November Rain
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{{Infobox Single
| Name = November Rain
| Cover = Novemberrain.jpg
| Artist = Guns N' Roses
| from Album = Use Your Illusion I
| Released = 1992
| Format = CD
| Genre = Hard rock
| Length = 8:57
| Label = Geffen Records
| Producer = Mike Clink
| Chart position =
| Last single = Live and Let Die
(1991)
| This single = November Rain
(1992)
| Next single = Pretty Tied Up
(1992)
}}
"November Rain" is one of the most popular songs by the band Guns N' Roses (written by Axl Rose), especially among music listeners who are not die-hard Guns N' Roses fans. It consistently remains one of the most requested songs on rock music radio stations. However, as well known as the song is itself, perhaps a greater amount of attention is given to the music video, which, in 1992, the year it was released, quickly became the most requested video on MTV and won an MTV Video Music Award for best cinematography. Its popularity stems from the outstanding tune and guitar work of the last portion of the song when the atmosphere of the song contrasts rapidly with the first slower part of the hit with Axl echoing " Don't ya think that you need someone , Everybody needs someone " .
"November Rain" appears on the album Use Your Illusion I. At 8 minutes and 57 seconds, it is an epic rock ballad (in the tradition of Stairway to Heaven and Free Bird) and one of the longest songs not only on that album but also that Guns N' Roses has ever recorded (both distinctions go to the 10 minute long "Coma"). On the radio, however, "November Rain" is sometimes played in a shortened version of approximately six minutes. November Rain does however hold the record for the longest guitar solo (counting Slash's two solos) in a US top ten hit ever.
The video is somewhat of a concept video, but by no means any less an epic than the song. The video entails Axl Rose and then girlfriend Stephanie Seymour being wed, interspersed with a live performance at Carnegie Hall. Particularly, it can be noted for its large budget (about $1.5 million) and stunning cinematography. Many fans consider "November Rain" to be the second video in a trilogy (between "Don't Cry" and "Estranged"), and although the band has never made that statement, the similarity in production and style can be considered evidence of this intent.
The "November Rain" video was parodied by British Comedy Duo French & Saunders in 1994, with Jennifer Saunders as Axl and Dawn French as Slash, and can be found on the DVD "French And Saunders: At The Movies."
"November Rain" is based of the short story "Without You," by Del James, available in James' 1995 anthology The Language of Fear. That short story would have an obvious appeal to Axl Rose, as it describes the misery of a former multiplatinum blues-influenced rock star, now so drunk and drug-addled he never knows what day it is, who reminisces over an on-and-off-again relationship. He leaves this erstwhile girlfriend a telephone message, becomes concerned when she doesn't answer, and then goes to her apartment, kicking down her door to find she had just shot herself in the head while listening to his music.[1]
The lyrics to "November Rain" do not discuss the suicide issue, only the tempestuous relationship. According to one interpretation, the lyrics are from a man to a former girlfriend, saying how the troubled times (the "cold November rain") will not last forever, and that he is willing to give her time alone if she will come back to him. The video, on the other hand, follows the short story more closely, from love and life through death, the funeral of the bride. Although the video doesn't explain how the girlfriend died, it can be seen by looking at the girlfriend in the casket that there is a line down her face, that is, a mirror.[2] Families of head trauma victims who want to have an open-casket funeral can use a mirror reflecting the intact side of the face to make the deceased appear whole. It can therefore be inferred that, as in the short story, the girlfriend shot herself in the head.
According to Tracii Guns, former L.A. Guns guitarist and founding member of Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose had been working on the song since at least 1983. In an interview, he said the following about November Rain:
- When we were doing that EP for L.A. Guns, like '83? He was playing 'November Rain'—and it was called 'November Rain'—you know, on piano. Way back then. It was the only thing he knew how to play, but it was his. He'd go, 'Someday this song is gonna be really cool.' And I'd go, 'It's cool now.' 'But it's not done,' you know, he used to say. And like anytime we'd be at a hotel or anywhere there'd be a piano, he'd just kinda play that music. And I'd go, 'When are you gonna finish that already,' you know? And he'd go, 'I don't know what to do with it.'
November Rain was #1 on the Rock 1000 2006, an annual countdown of the top 1000 rock songs by New Zealand radio listeners.