Is November Rain the Most Iconic Music Video of Guns N’ Roses?

 Guns N’ Roses, the hard rock band which had lead vocalist Axl Rose gave humanity some of the best and memorable hits. Guns N’ Roses were also famous for their unique and dramatic way of portraying songs in their music videos. The song ‘ November Rain’ particularly remains one of the weirdest and most creative music videos to have ever been released.

November Rain peaked at number three on the U.S Billboard Hot 100 when it was first introduced, and it would become the longest song in history to enter the top ten of that chart. It is also the longest song to enter the Hot 100 chart. It was immensely famous all over the world including the UK and Asian countries like the Philippines. November Rain is described as the ultimate hard rock-power ballad.

Originally, only Axl Rose wanted to proceed with the production of the song, some of the members like Slash and McKagan were opposed to the symphonic balanced and drifts, thankfully Axl Rose was able to convince the group at Can-Am studios that the song was worth recording.

November Rain is 8:57 minutes long, and it has a distinct symphonic overtone due to the sweeping string arrangement.

The Music Video

November Rain is said to be the most iconic and memorable video of Guns N’ Roses for many reasons. It was directed by Andy Morahan and portrays Axl Rose marrying then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour, it was crafted in such a way that it would look like a live theater performance. The music video had a huge budget that is estimated to reach $1Million, including the wedding gown of Seymour. The cinematography was created by Mike Southon. It won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography. It is considered as one of the most expensive music videos ever made.

Slash’s visuals remain prominent to this day, his sequence of helicopter shots are forever etched in the minds of fans. The energy around him as he plays first guitar solo and a later scene where he plays the third solo while standing on Axl Rose’s piano onstage remains unmatched.

In the music video, Axl was depicted to marry his love interest Seymour in church surrounded by bandmates, close family, and friends. But Seymour spirals into depression when she entered the car after the wedding. After this, the rain started pouring down, and Seymour was shown lying down in a casket. Seymour as implied died through suicide by means of a gunshot. Axl Rose was left torn apart, and his bandmates and friends attend the funeral. Then a titular overpowering November rain came.

In July 2018, it became the first video made before Youtube’s founding to reach 1 billion views. It was also the first music video coming from the ’90s that was able to hit 1 billion Youtube streams, proving the energy, magic, and theatrical power of November Rain still exists.

November Rain felt like a short movie and not just a music video. It had the perfect ingredients for success. The imagery of the tiny white chapel, the wailing guitar solo at the edge of a cliff, and the impassioned vocals- what more can you ask for? It can be said that November Rain depicts the most ambitious moments of Guns N’ Roses at the peak of their career.

The doomed wedding of the couple, and the images of the band hanging out at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on LA’s Sunset strip, plus the live performance at The Ritz in New York, completes the elements as to why November Rain could easily be deemed as the best Music video released by Guns N’ Roses. The video took inspiration from a short story, ‘ Without You’, which was written by a journalist and author for the collection The Language of Fear by Del James.

Proving its timeless formula, it became MTV’s most-requested video of all time, the November Rain music video helped catapult and solidify Guns N’ Roses as the best rock ballad group in history.