best part of "November Rain"

i am voting for 5:23-7:04, btw

can we do an equivalent poll for best bit in the video? so much tougher

^^^

rong: the best part of the video (as shown above) is quite obviously the moment when Slash kicks open the church and explodes with cathartic passion via his soaring (and awesome) guitar solo.

*church door

Although bisected Stephanie Seymour in coffin is nice too.

i mean there's no way this isn't the final solo

And who can forget the champagne toast with Riki Rachtman

there's no way this shit is 9 minutes long

How was this shit the most played video on MTV at one point and now they can't even play 2 minutes of a video without showing an ad?!

about 8:52, with extra video bits at each end,

rong: the best part of the video (as shown above) is quite obviously the moment when Slash kicks open the church and explodes with cathartic passion via his soaring (and awesome) guitar solo.

OK funniest then (altho maybe that is this too)

badass outro, obv

best part of the video: Slash playing solo on top of Axl's piano

Maybe I have to find that story plugged at the end, but when in the video exactly does Seymour die? And how? Or was that all in the "Don't Cry" video? Didn't they run a narrative thread through the videos?

I'm pretty sure that Axl, blind drunk & in a coke-fueled rage, "accidentally" bludgeoned her with his grand piano.

lol,

i just watched "Don't Cry" I guess the two videos merged in my memory. I could've sworn the car crash stuff (w/Slash as it happened) was in "November Rain." Looking at the two, it seems less like a narrative thread and more footage recycling (hearses, hearses and more hearses!).

xpost to myself: This would have been after the wedding and en route to their honeymoon, when Axl caught a glimpse of Stephanie thanking Riki Rachtman for the wonderful gift (a toaster, natch) & naturally assumed they were sleeping together.

Maybe I have to find that story plugged at the end, but when in the video exactly does Seymour die? And how? Or was that all in the "Don't Cry" video? Didn't they run a narrative thread through the videos?

i remember when this video first came out my friend and i, both 9 years old, had an in depth discussion about how she died. we decided she was struck by lightning.

and this is the easiest poll ever. slash standing on the piano while nailing the greatest solo in the world of the universe still gives me goosebumps on my goosebumps to this day.

how i would sit through this tune waiting for that outro

OK, I suddenly understand that whole thread about songs that are inseparable from the music video now!

I'm going for the guitar solo on the clifftop, I think.

I particularly like the gentle flute bit at about 1:30.

Ha ha ha, it's been years since I saw that. Now why did I think that guitar solo about 4:12 takes place on the edge of a cliff? Have I conflated it with a Cure guitar solo that does? It was such a late 80s video cliche.

Even though Slash is such a ponce he walks up A FLIGHT OF STEPS to the piano, that last solo is so killer it clinches it, even though I am still a fan of the lovely melodic solo about 4 minutes in.

I'm still convinced he killed her in the video, though that could be less to do with the video and more to do with Axl Gross being a wife-beating cnut.

Also no Izzy Stradlin' = poor show in the boybabe department.

Everybody needs some time, all al-owowown

Seymour's death serves as a powerful metaphor for Guns 'N Roses career trajectory after this single came out, don't you think?

When it finally ends, obv.

the video is full of tasty bits (Jesus crying blood, the hilarious faces of various band members at the wedding, Axl's intense acting etc), but today the most shocking part is when they actually SMOKE and DRINK at the bar.

"Roger send a pumpkin, in the cold november rain" (3:08)

Yeah, I did actually notice that. Smoking in the bar - and ONSTAGE - just seemed like the most shocking thing.

Its just like watching those 30's movies, where everyone drinks and smokes a lot and doesn't seem to care that much. Sneaky advertising or just a different attitude to the "joys" of life?

It does kinda make you realise, though, the effect on impressionable young minds. I went through my one and only attempt to smoke in the late 80s, very much influenced by rock bands like GNR - I don't think I'd have thought it was quite so cool or rebellious had I seen nothing but images of them huddled in doorways in the rain trying to suck down quick fags before shivering back inside.

Ha ha ha, it's been years since I saw that. Now why did I think that guitar solo about 4:12 takes place on the edge of a cliff? Have I conflated it with a Cure guitar solo that does? It was such a late 80s video cliche.

the cliff solo is in the "Don't Cry" video.

there's no way this shit is 9 minutes long

― Whiney G. Soundgarden (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, October 27, 2008 8:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

How was this shit the most played video on MTV at one point and now they can't even play 2 minutes of a video without showing an ad?!

― Whiney G. Soundgarden (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, October 27, 2008 8:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the "Thriller" video is 13 minutes long.

nobody ever seems to remember the Estranged video, which has more laugh out loud moments than all the other GNR videos combined

does that one have...dolphins?

and Slash standing on the sea iirc

http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/gallery/images/TroyMcClure1.gif

estranged was great !
axl swimming with dolphins after jumping from a tanker, slash standing on the sea, the whole getting out of a jumbo jet, axl's place raided by the police... so sweet...

omg, i just remembered that in a middle school "music appreciation" class i did a "music video" for november rain -- magic marker stick drawings interpreting the lyrics on a strip of plastic transparency, which i ran across an overhead projector along with the music.

the raid on axl's house, the fawning harem of supermodels, the massive police escort for axl, axl somehow not shattering every bone in his body as he jumps from about 45 feet into the ocean, some dolphins, slash raising up from the depths of the sea to deliver a completely pointless solo, and some more dolphins

i think that about covers it

the other thing about the "Estranged" video is that it features a song that is totally awesome, and justifiably won this poll: Use Your Illusion II poll

i would hope so, UYI 2 is awful

yeah, that's the recipe for the GREATEST VIDEO OF ALL TIMES !

I like the "godfather"-like guitar riff of Estranged.
I prefer November Rain overall, though.
best worst rock ballad of all times, maybe !
I've read somewhere that there was an original demo of the song that was more minimalist (easy) and great... does that exist ?

slash said in his book that the original version of 'november rain' was more than 20 minutes long

ahah. with 3 more guitar solos ?

Yes, there is a fantastic minimalist version - well, at least the live bootleg I know. It was of an acoustic club show in NYC - I forget if it was Limelight or the Old Ritz or somewhere like that - lots of the other stuff on the tape turned up on Lies.

november rain vs purple rain

yeah apparently both shorter and longer versions existed in the early days:

In 1985, Waggle Records (PTY) Ltd. released in Australia a two-LP set titled "November Rain"/ "In Concert and Beyond" of an unidentified concert featuring a rough, acoustic version of the song. This early version of the song features finger-picked acoustic guitar, Axl on lead vocals, and a chorus of vocals in the background, as in the Use Your Illusion album version, but does not feature the extended guitar solos or the breakdown outro. As such, this live version clocks in at a running time of approximately 4:43.

Slash states in his autobiography that an eighteen minute long version of "November Rain" was recorded at a session with guitarist Manny Charlton (of rock band Nazareth) in 1986, before the recording sessions for Appetite for Destruction began.

lotsa great stories about the genesis of various songs in the Slash book, btw.

november rain vs purple rain

― Jordan, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 17:59 (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

poll

lotsa great stories about the genesis of various songs in the Slash book, btw.

slash's book is tremendous, i loved it

lots of great stuff about how batshit insane axl is too

i mean there's no way this isn't the final solo

― restraint and blindness (Just got offed), Tuesday, October 28, 2008 12:25 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark

true

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

best part of the video is easily when a wedding guest jumps into the cake because it is raining, so gloriously over the top

lol
but it's not just rain. it's november rain !

and it's cold. so, see ?

it doesn't last forever, tho

The symbolism in this video is like "The Wall" for the retarded, and that's pretty retarded.

At lest "The Wall" never cut to the fucking conductor for emphasis.

This video would be so much better if it were just dumb hair rock, then at least Slash having to leave the church to play his solo in the blowing dust would make more sense. What's so painful is that the video wants SO BADLY to be moving and touching and symbolic and cinematic and etc. Like Coppola said, nothing more pretentious than trying for greatness and failing. Boy does this fail. Boy howdy.

Is there a candle at some point in the video, though ? maybe at the end, no ?

I think of... ok, I know I'm overthinking this, but bear with me... there's a way to do operatic rock (not to be confused with rock opera), and this gets it all wrong. You can be pompous, and you can even be self-consciously pompous, but you can never LOOK like either of those things. It's ok to go way over the top, but it's never ok to look like you're trying to. It has to look like you couldn't possibly do it any other way. Axl just looks like he wants someone to feel sorry for him. "Oh, I get up, I pop some pills, I have a terrible relationship." Yeah yeah who doesn't. He should have been trying to make "Born to Run." THAT'S how to go over the top.

Sorry, I am grappling with my teenage love for Guns and Roses in plain view, aren't I. Mrrrhh.

Do they really put a mirror over a corpse who has been disfigured? I have never seen any reference to this anywhere else. (And I've been to open-casket funerals of gunshot victims.)

why does slash even leave his friends wedding? just silly

well, because he has an epic solo to play, duh !
(I love how there's no way that the church they're in is the one he's playing in front of in the desert).
I have to blame this thread for making me listen to the song this week for the first time since... ever.

slash walks out after riki rachtman jumps through the cake. he was pissed off because he really wanted cake.

i guess i tipped my hand too much when i included the word "badass" in the description of one of the parts

the bit where the guy ollies over the car and the other guy is like "OH SHIT" and PacMan morphs off the window and goes WACCAWACCAWACCAWACCAWACCA, straight into tupac.

no man, that's the remix

wait, it's not pac, it's Beanie Sigel. my bad.

WACCAWACCAWACCAWACCA.