Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by the American rock band Guns N' Roses. It was the first of two albums released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour, the other being Use Your Illusion II. The two are thus sometimes considered a double album - in fact both were double albums consisting of 2 vinyl records each (Warman's Records Field Guide) . The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts, selling 685,000 copies in its first week, behind Use Your Illusion II's first week sales of 770,000. Use Your Illusion I has sold 5,502,000 units in the U.S. as of 2010, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992.

The Use Your Illusion albums represent a turning point in the sound of Guns N' Roses. Although the band did not abandon the aggressive hard-rock sound they had become known for with 1987's Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I demonstrated a new-found musical maturity, incorporating elements of blues, classical music, heavy metal, punk rock and classic rock and roll. This is exemplified by the use of piano on several tracks of this album by lead singer Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed, as well as on Use Your Illusion II. Use Your Illusion I contains two of the three songs, "November Rain" and "Don't Cry", whose videos are generally regarded by fans as a trilogy. The third song, "Estranged", can be found on Use Your Illusion II.

Another factor in the different sound to this album compared to the band's earlier work is the addition of former Cult drummer Matt Sorum, who replaced member Steven Adler. Adler was earlier fired from the group due to a serious heroin addiction. Guitarist Izzy Stradlin said of the change, "Adler's sense of swing was the push and pull that give the songs their feel. When that was gone, it was just... unbelievable, weird. Nothing worked. I would have preferred to continue with Steve, but we'd had two years off and we couldn't wait any longer."

A number of songs on the album were written in the band's early days. They were not included on Appetite for Destruction but can be found on the so-called 'Rumbo Tapes', a popular bootleg album of early demo tapes. "Back Off Bitch", "Bad Obsession", "Don't Cry" (referred to by Rose during the ensuing tour as 'the first song  ever wrote together'), "November Rain", and "The Garden" are considered part of this group. There's also a cover of Paul McCartney & Wings' "Live and Let Die".

Besides stylistic differences, another new aspect seen in Use Your Illusion I was longer songs. "November Rain", an epic ballad, is nearly nine minutes long, and "Coma" is more than 10 minutes long. Another change was the presence of tracks sung by other members of the band (even though certain songs from Appetite for Destruction and G N' R Lies featured other members on duet vocals): lead vocals on "Dust N' Bones", "You Ain't the First" and "Double Talkin' Jive" are performed by rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin. In addition, "14 Years" and "So Fine" from Use Your Illusion II were sung by Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan, respectively.

The band had some difficulty achieving the final sound of the album, especially during the mixing stages of the production of both albums. According to a 1991 cover story by Rolling Stone magazine, after mixing 21 tracks with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start from scratch with engineer Bill Price of Sex Pistols fame.

Slash has stated that a great deal of the material for the album was written on acoustic guitars in a couple of nights at his house (the Walnut House), after several months of non-productivity.

Use Your Illusion I es el tercer álbum de estudio de la banda norteamericana de hard rock, Guns N' Roses. Fue el primero de los dos álbumes editados en conjunto con el Use Your Illusion Tour, siendo el otro el Use Your Illusion II.

Los Use your Illusion I y II representan un punto de cambio en el sonido de Guns N' Roses. A pesar de no abandonar sus tendencias hard rock de su primer álbum Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion I demostró, por primera vez elementos de blues, música clásica, heavy metal, punk rock y rock n' roll clásico. Por ejemplo, el cantante principal Axl Rose toca el piano en varias canciones de los dos álbumes. Fueron canciones como «November Rain» las que llevó al grupo a la popularidad entre personas que no escuchaban hard rock o heavy metal.

Otra influencia en el sonido diferente de este álbum en comparación con trabajos anteriores de la banda es el reemplazo del batería Steven Adler (que no había podido superar su problema con las drogas) por el batería Matt Sorum.

Varias canciones del álbum fueron escritas en los primeros días de la banda. «Back Off Bitch», «Bad Obsession», «Don't Cry», « November Rain» y «The Garden» se consideran parte de este grupo. También hay un cover de Paul McCartney, «Live and Let Die».

Además de las diferencias estilísticas, otro nuevo aspecto visto en el Use Your Illusion I eran canciones más largas. «November Rain», es una balada épica que dura casi nueve minutos; tiene el récord Guiness por ser la canción más larga que ha estado en las carteleras estadounidenses y "Coma" que dura más de diez minutos.

Otro cambio fue la presencia de temas cantados por otros miembros de la banda. «Dust N' Bones», «You Ain't The First», «14 Years», y «Double Talkin' Jive» son cantadas por Izzy Stradlin y «So Fine» es cantada por Duff McKagan.
La portada del disco esta basada en la obra de Rafael, "La escuela de Atenas".

Los álbumes Use Your Illusion I y Use Your Illusion II tienen portadas iguales, sólo cambian los colores.

Use Your Illusion I est le troisième album et le premier de deux disques sortis simultanément à la fin 1991 par le groupe de hard rock américain Guns N' Roses. Le deuxième s'appelant Use Your Illusion II. L'écriture de ces albums s'est échelonnée sur 2 ans, 1989 et 1990.

Dès la première journée de la sortie de l'album, les ventes ont dépassé les 500 000 exemplaires. En effet, le disque est sorti dans les bacs à 0:00h et, seulement 2 heures après, le disque atteignait déjà le demi-million d'exemplaires vendus. Le mérite ne lui revient pas en totalité : les ventes étaient calculées pour les deux Use Your Illusion qui sont sortis en même temps.

- Sur les chansons Dust N' Bones et You Ain't The First, c'est Izzy Stradlin qui chante. C'est lui qui les a composées et Axl Rose, le chanteur du groupe, lui a proposé de les chanter, Izzy a accepté.
- Don't Cry a été composée en 1986, avant même que le premier album du groupe, Appetite for Destruction, ne sorte. On note la participation de Shannon Hoon du groupe Blind Melon au chant. Il est aussi présent dans le clip.
- Sur Use Your Illusion II, une version de Don't Cry figure avec des paroles alternatives.
- Dans le clip de la chanson Don't Cry une référence aux relations tendues avec Izzy est faite. L'on peut voir rapidement griffonnée sur un papier le message suivant : « WHERE IS IZZY ».
- Avant la sortie de l'album, plusieurs titres comme Gn'R Sucks, Girth ou même Buy Product avaient été annoncés. Finalement, Use Your Illusion sera retenu.
- Plusieurs titres enregistrés, tel que Ain't Goin' Down, Night Crawler, Bring It Back Home, Crash Diet, Sentimental Movie, Just Another Sunday, ne figurent pas sur l'album. Le groupe n'en était pas assez satisfait et a décidé de ne pas les mettre sur ni l'un ni l'autre des Use Your Illusion. Un bootleg appelé Unwanted Illusions sortira quelques années plus tard et contiendra toutes ces chansons.
- Live And Let Die est une reprise de Paul McCartney. La chanson d'origine a été réalisé pour le film Live and Let Die (intitulé Vivre et laisser mourir dans la version française), un film de la saga James Bond.
- La pochette de l'album représente un personnage de la célèbre peinture L'école d'Athènes de Raphaël.


Use Your Illusion I è il terzo album in studio del gruppo musicale statunitense Guns N' Roses, pubblicato nel 1991 dalla Geffen Records.
Fu il primo di due dischi commercializzati parallelamente allo Use Your Illusion Tour, insieme ad Use Your Illusion II. Negli Stati Uniti fu premiato con 12 dischi di platino.

Questo album, così come il successivo volume II, segna una grande svolta nel percorso stilistico della band. Il sound subì un cambiamento, dato che l'album in studio precedente, Appetite for Destruction, era più veloce e massiccio. Se questo era un album molto legato ai canoni dell'hard rock o dello sleaze rock, Use Your Illusion presenta pezzi articolati ed eterogenei.

Accanto a canzoni dallo stile hard-rock già riscontrato in Appetite for Destruction, come Back off Bitch o Perfect Crime, troviamo la ballata Don't Cry, passaggi acustici (You ain't the first, Dead Horse) composizioni lunghe e intricate (Coma) o orchestrali (November Rain) e pezzi in cui partecipano cantanti diversi (il chitarrista Izzy Stradlin in Dust N Bones, Alice Cooper in The Garden). Esso comprende inoltre la reinterpretazione di un vecchio pezzo di Paul McCartney, "Live And Let Die, usato per l'omonimo film di James Bond (il cui titolo italiano è Agente 007 - Vivi e lascia morire (1973).

Anche il numero delle canzoni, 16, è decisamente superiore alla media dei dischi rock. Per "November Rain" fu girato uno dei video più costosi della storia della musica.

La copertina di questo disco (e quella del successivo Use Your Illusion II) illustra due personaggi tratti dal dipinto Scuola di Atene di Raffaello Sanzio. Entrambe le copertine sono opera dell'artista estone-americano Mark Kostabi.

Use Your Illusion I é o terceiro álbum de estúdio da banda estadunidense de hard rock Guns N' Roses.

Ele foi um dos dois álbuns lançados em conjunto com a turnê Use Your Illusion,com o lançamento do Use Your Illusion o Guns N' Roses virou uma das maiores bandas dos anos 90, sendo o outro álbum intitulado Use Your Illusion II, de modo que algumas vezes eles são tidos como um único álbum duplo. O álbum estreou em primeiro lugar nas listas da Billboard, vendendo mais de 500 mil cópias na primeiro dia. Cada um dos álbuns de Use Your Illusion foi certificado como disco de platina 7 vezes pela RIAA. E vendeu cerca de 17 milhões de cópias em todo o mundo. A revista Spader Music listou o álbum em uma de suas maiores colunas.

Os álbuns Use Your Illusion representam uma virada no som do Guns N' Roses. Embora eles não tenham abandonado as tendências hard rock de seu primeiro álbum, Appetite for Destruction, o Use Your Illusion I trouxe pela primeira vez elementos de blues, música clássica e country. Por exemplo, o vocalista Axl Rose toca piano em várias faixas de ambos os álbuns. Ainda, com a turnê Use Your Illusion, tanto a presença de palco quanto a música da banda se tornaram mais teatrais, na tradição do rock progressivo. Tal fato é evidenciado pelos vários videoclipes produzidos em conjunto com o álbum. Use Your Illusion I contém duas das três músicas, "November Rain" e "Don't Cry", dos videoclips considerados pelos fãs como uma trilogia. A terceira música, "Estranged", está no Use Your Illusion II.

Muitas das faixas do álbum foram escritas nos primórdios da banda, mas não haviam sido incluídas em Appetite for Destruction, embora possam ser encontradas na Rumbo Tapes, uma das primeiras demos da banda. "Back Off Bitch", "Bad Obsession", "Don't Cry" (citada por Axl durante a turnê como "a primeira música que eles escreveram juntos"), "November Rain" e "The Garden" são consideradas parte deste conjunto. Também há um cover de "Live and Let Die".

Além de diferenças estilísticas, um outro aspecto observado no Use Your Illusion I é a duração de algumas músicas. "November Rain" é uma balada épica de quase 9 minutos, e "Coma" tem mais de 10 minutos. Outra mudança foi a presença de músicas cantadas por outros membros da banda (embora algumas músicas em Appetite for Destruction e G N' R Lies tenham dois vocais em dueto). "Dust N' Bones", "You Ain't the First" e "Double Talkin' Jive" foram cantadas pelo guitarrista Izzy Stradlin. No Use Your Illusion II, Izzy canta "14 Years" e o baixista Duff McKagan canta "So Fine".

A banda encontrou dificuldades em obter a sonoridade final dos álbuns, especialmente durante a etapa de mixagem. De acordo com uma reportagem da revista Rolling Stone de 1991, após mixar 21 faixas com o engenheiro e produtor Bob Clearmountain, a banda decidiu largar as mixagens e recomeçar do zero com o engenheiro Bill Price, famoso por ter trabalhado com os Sex Pistols.

Slash afirmou que a maior parte das músicas do álbum foi composta num violão em algumas noites em sua casa (a Walnut House), após muitos meses de inatividade.

"November Rain" is a power ballad by American rock band Guns N' Roses, written by lead singer Axl Rose and released as a single in June 1992. It appears on the album Use Your Illusion I. It features a sweeping orchestral backing and is one of Guns N' Roses' longest songs.  "November Rain" peaked at number 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The narrative quality of the music video accentuated the epic nature of the song. The video (directed by Andrew "Andy" Morahan) portrays Rose marrying his then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour, intercut with a live performance in a theatre. Particularly, it can be noted for its large budget (about $1 million, including Seymour's dress) and sweeping cinematography, which won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography. It is one of the most expensive music videos ever.  Slash is prominently featured in some of the video's most memorable scenes, including a sequence of helicopter shots swooping around him as he plays the first guitar solo and a later scene where he plays the third solo while standing on Rose's piano onstage. Casting coordinator Mark Roberton observed; "the camera-man had a lot of responsibility, as the crane-cam was so close to Slash, precariously stood atop a piano that was near the stage edge. One wrong twitch and the guitarist would've had a long drop!" The video for "November Rain" uses the full version of the song as opposed to an abridged version. The Orpheum Theater, a theater in downtown Los Angeles was acquired for an evening shoot that went several hours into the night, and, unlike usual common practice, they didn't mime for any of the takes. Between several differing versions of "November Rain", while the cameras on cranes that swooped close to Slash's frets were reviewed and set up for the next shot – the band entertained the 1,500 extras by playing more of their songs.
For the outside shots of Slash while he is playing the first solo, Rose had originally envisioned it taking place in a "cool field" of sorts. However, since the video was shot in winter, there were no good-looking fields around, and eventually the band decided to use a church in New Mexico. Coincidentally, this was the same church used in the movie Silverado.
Brad Hartmaier art directed the New Mexico sequences at the Silverado Movie Ranch. Working from sketches he made while sitting in the hotel bar, Hartmaier managed to build and dress two church sets. The Exterior church set was a dilapidated old church that he trucked out to the middle of a large prairie. Multiple crews worked for 24 hours straight building a duplicate church complete with fly away walls, hand made cathedral windows and decorations befitting the southwestern region where it was shot. Hartmeier was in the church with a walkie-talkie with Slash as a helicopter circled above for the big shot. Slash asked him what he did and he replied, "I'm the art director slash prop man, slash painter, slash mad scientist." Slash quickly replied with a chuckle..."Ha ha, I'm just Slash." Hartmeier later said of working on the video, "It was the best experience of my life."
Nigel Phelps was the original Art Director; Hartmaier took his place when Phelps moved onto a feature film during the later part of the making of the video.
The priest in the video, an Italian man named Gianantonio, was a friend of Rose. Unbeknownst to the band, the church used for the interior shots was where the priest had performed some of his last services, eight years prior to the shooting of the video.
The music videos for "November Rain," "Don't Cry" and "Estranged" form an unofficial trilogy of sorts. While never specifically confirmed by the band, Rose and Del James have made statements supporting this idea.  The similarity in production, style and plots can be considered evidence of this intent.
As stated at the end of the video, "November Rain" is based on the short story "Without You" by Del James, available in his 1995 book The Language of Fear. The story concerns a rock star grieving over the death of his on-and-off-again girlfriend, who had committed suicide (inspired by Rose's troubled relationship with Erin Everly).
While much speculation exists about how Seymour's character in the video died, the relationship between the video clip and James' short story strongly suggests that she kills herself. She appears looking visibly troubled during one shot of the wedding and during the funeral sequence, a mirror is visible, covering over half her face, a technique used by funeral homes to allow victims of head trauma to have the appearance of a full face in the event of an open casket funeral.
The video remained popular throughout the rest of the decade. At the end of 1992, MTV placed "November Rain" at #1 on their top 100 videos of that year. Subsequently, it often appeared at #1 or in the top 10 of several future all-time MTV countdowns throughout the '90s. In addition, the video was voted "Best Video Clip" in Metal Edge's 1992 Readers' Choice Awards.

"Nothin' lasts forever, and we both know hearts can change. And it's hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain."