November Rain was heard for the first time on February 18, 1992. It was part of the band’s third studio album, Use Your Illusion I. Over time it became one of the symbolic songs of rock and hard rock music, recognizable from the first notes.
The ballad manages to recreate a melancholy atmosphere despite the band’s rock vocation. But what drove Axl Rose to write such a poignant song?
The story of November Rain
Even though it was released in 1992, Tracii Guns – former guitarist and founder of Guns N’ Roses together with Axl Rose – said that the band’s frontman had been working on it since 1983.
“When we were working on an EP (…) Axl was playing November Rain on the piano. It was the only thing he knew how to play. (…) To my question “When will you finish it?”, Axl replied “I don’t know”.
It took another 9 years before it was perfected and made known. Written and composed by Axl Rose, the song was played partly on the synthesizer but in the recording studio it was played by a real orchestra. Orchestra that was present only on rare occasions such as during the MTV Video Music Awards, when Elton John sat at the second piano.
According to what Slash told in his autobiography, during the sessions of Appetite for Destruction in 1987 the band even went so far as to record an extended version of about 18 minutes, a sign of a creative project that remained in evolution for a long time.
The text tells of moments of crisis and the end of a romantic relationship. The video stars Axl Rose and a hypothetical partner and ends with her tragic death. Directed by Andy Morahan, it is divided into two parts: in the first there is a live concert, conducted by a conductor, with Axl Rose on the piano. The second takes place in an abandoned church in which sun and clouds, light and storm alternate.
Among the protagonists of the video clip, together with Axl and the band, is the American model Stephanie Seymour, the bride who appears in the video and Axl’s girlfriend.
The records
It is said that Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose had written and composed a song lasting over 25 minutes but November Rain was later reduced to 8 minutes and 57 seconds. There is also a shorter version of about 6 minutes intended for radio.
November Rain is the longest song to have entered the US Billboard Hot 100taking third place in 1992.
It is also the one with the longest guitar solo, 50 seconds, which entered the US Top Ten. Solo by Slash, who also took sixth place in the ranking of the 100 best solos according to Guitar World. It also holds the same position in the list of the 25 most famous power ballads, according to VH1.
Slash himself revealed that the epic solo present in the final version is substantially identical to the first improvisation played when he heard the song for the first time.
The video also broke numerous records. Costing around $1.5 million, it is the ninth most expensive music video in history. On YouTube it boasts 1.3 billion views, becoming the first rock song in history to exceed 1 billion views.
Nothing lasts forever, Nothin’ lasts forever, goes the song but perhaps November rain is on the right track…
