Guns N Roses' 'Use Your Illusion': A Look Back at Izzy Stradlin's Contributions

[pacu44]

GnR UYI 1 & 2 Turns 25

Guns N Roses' 'Use Your Illusion': A Look Back at Izzy Stradlin's Contributions

[Darkenchantress]

Loved the article, thanks for posting it!!

[Good, Fuck'n, Night.]

Quote

The band began seriously considering a follow-up to Appetite for Destruction in the summer of 1989, during a fruitful writing session that took place in Chicago. Izzy Stradlin, who had recently sobered up and often traveled separately from his bandmates, was especially productive. "Izzy has brought in eight songs – at least," Rose said in 1990. "Slash has brought in a whole album. I've brought in an album. Duff [McKagan] knows everybody's material backwards. So we've got, like, 35 songs we like, and we want to put them all out, and we're determined to do that." Discussing his newfound sobriety, Stradlin reflected, "I just reached a point where I said, 'I'm gonna kill myself. Why die for this shit?' "

 

[Jane M.]

Quote

Stradlin’ brought a sense of Stonesy/New York Dolls swagger to Guns N Roses; he seemed to care neither for heavy metal, hardcore punk or the near-prog Queen influences that his bandmates had; he gave the band their swing. With him, they weren’t just a “rock” band: they were rock and roll.

Enough said.

@pacu44 Awesome article, thanks!

[Archtop]

Guns N Roses’ summer concerts were great. They could have been greater: it would have been awesome to see Izzy take the mic for a few songs

Sums up pretty much how I feel about the whole tour!

[thunderram]

The author loses credibility with me when he disses "Pretty Tied Up" and refers to it as IZZY's only "dud". I get that it may not be a song the author cares for, but that doesn't by rule define it as subpar either.

While perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, I feel the song is widely liked by a majority of fans that are well versed in GN'R's full catalog.

[Walapino]

2 minutes ago, thunderram said:

The author loses credibility with me when he disses "Pretty Tied Up" and refers to it as IZZY's only "dud". I get that it may not be a song the author cares for, but that doesn't by rule define it as subpar either.

While perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, I feel the song is widely liked by a majority of fans that are well versed in GN'R's full catalog.

Yep, PTU rocks! 

[StrangerInThisTown]

27 minutes ago, thunderram said:

The author loses credibility with me when he disses "Pretty Tied Up" and refers to it as IZZY's only "dud". I get that it may not be a song the author cares for, but that doesn't by rule define it as subpar either.

While perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, I feel the song is widely liked by a majority of fans that are well versed in GN'R's full catalog.

Typical case of morons judging a song purely by its lyrical content. Just dumb. Yea lets just ignore all the hours spent on writing the guitar riffs, solo and arrangement, if the lyrics arent good, it's shit.

Edited September 16, 2016 by StrangerInThisTown

[Słash]

Its been 25 years of Silence

Its been 25 years of Pain

Its been 25 years that are gone forever

I hope one day we have it again

 

[Modano09]

31 minutes ago, thunderram said:

The author loses credibility with me when he disses "Pretty Tied Up" and refers to it as IZZY's only "dud". I get that it may not be a song the author cares for, but that doesn't by rule define it as subpar either.

While perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, I feel the song is widely liked by a majority of fans that are well versed in GN'R's full catalog.

The only Izzy song I didn't like is You Ain't The First. It sounds out of place and I don't get the love people seem to have for it. I probably don't love Double Talkin Jive as much as others either. I like it, but it's something I listen to if it comes on, I don't go out of my way to hear it. I love Bad Obsession and Pretty Tied Up though.

[GNRfan2008]

Izzy is a badass, no doubt about it. I think Velvet Revolver would have turned out better with Izzy instead of Weiland. 

[EvanG]

I've said this before here and I'll say it again... those songcredits in the UYI booklets aren't even that accurate. Duff himself once said that they were fighting over songcredits at the time and that he wrote a lot more for the UYI albums than he got credit for. I don't know how much of that's true or just ego talking, but the fact he mentioned that at all makes me think there's at least some truth to it.

[Mendez]

1 hour ago, thunderram said:

The author loses credibility with me when he disses "Pretty Tied Up" and refers to it as IZZY's only "dud". I get that it may not be a song the author cares for, but that doesn't by rule define it as subpar either.

While perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, I feel the song is widely liked by a majority of fans that are well versed in GN'R's full catalog.

Dizzy made it a dud when he jerked all over the song with his shitty rock saloon piano playing

[RONIN]

1 hour ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Typical case of morons judging a song purely by its lyrical content. Just dumb. Yea lets just ignore all the hours spent on writing the guitar riffs, solo and arrangement, if the lyrics arent good, it's shit.

I love the lyrics of PTU -- some of the best Izzy has ever done. It's certainly no worse than any other GnR sleaze classic. I could see the S&M content being a minus point for some prudes though.

Edited September 17, 2016 by RONIN

[Draguns]

Besides the studio demos of songs like Ain't Going Down, Crash Diet, Just Another Sunday, etc. are there more songs in the vault from this era that we may not know about?  This I Love goes back to 93. You Could Be Mine, Back Off Bitch, Yesterdays, Knocking on Heaven's Door, Don't Cry,  Bad Obsession, and November Rain were all AFD era songs that got on the UYI album.  

[BorderlineCrazy]

1 hour ago, Draguns said:

Besides the studio demos of songs like Ain't Going Down, Crash Diet, Just Another Sunday, etc. are there more songs in the vault from this era that we may not know about?  This I Love goes back to 93. You Could Be Mine, Back Off Bitch, Yesterdays, Knocking on Heaven's Door, Don't Cry,  Bad Obsession, and November Rain were all AFD era songs that got on the UYI album.  

Knockin' On Heaven's Door???

[Crazyman]

This article was great...until it called 'Pretty Tied Up' a dud. Still enjoyed reading it, however.

[liqddynamite]

5 minutes ago, Crazyman said:

This article was great...until it called 'Pretty Tied Up' a dud. Still enjoyed reading it, however.

This, I mean wtf

[Draguns]

16 minutes ago, BorderlineCrazy said:

Knockin' On Heaven's Door???

Yes, what I'm saying is that GNR performed it at the Ritz so this was part of the AFD era.  You misinterpreted what I said.  I know who wrote the original. 

[BorderlineCrazy]

10 minutes ago, Draguns said:

Yes, what I'm saying is that GNR performed it at the Ritz so this was part of the AFD era.  You misinterpreted what I said.  I know who wrote the original. 

Alright, then. Do Shadow Of Your Love, It Tastes Good, Don't It? and Sentimental Movie count?

[Reclamation Project]

17 minutes ago, Crazyman said:

This article was great...until it called 'Pretty Tied Up' a dud. Still enjoyed reading it, however.

Yup.

Cool ranch dressing!

[Reclamation Project]

2 hours ago, Draguns said:

Besides the studio demos of songs like Ain't Going Down, Crash Diet, Just Another Sunday, etc. are there more songs in the vault from this era that we may not know about?  This I Love goes back to 93. You Could Be Mine, Back Off Bitch, Yesterdays, Knocking on Heaven's Door, Don't Cry,  Bad Obsession, and November Rain were all AFD era songs that got on the UYI album.  

The Garden was written before Appetite also. 

I wish Crash Diet was on UYI II. Put it after You Could Be Mine, let Slash rip it up on the same BC Rich, and dump rubbish My World. 

Edited September 17, 2016 by Reclamation Project

[willl]

Haha I thought the exact same thing when reading the article as so many others. PTU is a great song Lyrically it's quite biographical too, there's quite a few lines in the song which Izzy has referenced in interviews, eg.....

"I just found a million dollars which someone forgot"

Quote

Izzy tells a hair-raising story of a 'missing' million-dollar advance from a merchandising company. "I'm out of my fucking gourd, right? I'm at the fax machine and I've got like a hundred faxes strung across this room. And I've got a pistol on the desk cos I kept hearing people walking on my roof, right? So I'm snorting coke, faxes keep coming, snorting more coke... And I'm reading through this stuff, trying to just grasp what had happened to us.

"The call that really sent me off my rocker was from one of the attorneys. I said, 'There was a million-dollar advance, where is it?' And he goes, 'Well, Izzy, I don't really know right now'. I was just like 'Aaarrrgggghhhhhh!!'

"pretty tied up"

Quote

"My Mexican friend Tony, took me to meet this woman named 'Margot' at her house. She gave us some tequila or something and she goes in the bedroom and we walk in, and there's this big fat naked guy with an onion in his mouth. He's wearing women's underwear and high heels and he's tied up with duct tape against the wall. Me and Tony were like, What the fuck is going on here? Cracking up laughing. She was this dominatrix chick. We sat around her living room for the rest of the afternoon, listening to records, and she'd go in the bedroom and do her thing. At the end of the day she turned him loose and he paid her all this money. She took us out to eat. There was this whole scene of dominatrix chicks who worked in the S&M clubs. They'd beat on guys and after work, they'd take a musician out to dinner, let you stay at their place sometimes"

 

[gnfnrs1972]

Blah blah blah. Izzy's ass! Moving right along......without him.

[The Holographic Universe]

7 minutes ago, gnfnrs1972 said:

Blah blah blah. Izzy's ass! Moving right along......without him.

Lol. I love Izzy, but he turned in shit songs that Axl and Slash had to work up into the songs on the album. Slash, has stated numerous times on record that Izzy was content with basic tracks; essentially demos. Izzy never had an interest in what it takes to be global band, which is why I always find the Kieth Richards comparisons empty, because Kieth knows. Izzy doesn't give a shut and that's fucking cool for that era of GNR, but to evolve and grow he had to leave.