Today's video is November Rain, which is the lame sequel to Purple Rain. It is done by Guns and Roses. It is a really long 10 minutes. It can be found here.
Ok, so I apologize for not working on this yesterday, but real life got in my way.
The video focuses heavily on a wedding at a small church in the middle of a desert, but constantly returns the a Gun and Roses concert. The last third of the video goes from a wedding to a funeral. There is in fact rain, which is good. An orchestra adds to the band as they play the song.
A minute and a half in the lyrics start as the bride goes down the aisle. She's wearing a ridiculous dress that seems to exist only to show off her garter belt. Nice legs, but that seems inappropriate for a church and a wedding.
Maybe she was really, really worried about tripping over her dress on the big day. I'm tempted to capture of picture of it. The groom is Axl Rose, who is best known for being one of the bosses of Mega Man X5. There's a quick flashback too a smokey bar where our couple hang out, I guess to show their carefree days. Back at the wedding Slash is responsible for the rings but some other band member is wearing the one Slash is looking for. Should I question the appopriateness of Slash wearing a hat at church, or should I never question the hat?
Slash leaves early to rock out outside the church. Since the building is in the middle of nowhere, his recruitment strategy isn't going to work, but I have to give him credit for trying.
It just occured to me that there are two churches, because the next scene has the couple coming out of a different church. Cut to a party where the bride is wearing a tight outfit that still seems more appropriate then her wedding dress. People do stuff. Some dance. Some eat. Some have big hair.
Finally, IT RAINS! Didn't you guys hear the title? Clearly this song is about hubris. It's a really wild rain, because waiters start crashing into tables and some guy launches himself into the cake for no reason. Now I can see why this video is seen as a classic.
Suddenly, the song changes in tone. The lyrics were all about how nothing lasts forever, so I guess if they ended it happy it would contradict the song. (Also, these are real rockers, not those wuss pop music bands that make "soft" "rock" stuff that get played four times a day on wussy radio stations you can play at work because it's so inoffensive!) Anyway, we're now at the funeral for the bride. When did she die? Was she killed by the rain or something?
Slash rocks out at the concert. Guns And Roses follow the coffin as it's carried out of the church. It rains at the funeral. The music video ends with the bride tossing her bouquet. When it lands, it falls to the ground in the rain with nobody around it.
The song is about a relationship that has really had many ups and downs. The singer is willing to give his girlfriend some time alone if she comes back to him.
The song is very good. It took me a while to warm up to it, but that's probably because I was worried that it was going to take me forever to write about this video. The video is also well with all the scenes where Slash rocks out. Good stuff.
2 comments:
Look, you guys can blather on all you want about "facts" and "the truth" and "what the band say happened" but I happen to know, deep in my heart, that the reason Guns N' Roses broke up was because they made this song and the accompanying video and realized they could never hope to make anything that kickass again.
I never liked Guns N' Roses until I heard this song. (I must have been... what... 12 at the time? Somewhere in that neighborhood.)
Fun Fact: The bride in the video was played by Axl Rose's actual bride. She's not still his bride on account of he's a nutjob, but she was at the time.
If you're wondering what she died of in the video, take note of the fact that her coffin covers half her head, as if to say "you guys don't want to see the other half, guys" and there was also a scene where Axl walks by a gun store. If you still don't have a clue, I guess you can read the short story that inspired this video. I haven't bothered.
Your next video claims to be closed captioned but is not!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK7GsFF8KR0
YAY! You included a link to the video! On behalf of your lazy (yet faithful) readers everywhere, I thank you.
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