Retro Video of the Week: "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses

For most of the first 15 years of my life, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was probably the best music video ever released.  But thirty years ago this week, that all changed, as Guns N' Roses released the video for "November Rain."  It was, at the time, the most expensive music video ever made, costing $1.5 million, and, whether intentional or not, it stood as a poignant "fuck you" to the stripped down sound and videos from grunge bands that had begun to dominate MTV.

The song itself is nearly nine minutes of majesty, with Axl Rose on the piano, a string orchestral accompaniment, slowly crescendoing into madness as Slash wails on multiple solos.  The video is just as epic, complete with an open-mouthed kiss between Axl Rose and then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour, a wedding where someone jumps into a cake, Slash playing his amazing guitar solo outside a random church in the middle of the desert with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, Seymour's character's unexplained death, and a funeral.  It's glorious.  The Brothers Weeser* (minus Tim and Dan) sent me a link to a great article about the making of the video and some of the still-unexplained or confusing themes and scenes in the video.

The song went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the longest song at the time that had ever cracked the Top 10.  The video has over 1.88 million views on YouTube, making it the most-viewed video released in the '80s or '90s, and it was the first video released before YouTube was founded to reach the one billion view mark.  Most importantly, because of this song and video, whenever anyone says "nothing lasts forever," no matter the context, the next words in your head are probably "even cold November rain."