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Guns N' Roses – Use Your Illusion I

I haven't listened to this CD in a while... I had it first on cassette years ago. Now I think I understand this album a lot better, having had more life experience, relationships, broader musical knowledge, etc.

It's an incredibly ambitious album, putting together larger-scale and more complex arrangements than their first hit album, Appetite for Destruction. I prefer the second album, Use Your Illusion II, because it has a bit more depth and emotional range. The first album is more straight ahead, showcasing a bunch of straight-up rockers with minimal filler. There is a bit of variety – Spanish guitar on Double Talkin' Jive, blues-rock piano on Bad Obsession and Dust N' Bones, and, of course, the symphonic strings of November Rain. Listen for the complex rhythm and accompaniment guitar parts going in an out in November Rain – they are often lost in the mix against the overwhelming vocals, lead guitar, and strings.

Overall, it's an exhausting, intense experience, just the way it was meant to be. There aren't many slow or quiet songs other than Izzy Stradlin's laid-back You Ain't the First. The overall tone is aggressive and combative, often feeling conversational, as if Axl or the band was telling off a series of exes. There is a bit of sweetness in my favorite of the bunch, Don't Cry and November Rain, but the majority of the songs are unrelentingly in-your-face, until the album ends, appropriately, with Coma. The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long and all that...

 

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Edited by HiWire
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Laurie Anderson, Live at Town Hall, New York City, September 19-20, 2001

"We want to dedicate our music tonight to the great opportunity that we all have to begin to truly understand the events of the past few days, and to act upon them with courage, and with compassion as we make our plans to live in a completely new world."   No, I'm not comparing this to 9/11, I just often think of this when people are defining themselves by being reactionary, when we should be heeding the wisdom of Laurie, and try and live a life of grace.

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Was:  Jennifer Warnes, Famous Blue Raincoat (my introduction to all things Leonard Cohen, yes, even before hearing "Hallelujah") (just finished)

Is:  Simple Minds, Acoustic (wot, no "Theme for Great Cities"?  They only remade that, what, a thousand times?)

To Be:  the purple twilight of sleep...no, that's not really the name of a recording, I'm on my way to bed shortly.

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The two disc 180g vinyl of Famous Blue Raincoat (20th Anniversary limited edition) has some tracks that are not on the CD. Which came as a pleasant surprise when I played it.

In the liner notes is a copy of a letter she sent to Cohen in 1956, when she was 9, about Song For Berndette. And also Cohen's reply. Just shows how a kind reply can have lifelong musical repercussions.

Just tried to find a price for these - of course no longer a current pressing, and which now changes hands for $2000. Holy carp.

Edited by Craig Sawyers
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