Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Surely you Can't Be
Serious podcast D. Today we are going to continue this
three parter and we're going to go track by track
through Usual Illusion two.
Speaker 2: We okay, everybody, we are recording on the thirtieth anniversary
of the day that User Illusion one and two were released.
How mind blowing is that. I realized that you guys
aren't going to hear it for a few days. But
mind blown. We are recording thirty years to the day
that people went out and bought these things in swarms.
Speaker 1: There's no way these albums are thirty years old.
Speaker 2: Thirty years old, I'm afraid.
Speaker 1: Today is September seventeenth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: I am really pumped. I hesitate to say since we
haven't given final judgment yet, but I am not surprised
by the fact that this album outsold Use Your Illusion
one whenever they were first released.
Speaker 1: Well, and it's not just because of the Terminator song.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, No, there are a ton of great songs
on this one. I can't wait to get into it.
Speaker 1: It's amazing that we got these two albums based on
where the band was. I mean, they were in drug
problems and reab trouble and Steven Adler's fired and axles
off the rails.
Speaker 2: Well, and this kind of brings something else up. You know.
Dayton Johnson is one of the guys who is on
a Film by podcast. If you guys haven't checked out
the Film By podcast, go check those guys out. Dayton
helps them out. They're doing a all the movies of
nineteen eighty six basically, and he's on those episodes. That's
a lot fun. And he's just gotten a new podcast himself.
It's called Docking Base seventy seven. Go check that one out.
But he hit us up after he listened to our
Metallica episode and we're comparing Metallica and Guns N' Roses
ninety one albums here, and he said, just finished with Metallica.
He told me some stuff I did know, which is
that they were in that little roach motel that they
were staying in when they were recording. They were staying
with Anthrax. But something I didn't know, the band Anthraxx, Yes,
the band Anthracs, not the disease. He said that they
actually had contemplated firing Lars right around the time that
Cliff Burton died and had Cliff not died, Lars might
not have been a member of the band. That's past
that point.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about.
Speaker 2: I know I had no idea, but that is fantastic.
Before we get going, I just have to say I
was listening to our last episode and I heard our
Manskate dad, and I was thinking, Okay, this is getting
a little old and crusty. You know, it's getting a
little old and crusty. That's my yard.
Speaker 1: The yard of the.
Speaker 2: Summer is winding down, and my yard needs to be mode.
We're getting a little out of control in some areas.
Some bushes need to be hedged back, some lawnmowing needs
to be done, some weed whacking needs to be done.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you what. I like my lawn mode and trim.
Speaker 2: My tree always looks taller. Whenever I cut my grass shorter.
Speaker 1: It reminds me. We've got this new product that we
want to talk to you about. It's called the lawnmower
and the weed whacker for Manskate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lawnmower four point zero. For the other things that
might be a little bit old and crusty on you
right now, let's trim those things up. In addition to mowing.
You probably also need to put some conditioning on your
other parts that are mode and so there are products
that they have that make things smooth and comfortable there.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you we're starting football season. You know
what Tom Brady takes care of every week his balls.
Tom Brady makes sure his balls are in shipshape.
Speaker 2: If you just need a little trimming, say up in
your nose or in your ears, they have got the
weed whacker. Definitely check that out. So go tomanscapes dot com.
Use the promo code fan sided twenty to get twenty
percent off of your order and check out all the
fantastic stuff that they have.
Speaker 1: Whack it.
Speaker 2: Okay. Another guy who is a big supporter of ours
is David Wright. He's an author and an outstanding source
of suggestions and information on some of the episodes that
we've done. He encouraged us to watch Southern Comfort, which
we brought up in the Aliens episodes, which I'm guessing
he's going through right now Aliens Versus Terminator, versus Alien
Versus Terminator two. All that good stuff.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a great episode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys should go check that out. But then
he gave us a ton of suggestions. Let me just
throw some of these out here. War Games versus Tron
Great Love It Last, Starfighter versus Flight to the Navigator.
I think that was one of our original matchups that
we still haven't done it together yet. Dead Poets Society
versus School Ties, Rob Stoker's Dragula versus Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
But one of the best ones we were supposed to
do this year is Hoosier's versus Rudy, both of them
by the same writing directing team. Hoosier is going to
be thirty five this year, and so it would have
been a great year to do it, but we'll just
have to take it up whenever, you know, whenever Rudy
has an anniversary. And then he had one which we've
talked about doing. Fight Club versus Seven. Yes, he suggested
fight Club versus the Sixth Sense, which twist ending great
idea great man there. I don't know which of those
two matchups would be better.
Speaker 1: Ninety nine, I think, yeah.
Speaker 2: Exactly, So that's a really good one as well. So
let me just say to our Shirley fans out there,
if you are interested in proposing some matchups for us,
do a review for our podcast on Apple Podcasts or
whatever podcast app you use, and on the review put in, Hey,
you guys should do you know secretive nim versus Watership Down,
which is another one of David Wright's suggestions. But do that,
or if you've got a question, if you're like, man,
I really wish I knew this about some eighties or
nineties or seventies or whatever. You got any question at all,
just go ahead and put that in the review, and
I promise we will take up your question on the
next episode that we have. We forgot to say, everybody,
right now, choose your illusion, right, this is the time
as we go through this album, think about use your
illusion one, use your illusion two. And this is I
took quote. I shouldn't do that, No, terrible, That was
Jason's baby right there. Choose your allusion.
Speaker 1: Choose your illusion one or two. Yeah, all right, it's
time to go track by track through Use your allusion two.
Speaker 2: Song number one, Civil War.
Speaker 1: What we've got here is failure Milk. That line right there,
that's from the movie Cool Hand, Luke.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fantastic movie. The imagery continues. He's whistling the tune
of when Johnny comes marching home again, and it's all
steeped in this kind of political comment on the fact
that all war is civil war and there isn't any
war that's civil.
Speaker 1: What's so civil about war anyway?
Speaker 2: Right? So part of this did you know that Chicago
helped write this song? What I just wanted to say
that I just want to say that, No, not Chicago,
the band. Okay, Chicago, the town. So this one of
the quotes in this song is from this Peruvian gorilla
and the only place that you can find that quote
is in this article that was in the Chicago Tribune
back in nineteen ninety And the band we know was
they did some recording and some songwriting out there. So
I have to say Chicago Tribune at least helped them
come up with some of the lyrics for the song.
Speaker 1: That is interesting and that is interesting. So this song
actually appears in nineteen ninety on a compilation album called
Nobody's Child The Romanian Angel Appeal.
Speaker 2: Okay, so real quick on this song. Part of the
inspiration from this song came from back when Axel was
still married to Aaron Everley. He had a brother in law.
This is what this is. These are his words he
had a brother in law who was an arms dealer
who was talking about how stupid all these countries were
because he could sell them all these machines to kill
each other with. And so I'm just thinking brother in law.
So I started looking, and her brother, Aaron Everley's brother
is a musician. I don't think it was him. And
she had a sister named Stacy Everly, who if she
was married, that would have been her brother in law
and his brother, right, So I'm thinking it's got to
be that guy, but I could not find anything about it.
So shout out to anybody who knows who the brother
in law arms dealer of Axel was back in the eighties.
Who he would have been inspired? Right? Part of Civil War?
Speaker 1: Wow, that is fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so good. I think I'm just gonna go ahead
and carefully spike the football. I think this is the
best song on both albums.
Speaker 1: Then my first member, Kennedy, I when no when I
know so wow? Wow, Okay, I know our buddy James Buckley.
This is his favorite song.
Speaker 2: Oh of course, of course he told me beforehand.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, I'm prepping for the pot, and he
said I listened to it all the way through us
your lusion one, use your alusion two. He said there
were some skippers, and there are, and he said, but
I listened to Civil War four times.
Speaker 2: You know how I know that this is because when
I'm doing searches for this, instead of saying use your Illusion,
I'm like Civil War two, I'm like, oh wait, no wait,
it's not that the album isn't called Civil War, It's
called use your Illusion.
Speaker 1: All right. So the birth of this song is really cool.
So they this was an instrumental song at one point
that they would do during sound checks and Slash would
play it actually came up with some stuff. Duth McKagan
went to a like protest as a little kid because
mom took him to a protest. Yeah, and he's like,
you know, oh yeah, I remember all that. So it's
kind of a war protest song. The line is did
you wear the black armband when they shot the man
who said peace could last forever? And that's in a
reference to Martin Luther King. I think it's interesting that
George Harrison and Tom Petty personally called Axel and asked
him for a song. That's how we get this song
on that compilation. Of Yeah, this song was first played
farm Aid in nineteen ninety and it was the first
and last song that was played with Steven Adler.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, this is the only song
on this album that has Steven Adler on the drums,
and from what I understand.
Speaker 1: They pulled him off of it.
Speaker 2: Well, they it's him on the drums, but it's about
sixty different takes where they would just piece together what
he had done because he could not make it through
the song from beginning to end and have a quality piece.
Speaker 1: This was the song where they realized, this guy's not
functioning right, he can't be our drummer anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, farm Aid was the last. Was that the last?
That's the last one?
Speaker 1: So here's the funny part. They say that they fired
him because of his drug use, right, which is laughable
because Axel was using, as he was using, Slash was using,
Duff was using, and they bring in Matt Sorom as
his replacement.
Speaker 2: Who immediately starts doing grogs with Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not that he was a drug user,
it's the fact he couldn't play his drums anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was so bad that he couldn't play and
I think on that farm aid when if you watch
the video on that, you'll see him trip and fall
as he's going up to his drum set.
Speaker 1: It's really too bad. This was the one that didn't.
Civil War reached number four on the mainstream rock chart
in nineteen nine.
Speaker 2: So it quotes the speech by this Peruvian shining Path Gorilla.
He says, we've practiced selective annihilation of mayors and government officials,
for example, to create a vacuum. Then we filled that
vacuum as popular war advances peace. It's closer creepy.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna to think about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, get rid of people and then put our
own people in yep.
Speaker 1: Okay, civil War love it? I agree with you. One
of the best songs on the album for sure, maybe
best on both albums.
Speaker 2: So this one was written by slash Stuff and Axel,
and like we said, it still had Steven Adler on it,
but it did not have Izzy on this No is
he on this one? No is he on this one.
We've got piano by Dizzy Reid, and we've got background
vocals by Duff and Dizzy.
Speaker 1: But I know Izzy is already working his way toward
the exit at night.
Speaker 2: To night right, And so speaking of Izzy, I think
it's time to jump into song number two. Song number two,
fourteen years.
Speaker 3: Shine are you? You chime down the complain?
Speaker 4: You try?
Speaker 2: All right? Real bluesy right out of the gate. And
this is is he singing?
Speaker 1: Is he on lead vocals?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Izzy is playing the rhythm guitar and singing the
lead vocals and way bluesier than our standard guns n' roses.
Speaker 1: Fair let's keep going, all right?
Speaker 2: So this song is this song is fourteen years. This
is about how they were not an overnight success, right,
this is their idea is we've been doing this for
fourteen years before all of the fame happened to is anyway,
Izzy and Axel both had a song called fourteen years
that they just kind of like were like, wait what
And they're the two that started together right way back
in Indiana, So.
Speaker 1: They were friends in Indiana. This song they think was
written in nineteen eighty nine because at that point they
had been friends for about fourteen years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they stopped playing it when is he left the
band because not really friends anymore? Right' not really going
to celebrate my friendship with Izzy on stage?
Speaker 2: It is crazy though. I mean, how many of these
songs they don't play after the album comes out.
Speaker 1: You have to wait until the Not in this Lifetime
tour to hear some of these songs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you really like this one?
Speaker 1: I love this song.
Speaker 2: This is not one of my favorites. It is, okay,
but it's just not not It's just.
Speaker 1: It's so diverse. It's different than Guns of Roses.
Speaker 2: Okay, So moving on on usual illusion one. We had
a song by Paul McCartney when it was with Wings,
and now we've got a song when he was with
the Beatles Yesterday.
Speaker 1: No, it's not a cup, it's not the same. No,
it's different.
Speaker 2: Oh, yesterday's yesterday. There's an as in the.
Speaker 6: End Today the man was not anything.
Speaker 1: This song's beautiful right out of the gate man, It's
just smooth.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love the simple, consistent drum beat.
It's great.
Speaker 1: It's kind of poppy.
Speaker 2: It's poppy. It's it's got a country feel to it.
It's not appetite for destruction at all.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's like a pop song with Axel's
voice and slash guitar, which for me really works.
Speaker 2: This makes me think of the guy from Infectious Grooves Russ,
who was talking to us on our last episode about
the variety that you see in this album. This is
so different and so good. It's just showing that this
band can do more than just rock your balls off.
They can also make you groove, man. They can also
like make you feel like hanging out.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 1: This is a song that you can make out with
your girlfriend. This song. We talked last week how they
filmed the video for Garden of Eden the same day
that they filmed the video for Yesterday's. Yeah, because they
had the camera set up and well, crap, why not
just film two videos and one?
Speaker 2: Why not, let's just get it all done.
Speaker 1: So this is a song that was written by Axl Rose,
west Arkeen, Del James, and a guy named Billy McCleod.
We've talked about del James before. He's the guy who
wrote the short stories that November Rain was based on.
West Arkeen, He's written all kinds of songs with them. Yeah,
he was like, yeah, stuff on Appetite for Destruction. Yeah,
So yeah, they were good friends and he helped with
the writing of this song. Okay. Yesterday's was released as
a single November ninth of ninety two, beautiful song. Love
it three for three out of the gate for me.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Okay, I want to say something about the music video. Okay,
we talked about how it was filmed the same day
as Garden of Eden. This music video there's two different versions.
There's a black and white and then there's another version
that shows clips and photos of the band, including Izzy
who had left the band and Steven Eddlert.
Speaker 2: Fired who again fired, but still they were a part
of the process. Put the song again.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Okay, We done with this one, yep? All right?
Moving on to Knocking on Heaven's Store.
Speaker 2: You recognize it right off the bat, you know it's
Bob Dylan, but then they come in with that smashing,
crashing guitar. This is one they had been covering for
a long time, Like I think even pre Appetite days
they were covering this song.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean there's video of them, like in nineteen eighty
seven at the Ritz I think, playing Knocking on Heaven's
Star and it's one of those things where they interact
with the crowd, right. Axel would sing Knock Knock, Knocking
on Heaven's Door and then the crowd.
Speaker 2: Would they do the echo, they would do.
Speaker 1: The kN knocking on, that's go off.
Speaker 2: Awesome song. I would have loved to have seen them
perform this live. The backing chorus that they have toward
the end of the.
Speaker 1: Song, I love the gospel chorus is amazing.
Speaker 2: It's you know what it is like man in the
mirror is what it is?
Speaker 1: Guilty? What can I say?
Speaker 2: Right? That's why you love this song so much so.
This song was originally written by Bob Dylan for a movie,
and that movie.
Speaker 1: Was called Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, had James Coburn, had Chris Christockerson, had Bob Dylan
in it, and it had Slim Pickens in it. And
Slim Pickens. As he was dying, says the lines that
inspire the song to his wife, who he called Mama,
get out, Yeah, and why do we have this song?
Speaker 1: Axel said he wanted to introduce this song to the
next generation, and.
Speaker 2: He totally did right, Like I knew this song. I
mean I in ninety one, I was listening to classic
rock like I wasn't. I had given up on modern rock.
So I think I actually of the two I owned
us your illusion too. I did not get user illusion one,
but there's a lot of classic rock feel to use
your illusion to which I was vibing on at the time,
and so I was familiar with the Bob Dylan version.
I was also familiar with the Eric Clapton version, which
is in another movie.
Speaker 1: That's how I know it. It's in the last scene
of leitha Weapon two, right, like Riggs's shot Murtaz down there.
Don't you die, Riggs, right, you understand you can't die?
Speaker 2: Right? And then in true form, the Guns and Roses
version is also in a movie. It was in Days
of Thunder, and that is the first release of this
song was on the soundtrack to that movie.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me just say the summer of nineteen ninety,
I wore out the Days of Thunder soundtrack because I
love this song so much.
Speaker 2: That's the first time you see Nicole Kidman and Tom
Cruise in a movie together. Of course, they you know,
ultimately get married and have kids that had to get
returned with Ropshot whenever they got divorced.
Speaker 1: Yes, so here you go. They started playing this June
nineteenth of nineteen eighty seven. Slash Loves the guitar solo
is he loved playing this, called it special. Now listen,
there is a phone. There's like a sound effect in
the middle of this song where there there's like a phone,
like an old style dialing of the phone. Right, Yeah,
there's a speaking part, yes, right, right, So here's the deal.
The phone number, the uh huh that's six five nine
eight eight nine zero.
Speaker 2: Does that lead anywhere?
Speaker 1: I don't know the area code? Okay, I've listened to
this song ten thousand times, right, Okay, what does he say?
Right there?
Speaker 2: So this is by Josh Rickman, and he says, you
just better start sniffing your own rank subjugation Jack, because
it's just you against your tattered libido, the bank, and
the mortician forever man. And it wouldn't be luck if
you could get out of life alive your own.
Speaker 1: That's a lot. They spit that out. He spits it
out pretty quick, knocking on Heaven's door.
Speaker 6: Listen.
Speaker 1: I don't want to overstate this. It's one of my
favorite songs of the nights. It's one that I keep
coming back to. I can play this a million times
in a row and continue to love it. It's my
favorite song on this album. Wow, I mean it's a cover,
but it's still the one I keep coming back to.
Speaker 7: Nice.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 1: You know you mentioned that this They had played this
song a lot and it had kind of been around.
On the B side of Welcome to the Jungle, there
is a live version of Knocking on Heaven's Store. Oh nice,
if you were lucky enough to have that Maxie cassette.
Speaker 2: I just like the word Maxie.
Speaker 1: So somebody asked Bob Dylan. They're like, hey, Guns and
Roses did a song knocking on Heaven's Doore. What do
you think. He's like, it was okay, but it's kind
of like being an invasion of the Body Snatchers. I
don't really know what that means, but that's what he said.
Speaker 2: Okay, So invasion the Body Snatchers is when the people
are replaced with soulless robots. So I don't think it
was a compliment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he and Slash had actually done a song together,
so he's kind of friends with Slash.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he's a huge fan of this.
Speaker 2: I don't think it doesn't sound like it.
Speaker 1: This reached number sixteen on the Hot Rock charts in
nineteen ninety and Adam Sandler does a great impression of
this song.
Speaker 6: GoGet out and yo.
Speaker 1: Hurt right there, right.
Speaker 2: There, right, I can see that.
Speaker 1: We done with this one in the gospel car Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: I think he stand for you me get in the
ring Okay. And it sounds like this is a live song,
but it's not. This chant that you have is from
one of their live shows.
Speaker 1: It's really cool the Guns Spin Roses. It's not live,
but it still sounds really neat the Guns.
Speaker 2: So you know the story behind the song, right, you
tell me the story behind the song.
Speaker 1: Well, so Axel takes out his anger on all the
journalists who he perceived as sliding the band. So one
of the particular people that he calls out is Bob
Guccioni Jr.
Speaker 2: Yes, from Spin magazine.
Speaker 1: From Spin magazine whose dad is the founder of Penthouse magazine.
Speaker 2: Right. Spin was kind of like this more edgy version
of Rolling Stone Magazine. They had even said the future
of music and they listed off three bands, one of
which was Guns N' Roses, so like they're promoting them
to a degree. But then after a while they did
kind of a dirt like a mud smear thing on them,
and to sum it all down to two words axle
as asshole.
Speaker 1: Yeah he is three words.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Yes, I think that's pretty clear. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Bob Guccio and Junior in Spin magazine, they actually
went back to Indiana and they started interviewing people in
his past. Yeah, which he didn't appreciate.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 1: He also called him Bill, which is a no no
when you're talking to right.
Speaker 2: Okay, so do you know the rest of the story. No,
So he actually challenged, like Bob Guccioni was like, do
you want to actually have a fighter? And Axel was
like yeah, yeah, yeah, until he realized that Bob Guccioni
had been trained as a fighter for like nine years.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Maybe not.
Speaker 1: I don't have time for your stupid fights anymore.
Speaker 2: I'm above it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: So, just a few guys that he mentions by name
in the song are Andy Setcher, Hit Parator, Mick Wall
of Kerrang, and then of course Bob Gucchann and Jane
from Spin.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And you would think that this was an actual
like Axuals the White Jumping, This was actually Duff that
was like, hey, we need to write a song to
address these problems. The song was originally called why do
You Look at me when you hate me, which I
can understand, like the meaning of you know, you guys
are getting all of this business from us, so why
are you suddenly trashing us? That doesn't make sense. But
then it changed to get in the Ring, mf or,
and then it just changed to get in the ring.
Speaker 1: Right, So this is the song like when my friends
and I first got this album, this is the one
we played for each other, like, oh my gosh, check
it out. He's calling these guys out by name. It's
calling everybody you know, f you, mf or get in
the f and ring. But thirty years later, this, to
me is the biggest crime on the album save one.
And we'll talk about that at the end.
Speaker 2: You're saying you don't like the song.
Speaker 1: I like it. I think the music's good. I think
it's got sort of fun tones to it.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: But I just find it classless, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's yeah, it's petty. It is. It is definitely petty.
But why are we surprised that guns we would be petty?
So Mick Wall had a book called Guns N' Roses
the Most Dangerous Band in the World, and that was
where he did the interviews and stories about the band.
There were claims that the real reason was an interview
he had conducted back in nineteen ninety for Kerrang that
included Actual's threat of harm to Vince Neil of Miley Crue.
But the full story on that one is on our
next song. So that song is Shotgun Blues. Okay, although
the story behind the song is pretty interesting, I would
get rid of this song.
Speaker 1: The song sucks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we've established you and I are not punk fans, right.
This is the punkiest of the Guns N' Roses songs.
I think that you can get. If you love punk,
you probably like this song. It's not for me.
Speaker 1: It's not for me either. You know who does love
this song? No Duff, and Duff is like the most
punky of the group.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely absolutely, And we'll talk a little bit later
about one of his idols that from the punk days
and his inspiration behind another song. But let's talk about
the story behind.
Speaker 1: This one, okay, which got.
Speaker 2: So Apparently vince Neil's wife met up with Izzy Stradlin
at some point is he made some remarks to her
that vince Neil did not like.
Speaker 1: That's true, Yeah, And so backstage at the video Music
Awards in ninth ninety nine. We talked about this a
little bit two weeks ago.
Speaker 2: I think yeah, we may have even mentioned it. I'm
not sure if we did. We may have mentioned it
on our Motley Crue episode as well.
Speaker 1: I think we did, Yeah, I think we did. It's
interesting because that Video Music Awards, Don Henley had to
play drums for Steven Adler, who was in rehab is
he said something that Vince didn't like to his wife.
So Vince punched is he backstage? And of course Axel
jumps in.
Speaker 2: And Molly Cruz, the one that presented the award that
Guns N' Roses won, He's like, Okay, here's your award,
see you backstage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so Vince knocked him out, and then Axel said,
let's go Vince anytime, and so Vince is like, kind
of like Bob gets you in a junior. He's like,
name the time, name the place, we'll put it on
pay per view and we'll duke it out.
Speaker 2: I would have paid the pay per view money to
watch that fight for Shore, I know, right. So anyway,
so anyway, great story, not a great song.
Speaker 1: Great story not a great song. So this song needs
to go like, this album is better if this song
goes next song break down. Okay, Dan, this is the
hidden gem on this album.
Speaker 2: You like this. I love this song and like, I
didn't really know it before we started diving into this.
Speaker 1: This is like climbing the Guns n' Roses ladder for me.
On best songs, their catalog come in from the cone,
we come down from the way.
Speaker 6: They have a mana wong. They don't know what you mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with you. Hidden gym on
this album that I was not familiar with before we
started doing this. I love it. I love the banjo
which Slash didn't know how to play the banjo, so
he just strung a banjo like guitar and it plays
that way. This is the second song that we have
with Whistling. It's the second song that's got that kind
of rat tat tat like the like the Soldier march
in it, and it's when you listen to this piano
come in, it totally makes me think of a swinging
country version of the piano that's in the second part
of November Ring.
Speaker 1: I totally agree.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then at about a minute in when the guitars
come in. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like
Leonard Skinner Freebird. This is fantastic. Love it, Love what
they did with it. Great song.
Speaker 1: It's like southern rock. Here's the thing. You could play
this song. You and I like to go to Silverdoff
City and Branson. If they played this at several dollars city,
You like to go there.
Speaker 2: I don't know that I would like to.
Speaker 1: He's too cool for city.
Speaker 2: Oh I just.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we've got some We got some friends
down south now Van Allen Plexico and David Riot. These
guys are like Alabama guys. Yeah, so down there. I
think they have Dollywood. I went there this summer. Yeah,
they could play this at Dollywood.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: This is a great Guns n' Roses countryfied swing. The song.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 1: The lyrics are about our relationship gone bad, which is
almost every song Guns and Roses makes. But the guitar
work on this, the whistling, it's it makes me happy
to listen to this one.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned fan Allen Plexico, be sure and check
out his podcast. It's on Well, he.
Speaker 1: Has a Van Allen Plexicode does a podcast called White
Rocket and it's on it they cover Battle on five,
but they also dip into the movie thing. But he's
written some books on Auburn football. I mean, he's like
an expert on Auburn football, A great fan.
Speaker 2: Love all of the interactions and the bits of wisdom
that he gives this. I love it.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: Slash said that this was the most difficult song on
the entire album to record.
Speaker 2: I can see that.
Speaker 1: I guess it's because he didn't really know how to
play the banjo.
Speaker 2: Probably.
Speaker 1: And here's the other thing, Spin Magazine. Yeah, you know
Bob guccien and JR. I love how they describe this song. Yeah,
this song is like Elton John singing Wanted Dead or
Our Lives.
Speaker 2: Love it, love it cool, perfect captures it absolutely all right.
Speaker 1: This is the hidden gem for me.
Speaker 2: Totally agree, me too. All Right. The next song we have.
Speaker 1: Is called pretty Tied Up the Perils of Rock and
Roll Decadentes.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a great bit of music with some
truly horrifying lyric.
Speaker 1: Okay, guys, we're gonna try and keep this one. Pg. Thirteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is Yeah. I don't know what to say
about this. Great to listen to. If you don't listen
to what the words saying.
Speaker 1: I don't think I really have studied the lyrics. I
like the song, Yeah, yeah, I like the music.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: This is written by.
Speaker 2: Isy Yeah, Izzy wrote this one. And this is one
if you've got the CD or the liner notes that
write in the middle of it. There's this very weird
thing that's almost like a skull and crossbones, where you've
got the crossbones, but instead of a skull, you have
like a dismembered female, naked body with her hair being pulled.
Speaker 1: So Izzy tells a story. Here we go. I'm gonna
try and keep this PG.
Speaker 2: Thirteen.
Speaker 1: All right, yeah, I go, okay, is he tells a story.
He had a buddy named Tony and they went over
to this girl's house. Her name is Margo, and she
was just hanging out with him, and she said, hey,
you guys wanted tequila? Sure, And they walked into the
next room and they saw a man tied up like
duct taped to the wall, wearing women's underwear with an
onion in his mouth, and they're like, what is what
is going on here?
Speaker 2: I don't think I even would have gotten the words
out of my mouth. Oh, I'm sorry, this is the
wrong house.
Speaker 1: Goodbye, see later. I have no interest in this. I
will be leaving now.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: She said that's a client and that's all I'm going
to say about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing about this song, slash has stated that
this song was written at at Izzy's house okay, before
the band went to Chicago in eighty nine. According to
slash Is, he was so high in Heroin that night
he made a sitar out of a symbol, a broomstick
and some strings.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: Okay, So it's interesting though. This one has a gitar too.
Remember in the black album we Have Wherever I May Roam? Right,
You've got two albums that were comparing both with this
random citar in the in the middle of the album.
Speaker 1: Good Call, Good Call. That's awesome. Yeah, how do you
like this one? Mixed feelings?
Speaker 2: Good music? I don't. I could believe it because the
rest of it's too creepy for me.
Speaker 1: You got me all interested?
Speaker 2: Now do you want any what the lyrics aren't She's
pretty tied up, hanging upside down. She's pretty tied up.
You can ride her. She's pretty tied up, hanging upside down.
I can't tell you she's the right one. Okay, moving
on already to a song called Locomotive.
Speaker 1: A great musical intro to this one that's kind of
funky metal, right, Yeah, I love the bassline guitar comes in.
Speaker 2: It's strong. So this one was one that Slash had
written the music for, and Axel has some trouble coming
up with lyrics.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you hear what he said to his manager about this?
He calls and complaints. He's like, how am I supposed
to write lyrics to songs like this mean? And he
named this one specifically it's musically intricate, but where did
the words go?
Speaker 2: Yeah? This was Doug Goldstein, and Doug Goldstein's response to
him was, well, that's your job. Actual I managed the band.
Speaker 1: Can't help you.
Speaker 2: Sorry, you're the singer of Guns N' Roses. Let me
let me check my job listing here song song right, Nope,
not on, are not gonna help you.
Speaker 1: Slash writes music, you write the words. That's how it works. Okay,
So for me. The interesting thing about this Slash recalls
writing this song and coma kind of working on them
both at the same time, around the time that they
filmed the video for Patients. Okay, and I looked it
up and the date that they filmed the video for
Patients Valentine's Day nineteen eighty nine. Pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what were you doing on Valentine's Day nineteen eighty
nine try and solve the mysteries of the Broadclast? Probably
probably listen to a little fifty one to fifty.
Speaker 1: Maybe my go to at that time was I'll be
there for you a bunch of.
Speaker 2: I love it all right.
Speaker 1: So there's some interesting lyrics in this song. This is
the only song that mentions the words use your illusion.
Speaker 2: What does that mean, Jason?
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean anything, right. It just says you can
use your illusion, let it take you where it may.
We live and learn, and then sometimes it's best to
walk away. It's deep, not really, no, no, this is
about a relationship going bad. Some people thought that this
was directed at Stephanie Seymour.
Speaker 2: Down great and.
Speaker 6: Look them out?
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: You know we talked in the previous song about is
he walking into a room and discovering a naked man?
Doug Goldstein, the manager for guns Roast, we talked about
last week how the first time he met Stephanie Seymour,
he opened the door and she was standing there.
Speaker 2: Buck naked.
Speaker 1: That's a little more pleasant than the than the guy to.
Speaker 2: Yes, a little hair hair more pleasant.
Speaker 1: So Locomotive is one of those songs that comes up
when people talk about use allusion to like the off
the beaten track songs, and I get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely a quality song. Great.
Speaker 1: The guitar work on this is really strong. It's funky,
it's upbeat. I like it. I know. Our buddy Russ
from the Infectious Grooves podcast mentioned this one specifically as
one that he loves.
Speaker 2: From this album.
Speaker 1: Okay, moving on to a song called so Fine.
Speaker 2: So when I mentioned punk earlier, this is the song
I was referring to. Surprised.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because.
Speaker 2: It's not punk at all, right, it's not remotely punk,
but in the liner notes and the lyrics that are
on the paper here on this album, this is written
by Duff and it is dedicated to Johnny Thunders. So
Johnny Thunders was a guy who was a leader in
the punk movement back in the early seventies. He was
with New York Dolls and then he went on to
another group called the Heartbreakers, not Tom Petty, different Heartbreakers,
and it was sometimes called Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers,
but Duff has dedicated this song to him. He died
April twenty third, nineteen ninety one. Most people would guess
it was probably drug related, but there's a lot of
mystery surrounding his death, like d d ramone of the Ramones,
talks about in his book, calling and saying he got
involved with some bastards who ripped him off for his
methodonie support and gave him LSD and then murdered him.
And so I mean, it's this thing that nobody's looked into, like,
it's very, very strange. He had a neighbor called Willie
Deville who when the people started calling him because he
lived next door, he made up story. He said, well,
he died with his guitar in his hand, but he
said that was completely not true. He came out in
the shape of a you like he was.
Speaker 8: He was a bad shape, like the rigamortis made his
body as you. Yeah, not a good picture, not with
the guitar, not with his guitar in his hand. Okay,
So that's what this song is about.
Speaker 2: I don't know how he looks so fine when he's
in the shape of a you riga mortis, But I
think it's really about when he was alive and the
inspiration that he was to deaf in his punk days.
Speaker 1: That's nice. I've got a funny story about this song.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's go with that.
Speaker 1: Let's you want to on air funny story? Yeah, okay.
So one of the crew members, this guy's name was
Craig Duswald, right, yes, and his job was to put
the words on the monitors for Axel in case he
forgot the words or got lost or whatever.
Speaker 2: I loved this story.
Speaker 1: So normally Slash would yell out the song title to
him off stage. So the night that they played this,
Slash yelled.
Speaker 2: Used to lover Right.
Speaker 1: So he puts the words to use to lover up
on the screen. But when the song starts, he doesn't
recognize it as used to lover right. So he's scanning
his song list in his brain, like what is this song?
I don't understand it. And he's like, oh crap, oh
my gosh, this is not used to.
Speaker 2: Love right, but used to love her still on the teleprompter, right,
And so he's like, actually, is gonna freaking kill me
if I don't get the words up here? Yeah, he
hears him start singing, and he's like, wait, he's not
singing these words.
Speaker 1: And so he's like, well, that's okay, I'll just wait
for the chorus. There's no chorus in the song, so
he starts to panic and Slash is cracking up.
Speaker 2: So yeah, all Craig can think is okay, when they
fire me after this, are they gonna fly me home?
Or do I have to fly my own dollar?
Speaker 1: I like this song. It's it's got a sweet feel
to it. It's nice. It's not my favorite, but I
like it.
Speaker 2: It's it's good. Okay.
Speaker 1: Moving on to maybe the masterpiece of this album. HM,
this song is called stretched.
Speaker 6: I don't nobody have a dollar by how now?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: So d this is a musical symphony to the ears.
This is like a Guns n' Roses November Rain like masterpiece.
Speaker 2: I could see this as like a song in a
musical theater like on Broadway, like this is this is
not anything like any not only Guns n' Roses song,
but anything anybody else was doing at the time. It
is more melodic, there's no chorus. There is so much
emotion that he's got going on in this song, right,
I could totally see it being you know part of
Les miz or something. You know? This is this. This
is an emotional, powerful, musically complex song.
Speaker 1: There's multiple piano solos, there's multiple guitar solos. Axel wrote
this song when he and Aaron Everley were getting their
marriage annulled. Oh I mean you get the title Estranged.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where you get this emotional subtext to all
of these fronts and moans even in this song. It's
truly amazing. Okay, I'm gonna tell you something that's gonna
You're gonna it's gonna blow your mind. You're ready. Yeah, Okay,
I told you I wasn't really listening to this kind
of music in ninety ninety one. Right, I've never seen
this video.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the video is the real story here, Okay, Okay, yeah,
I mean I say that the video is a major
part of the story.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So you have this beautiful, complex, masterfully done song and
then you match it up with a video. Remember we
said last November, Rain's budget was one point four million,
which made it one of the most expensive videos ever made.
Estrange costs four million dollars. Holy crap to make the video. Okay,
I need to watch this let's we're gonna take a moment.
He's gonna watch this video and then we're gonna come
back and talk about it. While I'm looking this updep
Chris Cornell of Soundguard. Keep in mind, Soundgarden actually opened
for Guns N' Roses on the Usual Lusion tour, So
this is not somebody who's not familiar with these guys.
They're not friends with them.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: He took issue with the level of decadence on display
in this video. Okay, with actual in particular. He's like,
who does he think he's appealing to other than Donald Trump? Right?
So there's there's scenes of him at his house. It's
his actual house showing off as wealth. They rented a
freaking tanker, like an oil tanker, and there's dolphins and
all this stuff. He said, I was offended by it.
It takes a lot for me to get offended when
who gives a crap about all this stuff and yet
Axel puts it on display.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting that you bring up Chris Cornell because
I didn't realize the close connection. Soundgarden opened up for
Guns N' Roses for a large part of their tour, right, right,
And he formed a friendship with basically everybody in the
band except Axel. He said, you never saw him, He said,
he only remembers actually seeing him like in the hallway
one time, and it was this weird like he's dressed
in like this spandex short short spandex and he's like
hey man and goes by and he's like, I felt
like I was in a comic book. It was so bizarre. Wow.
And so I watched, you know, I learned this literally,
you know, listening to this as I'm driving I go
to academy to buy some sports stuff for my kids.
And as I walk in the door, the song that's
playing is Patience, as covered by Chris Cornell, and I
was like, oh wow, this is altol. So if you
haven't heard that version of Patients, Chris Cornell's beautiful voice
and does something different with the melody. It's truly a
beautiful song. You have to check out. Let's listen to that.
Speaker 1: A little clip of that right here.
Speaker 9: So take it so little work itself fine only it's
just a little paces.
Speaker 7: Searching out.
Speaker 6: Make it so we will come again, Finn.
Speaker 7: Only little place.
Speaker 2: Let's see.
Speaker 1: I love it all right. The check out the video,
The strange here.
Speaker 4: The way the day.
Speaker 1: All right, you've seen the video, now what do you think?
Speaker 2: Okay, favorite part was when the dolphin came swimming out
of the back of the jumbo jets. What the heck
was that?
Speaker 10: Dude?
Speaker 1: It's just excess, you know, it's just rock and roll excess.
Speaker 2: James Cameron did not direct that video. You know how.
I know how's that because I could not see four
million dollars on the screen, That's right, I could. I
couldn't see a book fifty on the screen. That was terrible.
Speaker 1: I think they rented that tanker, which costs like one
hundred grand an hour, yes, and then that they had
the like the Coastguard helicopter.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, and what was the beginning with the
ambulance coming in at the same time as the swat.
Speaker 1: Team in standard two by two formation and the quarterback.
Speaker 2: What was that? That was terrible. As much as I
love this song, that video was a steaming pile of
doo doo.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just rock and roll Lexis, you know,
it's terrible.
Speaker 2: This song, though, Terror.
Speaker 1: Is incredible, Slash really doing his part to make this
song epic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the guitar is good. Slash on a dolly going
down the sidewalk next to the rainbow bar is a
bit odd, but whatever.
Speaker 1: Hey, by the way, that beautiful house in Malibu, but
you see that's Axel Rose's actual house.
Speaker 2: Or was right?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I like this Converse shoe.
Speaker 1: They were cool. They actually had an axle on the
on the rear of this of the shoot. This is
the best song on the album.
Speaker 2: I disagree, but it's good.
Speaker 1: My favorite is still Knocking on Heaven's Door, but this
is the best one. Okay, all right, we're done with
the Strange.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we can move on. Oh but we need to
know that this is part of a trilogy, right, thank you.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2: So we have November Rain, Don't Cry, which both are
on usually one one, and then we have this one,
which comes along and usually your illusion to Now, both
albums came out at the same time. Videos were not
done at the same time, right, And you noted that
there's a notable missing character in a Strange studio.
Speaker 1: Right, if you've seen part one of the trilogy, Don't Cry,
you have Stephanie Seymour all over that part two November Rain,
she's all over that actually attend her funeral, and then
she is supposed to be in part three estranged, but
they had broken up, and so she was absolutely.
Speaker 2: Ironic that they had become estranged at that point. Yes, yes,
I also really like the dictionary notes that we would get.
It's like a pop up video, that's right.
Speaker 1: And I think at the very end of the song
it says lose your illusions.
Speaker 2: Right, And I was distracted by the dolphin sitting next
to actual in the back rope. What a weird.
Speaker 10: Wow.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to a more fun song.
The next song.
Speaker 10: Yeah you could be mine?
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm thinking about Brad Moore in the back of
the theater rocking out to this song and just waiting
to pull the last hand off. This is such a
good song and I just a all want to throw
this out there. Brad mentioned that his fifteen year old
son is also listening to us, which we deliberately make
ourselves family friendly so that you can listen with your
teenage kid. But Brad Moore says his fifteen year olds
listened to us, and he's friends with James Buckley's daughter
who is also in that age range. And I saw
on Facebook that she went as her favorite decade to school,
and she was decked out.
Speaker 1: In eighties year she wore a purple Raine shirt to school.
Speaker 2: Love It, Love It.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we can take credit for that,
but we did run the Purple Raine episodes this summer.
Speaker 11: Right, Okay, let's talk about you Could Be Mine.
Speaker 1: This was in the Terminator Too movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger actively
campaigned for these guys personally to contribute a song Terminator two.
Speaker 2: He invited them to his house to finalize the deal.
Let's we want this song to be a part of
the movie.
Speaker 1: The Governator called them up. He gave them each leather
jackets that had bullet holes in them, just like you
see in the movie. Ah sweet, And he actually personally
selected this song. Now, I wish I knew more about
the selection process. I don't know whether they gave him. Hey,
here's ten songs, what do you think is the best?
But he chose you could be Mine. This song was
written in nineteen eighty seven during the Appetite for Destruction Days.
So this was originally written by Izzy about a woman
named Angela Nicoletti. She was a girlfriend who ended up
marrying the lead guitarist for Hanoi rocks.
Speaker 2: Oh right, that we talked about before.
Speaker 1: Yes, the song as it was originally written was called
Cocaine Talking. Okay, Okay. Now Douve gave an interview like
in nineteen eighty eight talking about this song Cocaine Talking.
He's like, people think we're druggies, but we don't do drugs. Okay,
the only thing were cocaine users. Because there's a song
called cocaine Talking. Well, that song became you could be mine.
Speaker 2: So the lyric with your bitch slap rapping and your
cocaine tongue you get nothing done that appears in the
inner sleeve of Appetite for Destruction.
Speaker 1: I was hoping to blow your mind with that.
Speaker 2: I am sorry. I know it's it's tragic, but if
you look at the liner notes for use your Illusion,
it's got ain't hit.
Speaker 1: Fun, which they later play on the Spaghetti Incident.
Speaker 2: Yep, this one in the In the lyrics, they do
a special thanks to Bernie Topin and Elton John, and
then they have a lie in the song that says
we've seen that movie too. This is a reference to
the Elton John song I've seen that movie Too from
the album Goodbye yellbrick ro.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, cool. So you mentioned that line bitschlap
rabbin and cocaine tongue and get nothing done was in
the liner notes for Guns n' Roses first album, Appetite
for Destruction.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 1: You should have seen my friend's eyes fall out of
his head when I pointed that out back in ninety one.
So we're sitting around as people used to do, right,
and we'd pop in our CDs and we were listening
to it. He's like, what is he saying? There? As
soon as I spelled it out what he was saying,
his eyes got big. He's like, that's in the line
or rose for appetite.
Speaker 2: There you go, yeah, that's awesome. So you want to
talk about the video on this one? Sure, So we
of course get Terminator all over the place, right, But
in the video, the terminator is after Guns and Roses.
Speaker 1: Yes, he's terminating excellent.
Speaker 2: So shows him. It shows a bunch of clips from
the movie, of course, and then it shows him at
the concert and he's in the front row, and then
he goes backstage and he's doing his little you know,
computer analysis on everybody and basically ends up with a
decision waste of Ammo.
Speaker 1: You know what song this replaced in the Terminator. The
song that was originally in that spot was I Want
to be Sedated by the remotes, and when Arnold was
able to recruit guns n' Roses and get them to
produce something quickly enough to put in the movie, they
replaced it with you Could Be Mine. Good cool, Yeah,
great song, fun song. I associated a lot with Terminator two.
Flashback to our Terminator two episode that we did this
summer versus Terminator one on Let's move on. Okay, okay,
So this brings us to Don't Cry, the alternate.
Speaker 4: Version yet.
Speaker 2: Now, Russ mentioned that he liked the lyrics better in
this version than in the version from usual Earls.
Speaker 1: One right, what do you think? I don't really care
because I listened to music. It is different. It does
strike my ear differently. I think I got to stick
with the one I'm more familiar with, So I'm I'm
going to take the one off USUALLYS one. But I
do think it's fascinating how Axel came up with this.
He said, Hey, guys, there's something happening in my brain
when you play Don't Cry. I've got these words appearing
in my head so roll tape, and he just riffed
these lyrics and the music is the same from this
beautiful songs. I love them both. It's the same song.
It's just different lyrics. What do you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you. I like the one that I'm
used to, which is off of usually Illusion one, but
this is still scrat It's a beautiful song. Beautiful song
is a beautiful song on there twice this one.
Speaker 6: That's right.
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for the alternate to h November Ring. Okay.
The last song on Usual Lusion two HU is called
my World you want to seven.
Speaker 5: And five World.
Speaker 10: It's just stay up the place in the real world.
Speaker 6: How many songs.
Speaker 1: Can't show what the crap I want to?
Speaker 2: Is this? This is their attempt at rap? Gangster rap?
Is that what this is?
Speaker 1: The story is is that Axel was into nine inch
Nails and progressive rock and it sounds like rap. And
you know, n w A and body Count had been
on the tour with them, so maybe they had some influence.
I don't really know. It's just he's weird, dude.
Speaker 2: It it doesn't belong on this album, right.
Speaker 1: Axel finished this in three hours he was on mushrooms
when he did it, so you know that could be
a factor. Sure, sure, so listen to this. This is
so how crazy ac is?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Axel believes that Duff actually likes the song. Duff has
said I like the song. He thinks that Slash just
said that, so Axel would put it on the album
and then people would hate it. It's the double secret
probation thing. Okay, is he hated this and in fact,
he didn't even know it was going to be on
the album until the albums were like printed and handed
to him. And when he listened, he's like, what the
F is this? How did this get on there?
Speaker 2: Right? I'll see you guys later.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this has never been performed live and this is
considered a completely Axel song and scene. Okay, this song
is awful. Needs to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did slease you that. I love. I love
bands who are smart enough to tempole their songs put
a great finish on it, and they totally watched this one.
Speaker 1: I'm a Rocket Queen is a great finish to appetite.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's talk black versus. Use your allusion to
one versus, use your allusion two. Rank them one, two, three,
Race st Go.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm a lot more torn than I thought I
would be, right, I like it's coming into this. I'm like,
without hesitation, black love it. Okay, I can't. You can't
beat it. Okay. I listened to it over and over
and over again. I had forgotten how good use your
Allusion two is. It's really really good, and so I
got to look at it here and I got to say, Okay,
civil War huge winner, Yesterday's really dang good. Knocking on
Heaven's door huge. It doesn't make it. It's close, it's
a lot closer than I thought. But I've got to say,
top album of the three has to be Black. User
Allusion two is a close second. User Allusion one is
a distant third.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair. I think I think that's fair. And
I'm glad that you that we move the needle for
you a little bit, for sure. Okay, So here's how
I rank them.
Speaker 2: If I'm walking out the door, I'm going on a
road trip, I can grab one of these.
Speaker 1: My first choice is Usual Lusion two.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: It's diverse, it's beautiful, it rocks, there's so many great
songs on it. It's just it really works for me.
Next one is the Black album. Side one of the
Black album is all Killer, no Filler. There are some
songs on the backside that aren't as good to me,
but there's so many wonderful, beautiful, heavy melodic metallica songs.
And then, like you usual Illusion one is kind of
a distant third.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We reached out to our buddy Brando who runs the
Appetite for Distortion podcast and it's just a guns and
Roses podcast, and so we asked him to weigh in
what he thinks about the User Illusion albums, and here's
what he had to say.
Speaker 12: September seventeenth, nineteen ninety one. Where was I when User
Illusion one and two came out? Was I at Tower
Records midnight ready to buy them? Well, if I was
old enough, I would have. I was eight, so probably
seeing Secret of the Ooze and Nature Turtles two movie
for the lyteenth time, asking my parents to take me
to that. So I was too young. But as soon
as I was cognizant of Guns and Roses and I
saw especially November Rain, specifically November Rain an MTV, it
changed my life forever. And as soon as I can
buy my own CDs. You bet I bought User Illusion
one first. I couldn't afford too right away because one
had November Rain. These are albums I listened to well
thirty years later, and it bothers me when people say
it should have been one record. No way, for a
variety of reasons. If you chip away at anything that
these records had, it takes away from the exact reason
why we're still talking about it thirty years later. Even
My World, yes, even My World. My world is a
precursor to Chinese democracy. Think about that one. But it's
a it's a perfect road trip soundtrack. It has aged beautifully,
it really has. From the artwork, each song could mean
something to you different at different times of your life.
Guns of Rosies, Use Your Illusion too. There are no
other records that we're going to talk about in another
thirty years.
Speaker 2: Think about that.
Speaker 12: If you're like me thirty eight years old, I'll be
talking about Use Your Illusion one and two when I'm
sixty eight old. That huh, But I'm only sixty eight,
you know what I mean, young and hard only twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 12: If you if you know the records, you know what
my terrible joke is about. Because brilliant albums, and Axel
famously said in one of his interviews to Kurt Loder
that he wanted to bury Appetite, that he wanted to
go through use your Illusion one and two with a
fine tooth comb. I think he did that. He went
through it with a fine tooth comb. And I think
as a whole, use your illusion one and two, whatever
you prefer, as a whole, I think he buried Appetite.
Speaker 2: And Mike Drop. He came strong with that, didn't he?
It was strong. Yeah, I want to kill Appetite for
destruction and it did. There you go, I mean he
mentioned and a few things in there. I mean he
called it life changing, you know, November Rain one of
his favorite songs of all time, and that my world
is something that should be cherished and included. It's pretty strong. Yeah,
I love it. I love the strong take. I don't
know that I agree with everything that he said, but
I surely liked the way that he said. It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: Brando, Thank you very much. If you guys like guns
n' Roses, you need to check out his podcast, Appetite
for Distortion. He's a big guns n' Roses guy, and
we asked him on as a g n R expert, Brando,
thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Here's the one thing that I will say that I
totally agree with. This will be an album that we're
still listening to thirty years from now.
Speaker 1: I think you're right too.
Speaker 2: I think you're lute.
Speaker 1: November Rain is time less.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Thanks very much man. That was great.
Speaker 1: Thanks Brando. Now, we would definitely want to hear from
our listeners. Where do you guys rank these three?
Speaker 2: Right? And you mentioned this. You mentioned this, so if
you took the twelve best on user Illusion one and
two and put that against the black album, so I think,
I mean this is I don't want to delve too
deeply into this, but we've got to have dust and Bones, right,
We've got to have Live and Let Die. We've got
to have probably both versions of Don't Cry. I would
pick Double Talking Jive certainly November Rain. A lot of
people would say The Garden, and then of course you've
got Civil War Yesterday is knocking to Heaven's door, Locomotive Estranged,
and you've got to finish the album with you could
be mine. Yeah, absolutely, that's a really strong album. If
you took the greatest hits. Of these two, I would
have to say that Guns N' Roses beats out Black Album.
Speaker 1: Slam Donk, I'm spiking the football on that one. The
twelve best songs from Use Your Illusion that album is
better than the Black Album.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. Tell us what you think, guys. Check
us out on Twitter at Shirley Podcast. Check out our
Facebook page. We're constantly putting stuff up there just to
be silly, but also some good questions and don't forget
to leave a review. Ask us any question you want
if we will answer it on our next episode. Okay,
another great take. There's so much smart stuff going on here.
Speaker 1: Branda, thank you for taking the time to do that
for us. They run a great podcast over there, Appetite
for Distortion For you Denzi Roses fans.
Speaker 2: Guys, be sure to hit that subscribe button so that
you can hear our next episode. We're going to be
covering some major horror movies come October. We're going to
be hitting m versus Silence of the Lamps. M is
a movie from nineteen thirty one. This is definitely the
oldest movie we've ever covered, right, but it's fantastic. It's
part of a Ozzy Osbourne video Mister Tinkertrain, which we covered.
That's how we came across it. Yeah, we think it
fits so em versus Silence of the Lambs. We've got
American Werewolf in London versus the Howling Bill turning forty
this year, fantastic movies. Can't wait to get into that.
Be sure and check those out.
Speaker 1: We'll see you here next week on the Surely you
can't be serious podcasting