By the end of 1989 they had more than enough material in the works for an album. So, what if they released all of that music in more digestible chunks over a three year period instead of all at once? I've divided the tracks into three albums. I'll be posting them one at a time (as they should have) over the next few weeks starting with this one.
The one big suspension of belief that we must accept to make this work is that the band managed to set aside enough of their dysfunction to record and release this album before the close of 1989. All of the songs were written but some of the members were still struggling with the substance abuse that plagued their early years and recording proper for UYI did not start until 1990.
Side One
Civil War
Bad Obsession
Don't Cry (Alt. Lyrics)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Side Two
Don't Damn Me
Dust N' Bones
Yesterdays
November Rain
Reality Notes
Anyone who has read through this blog will be aware of my feelings towards double albums (live albums excluded). They are either concept albums that got out of hand or a strong case for the artist not being able to edit oneself. I've taken apart a few of those here on this blog and will most likely take apart a few more but there are some cases where a double album is justified. Sometimes an band or artist has so much material that they have to get it all out before they can move on (think All Things Must Pass). These albums usually have a higher percentage of great songs and less filler which makes them harder to break apart. You're never going to please everyone.
For these double albums my only complaint can be that there is too much music to digest in one sitting. Doubly so for Use Your Illusions as we have two double albums to go through. I really cannot see cutting any songs to turn this into one single album. Anything I come up with will end up being a personal favorites, best of album. Your mileage will vary. So, inspired by my conversation with Fredrick Beondo in the comment section for the GN'R indy debut I decided to dive in and see what I could come up with without sacrificing anything.
I started by dividing the tracks into two groups using January 1990 as the separating line. Anything that was written or in the works or thought to be from before that time is fair game for inclusion on the first of the three resulting albums. I used this timeline to determine my song pool. I dropped Don't Cry (Original Lyrics) and Back Off Bitch because they were used in earlier incarnations on the indy debut. I'll discuss how I divided up the remainder when I post the next album.
I ended up with a great eight song, 45 minute album for a proper follow up to Appetite/Lies. I wanted to keep this one within vinyl album length to be the last GN'R album to have a vinyl release. The remainder will be CD/cassette only. I will say that in this configuration I have grown to appreciate many of the songs that I tended to skip on the official releases.
For the cover I used elements from the Use Your Illusion covers with some modifications.
No "Perfect Crime", "Locomotive", and "Garden of Eden"? They were all finished by then, ahahaha
ReplyDeleteStay tuned for the next two installments. Everything will make more sense after the next post. My goal was to split the album up without discarding anything (with the exception of the two songs that appear on the indy debut).
DeleteAaah, makes sense ahahaha. Great work, btw!
DeleteAs I have discovered through my own personal resequencing/reimagining of albums, and how when some remixers of Jay-Z's 'Black Album' resequenced the tracks to make better use of their own production, sometimes even if some research group determined what they felt was the proper sequence, the songs don't flow as well as it may appear.
ReplyDeleteThe reimagining/recreation of the GnR indy debut and Lies as a more fleshed out EP bore that out, in that, again by my own prerogative, i can reconcile those against the original 'history' and find them canon enough. In fact, with the exception of the Super Deluxe Appetite you already parsed part of for the indy and Lies, once my laptop is repaired and I can restore my iTunes Library, this indy debut, this Lies, Rodvi's More Lies \m/, and these three altUYIs become my canon library, as I have yet to add Spaghetti and Chinese Democracy, the latter of which I have to stretch to even consider worthwhile, as it is more a tribute band that just happens to have the actual lead singer as their frontman, rather than as the 'real' one if only in name.
So far, this feels along the lines of what I hinted at in my way back in the day assessment for boiling the UYI single disc down in stylistic and personal preference. I can't wait to see how the rest develops.
May I interest you in a third opinion on the matter? :D
DeleteThe way I've been organizing their career/discography is divided in a pretty simple way:
1. I DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING PRE-APPETITE. The indie EP stays as it is (you can even add Shadow of Your Love, for good measure, but it's not necessary). Doing anything back then would mess up the timeline too much. AFD needs to be their debut album, it's just too damn perfect
2. I separate all the rest by writing dates. All songs written from 1982 to 1988 become their own album, as a fast follow-up to their hit first record. Released in early 1989, recorded in '88 while they were on the road:
GUNS N' ROSES - GUNS N' ROSES (1989)
Side One:
01 You Could Be Mine
02 The Garden
03 Perfect Crime
04 Don't Cry
05 Bad Obsession
06 Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Side Two:
07 Used to Love Her
08 Patience
09 Back off Bitch
10 November Rain
11 Yesterdays
12 One in a Million
3. The rest of the UYI songs, all written between early 1989 and late 1990, stay as a unit. I've tried to sequence this thing a lot of times, but change my mind so much on it it's not worth a post.
4. Garden's City, from 1995: https://the-reconstructor.blogspot.com/2017/07/guns-n-roses-gardens-city.html
The advantages here are: we still start their album career with a bang, rather than a quite dull one, and are able to make the transition to their Illusions sound much smoother, with the "gap album" in between. And Garden City's real nice, too! :D
Interesting and well thought out. I'm imagining that my indy debut made as much of a splash as the EP did if not less. I agree about Appetite, a perfect album and a perfect start. I think of anything pre Appetite as the "start your engines" part of a race and Appetite as the drop of the flag and off and running.
DeleteI like your '89 album but it still feels like an earful to me which is why I took the path that I did. Smaller chunks, easier to digest. 40 to 50 minutes is my limit for album lengths. My own band's work in progress currently stands at 74 minutes! I'm trying to convince them to cut a song or three but I'm outvoted at the moment.
Maybe after the next two installments it will make more sense. Two of the songs from your '89 album appear as title tracks for my next two posts. I have them done and ready to post but I'm trying to stretch this out while I think of what to do next. Look forward to more mix tapes if I can't come up with anything.
Although I agree with Dan about the length, I am curious about which Don't Cry and November Rain you chose for your version of the stopgap release.
DeleteI know what you mean. These reconstructions have made their way into my main library as well with UYI I & II relegated to the reference library. I'm glad you're enjoying them. As far as Chinese Democracy goes, I had to view it as an Axel solo album before I could enjoy it. I still can't accept it as a GN'R album but I can listen to it and even enjoy it if I don't think of it as GN'R.
ReplyDeleteIn the absence of GnR proper at the time, I did kind of embrace Velvet Revolver as the faux-GnR I needed just with a better vocalist in his own way...I guess when I do decide to give CD it's due soon, I will have to approach it as Axl solo, it might make the medicine go down easier LOL
DeleteOr maybe some industrious artist can mock up a new cover for CD that drops the GnR name and have it say Axl as the main artist or something, since he owns the actual name it's not like we can surmise what he would call this high-class tribute band he calls GnR, outside of this neverending Not In This Lifetime tour that seems to be taking longer than the whole of Sabbath's career and retirement LOL
DeleteWelp, here goes : http://lpredoreview.blogspot.com/2018/07/guns-n-roses-chinese-democracy-re.html?m=1
ReplyDeleteI've seen your take, and I've seen Reconstructor's, and with all due respect, I don't believe there's any way to redeem CD unless we have a time machine and go back in time LOL
ReplyDeleteI liked the original CD so I guess I'm in the minority here.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, since I truly believe that Axl should have called this band anything other than GnR, because by doing that, this album gets held up against the monolithic shadow of Appetite, Lies and even UYI, perhaps unfairly, but truthfully.
ReplyDeleteHis ego (which his beefiness is starting to catch up to in size 😲) just can't accept that by firing your entire band for a cadre of hired Guns 🙄, you really shouldn't call this by that name, even if you own the name all legal like. #YMMV 😂
The catalogs are full of albums with band names they should not be using. Velvet Undergound's Squeeze is really a Doug Yule solo album. Toni Iommi and Ian Gillan were forced by the label to use the Black Sabbath name. Sometimes we have to disconnect the music from the packaging/labels before we can accept it. I like Chinese Democracy but it is GN'R in name only.
ReplyDeleteHow many other bands continued to release albums after most or all of the original members left or passed away. Lynyrd Skynyrd anyone? If Axl had not retained the rights to the name would Velvet Revolver have used it? Their sound was certainly closer to classic GN'R than Chinese Democracy but would we accept it without Axl?
My favorite Jon Lord quote from the time they replaced Ritchie Blackmore with Tommy Bolin when Tommy was apprehensive about stepping into Ritchie's shoes goes something like "We're just a bunch of guys that play under the name. The name does not dictate the style, the players do." DP's last album was amazing and the only original member was the drummer.
I keep coming around to renaming them 'Guns 4 Hire' so we retain the intention but don't call it by the GnR name 😂, and we need a new album cover excising the GnR name from it...remind myself to Google possible alternative album covers 🤘
ReplyDeleteI threw a few together. Can't post them at work but will when I get home.
DeleteHere they are. Three of them, one is a redo of the original, one uses a pic from a fake pre-release cover and one is a variation of the second. Plus a new C.D. logo with Axl's initials instead of GN'R to use if you want to roll your own. I went with the third one.
Deletehttps://mega.nz/#!cTBQyQba!cngOVMjidrKbxXCtX7waWCTz984xnEgAAwAy62K59dY
If we were being honest, Velvet Revolver should have been called Stone Plush Roses or maybe Guns n' Pilots? 😉
ReplyDeleteVery apropos 🤘 thanks for going above and beyond 😎
ReplyDelete