Use Your Illusion

Believe it or not, the balding me on the sidebar of this blog was one of the fan of the old Gun n Roses when they were at their heights. Still is. That was between 1990 to 1996 when they were releasing their studio albums in a regular basis. I was in high school and then pre-university or matriculation and then I was doing my university degree. I graduated from university in 1998 and had enough knowledge of Gun n Roses although I got to know of them quite late.

Now, after 17 years, they are releasing their 6th studio album called Chinese Democracy. A few years back, they were the final act in the MTV Music Award where they gave a dose of this album but it was badly done as Axl looked like Axl long ago if he binged non-stop on McDonald's. Maybe he did. He was fat. And still fat according to the photos in the tabloids.

The album cover

Gun n Roses actually remind me of this one senior who was the incarnation of Axl Rose in Malaysia. He was a guitarist, a bad-ass and he actually had all things which have to do with the band. He had all their albums, their live album and their concert on VHS. In his apartment the VHS of Gun n Roses concerts was on nearly everyday. The clip of Axl singing November Rain live and the video clip of the song where Axl got married to a hottie then Slash playing a solo outside the church they got married was also played over and over again. The hotties in all their video were admired by us and their destructive lifestyle were revered by all. Their drinking, womanising and drugs habits were plastered on tabloid day in and day out.

When I was in my matriculation years, G n R, as they were known, released their double album which contained nearly 30 songs and two versions of  Don't Cry. The name Use Your Illusion I and II were the name of that album and we loved both album that the tapes to them were worn in a matter of weeks. Once cover was blue and the other red and yellow. The song like You Could Be Mine, which was used for Terminator 2 and Knockin' on Heaven Door originally sung by Bob Dylan introduced us to a whole new level of G n R.

In 1994, I got to know another one of their song intimately when I sung their song, Patience, where I partnered with the said senior who was an avid fan of G n R to sing it. The whistling part in the song was substituted with his guitar and I sang the song in a talent night. It was quite a bad performance as no one can sing Axl except Axl himself (who even sometimes couldn't sing him, himself)

I went looking for their songs last year for my 2008 new year party and it brought back a lot of memories to the guest of my party then. Some songs were lost to times like Locomotive, Dead Horse and Coma. Some are still favourites to live band that they become cliche like Sweet Child of Mine from Appetite for Destruction. Some are in my iPod.

The influences of G N R in my blog was evident when I used it as the title of one of my posting recently in October 2008 in my other blog. Check it out here - http://kruel-legalcat.blogspot.com/2008/10/appetite-for-destruction.html.

Whether this album is bad or good, Gun n Roses was one of the band which played a big part of my life...as much as Metallica did.