Guns N Roses' Use Your Illusion I And II (33 1/3) [Paperback]

Eric Weisbard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2006

<div> <div>It was the season of the blockbuster. Between August 12 and November 26 1991, a whole slew of acts released albums that were supposed to sell millions of copies in the run-up to Christmas.&nbsp;Metallica, Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Garth Brooks, MC Hammer, and U2 - all were competing for the attention of the record-buying public at the same time. But perhaps the most attention-seeking act of all was Guns N Roses. Their albums <em>Use Your Illusion 1 and 2</em>, released on the same day, were both 75-minute sprawlers with practically the same cover design - an act of colossal arrogance. </div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On one level, it worked. The albums claimed the top two chart positions, and ultimately sold 7 million copies each in the US alone. On another level, it was a disaster. This was&nbsp;an album that Axl Rose has been unable to follow up in fifteen years. It signaled the end of Guns N Roses, of heavy metal on the Sunset Strip, and the entire 1980s model of blockbuster pop/rock promotion. <em>Use Your Illusion</em> marked the end of rock as mass culture. <br><br>In this book, Eric Weisbard shows how the album has matured into a work whose baroque excesses now have something to teach us about pop and the platforms it raises and lowers, about a man who suddenly found himself praised to the firmament for every character trait that had hitherto marked him as an irredeemable loser. </div> <div>&nbsp;</div></div>>

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

<div>Eric Weisbard has been writing about music since 1989. He edited the <span style="font-style: italic;">Spin Alternative Record Guide </span>and was a senior writer there for ten years. At Experience Music Project, the Seattle music museum, he put together the travelling exhibit &quot;Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights&quot; and he organized the annual pop music conference. </div> >

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (December 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826419240
• ISBN-13: 978-0826419248
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Music > History & Criticism
  • #10 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Rock
  • #67 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Theory

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is Garbage !!, September 21, 2007

By 

Su Do Ku - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guns N Roses' Use Your Illusion I And II (33 1/3) (Paperback)

The authour spends more time talking about his own past, (youth, his sister's wedding [wtf??], novels he has read, John Updike, etc.) than he does about the music. "I still don't know much of anything about Guns N' Roses, and wouldn't want to spoil my fog by reading books and articles about them just yet." (p. 25) Yeah, well, I wish you had. I couldn't finish the book. So if you don't want to read about the GN'R double album, Use Your Illusion I & II, this is the book for you.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was looking for, July 10, 2007

By 

Mike Maguire (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guns N Roses' Use Your Illusion I And II (33 1/3) (Paperback)

I'm writing this having read only 36 pages, so take it for what it's worth. I wanted to put a warning out there though -- this is not, to use the writer's words, a reportorial work. That's why I'm disappointed so far. The writing isn't bad but it's more of a personal essay.

I buy 33 1/3 books to learn the details about how albums I like were made. I want to hear stories from the production, what inspired the songs, what the band was going through, etc. This book doesn't seem to fall in that category.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yikes. Not for the fans!, March 14, 2009

By 

lilmonster "I would eat books if I could" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guns N Roses' Use Your Illusion I And II (33 1/3) (Paperback)

Dear Eric Weisbard,

If you hate a band, why write about them? This wasn't some forced album review that you *had* to do. Rather than discuss, as the series suggests, the importance of a record, or how it was made, etc., Eric takes apart the UYI albums.

I didn't expect it to be the dribbly fan prose my personal reflections on the book would have been, but I also didn't expect him to be so self-righteous. Why do I know more about Eric's married life (he has a kid, he's married to a girl he used to listen to one track of GNR with repeatedly) than the album or what it meant? Apparently this album (for the author) heralded the end of rock.

Clearly Mr. W wanted to write the review of Pearl Jam's "Ten" and didn't get the gig. So we have to listen to him rag on the band's persona (rather than their songwriting). He blathers on, and I found myself checking how many pages were left (the book only rings in at a hefty 125, but it feels like War and Peace the way he writes).

He even gets as arrogant as to talk about if *he* had ordered the tracks, what order he would have done, and what he would have kept. You know what *I* would have done, Eric Weisbard? I would have hired an editor :)

But that's not the worst of it. At one point early on he refers to an art critique and decides to bite the style and review the albums WITHOUT LISTENING TO THEM. then, in the final chapter, we're supposed to be grateful that he did so and pour over his pontifications. EXAMPLE GIVEN - this is one gem I dog-eared in my book to share with you all:

"Also, if you hit the same note at the end as you had in the beginning, just more torn and frayed, then nothing has moved forward. Gothic imperatives that have long counterposed Puritan skepticism to the smiley faced motto of American revivalism: "all may be saved"".

If any of you understand what the hell he's on about (this was in reference to the song "Don't Cry", which the author has particular disdain for", lemme know.

This book McSucked.