Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I - (1991) - {First US Pressing} - Vinyl - 24-Bit/96kHz + 16-Bit/44kHz

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by Guns N' Roses. It was the first of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, the other being Use Your Illusion II. The two are thus sometimes considered a double album. In fact, in the original vinyl releases, both Use Your Illusion albums are double albums. Material for all four discs was recorded at the same time and there was some discussion of releasing a "quadruple album". The Use Your Illusion albums represent a turning point in the sound of Guns N' Roses. Although they did not abandon the hard-rock tendencies vivid in their first album, Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I demonstrated, for the first time, more or less, elements of blues, classical music, heavy metal, punk rock and rock and roll classic. For example, lead singer Axl Rose plays piano on several tracks of both albums. This fact is evidenced by the numerous music videos produced in conjunction with these albums. Use Your Illusion I contains two of the three songs, "November Rain" and "Don't Cry", whose videos are generally held by fans to be part of a trilogy. The third song, "Estranged", is on Use Your Illusion II. Another influence on the different sound to this album compared to the band's earlier work is the replacement of drummer Steven Adler (who was unable to perform well enough for the sessions due to drug problems) by former Cult drummer Matt Sorum. A number of songs on the album were written in the band's early days. They were not included on Appetite for Destruction but can be found on the popular bootlegged so-called 'Rumbo Tapes', an album of early demo tapes. "Back Off Bitch", "Bad Obsession", "Don't Cry" (referred to by Rose during the ensuing tour as 'the first song they ever wrote together'), "November Rain", and "The Garden" are considered part of this group. There's also a cover of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die". Besides stylistic differences, another new aspect seen in Use Your Illusion I was longer songs. "November Rain", an epic ballad, is nearly nine minutes long, and "Coma" is more than 10 minutes long. Another change was the presence of tracks sung by other members of the band (even though certain songs from Appetite for Destruction and G N' R Lies featured other members on duet vocals), lead vocals on "Dust N' Bones", "You Ain't the First," "14 Years" and "Double Talkin' Jive" are performed by rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin. The band had some difficulty achieving the final sound of the album, especially during the mixing stages of the production of both albums. According to a 1991 cover story by Rolling Stone magazine, after mixing 21 tracks with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start from scratch with engineer Bill Price of Sex Pistols fame. Slash has stated that a great deal of the material for the album was written on acoustic guitars in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity. Released on midnight of September 17, 1991, the Use Your Illusion albums were among the most anticipated in rock history. Predictions in the industry were of sales reaching the likes of Michael Jackson's Thriller and Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, this despite the fact that major stores K-Mart and Walmart refused to stock the albums due to the profanity present. Estimates suggested that over 500,000 copies of the two albums were sold in just 2 hours. Both albums ultimately underperformed expectations domestically, with Use Your Illusion I selling 5,502,000 and both being certified 7x Platinum by the RIAA. Use Your Illusion I debuted below Use Your Illusion II mainly due to the fact that the second album contained the main lead single of the two albums "You Could Be Mine". Reception to Use Your Illusion I was mainly positive, and it is regarded as the more hard-rocking album of the two due in part to the influence of Izzy Stradlin. Critics praised the highlights of the album such as "November Rain" and "Coma", the closing track, but criticised the amount of filler on the album. Asked if the wait was worth it, David Frick of Rolling Stone noted "yes". The cover art of both Use Your Illusion albums is detail from Raphael's painting The School of Athens. The highlighted figure, unlike many of those in the painting, has not been identified with any specific philosopher. The only difference in the artwork between Use Your Illusion I and II is the color scheme used for each album. Use Your Illusion I uses the warm colors red and yellow; Use Your Illusion II uses the cool colors blue and purple. Both covers are the work of Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi. I have included full scans.

Musicians:

W. Axl Rose – lead vocals, piano, choir and synthesizer programming on "November Rain", backing vocals on "Dust N' Bones" and "The Garden", acoustic guitar on "Dead Horse", keyboards on "Live and Let Die" and "Garden of Eden", sound effects on "Perfect Crime" and "Garden of Eden"

Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar on "You Ain't The First", lead guitar on "Back off Bitch", lead vocals on "Dust N' Bones", "Double Talkin' Jive" and "You Ain't The First", percussion on "Bad Obsession"

Slash – lead guitar, acoustic and slide guitar on "The Garden", dobro on "You Ain't The First", backing vocals on "Right Next Door to Hell", "Dust N' Bones", "Bad Obsession", "Back off Bitch" and "Garden of Eden", talkbox on "Dust N' Bones", six-string bass on "Right Next Door to Hell"

Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, acoustic guitar on "You Ain't The First" and "Double Talkin' Jive"

Dizzy Reed – keyboards, piano on "Live and Let Die" and "Bad Obsession", tambourine on "Live and Let Die", clavinet on "Bad Apples", backing vocals on "November Rain", "Garden of Eden" and "Bad Apples"

Matt Sorum – drums, percussion on "Dust N' Bones", "Double Talkin' Jive", "The Garden" and "Coma", backing vocals on "November Rain" and "Bad Apples", choir on "November Rain"

Shannon Hoon – backing vocals on tracks 3, 10 and 11; back up vocals on track 4 and 6
Johann Langlie – programming on tracks 3, 10 and 12; sound effects on track 16
Michael Monroe – harmonica and saxophone on track 7
Reba Shaw – backing vocals on track 10
Stuart Bailey – backing vocals on track 10
Jon Thautwein – horn on track 3
Matthew McKagan – horn on track 3
Rachel West – horn on track 3
Robert Clark – horn on track 3
Tim Doyle – tambourine on track 6
Alice Cooper – lead vocals on track 11
West Arkeen – acoustic guitar on track 11
Bruce Foster – sound effects on track 16