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What does "Use Your Illusion" mean to you?


Vincent Vega

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I think the title, "Use Your Illusion", is actually a really inventive, deep sort of title. It isn't something simple like Lies or Appetite for Destruction; It has a message, I think. What does that message mean to you?

For me, Use Your Illusion was a title directed at everyone: The fans, the media, the critics, the band themselves. Some of the lyrics in the song support this--That people hold on to illusions, to things that really aren't--either just for their own reasons, or to get by. Consider Locomotive's line:

"I bought me an illusion

An I put it on the wall

I let it fill my head with dreams

And I had to have them all

But oh the taste is never so sweet

As what you'd believe it is-

Well I guess it never is

It's these prejudiced illusions

That pump the blood

To the heart of the biz "

Isn't that what a lot of people do? Or some? Hang on to a dream, but the reality is never as sweet as the dream? Sort of living through "rose colored glasses", seeing the world--past or present--as something better than it really is. Not only that, but that line could apply to fame ("Oh the taste is never so sweet as what you'd believe it is"). It could apply to anything, really--to love, to your chosen path, towards your past, toward your day to day existence.

And:

"You can use you illusion-

Let it take you where it may

We live and learn

And then sometimes it's best to walk away

Me I'm just here hangin' on

It's my only place to stay at least

For now anyway

I've worked too hard for my illusions

Just to throw them all away"

And

"How can I ever satisfy you

An how can I ever make you see

That deep inside we're all somebody

An it don't matter who you wanna be

But now I gotta smile I hope you comprehend

For this man can say it happened

'Cause this child has been condemned

So I stepped into your world

I kicked you in the mind

An I'm the only witness

To the nature of my crime

But look at what we've done

To the innocent and young

Whoa listen to who's talking

'Cause we're not the only ones

The trash collected by the eyes

And dumped into the brain

Said it tears into our conscious thoughts

You tell me who's to blame

I know you don't wanna hear me cryin'

An I know you don't wanna hear me deny

That your satisfaction lies in your illusion

But your delusions are yours and not mine

We take for granted we know the whole story

We judge a book by its cover

And read what we want

Between selected lines

"

"Your only validation is living your own life

Vicarious existence is a fucking waste of time"

"You know you're all alone

Your friends they aren't at home

Everybody's gone to the garden

As you look into the trees

You can look but you don't see

The flowers seem to tease you at the garden

Everybody's there, but you don't seem to care

What's it with you man, and this garden

Turned into my worst phobia,

A crazy man's utopia

If you're lost no one can show ya,

But it sure was glad to know ya

Only poor boys take a chance,

On the garden's song and dance,

Feel her flowers as they wrap around,

But only smart boys do without

You can find it all inside

No need to wrestle with your pride

No you ain't losin' your mind

You're just in the garden

They can lead you to yourself

Or you can throw it on the shelf

But you know you can look inside

For the garden"

"I ain't superstitious

But I know when somethin's wrong

I've been draggin' my heels

With a bitch called hope

Let the undercurrent drag me along

Lost in the garden of Eden

Said we're lost in the garden of Eden

And there's no one's gonna believe this

But we're lost in the garden of Eden

Most organized religions make

A mockery of humanity

Our governments are dangerous

And out of control

The garden of Eden is just another graveyard

Said if they had someone to buy it

Said I'm sure they'd sell my soul"

I think again, same sort of stuff. I think that these lines about Axl's views on the band, on fame, on his life, at the time. He knows fame is only a passing illusion; He might've seen the demise of the old band--He's just hanging on cause it was his only place to stay--least for now anyway. It can apply to people in that you throw your heart or your hopes or your money or your passion at something that just isn't as beautiful as it seems--A gilded painting with shit underneath. That we live by maintaining certain points of view, certain ILLUSIONS, about ourselves, our lives, our pasts, our futures, others around us--and these illusions are what help us get by, keep us from caving in. The illusions--the lies, the package, the ideas-that the media sells us to color the world and fill the minds of others the way they want to. What our parents fill our heads with growing up; What dreams and illusions we fill our daily lives with just to keep on trucking.

I think a LOT of the lyrics of the UYI songs--Coma (broken memories another man would need just to survive), Locomotive, Don't Damn Me, The Garden (a place which seems sweet and enticing but destroys you basically), Garden of Eden (paradise is just another graveyard, basically), Don't Cry (Alt. Version), Dust N' Bones, Double Talkin' Jive--all have this sort of "living under an illusion" or realizing it and getting away from it--or keeping the illusion alive just to survive, whether that illusion be the grand visions of success or drugs or rose colored memories, or false hope in something you know is dead ("I thought I could live in your world as things all went by, but with all the voices I've heard, something has died").

If you look at a lot of the Axl penned lyrics on the UYIs, a lot of it is about death, loss, longing, loneliness. Something has died. Something needs to be saved. Something's changed, and he's holding on to the illusion of what once was, just to survive.

It's a deep sort of album...If it wasn't for some of the filler, you could almost say it was a concept album of sorts. There definitively is a running idea or theme in quite a few of the songs: The Illusion. The Dream. The Impossible fuckin' Dream. The shit you feed your head or the media or world feeds you and you hunger for it cause it sustains you and shields you from bleaker reality. Sensationalism, dreams, hopes, desires, longing...Illusions.

Edited by Vincent Vega
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I always enjoyed how Axl explained the musical themes of UYI in that unedited MTV interview (the one where he's inside and on a couch). He explained that the four LPs (each UYI has two vinyls) all represent different themes.

UYI I, LP 1 (Right Next Door... - DTJ): represents the old aggressive GNR sound and serves to help segue the old fans into UYI.

UYI I, LP 2 (Nov. Rain - Coma): represents a more experimental and creative sound for GNR.

UYI II, LP 1 (Civil War - Breakdown): represents the "Americana" sound, with the songs sounding big and expressive.

UYI II, LP 2 (PTU - My World): represents the new GNR sound.

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To me, it just means standing by what you do, using the experiences in life to create something you think is beautiful, or ugly. Art can be anything you want it to be, and we're all artists to an extent.

You're kind of throwing different songs together as one long running commentary, but you have to keep in mind songwriting is a different animal than writing a story or a poem. Even Elton has to tell Bernie when he needs to trim the song down, and I'm sure they've debated about things like that for 40 years.

This is from Kostabi, so if you were wondering what it meant from him, it's pretty clear here. Rock n' Roll in itself takes something familiar and artists try to create their own spin on it.

"My painting is an interpretation of a detail from Raphael's School of Athens, it gives me an amusing personal doorway into learning more about art history."

http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/kostabi/kostabi11-19-01.asp

Dear Mark,

I believe that you are insane. Your work is obviously so horrible -- yet you insist on endlessly making more of it. All you do is paint that same, stupid, faceless figure over and over and over again, sometimes sticking it into bad copies of famous paintings hoping to give your imagery some kind of credibility. And then God knows how you convinced Artnet to let you misguide all those poor, untalented junior hustlers to follow your twisted, self-serving "advice." Your work is so bad it even subverts the good name of bad painting. What do you honestly think you're doing?

Simon

Dear Simon,

I want my paintings to be so good that people will go against their better judgment to look at them. I want people to beg for my paintings. I want my entire oeuvre to be scrutinized fanatically with unprecedented intensity, even my few bad paintings. I want legions of art students, scholars, critics, collectors, dealers and art historians to seriously consider why on one particular morning I decided to drink Twinings English Breakfast tea instead of Jacksons of Piccadilly Earl Grey and what the ramifications were on that day's creations.

My relentless desire exists in part because of my anger and frustration of working with certain dealers. My great art would not exist without my desire for power and revenge through success. And I am determined to fill the world's museums with it.

Simon, I am not the first to say that a little insanity can help one be successful. Almost all of the most successful artists actually believe, either secretly or openly, that they are the greatest. This seemingly insane self confidence contributes enormously to real world success. Trust your lust and use your illusion.

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I've always seen it as things are not always what they seem. Art in any form is up to interpretation. To use your illusion is to create something as you see it. It kind of reminds me of an impressionist sort of saying. For example, think of how children draw the sun. It's a little circle with lines coming out of it. Of course, it truly looks nothing like the real sun yet we are almost programmed to make the association that a sun indeed looks like this kindergarten drawing. Art should not be taught so to speak, but rather interpreted. I've always seen the arts as a way of moving forward. Take influence from the past, sure, but aim to look at something in a new sort of way. Don't paint the sun as a circle with lines coming out. Paint it as you see. The Use Your Illusion albums don't give us Guns N' Roses as expected, but rather a Guns N' Roses that is in the process of evolving. Taking the old (Appetite) and doing something new with it.

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I think the title, "Use Your Illusion", is actually a really inventive, deep sort of title. It isn't something simple like Lies or Appetite for Destruction; It has a message, I think. What does that message mean to you?

For me, Use Your Illusion was a title directed at everyone: The fans, the media, the critics, the band themselves. Some of the lyrics in the song support this--That people hold on to illusions, to things that really aren't--either just for their own reasons, or to get by. Consider Locomotive's line:

"I bought me an illusion

An I put it on the wall

I let it fill my head with dreams

And I had to have them all

But oh the taste is never so sweet

As what you'd believe it is-

Well I guess it never is

It's these prejudiced illusions

That pump the blood

To the heart of the biz "

Isn't that what a lot of people do? Or some? Hang on to a dream, but the reality is never as sweet as the dream? Sort of living through "rose colored glasses", seeing the world--past or present--as something better than it really is. Not only that, but that line could apply to fame ("Oh the taste is never so sweet as what you'd believe it is"). It could apply to anything, really--to love, to your chosen path, towards your past, toward your day to day existence.

And:

"You can use you illusion-

Let it take you where it may

We live and learn

And then sometimes it's best to walk away

Me I'm just here hangin' on

It's my only place to stay at least

For now anyway

I've worked too hard for my illusions

Just to throw them all away"

And

"How can I ever satisfy you

An how can I ever make you see

That deep inside we're all somebody

An it don't matter who you wanna be

But now I gotta smile I hope you comprehend

For this man can say it happened

'Cause this child has been condemned

So I stepped into your world

I kicked you in the mind

An I'm the only witness

To the nature of my crime

But look at what we've done

To the innocent and young

Whoa listen to who's talking

'Cause we're not the only ones

The trash collected by the eyes

And dumped into the brain

Said it tears into our conscious thoughts

You tell me who's to blame

I know you don't wanna hear me cryin'

An I know you don't wanna hear me deny

That your satisfaction lies in your illusion

But your delusions are yours and not mine

We take for granted we know the whole story

We judge a book by its cover

And read what we want

Between selected lines

"

"Your only validation is living your own life

Vicarious existence is a fucking waste of time"

"You know you're all alone

Your friends they aren't at home

Everybody's gone to the garden

As you look into the trees

You can look but you don't see

The flowers seem to tease you at the garden

Everybody's there, but you don't seem to care

What's it with you man, and this garden

Turned into my worst phobia,

A crazy man's utopia

If you're lost no one can show ya,

But it sure was glad to know ya

Only poor boys take a chance,

On the garden's song and dance,

Feel her flowers as they wrap around,

But only smart boys do without

You can find it all inside

No need to wrestle with your pride

No you ain't losin' your mind

You're just in the garden

They can lead you to yourself

Or you can throw it on the shelf

But you know you can look inside

For the garden"

"I ain't superstitious

But I know when somethin's wrong

I've been draggin' my heels

With a bitch called hope

Let the undercurrent drag me along

Lost in the garden of Eden

Said we're lost in the garden of Eden

And there's no one's gonna believe this

But we're lost in the garden of Eden

Most organized religions make

A mockery of humanity

Our governments are dangerous

And out of control

The garden of Eden is just another graveyard

Said if they had someone to buy it

Said I'm sure they'd sell my soul"

I think again, same sort of stuff. I think that these lines about Axl's views on the band, on fame, on his life, at the time. He knows fame is only a passing illusion; He might've seen the demise of the old band--He's just hanging on cause it was his only place to stay--least for now anyway. It can apply to people in that you throw your heart or your hopes or your money or your passion at something that just isn't as beautiful as it seems--A gilded painting with shit underneath. That we live by maintaining certain points of view, certain ILLUSIONS, about ourselves, our lives, our pasts, our futures, others around us--and these illusions are what help us get by, keep us from caving in. The illusions--the lies, the package, the ideas-that the media sells us to color the world and fill the minds of others the way they want to. What our parents fill our heads with growing up; What dreams and illusions we fill our daily lives with just to keep on trucking.

I think a LOT of the lyrics of the UYI songs--Coma (broken memories another man would need just to survive), Locomotive, Don't Damn Me, The Garden (a place which seems sweet and enticing but destroys you basically), Garden of Eden (paradise is just another graveyard, basically), Don't Cry (Alt. Version), Dust N' Bones, Double Talkin' Jive--all have this sort of "living under an illusion" or realizing it and getting away from it--or keeping the illusion alive just to survive, whether that illusion be the grand visions of success or drugs or rose colored memories, or false hope in something you know is dead ("I thought I could live in your world as things all went by, but with all the voices I've heard, something has died").

If you look at a lot of the Axl penned lyrics on the UYIs, a lot of it is about death, loss, longing, loneliness. Something has died. Something needs to be saved. Something's changed, and he's holding on to the illusion of what once was, just to survive.

It's a deep sort of album...If it wasn't for some of the filler, you could almost say it was a concept album of sorts. There definitively is a running idea or theme in quite a few of the songs: The Illusion. The Dream. The Impossible fuckin' Dream. The shit you feed your head or the media or world feeds you and you hunger for it cause it sustains you and shields you from bleaker reality. Sensationalism, dreams, hopes, desires, longing...Illusions.

Too damn long did n`t read

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I always enjoyed how Axl explained the musical themes of UYI in that unedited MTV interview (the one where he's inside and on a couch). He explained that the four LPs (each UYI has two vinyls) all represent different themes.

UYI I, LP 1 (Right Next Door... - DTJ): represents the old aggressive GNR sound and serves to help segue the old fans into UYI.

UYI I, LP 2 (Nov. Rain - Coma): represents a more experimental and creative sound for GNR.

UYI II, LP 1 (Civil War - Breakdown): represents the "Americana" sound, with the songs sounding big and expressive.

UYI II, LP 2 (PTU - My World): represents the new GNR sound.

What interview

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I always enjoyed how Axl explained the musical themes of UYI in that unedited MTV interview (the one where he's inside and on a couch). He explained that the four LPs (each UYI has two vinyls) all represent different themes.

UYI I, LP 1 (Right Next Door... - DTJ): represents the old aggressive GNR sound and serves to help segue the old fans into UYI.

UYI I, LP 2 (Nov. Rain - Coma): represents a more experimental and creative sound for GNR.

UYI II, LP 1 (Civil War - Breakdown): represents the "Americana" sound, with the songs sounding big and expressive.

UYI II, LP 2 (PTU - My World): represents the new GNR sound.

What interview

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