“November Rain” – Guns N’ Roses
(Words/music: Axl Rose, available on Use Your Illusion I, Geffen 1991)

Like a lot of people who grew up in the mid ‘90s, I spent a lot of time listening to modern rock radio.  In the early part of this decade, that format started dying out for reasons ranging from its dwindling profitability as a format and the staleness of the genre (depending on who you ask).  In the past couple of years, the format’s returned as a sort of time capsule.  In short, it’s a radio station targeted at people my age – and rather than simply being “alternative rock,” it’s branched out to include both new and old music that people in their mid to late 20s like.  I’ve accepted that the radio in my area is no longer a place to hear new and interesting rock music (as it’s now either older, boring, or both), but I’ve noticed another disturbing trend on my station – fadeouts.  Sometimes, a well-executed fade out does us all a favor, but my local station has been fading out songs before the best part.

My surprise the first time I heard “November Rain” on a “modern rock” radio station only lasted four minutes – at this point, the song faded into a commercial.  I’m not denying that “November Rain” is overblown and probably too long for radio.  Still, enjoying the song means accepting, ignoring, or reveling in its absurdly grand arrangement.  It doesn’t need to be nearly nine minutes long, but the solution isn’t chopping off the end of the song; that’s the part where it gets interesting, where the slow and majestic ballad takes on a darker timbre, Slash’s solo feels a little more pointed, and Rose’s chanted vocals sounds slightly deranged.  Without this dark coda, the rest of the song feels limp.  That’s not to say the “main” part of the song lacks – it’s beautifully arranged and features an excellent refrain (and a couple killer solos).  However, it’s too long, and without the contrast at the end, it feels weighted down by all of its repetition.  It needs the dark turn at the end to highlight the strengths in Rose’s ballad.  However, when it’s faded out on the radio, it feels soft and meandering.  Ironically, by trying to “edit” the song down with a fade out, the radio station makes the song feel longer.

More on Guns N’ Roses: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm