. But it’s a solid candidate.
Live And Let Die (3:04)
We have a Paul McCartney cover song here and this absolutely works. A fantastic rendition that fits GnR very well. This has to be on the end product. The band always was an exercise in both smooth melody and frantic, balls-out rock and this song showcases both perfectly.
Don’t Cry (4:44)
Here’s an interesting case – the same song is on both albums but the version on II is an alternate take. It’s not the greatest thing the band ever recorded but it is a nice ballad and another one I’ll give the maybe card to. Admittedly I do feel like it probably has to be there though, it’s very representative of the band during this period.
Perfect Crime (2:23)
A very nice, short and to the point hard rocker. A very strong tune and a very easy maybe for me. I could almost auto-include it due to its piss-ant length but it’s not top-tier enough to grant an automatic pass to.
You Ain’t The First (2:36)
Another very short song but this time mercifully so. This is what we call “filler,” folks. There’s a hell of a lot of it on these albums. This is a big fat NO, chaff like this is why I’m here culling it down.
Bad Obession (5:23)
A pretty nice bluesy, groovy number that features guest Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks fame playing a few instruments. I’ll maybe it because it’s a decent tune but it sits more on the cut line than the add pile. While it’s nice it’s also like the quintessential dive bar song and that aesthetic, while pleasing, doesn’t fit this bombastic album.
Back Off Bitch (5:03)
It’s a kinda cool song but it’s also whining about your ex years after shit happened. Like, get over it Axl. It’s pretty basic shit that we almost all have to deal with at some point. I’m a big NO on this one. The albums as a whole communicate some pretty lofty stuff at points and this petty shit doesn’t really fit. Axl did a much better job of singing about his exes on other tracks throughout these records.
Double Talkin’ Jive (3:23)
Not the worst thing I’ve ever heard but we gotta exercise some quality control around here. NO
November Rain (8:57)
No point in trying to do some verbal exercise to pretend there’s even an argument – November Rain has to be on the final cut. This song is the very definition of the Use Your Illusion albums – grandiose, bombastic, epic and absurd. It’s perhaps the signature song of both records.
The Garden (5:22)
It’s a decent tune and has a guest shot from Alice Cooper, an absolute god of rock music. I’ll maybe it because it’s a nice song and because Alice, but I am very on the fence about it. This one will require some deliberation when push comes to shove.
Garden Of Eden(2:34)
I’m not some expert on track sequencing but I personally wouldn’t put two songs with the same word in them right next to each other on an album. The song itself is pretty cool, total maybe territory. It might squeak in due to its forgiving run time.
Don’t Damn Me (5:18)
I won’t call it bad but it’s total filler. Easy NO on this one.
Bad Apples (4:28)
I’ll give you three guesses as to what pile I’m gonna put this song in.
If you guessed NO way this whatever song makes my final album cut, give yourself an award. It shouldn’t have made the final cut of the record in the first place.
Dead Horse (4:17)
This isn’t a bad tune by any means but I’m not sure it’s what I’m going for here. I can’t maybe every single song so I’m gonna give this the ol’ heave-ho and say NO.
Coma (10:14)
I’m gonna be real – I totally forgot about this song. I haven’t played these albums in their entirety in many years and I did a double-take when I read the running time of this given that I’m on a time cap with this whole deal.
I could maybe this one very easily. It’s a cool track. But let’s be real – a 10 minute song is going to cause problems when I go to make final cuts, and there are two longer songs on the next album that frankly aren’t going to be left out.
Coma just doesn’t really make the cut here. There are too many shorter songs to consider that would get bumped if this time hog were included. It’s a cool listen but not enough for what’s supposed to be an epic look into a huge band’s most prolific creative period. Coma gets a NO.
I’m finally through to the end of this bloated monster. And this is only the first part. Out of 16 songs I’m showing a tally of 2 songs that have to be on the final version. I have 6 I said NO to right then and there, and 8 that are still in consideration as maybes. I’m barely at a run time of 12 minutes right now but some of the maybes here will be added in the end, and I’m pretty sure Part II will offer up more auto-includes than this did. I’ll get into UYI II tomorrow, then Thursday I’ll post my final edit. Friday brings my 5 favorite songs from the albums. See you then.
The Crooked Wanderer 