Guns n Roses Released A NEW Version of The Greatest Song Of All Time, “November Rain”, And It Is Perfect
Steven, sir, you are the fucking man. Thank you for doing the Lord’s work.
I didn’t even think it was possible to improve upon what I believe to be the greatest song of all time, “November Rain”, something I wrote about extensively here last June.
But I’ll be damned. They did it…
NME - Guns N’ Roses have shared a new ‘2022 version’ of their 1991 classic ‘November Rain’, featuring a 50-piece orchestra – listen below.
The track is part of a “super deluxe” box set edition of ‘Use Your Illusion I + II’, which will be released on November 11 and features 63 previously unreleased tracks.
Discussing the new version back in September, prog rocker Steven Wilson – who remixed the track – said: “My mix of a fully orchestrated version of the Guns N’ Roses evergreen ‘November Rain’ appears on the just announced 30th anniversary reissue of ‘Use Your Illusion’.
“The new 2022 version is the same performance as the original, and mixed faithfully to the established version, but with newly recorded orchestration replacing the sampled sounds used at the time.”
Holy shit man. A 50-piece orchestra?? Talk about Axl's wet dream.
Also, I'll just come out and address the elephant in the room here, how the fuck was the original recording done using sampled orchestra pieces? Wasn't that the entire point of Axl's obsession with the song, its perfection, the video, its perfection, and the outrageous price tag for it all?
I feel like I've been lied to my whole life.
But regardless, this is monster news for GnR fans following some equally giant news regarding the remastering of two incredible albums plus some bonus material coming next week.
The original ‘Use Your Illusion’ albums were remastered for the first time as part of the new box set. It also features live versions of many of the albums’ tracks, alongside older hits such as ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ and ‘Sweet Child O’Mine’. Some of these were recorded at New York’s Ritz Theatre on May 16, 1991, while others are taken from the band’s concert at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center, where they played on January 25, 1992.
The box set comes in numerous configurations, including CD and Blu-Ray, vinyl and Blu-Ray, digital download and streaming. All configurations can be seen, pre-ordered and pre-saved here.
Slash has also promised that “epic” new music from Guns N’ Roses is on the way. During an interview on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, the guitarist was asked if the band had any plans for new music in the not-so-distant future.
“I wanna go in and cut a whole brand new record at some point, probably sooner than later,” he said. “But other than that, we have stuff that we’ve still got to come out.
“So that’s gonna be coming out piecemeal over the next – I don’t know – over the next few months or something like that. So that’s basically it. We have one more tour left to do next summer, and then that’ll free us up to be able to go in and work on a new record.”
Fuck yah baby. Can't wait.
Enjoy the new "November Rain" right here -