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Historic Release Of the Use Your Illusion Records


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I was in high school living at a friends house when they came out and his older brother had the CDs which were very rare at the time.  I remember sitting at a table listening to the entire CDs while reading  and singing along to the lyrics when my nose started bleeding during the end part of COMA and dripping on the table.. No significance to the story or anything, just a memory that stayed with me.. I made cassette copies from his discs and listened the shit out of them until my girlfriend at the time bought me UYI II for xmas.. Can't remember how I got my first real copy of UYI I.

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1 hour ago, Tom-Ass said:

I was in high school living at a friends house when they came out and his older brother had the CDs which were very rare at the time.  I remember sitting at a table listening to the entire CDs while reading  and singing along to the lyrics when my nose started bleeding during the end part of COMA and dripping on the table.. No significance to the story or anything, just a memory that stayed with me.. I made cassette copies from his discs and listened the shit out of them until my girlfriend at the time bought me UYI II for xmas.. Can't remember how I got my first real copy of UYI I.

I would've been a little pissed at my girlfriend for just buying UYI ll.  Like she didn't like me enough to buy both😄.

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Yeah, great memories of this launch.  Not just the record store, but the entire mall where I was decorated to celebrate the release.  I didn't wait in line, but went the following day, and nobody was buying anything else.  walked in, and the store manager simply said "one, two or both?" hahaha, I bought both cassettes of course.

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My fucking now ex-wife wouldn't let me go out at midnight, so I got them at Record Town when they opened the next morning. 

Not sure if anyone remembers this, but some radio stations aired a syndicated special on September 13th, 1991--the Friday before the official release--in which I think about 22 of the 30 songs from the Illusion records were played, and in between songs there were pre-recorded interviews with band members. Mostly Axl and Slash, if I remember correctly. I taped it onto a couple of Memorex audio cassettes, but I think they're long gone now.

In any event, it was way cool to hear so many of the songs in advance of the actual release, even if it was only about four days earlier. It brings back memories of just how big that band was at that time, most likely the most popular band in the world.

 

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I was 7 so I don't remember them coming out but I remember being in high school (and already loving AFD for years at this point) and picking these up and just being fucking blown away.

 

It amazed me that the band that did AFD could have two more albums full of amazing songs.  If you put the best of both illusions together I think you have a better album than AFD.

 

In fact 1 is probably my favorite GnR album.  Right Next Door to Hell, Don't Damn Me and Garden of Eden are so so so so so good.

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I got mine at a midnight sale at a local Warehouse Records in a suburb of Sacramento. Tower Records was my usual spot, but for some reason which I can't recall, I ended up at Warehouse which was less than a mile away. I bought both versions that night and still have the original CD's and cardboard containers (opened of course). I also remember it being my younger sisters 17th b-day.

I so vividly remember looking forward to the release all Summer long -- as it had been pushed back a couple of times. From radio play and MTV, I knew of LALD, YCBM, and Civil War. And I saw them on tour that July so I had heard numerous other new tunes but couldn't recall titles for many of them. I believe it was Circus Magazine that had a rumored track listing leading up to the release. 

I immediately inserted UYI1 into my friends CD player on the ride home and skipped straight to LALD -- which had been stuck in my head since the live MTV performance 12 days earlier. I just couldn't wait to hear the studio version. That, and Don't Cry were my immediate favorites.

I do really miss the anticipation of midnight releases back in those days. And none were more special than on 09/17/1991 for me. Coincidentally, I began working for a local music chain a couple years later in 1993 and we still had the occasional midnight release. One that comes to mind was for Pink Floyd's Division Bell. Pearl Jam's Vitalogy was another. But none of them were ever the same as the Illusions.

 

Edited by thunderram
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This was a time before I could just buy any CD I wanted, I was a Jr. in Highschool.  I got Illusions 2 first, then Illusions 1 the following week.

 

It's weird that the kids today, and even most of the last generation won't know what it's like to have to wait for music.  It wasn't as bad then because 1. We couldn't miss or crave leaks, they weren't a thing, the concept was invented in bootlegs, I guess.  I used to Drive 40 min to the Princeton Record Exchange every week to check for new bootlegs, I guess that was the early 90's "forum check."  I wasn't aware of any unreleased tracks prior to Illusions, anyway.

 

I just didn't follow music like I do now, so like KOHD was a surprise to me when I bought the soundtrack for my mother, who liked Kokomo.  I've shared the story before that the first time I even heard about Sympathy for the Devil was when they debuted it on WYSP, and I pulled over to listen and concentrate on the whole song.   The last moment like that I ever had was "Set me free" being played on (I think WYSP) the radio at a dealership, I was doing a half a million dollar audit, and this guy is telling me where some missing vehicles were, and I heard them describing new music from GnR 2.0 with Scott Weiland on vocals, and I just zoned out of my conversation 100% until the song was over.  When it ended, I acted like he said something that displeased me, I was like "Wait, what? No, start over again."  As an auditor, you could kind of be a dick and they had to take it, because I could literally call in the Pinkertons to shut the business down if I didn't think the numbers added up.  That was the single time I abused that power.

 

I digress, these threads always intrigue me, it was just a different time.  We didn't long for the internet, because we didn't know what it was yet.  It probably seems impossible to people who grew up with it.  It was just more exciting and rewarding, but I'd never trade back.  Hard to explain.

 

 

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11 hours ago, lame ass security said:

I bought both on cassette and went to a friend's house to listen and drink beer.  A weird thing I remember about the cassettes is that everytime I opened the container it smelled like strawberries.  I swear the liner notes fold out smelled just like them.

In the USA?  Cassettes had a unique smell, for sure.  It's not strawberries though (to me.)  I'm curious if they smelt different in different countries, or if we just identified a different smell.

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I remember the Hype. I was 15 at the time and not quite a GNR fan yet. I remember everyone at school and all of my friends going crazy over getting these albums! The day after they came out, that is all everyone was talking about. I didn't want to feel left out and bought them both the next day. I was hooked after that! I remember Listening to them in order (started with UY1 track 1) and thought they were incredible. When I got to November Rain, I was blown away! Could not believe what I was hearing. What a song! 

As much as I like Appetite for Destruction, I like the Illusion albums better. 

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6 hours ago, DeadSlash said:

In the USA?  Cassettes had a unique smell, for sure.  It's not strawberries though (to me.)  I'm curious if they smelt different in different countries, or if we just identified a different smell.

Yup, they definitely had a sweet smell. The clear cassettes did anyway. 

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