Yes that is certainly true, it is lean and mean. Any album or group that opens their career with Welcome To The Jungle is a band to watch out for!!

They recorded some interesting stuff for the Use Your Illusion albums, but it's all over the place and I think they might have been better served to release a single 70 minute CD rather than 2.

And by that point, Steven Adler had been replaced and they added Dizzy Reed to the lineup. Guns became victims of excess and success and it was reflected sometimes in their music.

I think the excess of two Use Your Illusion albums suits the band perfectly. I played both pretty steadily for years. I wouldn't lose anything from them.

Got an e-mail this morning from the Guns n' Roses webstore with "30 Years of Use Your Illusion" in the subject line. First split-second reaction was "Here is the deluxe set announcement" immediately followed by "Why send this out on a Sunday?" Looked at the contents of the e-mail and, not surprisingly, it's just a bunch of Use Your Illusion themed shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, etc.

Couldn't help but look up to see if today is the 30th anniversary date but Wiki has the original release date as the 17th, so the e-mail was sent 2 days late (if the info on Wiki is correct).

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this is that it's pretty surprising we didn't get a big Use Your Illusion set this year. Marketing sense would dictate this would have to come out at least 1 month before Christmas, so they would have dropped news about this if it was happening this year. I'm not big into live stuff, but one would think there would have to be a bunch of quality live stuff (both audio and video) where they should have no problem coming up with material for a deluxe set. These albums were not as successful as Appetite for Destruction, but they were still big, big albums. And the Appetite for Destruction deluxe did very well, putting the album back in the top 10 (although they did over-produce the bigger deluxe editions).

Agreed. I was disappointed in the UYI sets but that's what you get when ya follow up a great album with a good one. UYI is good but not even close to Appetite. It reminds me of Boston and Don't Look Back. Same scenario.

I would love to see UYI remastered. Then I could take all my favorite songs and make it a single disc for jamming in the car.

My general understanding is that there really aren't any leftover songs not released on either of the two UYI albums or the "Spaghetti Incident" compilation. (Although "Spaghetti Incident" wasn't released until 1993, I definitely recall hearing about it back in 1991.)

I remember it was a pretty exciting time when UYI was first released. I went to a record store in Bayside Queens to get my hands on a copy at a special Midnight unveiling and box opening.

Illusion is leagues better than Appetite to me.

It’s basically a double-album released as two separate discs.

Illusion sold around 17 million in the US and Illusion 14 million.

Now that’s amazing and proof they were the biggest band in the world.

I’d definitely be up for a deluxe release, but who know what is in the vaults.

There’s at least 7 or 8 pro shot concerts from the tour and I have a few including the one with the riot in St. Louis.

I agree, Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 should be considered as a double album and is the best thing G'N'R did. It's sprawling and dense and rich. Lots to reward repeat listening.

I love the sprawling nature of Use Your Illusion I & II and wouldn't have it any other way. Reading these posts makes me sad about a record industry that doesn't generate the kind of excitement it once did. Standing in line at midnight to get an album? Make me a little weepy just thinking about it.

My two favorite record collecting moments were waiting for the unboxing of Wings Over America in Flushing Queens, yes we stood in a line and then saw them cut open the boxes which contained the just released album. Fresh vinyl!

The other was the double CD release of Use Your Illusion. At that point the only song I had heard was You Could Be Mine which too this day sounds stupendous (and should get more radio play than it does). Once again seeing the clerks cut open the boxes revealing the brand new CD was a thrill.

Big reason I miss brick n mortar stores. It wasn't just the CDs and Vinyl they sold, it was the events/ promotions/ record release parties/ bands appearing and playing live and the human interaction with employees and fellow collecting nuts.

I always thought it would have been better to have released the UYI albums a year apart.

Too much music -- the equivalent of two double albums -- to take in at once.

It would have given fans something to look forward to.

I think they already knew they were doomed as a band, and wouldn't have been able to last long enough to delay release and still get out of their tour / 5 album contracts. 18 month tour for the Illusions, release Spaghetti a couple months after the end of that tour, and thank you very much, see you later.

As i recall, how to make a single UYI was probably the second biggest debate in metal that year, behind only whether or not the Black Album was a complete sell out. And while I did try several times - there is some stuff I don't much like on the Illusions - you can't really get a good single length album that contains November Rain (9:00), Coma (10:13), Civil War (7:42) and Don't Cry (4:44) , so I never came up with one I really liked. Those songs need room to breathe, and piling them up with only 4-5 other songs would be too much.

GnR spent a few years as my favourite band after the Illusions came out, but ultimately, they fall down the all time list due to a lack of material. Still, I've seen them 4 times, and Slash 3 more by himself, so they're way up there.

You Could Be Mine and Knockin' on Heaven's Door were probably my favourite songs on the Illusions (with November Rain third and Coma fourth), and both of them were Appetite era songs in their set. A lyric from You Could be Mine is in the liner notes for Appetite, and I saw them cover Heaven's Door in 1988. I preferred the Appetite era sound, since it was so much of a grungy underdog vibe, which may be why I prefer the bigger epics on UYI. I think Right Next Door to Hell, Get in the Ring, My World, and 14 years kind of suffer when compared to the grittier Appetite for Destruction's songs (IMO), mainly because the tone of the fight in the songs has shifted. But there's nothing like Coma almost anywhere in music, let alone on another GnR album

I would have preferred if the covers and the second version of Don't Cry were left off the Illusion albums. They were full enough where we didn't need an alternate lyric version (that's B-side stuff). As far as the covers, I think their version of Live and Let Die isn't very good. As far as Knockin' on Heaven's Door...the live version had pretty much been played out by the time the Illusion albums were released, and frankly I think the live version is far, far better than the studio version that they did.

The one that swings back-and-forth to me is My World. Personally I don't really like it. But putting an outlier like that at the end of a 2.5 hour album (if you count both volumes as one, which I always have) isn't necessarily a bad idea.

3 deeper cuts from UYI that I have always loved have been The Garden (get a kick out of that song)/ Pretty Tied Up/ and Estranged.

Locomotive also has a kick ass beginning that sounds good loud on a good stereo system.

I just witnessed one of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen. Guns n' Roses are taking pre-orders for a 7" single of Hard Skool (studio) / Absurd (live). $17.98. That's right $18 for a 7" single. But the estimated ship date is June 24, 2022. Taking pre-orders NINE MONTHS early for a stupid 7" single. I think I have now seen everything.

Until I saw the cassette version (also includes live versions of Don't Cry and You're Crazy), also selling for $17.98. But instead of having to wait until NEXT JUNE for this, the estimated ship date is February 25, 2022.

Paying $18 for a cassette single and waiting 5 months to get it. Complete insanity.

And the insane part is there are people who will pay for it.