November Rain: Classic Or Dud?

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Damn you, Tom, you made me want to listen to this.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 01:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Blah. The problem was that Axl kept talking about this song for years and when it finally emerged it was just glop. Use Your Illusion was half a brilliant album and half *YAWN*, and this is in the latter half. Give me "Motorcycle Emptiness" anyday (or "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," even).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 01:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Axl trying to be like Elton John--rocker comin' off all sensitive--makes me sick.

― Ashley Andel, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 02:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Fucking awful song, but worth it for the video in which, when they couldn't find an old wooden church by a clifftop for Slash to play his axe outside, built one specifically for that purpose...

― Charlie (Charlie), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 02:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I love it! I think it's great when he tries to be like Elton John, it's his "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding". But I prefer "Don't Cry".

Haven't heard either song in years, though, so I'm probably full of shit.

― Arthur (Arthur), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 02:59 (twenty-three years ago)

It's actually one of the demos that goes all the way back to the 1986 tape that's been circulated (along with "Don't Cry"). It was elongated for Use Your Illusion, but the central theme remains unchanged.

Axl wanted to be Elton from the beginning?

― paul cox (paul cox), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 03:43 (twenty-three years ago)

He was always an Elton fan -- apparently was also a Raspberries and Cure fanatic as well. Figures.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 03:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I love that demo version -- the choppy, almost Laura Nyro-ish piano, the Elton-gone-country vocals, the drugged-out backing-vox "oooooh" that now reminds me of whatever band girlfriend sang on the choruses of Big Star's "Femme Fatale." I'd always hoped the UYI version would sound that way.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 03:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought they moved one from Arizona to the Mojave Desert for the shoot?

― jm, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 04:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic for the power ballad drum fill that Axl made Matt Sorum repeat identically 33 times or so.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 07:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember Axl saying "If I don't get this track done right I'll quit the business" - promises, promises!

― dave q, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 10:50 (twenty-three years ago)

haha but he has, hasn't he?

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 10:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Plus I like "Estranged" better

― dave q, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 10:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Had an ancient ancient bootleg (old meaning) that a friend made at an early GNR live show at the Old Ritz which was absolutely amazing and tear-jerking and everything heavy metal power ballads should be. But the version that made UYI was extended, exagerated, OTP, kitsched-up and therefore totally neutered. So I'll have to go with Dud.

― kate, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:02 (twenty-three years ago)

At the time - amazing. Now, well, it's pisspoor isn't it. Besides I'm with Q on the Estranged call (bonus points for fucking dolphins in the vid). Actually, I quite like Pretty Tied Up too - oh dear.

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic, if only for the doom-laden solo that kicks in at the end after you think it's all over.

Obviously it's the most overblown, pompous piece of shit ever, but kind of endearing at the same time, if only for the thought of greasy young rockers singing it to their girlfriends.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:22 (twenty-three years ago)

"Pretty Tied Up" = classic, not least for the line "Time went by, and it became a joke"

― dave q, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 11:31 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, "the doom-laden solo that kicks in at the end" is cool. It has an everything's-spiralling-downward-and-we're-gonna-burn-in-the-flames-of-hell kind of appeal.

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's fantastic. I'm very excited by the idea that there are better things like it on UYI and will have to buy it! (them!)

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:38 (twenty-three years ago)

It's sap. All power ballads suck.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 12:39 (twenty-three years ago)

There is NOTHING better than November Rain on UYI - either of them. Sorry.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

The orchestral arrangement is very bad, particularly those pizzicato strings at the beginning trying to compete with the piano (and they don't seem to be 100 percent in time with each other). It's overblown twee. It's like a really bad Love song (well?), without all the interesting changes.

But Slash's solos are glorious.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:22 (twenty-three years ago)

drugged-out backing-vox "oooooh" that now reminds me of whatever band girlfriend sang on the choruses of Big Star's "Femme Fatale."

I'm sorry -- it's "ahhhh," not "oooooh."

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 15:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, it was crap. All of G'n'R's "epic ballads" were crap. They were at their best when they kept it simple (i.e. on APPETITE and even G'N'R LIES).

And the videos were all crap as well....unless viewed for comedic purposes.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:57 (twenty-three years ago)

You know when a waste disposal truck starts compacting all the rubbish and there is a thin liquid that drips out the bottom and it runs all over the road. And as the truck travels, more and more people are subjected to this vile mixture of garbage as it impossible to avoid. That, is November Rain.

― rat, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 01:06 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven months pass...

goddamn this song sounds soooooo great in my mind right now. Classic classic classic. I don't know if they got it (the end doesn't rage quite as much as I think it should), or even if I totally comprehend what they were trying to get. But the if the whole doesn't equal the sum of its parts...fuck it. those are some awesome parts.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 01:36 (twenty-two years ago)

And the video!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 01:57 (twenty-two years ago)

is the ENTIRE video in slo-mo? i haven't seen it in forever, just going by memory.

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 14 October 2003 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I do not necessarily share that oh-so-superior attitude to 'power ballads' always, but NR is a load of bollocks.

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 06:11 (twenty-two years ago)

is the ENTIRE video in slo-mo? i haven't seen it in forever, just going by memory.

-- Aaron A. (__...), October 14th, 2003.

no, it just seems that way in your memory sincei t was so fucking long!! love the part of the bride being "split" by lightning...

its obv one of their best songs, and one of the best epic ballads of all time..havn't heard it in too long..think i'll download it now!

― Vic (Vic), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

It's in A minor, so I think it was trying to be Stairway to Heaven rather than any Elton John song.

(obv this is kinda tongue-in-cheek)

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree with Arthur. "Don't Cry" is better.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a tape I mix tape of only THREE songs repeated over and over again when I was 13 that I would air-guitar along to. This was the phase of my life that led to me picking up an actual guitar and beginning the downward spiral into musiciandom. The three songs on this tape (repeated over and over and over again): Janes Addiction "Three Days", Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody", and GUNS N ROSES "NOVEMBER RAIN".

Once just thinking about the closing guitar solo in this song made me unconsciously leap out of my chair in school.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

classic-o !

question re: the video that's never explained ; how does she die ?

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 15 October 2003 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

And what's with the mirror thingy blocking half of her face in the coffin?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 17:43 (twenty-two years ago)

how does she die?

Emphysema?

The song itself is pretty good, but 'tis the video which makes it double-plus-classic.

― cis (cis), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I was in 7th grade when UYI came out, and I thought this song was really, really lame at the time, except for the roiling orchestral stuff at the end. These days I don't mind it at all, but it's never meant much to me. "Estranged" is way better.

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

cis otm

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic Classic Classic!

Luv the guitar solo in the end - so unexpected and the pompous, high-pitched melodi is really twisted in its own primitive way. Try to whistle it, it's actually kinda hard!

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

What can we do to persuade the Pint Pot to get a karaoke version of this?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Given that they have a 30 minute American Pie it shouldnt be too hard.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

it would be great if you change the line in 'November Rain' to 'nothing lasts forever...except the extended version of American Pie' and everyone in the pub exchanged knowing glances

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

The beginning of that "I'm already there" song always reminds me of this song. Whenever I'm at home and my folks inevitably have the Lite FM station on, I bug out for a few seconds when they play it. "Holy crap, they're playing November Rain on Lite -- Oh, wait, no, nevermind..."

― Prude (Prude), Thursday, 30 October 2003 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

they had to carry that church into the desert by helicopter for Slash's guitar solo sequence. Basically it was inspired by Slash seeing Ritchie Sambora play guitar on the edge of a cliff in some video saying "fuck that, if he gets to do that I get to play guitar in the middle of the desert next time."

I actually think I might prefer the "Don't Cry" video slightly. First it utilizes a truth my friend Theodore Fogelsanger brought to my attention: when a band is filmed playing on the roof of a skyscraper, this is basically the beginning of the end. Plus it has that crazy scene where the girl is screaming at Slash in a car, he drives them off a cliff but when the camera pans back to the cliff, there he is playing the solo. That's the pinnacle of badass.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 30 October 2003 00:56 (twenty-two years ago)

What's so civil about war anyway?

― earlnash, Thursday, 30 October 2003 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

and which civil war was that song about?

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 30 October 2003 01:59 (twenty-two years ago)

funny that this is here right now, as this was on the radio this afternoon and boy oh boy was i not glad. although i suspected everybody loves this

― ron (ron), Thursday, 30 October 2003 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

"and which civil war was that song about?"

The eternal battle between Axl's id & ego.

― earlnash, Thursday, 30 October 2003 02:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Our own Chuck Eddy was one of the people who declared that song mondo important when it came out. I think in Stairway he compares it to a "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall." Fuck if I can ever remember the melody.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 30 October 2003 02:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Total 100% Crapola.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Thursday, 30 October 2003 02:46 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

Classic, if only for the doom-laden solo that kicks in at the end after you think it's all over.
-- Matt DC (runmd...), November 5th, 2002 12:22 PM.

this man speaks truth!

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Friday, 2 April 2004 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

where's izzy?

Estranged is far better, both song and video, and yet I'd buy the single of November Rain again over any single that's been released this year.

― Queen G of the morning after, Friday, 2 April 2004 14:39 (twenty-one years ago)

i love this song so much!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 3 April 2004 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

The video is great in that bloated, over-the-top sort of way.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 3 April 2004 03:14 (twenty-one years ago)

it's great, period!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 3 April 2004 04:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I take it that the absence of views as to Axl Rose's sexiness in the video suggests that I'm the only one who found him sexy there. Oh well. I find Jon Bon Jovi sexy too, it's like a weird disease.

― syntaxfree, Saturday, 3 April 2004 08:43 (twenty-one years ago)

The sad thing about the whole Sambora/Slash rivalry is that November Rain is clearly the beginning of G'N'R turning into Bon Jovi, and Bon Jovi meeting them half way by making every song they wrote afterwards be a stale retread of November Rain. It's like watching some honest politician get dragged into an ugly smear campaign against some snake-oil salesman running attack ads every half hour - you want to stay behind the good guy, but how far can you compromise before you become what you hate?

― Dave M. (rotten03), Saturday, 3 April 2004 09:03 (twenty-one years ago)

'retread of' should be 'ersatz version of'

― Dave M. (rotten03), Saturday, 3 April 2004 09:03 (twenty-one years ago)

In my book this gets a Big Stupid D!

― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Sunday, 4 April 2004 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

oh, Dude.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 4 April 2004 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

what? did i do something?

― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Sunday, 4 April 2004 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Does anyone else believe that this song sounds a lot like
John Lennon's "Oh My Love?"

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Sunday, 4 April 2004 05:52 (twenty-one years ago)

The video for this was on VH1 last night when I came in from the pub and, after lots of wine, had I bothered to find this thread, I would happily have declared it to be the greatest thing ever. (sober, it is still one of the greatest things ever).

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 4 April 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, but no more than OK. Decent for a GnR song at least.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 4 April 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

It's no fun.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 4 April 2004 15:14 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

There are three people in the apartment building outside of my classroom and they're singing along to this right now. Very odd.

― itsa me, mario! (x Jeremy), Monday, 26 July 2004 14:39 (twenty-one years ago)

six months pass...

From SomethingAwful

I used to have nothing but contempt for the song, which seemed to be a ridiculous explosion of Axl Rose’s pretensions, but I later managed to look deeper into the song’s subtext and find true beauty in it. You see, although the video features Stephanie Seymour as Axl’s love interest, it’s merely a ploy. As I understand it now, the song is one of the greatest homoerotic love ballads of all time, detailing Axl’s strained relationship with bandmate and ex-lover Izzy Stradlin. Izzy, the band’s pretty-boy rhythm guitarist and moral compass, was notoriously at odds with Rose both over the band’s artistic direction and their failed affair. Rose penned the song as a last-ditch effort to win Stradlin back, but to no avail. It was the song’s inclusion on the album and release as a single that prompted a furious Stradlin to leave the group; he considered the song “too personal.”

The video, which I used to consider laughably pompous, is actually quite affecting. Slash, like a confused and frustrated child caught in a messy divorce, uses his guitar solos to vent his anguish. We see a solitary Slash in a wind-swept church, his guitar crying in pain and bewilderment; we see him atop Rose’s piano, his solo screaming for the attention of a father-figure who has forsaken him. Even despite the fact that this is all made up, it makes me like the song a lot more.

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2673

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 17 February 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

Izzy, the band’s pretty-boy rhythm guitarist

Izzy was pretty?

http://www.mcm.net/cm/image/artistes/izzystradlin.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

This reminds me an awful lot of Quentin Tarantino's exposure of "Top Gun"'s spectacularly gay subtext in....one of those mid-90's recently-post-collegiate angst film.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 February 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

this song is gorgeous, tremendous, majestic - best thing they ever did by some distance.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:30 (twenty years ago)

Oh no it's not. It's ludicrous, preposterous, ill-conceived, overproduced and craptacular, immediately shitting on all G'n'R's claims to embody the stripped down spirit of of Punk. It makes Night Ranger sound like the Ramones. It's a awful, sickly wedding cake iced with month-old vomit.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 February 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

guitar solos

any time have to pluralize "guitar solo" when you are talking about a single song, you know you are in trouble.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 18 February 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

Okay, story I've told on ILX but not on this thread before -- according to Pet Shop Boys Versus America, Axl -- very much a PSB fan, in the book he comes across as merrily intense but quite all right, chatting with Chris Heath and the band during an afterparty in LA about songs and how he grew to like them and all that -- claimed that "My October Symphony" on Behaviour had 'something in common' with "November Rain" and that Behaviour was an album the band would listen to during breaks of recording Use Your Illusion. SO WHY IS NEITHER 'NOVEMBER RAIN' NOR USE AS GOOD AS IT SHOULD BE? Anyway.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

Well, come on, Ned.. what about "My World"??

YOU WANNA STEP INTO MY WORLD
ITS A SOSHO-PSYCHOTIC STATE OF BLISS!
(etc.)
You wanna talk to me?
(So talk to me.)
*VARIOUS AWFUL SLURPING SOUNDS*
(You don't understand your sex.)
(You ain't been mind fucked yet.)
*MORE AWFUL SLURPING SOUNDS*
Let's do it.
(Oh, my distorted smile.)
Guess what I'm doing now.

― donut debonair (donut), Friday, 18 February 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

Trent, what hath you wrought.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 02:17 (twenty years ago)

axl's open mind combined with gr8 musicians plus insightful , personal lyrics make his a classical classic of classics.
gnr made 2 double albums that have only a handful of songs that fail.
coulda been 12 singles or more...

― La Camilla Henemark, Friday, 18 February 2005 02:31 (twenty years ago)

[stage whisper from peanut gallery:]
Psst! Ned! 'hast thou' is correct usage. Now say it again, louder!

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 February 2005 02:37 (twenty years ago)

The RINE in SPINE falls MINELY on the PLINE...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

CAHM ON DOVER! MOVE YER BLEEDIN ARSE!!

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 February 2005 02:54 (twenty years ago)

oh, crap. I meant BLOOMIN ARSE.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 February 2005 03:03 (twenty years ago)

Month-old vomit? Yikes, now that is definitely revolting.

And let's not have any more bleedin' arses, okay? Jeez.

A long time ago in Rolling Stone or somewhere I read Axl really hated gays with a passion because of...something to do with his father? Abuse? Dunno.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 18 February 2005 05:09 (twenty years ago)

Bleedin' arses all done with now...
I never read that about Axl, I just remember all the to-do over "One In A Million"...but as far as November Rain goes, I'm a fan. The piano, the crescendo...a near-classic, methinks. The only criticism I'd make is that I think Axl tried way too hard. He's a talented guy, I just think he overthought the whole thing, too many bells & whistles.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 February 2005 05:57 (twenty years ago)

too many bells & whistles.

Quite so. See, that's just it, though. Upon their debut, Guns'n'Roses were hailed as the arguable ANTIDOTE to all the hair metal shenanigans that were sullying rock's once -good name. For a brief, arrow-slit-sized window of time, they seemed genuinely exciting...restoring an element of spontaneous danger and recklessness to the ailing, sickly frame of rock'n'roll. No silly bullshit, just straight-forward, attitudinal blitzing with a middle-finger for all. Even the soppy balladry on Appetite... (that being "Sweet Child'o'Mine") retained a bit of crunch. Then came success, bolstering Axl's megalomaniacal aspirations to become the new Elton John. By the time "November Rain" (and "Estranged" and "Don't Cry") popped out of the oven like fulsome, overbaked cupcakes, they made Poison seem like fuckin' Sham 69. Bloated, corpulent, needless choked with faux-roccoco filligree. It's the sound of someone spectacularly LOSING THE PLOT!

Ick.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:07 (twenty years ago)

So wait, you don't like it?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:09 (twenty years ago)

No silly bullshit

i love appetite for destruction as much as anyone else who was a teen in the 80s. but saying that appetite for destruction-era GNR was free of "silly bullshit" is going a bit too far. e.g., "see me hit you/you fall down," axl's own poodle-esque mop early on!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:16 (twenty years ago)

By "silly bullshit," I meant the inclusion of oboes and harps on a metal/hard rock album.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:18 (twenty years ago)

By "silly bullshit," I meant the inclusion of oboes and harps on a metal/hard rock album.

precision, alex, precision! ;-)

i never liked this song, either. for similar reasons as already stated. it's everything that bad 70s prog is supposed to be, only worse. i really cannot fathom the love some people have for this bit o' slop.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:23 (twenty years ago)

I really, really dug Appetite too. But I think the bloatedness of UYI is a distraction from the actual talent that's shown there. I think it's a great thing that the same guy who wrote Welcome To The Jungle wrote November Rain. That shows range. But then I like the song a lot. I think that UYI has true glimpses of what Axl was capable of, had he not allowed himself to be hoisted by his own petard. He aimed so high with UYI...the sheer ambition, the almost-pulled-it-off-ness of it, was indicative of his, dare I say it, genius.

I'll regret this in the morning, I just know it...

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 February 2005 06:33 (twenty years ago)

I'm not a huge GnR fan, but "November Rain" is ultra classic.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 18 February 2005 08:40 (twenty years ago)

but see nAlex all this talk about GnR as stripped back saviours doesn't allow for the fact that GnR were through and through a make-up crazy air guitar band from the word go - I mean, what kind of stripped back band leader gets his own brand of shoes, that are crappy white high tops? GnR are the wagnerian/mahler neophytes of the hair rock world, taking it in November Rain to a dimension Bon Jovi couldn't even fly too on his flying fox across the crowd. Nothing Poison, Cindarella, Skid Row etc et al ad nauseum ad infinitum comes close to the fake endings, the drawn out angst of Slash's schlurpy schtick, nor Axl's impassioned anal erotics and incohesive angst. Everything that is bad about November Rain is what is good about November Rain

― Queen Guns n fuckin wait a long time till the next rose, Friday, 18 February 2005 10:38 (twenty years ago)

this song is STILL a steaming pile of axl-poo.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 19 February 2005 02:05 (twenty years ago)

What hell

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, 19 February 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

brilliant.

I was just listening, to it, today.

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 19 February 2005 02:28 (twenty years ago)

classic in the context of a band unable to hold shit together rather than as a standalone great track.

― -the-night-watch- (-the-night-watch-), Saturday, 19 February 2005 02:31 (twenty years ago)

8-o

http://www.udargo.com/burton/MTV/

― donut debonair (donut), Saturday, 19 February 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

AWESOME! BEST EVER!

― Billy Madisonnn, Saturday, 19 February 2005 08:58 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

all you november rain dissers, go touch yourself!
November Rain is the best music video ever, and the words have great meaning, GNR Forever!!!

― someone, Sunday, 8 January 2006 05:09 (nineteen years ago)

yay!

― miss michel legrand (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 8 January 2006 05:10 (nineteen years ago)

PWNED

― gear (gear), Sunday, 8 January 2006 05:13 (nineteen years ago)

I thought people lectured other people NOT to masturbate.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 January 2006 05:17 (nineteen years ago)

that Udargo link still cracks me the fuck up

― Dom iNut (donut), Sunday, 8 January 2006 05:36 (nineteen years ago)

CLASSIC.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 8 January 2006 05:39 (nineteen years ago)

any time have to pluralize "guitar solo" when you are talking about a single song, you know you are in trouble.

Wrong. Nothing is more RAWK than three killer solos, any one of which would have been enough to confirm a place for Saul Hudson in rock'n'roll heaven.

The deeper that video recedes into the dusty attic of memory, the more redundant it seems. Shit, the solos say it all so well they make the lyrics redundant.

With Axl tediously Eltoning away at the piano, Slash is the dude who stands up, yells "Freebird!", and then fuckin' plays it. Three fuckin' all-time killer solos, and not a shred of indulgent, er, shred in any of 'em.

And dude rips 'em with a Lester, not some Ibacharacksonez shurikenbladed shredomatic.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 8 January 2006 07:31 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

all you november rain dissers, go touch yourself!

lol

― what a delightfully quirky new voice! (bug), Sunday, 5 July 2009 08:11 (sixteen years ago)

This song is awesome. The scale of this some is epic. Imagine Poison trying to pull off something like this.

― Mike Crandle, Financial Analyst, Bear Stearns, New York, NY 10185 (res), Sunday, 5 July 2009 15:28 (sixteen years ago)

It was crappy then. It's even crappier now.

― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 5 July 2009 15:42 (sixteen years ago)

Lies! All lies!

― Mike Crandle, Financial Analyst, Bear Stearns, New York, NY 10185 (res), Sunday, 5 July 2009 16:05 (sixteen years ago)

About a month ago I was on a junk ship somewhere near the coast of Northern Vietnam and Southern China. There was the ubiquitous karaoke programme which began at sundown to attract people to the bar to get them to pay for overpriced beers (which at <$1 USD wasn't really overpriced).

The ship's guide knew that I'd last lived in San Francisco so as I went to the bar to get a bottled water for the night, he became very interested in getting me to sing Metallica ("One" or "Enter Sandman") because obviously I'm from SF, I should love Metallica naturally. Some young Australian girl had picked "November Rain" and was doing a pretty horrible job as I was telling the guide that I was on my way back to my cabin to edit some photos.

The guide snatches the mic from the albeit willing Aussie gal's hand and throws it to me to finish it for her. Now admittedly I have not heard this song in 17 years or however old it is but I knew the melody as I'd studied the guitar solos (please don't ask for details behind this).

Aside from the long instrumental passages and corny lyrics it's not a horrible song. I'd never karaoke it again (my current staple is Bee Gee's "To Love Somebody") but it was kinda fun to give it a go.

― (*ﾟーﾟ)θ L(。･＿･)　　　°~ヾ(･ε･ *) (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 5 July 2009 16:21 (sixteen years ago)

Overrated, but very good.. However "Don't Cry" is their best video, and probably one of the 5 best videos I've ever seen.

Regardless as to how good or bad "November Rain" is as a song, its placement in pop culture should not be understated, as it is, like it or not, the 90's equivalent of "Stairway To Heaven" (which is equally overrated, and also very good). Personally, I was appalled that VH1 did not include this or "Gangsta's Paradise" in their "top 100 songs of the 90's" special.

― billstevejim, Sunday, 5 July 2009 16:27 (sixteen years ago)

Personally, I was appalled that VH1 did not include this or "Gangsta's Paradise" in their "top 100 songs of the 90's" special.

it's really surprising that they left it out. fucking revisionists.

― Mike Crandle, Financial Analyst, Bear Stearns, New York, NY 10185 (res), Sunday, 5 July 2009 17:26 (sixteen years ago)

Exactly!!

― billstevejim, Sunday, 5 July 2009 18:17 (sixteen years ago)

two years pass...

http://www.funnyordie.com/slideshows/fd77d87c26/november-rain-the-comic?#slide1

― occam's hellraiser (latebloomer), Tuesday, 6 September 2011 20:00 (fourteen years ago)

I don't think it's a fantastic song in itself, no. If it were just stripped to an acoustic guitar and vocals I think the song itself would fall incredibly flat. I have to confess, however, that I do love the lick that Slash plays in the outro - it's the best part of the song for me, easily!

― Turrican, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 20:30 (fourteen years ago)

fucking love that the rain kills her

― owenf, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 20:35 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://i.imgur.com/xd0wJSu.gif http://i.imgur.com/xd0wJSu.gif
http://i.imgur.com/xd0wJSu.gif http://i.imgur.com/xd0wJSu.gif

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Thursday, 28 March 2013 23:23 (twelve years ago)

seven months pass...

The coffee!

Well, not the official coffee. But.

http://www.darkmattercoffee.com/warm-november-rain-2013.html

"When I look into your cup,
I can see no love restrained
And darlin' when I drink you,
You'll never taste the same.
Nothing Lasts forever,
And we all know our blends change,
And it's hard to hold a candle
to our Warm November Rain!"

Yes it is all real.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 November 2013 15:29 (twelve years ago)

Hoping that Slash doesn't launch an energy drink...

― fashionably early Christmas themed display name (snoball), Friday, 15 November 2013 15:42 (twelve years ago)

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