MTV unravelled: What does the video for ‘November Rain’ by Guns N’ Roses actually mean?
When Guns N’ Roses first burst onto the scene with the album Appetite For Destruction, they proved themselves to be one of the most exciting rock bands on the planet. However, the album was relatively one-note. It was a note that people liked, granted, but when they made their second album, the band saw it necessary to expand the kind of sound they created.
When you listen to Use Your Illusion I and II, you get a glimpse of the different directions that Guns N’ Roses went in. Sure, there were still plenty of hard rock songs on there, such as ‘Coma’ and ‘You Could Be Mine’, but they also had ballads. ‘Estranged’ and ‘Don’t Cry’ were drawn-out emotional tracks with various themes in them; however, the stand-out song from both of these records was ‘November Rain’.
‘November Rain’ is still considered a classic to this day and is a song that people at Guns N’ Roses persistently wait for. As the piano intro kicks in and the string section steadily settles itself on top of the track, cheers rise, and people become ecstatic about what’s to come. Afterwards, you have Axl Rose’s heartfelt vocals, Slash’s serene guitar solos and what is possibly one of the best outros in rock history.
The song was epic, and the music video was cinematic. The band’s approach to creating the best possible images to accompany their songs perfectly highlighted their newfound ambition. It wasn’t enough for their songs to be big experiences; the videos accompanying them had to be equally so.
The video depicts a wedding. The whole band attend Axl Rose’s marriage, and it all looks like a happy affair. Intercut the occasional shot of Slash playing a guitar solo topless outside a church, and life seems pretty good. Things take a dark turn when the rain comes, though. As the heavens open, the wedding becomes scattered and disorganised as people run for cover and try to find a way back inside.
As the outro begins, it doesn’t look like a day has passed, and yet we find ourselves at the funeral for Rose’s former bride. He stands solemn as her coffin is lowered into the ground, and the scene is constantly changed for one of the whole band in a church, emotionally playing their instruments to the rock-heavy outro.
While the premise seems simple, a large section of the story is missing, which leaves many people who watch the video scratching their heads. As such, it’s worth discussing what the music video for Guns N’ Roses ‘November Rain’ is actually about.
So, what is ‘November Rain’ about?
There is no denying that ‘November Rain’ is a popular music video. It’s so popular that it was one of the first-ever rock songs to surpass two billion views on YouTube, but what actually happens in it? While there is a cohesive narrative surrounding marriage and death, it’s difficult to follow what is happening and what different moments represent.
What’s interesting is that, in this instance, the idea for the music video came before the song did. The video is based on a short story called Without You, which Del James originally wrote for his book The Language of Fear. James was a friend of the band, particularly Axl Rose, and he wrote the story based on Rose’s relationship with Erin Everly.
“The Without You story came about on a night where Axl called me, when he was still living with his girlfriend – who later on became his wife – Erin Everly, at about four in the morning and said, ‘Dude, you have to come over here’,” said James, “Essentially, the short story is about a rock star, who was inspired by Axl, who writes a song called ‘Without You’ about the woman who he loves but he can’t really have.”
When Rose wrote ‘November Rain’, he realised it was the perfect track to coincide with the ‘Without You’ storyline. He called James and told him he had written the perfect song for the story, and after that, basing a music video around it made complete sense.
“It’s based on a song that this guy writes when it’s over in his relationship and what happens,” said Rose, “And I wrote that song, you know? And I wasn’t even planning it – after I wrote it, I called Del and go, ‘Del, I wrote the song for it’. And I had never planned on that. I never even thought of that. It just ended up fitting together, and I was on a different track, but the two came together.”
Without You forms a loose storyline around the song, but the video doesn’t follow it beat for beat. The band intentionally kept things elusive, not revealing how the woman died and leaving emotion distant from the filming. The story provided a good starting point for the video, and what remains is the band’s abstract interpretation of it.
