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, Skip Saylor Recording (album mixing) 1990-1991
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	75:58
Label	Geffen
Producer	Mike Clink, Guns N' Roses
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Q September 1991 Rolling Stone link RS Album Guide link
Guns N' Roses chronology
Use Your Illusion I (1991) Use Your Illusion II (1991) "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)
Singles from Use Your Illusion II
"You Could Be Mine" Released: June 1991 (June 1991) "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" Released: 1992 (1992) "Yesterdays" Released: 1992 (1992) "Civil War" Released: 1993 (1993) "Estranged" Released: 1994 (1994)

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, selling 770,000 copies in its first week and debuting at #1 on the U.S. charts, ahead of Use Your Illusion I's first week sales of 685,000.^[1] Both albums have been certified 13x Platinum by the RIAA.^[2] It was also #1 on the UK Albums Chart for a single week. Illusion II has sold 25 million copies worldwide. Spader Music Magazine listed the album in one of its greatest albums column. ^[3]

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. Use Your Illusion I featured mostly songs pre-Appetite For Destruction (with notable exceptions) while Use Your Illusion II featured more tracks written during and after Appetite For Destruction.

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. 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 died from a drug overdose before the recording of the album. Lead vocals on "14 Years" are performed by Izzy Stradlin (Izzy also 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 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 an Axl Rose solo, and most of the members did not even know it existed until the album was released.

To achieve the final mix of the album, the band had some difficulty, 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.^[4]

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.^[5]

Song information

Shotgun Blues

This song was written by Axl Rose, it is the sixth track on the album, and it doesn't feature Izzy Stradlin on guitar, instead Rose plays Rhythm Guitar and Stradlin performs backing vocals on the Chorus. This song was never performed live.

Breakdown

"Breakdown" is the seventh track on the album. Axl Rose has stated that the vocal ending to the song is the only thing he was not satisfied with on the Use Your Illusion albums.^[6] Additionally, Slash has stated that it was one of the most complicated songs to record on the album. According to him, the guitar, drum , and piano parts were hard to synchronize--drummer Matt Sorum "lost it" a couple of times trying to get the drums just right.^[7]

Locomotive

"Locomotive" (subtitled "Complicity") is the ninth track on the album. Slash stated "Locomotive" is played on a Gibson Explorer, saying, "What I do is turn the tone knob down."^[8] He also stated that it was written in a house he and Izzy Stradlin rented in Hollywood Hills following the Appetite for Destruction tours.^[9] The song also shows the group dabbling in funk metal^[10].

A portion of a line from "Locomotive" is used as the title of the dual album: "You can use your illusion/let it take you where it may."

All the guitars played on this song were done by Slash. Izzy Stradlin does not appear on the track^[11].

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.^[12]

My World

"My World" is the fourteenth and final track on the album. The other band members were surprised when they heard the song at the end of the album as they did not know it existed until after the release of Use Your Illusion II. It features Rose as the only vocal contributor with drum sounds and keyboard effects added in. At 1:25 it is the shortest Guns N Roses song and has never been played live.

Cover

Raphael, The School of Athens (detail)

The cover art of both "Use Your Illusion" albums is a detail of 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.

Both covers are the work of Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi.

Guns N' Roses won an American Music Award in 1992 for "Favorite Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Artist."

Track listing

Personnel

Guns N' Roses

• Axl Rose – lead vocals, piano, sound effects, production, art direction, graphic design
• Slash – lead guitar, production, art direction, graphic design
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, production
• Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, production
• Matt Sorum – drums, percussion, backing vocals, production
• Dizzy Reed – keyboards, piano, organ, backing vocals, production

Additional personnel

In popular culture and movies

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.

The album was featured in Terminator Salvation, in which John Connor finds the album which he listened to when he was younger. The song "You Could Be Mine" was played in a scene. ^[13]

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.

• In the liner notes is written Ain't It Fun a song they would cover on "The Spaghetti Incident?".

References