Maps of Music

Use Your Illusion II (1991)

Where the lyrics of Use Your Illusion II take you, and where it was really made.

Both Use Your Illusion albums came out on the same day, and this one debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales that beat its counterpart.

Key places

A&M Studios, Hollywood (1991)

Recording site The Music Grinder (Hollywood) — A&M Studios is listed as a recording location for this album. The pin sits at Hollywood city centre, so it does not mark the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Record Plant, Los Angeles (1991)

Recording site Record Plant (Los Angeles) — Record Plant in Los Angeles is listed as a recording location for this album. The pin marks the building at the listed Sycamore Avenue address. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Studio 56, Los Angeles (1991)

Recording site Studio 56 — Studio 56 in Los Angeles is listed as a recording location for this album. The pin marks the studio's building position. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles (1991)

Recording site Conway Recording Studios — Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles is listed as a recording location for this album. The pin marks the studio's building position. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Metalworks Studios, Mississauga (1991)

Recording site Metalworks Studios — Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario is listed as a recording location for this album. The pin sits at Mississauga city centre, so it does not mark the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Use Your Illusion II: fourth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses
• Released 17 September 1991 by Geffen Records, the same day as Use Your Illusion I
• Sold a record 770,000 copies in its first week and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200
• As of 2010, 5,587,000 units sold in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan
• Both Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA

Background

• The Use Your Illusion Tour began in May 1991, four months before release, due to delays in getting the albums out
• Lead single 'You Could Be Mine' boosted the album, which was slightly more popular than Use Your Illusion I
• More political than earlier work: 'Civil War' deals with violence, 'Get in the Ring' with law enforcement and media bias, and a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' is included
• Lyrics deal less with drug use than previous Guns N' Roses albums
• Many tracks were written during and after Appetite for Destruction
• 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' had been released almost a year earlier on the Days of Thunder soundtrack
• 'Civil War' debuted at the 1990 Farm Aid concert
• 'So Fine' was dedicated to punk musician Johnny Thunders, who died of a drug overdose before the album was recorded
• 'Get in the Ring' lashes out at a career's worth of critics and enemies, including editors of several entertainment magazines
• The last Guns N' Roses studio album to credit rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and the last with drummer Steven Adler, who plays on 'Civil War'
• Along with Use Your Illusion I, the last Guns N' Roses album with new original material until 2008's Chinese Democracy

Recording

• The band had difficulty achieving the final sound, especially during mixing for both albums
• According to a 1991 Rolling Stone cover story, the band fired engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain after mixing 21 tracks with him, when he tried to replace the real drums with samples
• According to Slash's autobiography, the band found a notepad listing drum samples Clearmountain planned to mix over Matt's drum tracks, and decided to scrap the mixes
• The band started from scratch with engineer Bill Price, known for his work with the Sex Pistols
• Slash said most of the material was written on acoustic guitars in a couple of nights at his house, the Walnut House, after several months of non-productivity
• 'Breakdown' was one of the most complicated songs to record; the banjo, drum and piano parts were hard to synchronize
• 'Locomotive' was written in a house Slash and Izzy Stradlin rented in the Hollywood Hills after the Appetite for Destruction tours
• 'My World' was written and recorded in three hours

Cover

• Both covers are the work of Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi
• The artwork is a detail from Raphael's painting The School of Athens; the highlighted figure is not identified with any specific philosopher
• The only difference between the two albums' artwork is the colour scheme; Use Your Illusion II uses blue and purple
• The original painting was titled Use Your Illusion by Paul Kostabi, and the title became the name of both albums
• Both albums' liner notes include 'Fuck You, St. Louis!', a reference to the Riverport Riot in July 1991 during the tour

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Los Angeles, California, in March 1985 by Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Tracii Guns and others from L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose.
• The classic lineup of Rose, Slash, Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler was finalized in June 1985.
• Signed with Geffen Records in March 1986.

Members

• Current members include Axl Rose (vocals), Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), Dizzy Reed (keyboards), Richard Fortus (guitar), Melissa Reese (keyboards) and Isaac Carpenter (drums).
• Rose is the only constant member since the band's formation.

Career

• Debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987) sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and became the best-selling debut album in the U.S.
• Use Your Illusion I and II (1991) debuted at numbers two and one on the Billboard 200.
• Chinese Democracy (2008) was the long-delayed album reportedly costing $13 million.
• The Not in This Lifetime... Tour (2016–2018) grossed $563.3 million.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012; the band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone critic Christian Wright wrote that the songs range from ballad to battle, pretty to vulgar, worldly to incredibly naive
• Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot called both albums a staggering leap in ambition, musicianship, production and songwriting, and said II contains more knockout punches than I
• USA Today's Edna Gundersen, who deemed I the better record, called II rebellious, ambitious and powerful
• NME's Mary Anne Hobbs panned both albums for their dreadfully laboured feel and asinine lyrics
• Robert Christgau was unimpressed by II apart from 'Civil War', which he designated a choice cut in The Village Voice

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a retrospective review, called II more serious and ambitious than I but also considerably more pretentious, and a tedious listen
• Ann Powers, in the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, called II spacier than I and said 'Yesterdays' and 'You Could Be Mine' show the band can still focus to great effect
• Rolling Stone ranked both Use Your Illusion records jointly 41st on its 2010 list of the best albums of the 1990s

Records

• The first time two albums by one band or artist entered the US charts at No. 1 and No. 2
• Debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 770,000 copies in its first week, ahead of Use Your Illusion I's 685,000
• As of 2010, 5,587,000 units sold in the United States
• Certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA
• No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart for a single week
• First band to hold the top two biggest-selling albums on the chart since Jim Croce in 1974
• Opened as the top two albums in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• 'You Could Be Mine' appears in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, though not on its soundtrack album; the video uses Arnold Schwarzenegger in character as the Terminator, with Axl Rose as the 'target'
• The song's original subject matter was Izzy Stradlin's failed relationship with his ex-girlfriend Angela Nicoletti
• 'Locomotive' is the only song on either Use Your Illusion album where the phrase 'use your illusion' appears as a lyric
• Band members Slash and Matt Sorum are credited on the album as the basis for the sessions, and Steven Adler plays drums only on 'Civil War'

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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