Use Your Illusion II poll

With your bitch slap rappin' and your cocaine tongue you get nothin' done.

"Civil War" is one of the best songs of the 90s, not just this record.

This is easy. "Civil War" is by miles and miles and lightyears the best song Axl Rose ever wrote.

Outside the two big hits of Civil War and You Could Be Mine, I think the best two songs are 14 Years and Estranged. Locomotive is also pretty good and So Fine is nice. There was a lot more filler on this disc.

Slash's solo on Estranged is one of the best things he ever did.

But "Civil War" wasn't much of a hit, was it?

If there are two big hits here, the other one is rather "Don't Cry". "Civil War" is the better song though.

Going with "Estranged"

Estranged

You Could Be Miyiyiyiyiyiyieeeannnne

Well, the "Don't Cry" that was a hit was on I, the one on II is just a reprise so I don't know if that counts. "Civil War" has the unique distinction of being a pretty big rock radio hit without a video, off of a set of albums that had a lot of videos for non-hits.

"14 Years" is so great, having a hard time choosing between that and "Estranged" and at least a couple others.

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toughie...probably has to be you could be mine, but there are a lot of good ones on this...yesterdays is some nice cod skynyrd

Civil War

Get in the ring, motherfucker!

I was listening to it the other day, and the first half of "Get In The Ring" really is a catchy little song before it gets swallowed whole by Axl's media shitlist, I forget that sometimes.

when you're talking to yourself...

and nobody's home...

(ALONE)

incoming missile

yeah, everyone seems to forget that Get In The Ring has a great riff.

Locomotive is the closet classic, but Estranged is just a masterpiece. It may be the alltimer in the category of great songs that got ignored because of wacky videos.

The conventional wisdom is that the UYI albums are really messy and inconsistent, but look at that track list. So Fine really isn't all that bad; the only true turkeys are My World and Shotgun Blues. There's great parts in all the rest.

I'd put "Locomotive" in the same half-great/half-crap category as "Get In The Ring," the chorus is such a mess that it kind of ruins the whole song for me.

Where is the love for "Yesterdays"?

But yes, "Civil War" is epic.

Though on second listen it owes a bit to "Love Lies Bleeding"... This really was Axl's Elton John record.

MY WORLD!

No one's mentioned "Breakdown"? That one's great other than the "let me hear ya now" part.

Real answer: 14 Years

I've always liked Yesterdays but I voted You Could Be Mine.

"Yesterdays" is a definite top 3 but not really in contention for my #1 (I ultimately voted "14 Years" but could've done "Estranged" or "Civil War" or "Breakdown").

man these polls have made me realize how fucking awesome these records are!

yeah I'm listened to II right now (on "Locomotive" now) and it's awesome! "Shotgun Blues" is a dud but o/w this is a totally solid to great record.

i don't even mind shotgun blues.

i always think of these as "duds" compared to destruction and lies but then i like pretty much every song...like in retrospect they are super impressive, all over the place but honestly i'd say that at least 75-80 percent of it really works.

I think at the time I liked the singles but thought of the whole thing as such a let down that I never really took it seriously. But yeah, these are strong records.

yeah...as far as kind of bloated, overly ambitious big double album projects go, UYI is pretty great.

"Civil War" and "Locomotive" are the sort of epics that double (quadruple, really) albums are made for, but "You Could Be Mine" has Axl at his most enjoyably whiny, so I'll go for that one.

Never understand the hatred for "Shotgun Blues" myself - that shit woulda sounded right at home on Rocks or Rock 'n Roll Outlaw. Which isn't a bad thing.

the tough-guy posturing on "Shotgun Blues" is pretty weak (lol @ "verbal masturbation"), esp. right after "Get In The Ring" which pushes the line too but has a great tune too

yeah but like criticizing axl for weak tough guy posturing is like criticizing john coltrane for playing saxophone!

lol

i think i'll vote for you could be mine, mainly for axl talking about his lawyer, and the feather/fur coat and nwa hat outfit in the video.
but estranged is way better than i remember it being.

yeah M@tt I guess that's right; except Lies and Appetite sound less like tough-guy posturing and more like party records mixed with paranoia. It's only on UYI where he keeps reminding us that he can kick our ass.

oooh you want a confrontation

"My World" is pretty great though!

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these results are pretty OTM

The Man Who Said Peace Could Last Forever

Something about the black wristband line, it was in reference to some movement that over took some school or some shit. I learned about it last year, on some Day Of Silence crap at school.

You'd be surprised what you can find out from using illusion... if people could get their minds off Axl's penis or Slash's riffs.

Martin Luther King? So much for accusion of Axl being a racist http://www.mygnrforum.com/public/style_emoticons/default/mf_Dr_Evil.gif

In Civil War, Axl sings "power hungry/sellin' soldiers in a human grocery store/ain't that fresh?"

Do you think he was trying to drop rap slang into the song by saying "fresh"? Or was this simply a sardonic jab about the fresh meat of human soldiers?

yes

the piano breakdown in the middle of Estranged is so great

when it goes to the solo then comes back with "i'll never find anyone to replace you" ... one of my favorite moments in rawk

there was a time when there was some talk of a Guns N' Roses/NWA tour to fully scandalize the parents of America but it never happened

listening now "14 Years" is so great

xp — co-sign. “Estranged” is a masterpiece. It’s kind of an echo/equal of “Ten Years Gone” (my favorite Zep song).

The video is also gonzo... I love high-baroque period classic G’N’R.

(that xpost wuz to rvw)

I got a thought that would be nice
I'd like to crush your head tight in my vice...PAIN!

Oh, you wanna step into my world?

can't wait for the sequel to GITR by woke Axl Rose

One in a Million could also use a rewrite

Civil War is magnificent. I abandon all critical acumen, contented, in its ludicrous, pompous doorway.

They've pulled One in a Million from recent pressings and the remasters

Chinaski otm

I can't believe a record this bonkers was so popular

Someone submitted a pic of Mickey Rourke and Axl Rose to NTV as a Newfoundland couple celebrating their anniversary. It doesn’t get any better than this. https://t.co/bR78ZfZvQa

— Chris LeDrew (@ChrisLeDrew) December 21, 2018

Sometimes I think "Estranged" is in, like, the top 5 songs ever recorded.

Not too into that one, tbh, but I loooooooooove "Locomotive."

Both are all time

This may in fact be the album I love the most of all albums. I’m not sure it’s the most *important* album in my life (that’s probably «Doolittle», which I got at 11 years old by a cool older cousin), but it feels like a part of me like little else.

There's something to be said for an album that's both kinda underrated yet indefensibly over the top.

Releasing it simultaneously with one that's overrated and indefensibly over the top helps along with that.

yeah, I only like three or so songs off that album.

Sometimes I think "Estranged" is in, like, the top 5 songs ever recorded.

― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Thursday, February 27, 2020 12:38 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm. I think of this and November Rain and Don't Cry as kind of a tryptic, but Estranged is the best of em

^yes!

I like that considering the length of each album (90s CD era !), they basically released like 4 albums at once !
And there's easily 2 albums worth of great stuff.

Am feeling «Breakdown» today. Kind of underrated track.

lol i forgot how knockin on heaven's door and civil war are the same song

Some great insights from Duff about UYI sessions. The host will be a dealbreaker for many but the power of Duff pulled me through.
https://m.soundcloud.com/deandelray/let-there-be-talk-ep118-duff

The power of Duff compels you!

lol i forgot how knockin on heaven's door and civil war are the same song

LOL also so fine and don't cry, jesus was no one paying attention in the studio, was this part of the conceptor

two whole albums for one whole song

They're the same because they're ballads and have four chords?

Don't Cry was written during Appetite iirc

Yeah, those songs don't all sound the same to me... (also, fwiw, "So Fine" was written by Duff)

what's with all the funny voices

is it a 'thing'

was axl protecting his voice from touring fatigue or something

― j., Thursday, February 27, 2020 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I listened to this at the gym this morning through headphones and this was very distracting. It's like Axl got high during the final mixing and just started adlibbing/scatting all over the tracks.

Sniffin' Your Own Rank Subjugation Jack: spoken interjections on the Use Your Illusion albums

TS: Fucking bitch” - “Back Off Bitch” v. “Fuck you...Bitch” - "Right Next Door To Hell"

Something about this album is that the sequencing is terrible(?)... it feels like the tracks were thrown out in random order (save, of course, for the vital importance of closing with "My World").

are the kids still paying their hard-earned money to read about the bands they wanna know about?

oh the way that Sheeran played
No one read the Hit Parade

Like, it's almost perverse that "You Could Be Mine," the big T2 single, is buried as track #12.

I'm tempted to Make My Own Tracklist for this one...

i really appreciated axl's concern for the kids' pocketbooks at that age because i didn't have money money for records let alone trashy rock mags like circus, but i really wanted to read them!

I would have voted for Estranged

Civil War is great
Pretty Tied Up is still a jam
M@tt is otm way upthread, Get In The Ring has such a great riff - it is *super* dumb but it’s still fun to listen to

I dunno if there’s any song that I hate ... cant really skip anything when it comes down to it

oh and Locomotive SLAYS

I got a thought that would be nice
I'd like to crush your head, tight in my vice
PAIN

Top five reasons this is one of the greatest rock albums of its decade (at minimum!):

Yesterdays
Get in the Ring
Breakdown
So Fine
Estranged