This music video is 9 minutes long making it the 3rd longest song by Guns N' Roses just behind 'Estranged', and has more of a narrative to it than most of Guns N' Roses other songs as of the storyline being able to build over the 9 minutes. The video is one of the most expensive music videos ever with the budget being around $1 million including costumes as well as set and lighting etc. The video itself won an MTV Music Video Award for the best cinematography in the year it was released.
The narrative of 'November rain' is all about Axl Rose's (lead singer of Guns N' Roses) marriage to his then girlfriend Stephanie Seymour. The music promo in fact, is a part of what was supposed to be a trilogy which would have created a autobiographical narrative, the 3 music promos in this trilogy are "Don't Cry" which is part 1, "November Rain" which is part 2 & "Estranged" which is part 4. Estranged is named "part 4 of the trilogy" because all three video were meant to feature Stephanie Seymour, but she and Axl broke up a short time before the video shoots for Estranged, so the trilogy didn't happen the way Axl had planned it, and so he had to change the concept for the video, and the name "part 4" is an irony. The full narrative and what it is about is explained below by Del James who was friends with the band Guns N' Roses since 1985.
"The video for November Rain is based on a short story, Without You, by the band's official biographer, Del James. James has been a friend of the band's since 1985, when he first moved to California and found himself sharing an apartment with Wes Arkeen, a song writing collaborator with the Gunners in their early days. Del recalls: "It was frightening to be around them. There was so much insanity, you know, that was brought upon by their love and their insecurities, that it inspired me to write the short story called Without You. This was before Appetite For Destruction was released." The story is inspired by Axl's relationship with his former wife, Erin Everly. It is the tale of a rock star who writes a song called Without You about the woman he loves, but can't really have. "it puts him on top of the rock 'n' roll world, but it also is his damnation," explains Del. Despite all the trappings of success, the main character in the video cannot achieve the basic things in life, like loving, stable relationships.
The clip begins with Axl in bed in a dark room, taking some sleeping pills and rolling over to get some rest. We then enter a concert hall, the band onstage, backed by a large orchestra and conductor, while AxI sits at a piano, playing the intro to the song. Images of Axl at the piano in a small church, together with a bleeding crucifix, are intercut with the footage.
As the vocal starts, we see a beautiful bride (Stephanie Seymour), walking up the church aisle towards Axl, who is waiting at the altar. They join each other for the wedding ceremony. The part of the priest was played by a friend of Axl's, Jean Antonio, who had in fact performed services eight years before in the very church where the video was filmed. "He just added such a sense of warmth and the right sense of spirit that we wanted to have present there," says Axl.
Next, we see the band, hanging out at the Rainbow, a famous club on Sunset Strip, drinking and having a good time. We cut back to the church and see Slash fumbling through his pockets, looking for the wedding ring. Duff gives him a nod and produces the ring on his little finger. Slash passes the ring to the priest and the ceremony continues. The couple put their rings on and then kiss. Slash strolls down the aisle and out of the church, to perform his solo standing in the middle of a huge prairie, while a helicopter swoops around him and the tiny church behind.
We return to the wedding. This time we're outside the church; the married couple are leaving and the guests are throwing confetti and rice at them. As they get into a white Bentley convertible, the bride looks away, as if she is unsure about what she has just done. We then move on to the wedding party, where the couple cut the cake as children look on, everyone toasts the bride and groom and then they all begin to dance.
Suddenly, it starts to pour with rain, the wedding guests panic and scatter, tables are knocked flying and someone even dives headlong into the wedding cake The camera holds on a bottle of red wine, knocked on its side and spilling its contents like blood all over the table.
Back to the concert hall and Slash climbs onto the piano to deliver the outro solo. Axl wanted to have the orchestra in the video as a way of finding out what it was like to work with one and what it sounded like having them play something he had written. Although the sound on the finished video Is from the record, the band and the orchestra played live while shooting was going on, adding an edge to their performance.
We cut to the church again; this time, the bride is lying in a coffin and Axl sits listening to the funeral service. While filming this scene, Stephanie actually fell asleep in the coffin and when she woke up, the shoot had finished! Slash, Duff and rest of the band also had fun, bursting into uncontrollable giggles while the funeral service was being performed for the cameras. The coffin is carried out and we go to the cemetery for the burial. Again, the rain starts to pour, and the mourners leave.
Now we see Axl in bed again, waking from a terrible nightmare - only it's not a nightmare. He is left in the pouring rain, crouched over the open grave, as the bride's wedding bouquet lands on top of the coffin."
