Guns N’ Roses Releasing Massive ‘Use Your Illusion I & II’ Box Set With 63 Unreleased Tracks/Videos
Guns N’ Roses will celebrate their sprawling 1991 two-album set Use Your Illusion I & II on Nov. 11 with a commemorative box set featuring dozens of previously unreleased tracks and videos. Titled Guns N’ Roses — Use Your Illusion I & II Super Deluxes the 97-track collection will feature 63 previously unreleased songs alongside newly remastered for the first time versions of both albums in 96kHz 24-bit transfers from the original stereo 1/2-inch analog masters, according to a release announcing the set.
The special edition will be available in a number of configurations, including a Super Deluxe Seven-CD + Blu-ray, a Super Deluxe Twelve-LP + Blu-ray on 180-gram heavy weight audiophile black vinyl, 2-CD Deluxe Editions of Use Your Illusion I & II separately, as well as standard 1-CD and 2-LP versions of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II separately; all the versions will also be available to stream and as digital downloads.
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The Illusion albums — which dropped simultaneously on Sept. 17, 1991 — were GNR’s third and fourth studio releases and they debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard 200 album chart, with II taking the top spot and I coming in just behind as the pair sold nearly 1.5 million copies during their first week on the charts.
The albums feature some of the band’s most enduring, musically adventurous hard rock anthems, including the ultimate metal ballads, “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry,” their signature cover of Paul McCartney’s James Bond anthem “Live and Let Die,” as well as the burners “You Could Be Mine” and “Civil War,” “Double Talkin’ Jive,” “Pretty Tied Up” and another iconic metal-edge cover: Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”
The version of “November Rain” will include a real 50-piece orchestra for the first time ever on a newly recorded, conducted and arranged 2021 version led by composer Christopher Lennertz. Both Super Deluxe versions include the complete Live in New York set recorded at the Ritz Theatre on May 16, 1991 with newly remixed sound from the original multi-track tapes and performances of “Don’t Cry” and “You Ain’t the First” with additional vocals from late Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon.
The sets also feature the complete, newly mixed Live in Las Vegas show from the Thomas & Mack Center on Jan. 25, 1992 featuring then-new guitarist Gilby Clarke; the box set is the first time the complete audio and video of concerts from the Illusion era have been released. The Super Deluxe sets will come with a 100-page hardcover book with unreleased photos, memorabilia and archival documents, including fan club newsletters and membership cards, replica backstage passes, replica concert tickets and a new 24″ x 36″ poster, among other keepsakes.
Click here to see the various configurations.
