Use Your Illusion II

Use Your Illusion II
Studio album by Guns N' Roses
Released	September 17, 1991
Recorded	A&M Studios, Record Plant Studios, Studio 56, Image Recording, Conway Studios & Metalworks Recording Studios 1990–1991
Genre	Hard rock
Length	75:57
Label	Geffen Records
Producer	Mike Clink and Guns N' Roses
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Q September 1991 Robert Christgau link Rolling Stone link
Guns N' Roses chronology
Use Your Illusion I (1991) Use Your Illusion II (1991) "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)

Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. It was one of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, and as a result the two albums are sometimes seen together as a double album. Bolstered by the lead single "You Could Be Mine", Use Your Illusion II was the slightly more popular of the two albums, debuting at #1 on the U.S. charts (although both went on to reach 7x platinum sales).^[1] It was also #1 on the UK chart for a single week.

Overview

The Use Your Illusion albums were a stylistic turning point for Guns N' Roses (see Use Your Illusion I for discussion). In addition, Use Your Illusion II is more political than most of their previous work, with songs like "Civil War", a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", and "Get in the Ring" dealing respectively with the topics of violence, law enforcement, and media bias. The thematic material deals less with drug use than previous Guns N' Roses albums. The band's cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" had been released almost a year earlier on the, Days of Thunder soundtrack. "Civil War" was debuted at the 1990 Farm Aid concert. That concert also featured Guns N' Roses playing a cover of the U.K. Subs song "Down on the Farm". "Civil War" was released as a B-Side to "You Could Be Mine". The song was also released on a charity album called Nobody's Child. The album was a fund-raising compilation for Romanian orphans. The first single, "You Could Be Mine", was released in July 1991 and is featured in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, however the song was not released on the actual T2 soundtrack. The band also filmed a video featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in character as the Terminator, and a loose plot featuring Axl Rose himself as its "target." The original subject matter of the song dealt with Izzy Stradlin's failed relationship with his ex-girlfriend Angela Nicoletti. The Use Your Illusion albums can be taken as a single cohesive work, and certain elements of Use Your Illusion II underscore this intent. For instance, both albums have a version of the song "Don't Cry". Both albums also have one cover song; "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney (Use Your Illusion I) and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan (Use Your Illusion II). Each of them also has at least one track sung by other members of the band: lead vocals on "So Fine" are performed by bassist Duff McKagan and the song was dedicated to Johnny Thunders who passed away from a drug overdose before the recording of the album, lead vocals on "14 Years" are performed by Izzy Stradlin (Izzy sings "Dust N' Bones", "You Ain't the First" and "Double Talkin' Jive" on Use Your Illusion I). The song "Get in the Ring" finds the band lashing out at a career's worth of critics and enemies. Among those referred to by name specifically are editors of several entertainment magazines. "My World," the final track, was a surprise to a few members of the band. The track was essentially Axl Rose solo, and most of the members did not even know it existed until the album was released. To achieve this end result, the band struggled mightly, 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). [2] Slash has stated that most of the material for the album was written on acoustics in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity.^[2]

Song information

Locomotive

"Locomotive" is the ninth track on the album. Slash stated "Locomotive is played on an Explorer. What I do is turn the tone knob down." ^[3] He also stated that it was written in house he and Izzy rented in Hollywood Hills, following the Appetite for Destruction tours, by himself and Izzy.^[4]

So Fine

"So Fine" is the tenth track on the album. The song is not only sung by bass guitarist Duff McKagan, but it was written by him as a tribute to the deceased punk rock musician Johnny Thunders. ^[5]

Track listing

Raphael, The School of Athens (detail)

1. "Civil War" (Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan) – 7:42
2. "14 Years" (Rose, Izzy Stradlin) – 4:23
3. "Yesterdays" (Rose, West Arkeen, Brian James, Billy McCloud) – 3:14
4. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan) – 5:36
5. "Get in the Ring" (Rose, Slash, McKagan) – 5:29
6. "Shotgun Blues" (Rose) – 3:23
7. "Breakdown" (Rose) – 7:03
8. "Pretty Tied Up" (Stradlin) – 4:48
9. "Locomotive" (Rose, Slash) – 8:42
10. "So Fine" (McKagan) – 4:07
11. "Estranged" (Rose) – 9:23
12. "You Could Be Mine" (Rose, Stradlin) – 5:42
13. "Don't Cry (Alternate Lyrics)" (Rose, Stradlin) – 4:45
14. "My World" (Rose) – 1:23

Personnel

• Axl Rose – lead vocals
• Slash – lead guitar, acoustic guitar
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals
• Matt Sorum – drums, percussion
• Dizzy Reed – piano, organ, keyboards, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Steven Adler – drums (track 1)
• Howard Teman – piano (track 10)
• Shannon Hoon – vocals (track 13)
• Johann Langlie – keyboards, drums and sound effects (all in track 14)
• Josh Richman – speech (track 4)
• The Waters – backing vocals (track 4)^[6]

Miscellaneous

• One of the lines from the song, "You Could Be Mine", "With your bitch slap-rappin' and your cocaine tongue/You get nuthin' done" also appears in the liner notes from Appetite for Destruction.
• The title of the album was the focus of a joke on an episode of the sitcom Arrested Development that aired well over a decade after the CD's release. When magician Tony Wonder (played by Ben Stiller) had to come up with a name for his home video, he decided to name it Use Your Illusion II, citing that Use Your Illusion I had already been taken, apparently unaware of the fact that Use Your Illusion II is also the name of an album. In the end, he used the title Use Your Allusion.

References