Do you ever watch the official music videos?

[Amir]

As much as I love GNR, I think November Rain is the only music video I've watched all the way through (I remember watching it often before I even became a big fan). I think I've seen maybe half the WTTJ video, and maybe the opening and ending of the PC video. I just can't bring myself to sit through the videos for Don't Cry, Estranged, Patience, etc. I only knew there was a video for The Garden when it was posted here a couple of months ago. Find most of the videos to be pretty cringeworthy, and I can't sit through more than 30 seconds of the portentous making-ofs. I remember trying to watch the Since I Don't Have You video and being surprised that Gary Oldman was in it.

I liked the leaked Better video, though, and that concept for the animation one sounded cool.

Wish we could get more of the backing videos they use live. I want to know WTF is up with that Catcher dinosaur.

[Yesterdays-Civil-War]

I've watched them all and I feel exactly how Axl said he feels about them in 2006 on the Eddie Trunk interview. (He said he felt they were stupid or corny or something like that).

Estranged is grandiose. Since I Don't Have You is bizarre.

The leaked Better video was really nice; it made me feel like nuGN'R was actually a band. And Baz at the end was hilarious. "EXIT LARRRRSSS."

All in all I don't really like music videos. I enjoy this new "lyric video" thing that has become popular as of late.

[D4NNY]

Really? damn... when I started listening to GN'R in spring 2004 I scraped up all the money I could get (Being a normal 13 year old) and brought Welcome To The Videos... I watched that fucking dvd every day for about 3 months haha

Some videos are a little corny.. I don't really like SIDHY.. but The Garden video is immense! I don't know how any GNR fan can't like that one

Another Edit...: The video for Mr Brownstone is awesome too

Edited March 14, 2014 by DustNBones1990

[Lio]

I rarely watch them now, but I've literally watched WTTJ, DC, NR, SCOM, PC, Patience, LALD thousands of times, in 1991, 1992. I used to have them all on VCR and would watch them all day long... If I watch them now, it's kind of creepy, because after more than 20 years, I still remember almost every frame, every move and glance of them. Estranged I didn't watch so much, Since I Don't Have You I thought was lame. I still enjoy the videos when I see them, but maybe that's a generation thing, and they were such a huge part of my life then, it's nice to revisit that now.

Have you seen the video for LALD ? Maybe you'd enjoy that more, if you liked the Better video... That's a great video as well, I think.

EDIT: I just watched LALD again. It really is great and the video actually made me like the song better back in the day too.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Lio

[Street Of The Blues]

I remember walking into a store and buying a Jackass box set, one half of the Tokyo concert and Welcome To The Videos. Same timeline as DustNBones and productive weekend spent.

[Amir]

Really? damn... when I started listening to GN'R in spring 2004 I scraped up all the money I could get (Being a normal 13 year old) and brought Welcome To The Videos... I watched that fucking dvd every day for about 3 months haha

Some videos are a little corny.. I don't really like SIDHY.. but The Garden video is immense! I don't know how any GNR fan can't like that one

Another Edit...: The video for Mr Brownstone is awesome too

I rarely watch them now, but I've literally watched WTTJ, DC, NR, SCOM, PC, Patience, LALD thousands of times, in 1991, 1992. I used to have them all on VCR and would watch them all day long... If I watch them now, it's kind of creepy, because after more than 20 years, I still remember almost every frame, every move and glance of them. Estranged I didn't watch so much, Since I Don't Have You I thought was lame. I still enjoy the videos when I see them, but maybe that's a generation thing, and they were such a huge part of my life then, it's nice to revisit that now.

Have you seen the video for LALD ? Maybe you'd enjoy that more, if you liked the Better video... That's a great video as well, I think.

The Garden one was pretty cool, but I didn't like the song itself enough to sit all the way through. Same with LALD, one of those songs I think worked much better live than on the album (and one I think the nuBand does better than the old).

I bought the Garden of Eden VHS a few years back because I saw it in a charity shop for £3. Never watched it and I don't even know if I own it any more, may have donated it back to the same charity shop!

But yeah, overall, I find them pretty corny. YCBM isn't bad, the last bit is fun in a cheesy way, but it's not on Welcome to the Videos because of the Terminator footage.

[username]

Not really. If I happen to catch one on TV, which is very rarely. I've never been that high on music video's at all really. I prefer live/performance video's. Paradise City was a good one imo. But it's not just GnR. I feel the same with other bands. Unless it's a live show, I prefer listening over watching.

[Lio]

Really? damn... when I started listening to GN'R in spring 2004 I scraped up all the money I could get (Being a normal 13 year old) and brought Welcome To The Videos... I watched that fucking dvd every day for about 3 months haha

Some videos are a little corny.. I don't really like SIDHY.. but The Garden video is immense! I don't know how any GNR fan can't like that one

Another Edit...: The video for Mr Brownstone is awesome too

I rarely watch them now, but I've literally watched WTTJ, DC, NR, SCOM, PC, Patience, LALD thousands of times, in 1991, 1992. I used to have them all on VCR and would watch them all day long... If I watch them now, it's kind of creepy, because after more than 20 years, I still remember almost every frame, every move and glance of them. Estranged I didn't watch so much, Since I Don't Have You I thought was lame. I still enjoy the videos when I see them, but maybe that's a generation thing, and they were such a huge part of my life then, it's nice to revisit that now.

Have you seen the video for LALD ? Maybe you'd enjoy that more, if you liked the Better video... That's a great video as well, I think.

The Garden one was pretty cool, but I didn't like the song itself enough to sit all the way through. Same with LALD, one of those songs I think worked much better live than on the album (and one I think the nuBand does better than the old).

I bought the Garden of Eden VHS a few years back because I saw it in a charity shop for £3. Never watched it and I don't even know if I own it any more, may have donated it back to the same charity shop!

But yeah, overall, I find them pretty corny. YCBM isn't bad, the last bit is fun in a cheesy way, but it's not on Welcome to the Videos because of the Terminator footage.

Yeah, I think it was a different time back then. We had no internet, no YouTube, so we just watched MTV all day (and night). Like I said (edited previous post), I don't particularly like LALD on the album, but the video made me like the song more, because of the concert footage.

[Amir]

In the YouTube era artist like Lady Gaga are going back to the Michael Jackson route with one-upping each other with these outlandish mini-narrative videos. Was watching some MJ ones the other day... man, are they weird. I liked some of the Gaga ones like Telephone. But I wonder how many of these are actually watched by their target audience and how many teens just use YouTube to play music in the background while they Facebook/Tweet etc in other browser tabs? Only the really different ones seem to go viral (like the Pharrell 24-hour video for Happy).

I wonder how many rumours of videos for the likes of SOD etc being filmed were true?

[EvH]

If this wasn't an edited version, the video for Sweet Child would be perfect.

[Amir]

If this wasn't an edited version, the video for Sweet Child would be perfect.

Yeah, the video itself isn't bad but I'm with Axl on that one: "I hate the edit of 'Sweet Child o' Mine.' Radio stations said, "Well, your vocals aren't cut." "My favorite part of the song is Slash's slow solo; it's the heaviest part for me."

[EvH]

Yeah, it's so bad cause they look killer on that video.

[Guest Len B'stard]

Seen em all a million times, i mean just fucking over and over, incessantly, all of em. It's difficult to quantify these things but as a kid, whichever ones i could get i watched a million times.

As for how i feel about them, they're a product of their times I guess. WTTJ is really cool, Slash and Izzy are the only ones that still look cool from it to be honest, Axl, Duff and Stevie are way too into the camera. November Rain, Estranged, i dunno, i like em, kinda like rock versions of Hype Williams vids, I don't think they're as bad/corny as people make out, there's definitely worse. I actually tried to get a tattoo off of one of the still frames of The Garden vid, there's a real cool pic of Sid Vicious in it with his eyes ripped out and No Future written across em that i wanted for a tattoo.

Slash and Izzy actually come out of the vids looking the coolest, now i look back at em. SCOM is perfect as a vid, on everyones part, just flawless, beautiful, love it. YCBM is good too, the editing makes it, the interspersing of action scenes from T2 really fit well with the pace of the song, when it starts getting into 5th gear on the 'breakin' down my back' bit, funny at the end too.

Garden of Eden is OK...bit naff really. SIDHY is cool, different. They're really not as bad as people make out. I think Axls comments about them are very telling, i think there's is a lot about Old Guns that he's quite embarrassed about, i think he desperately wanted to come out of the pretty end during the whole switch over from Glammy stadium rock to earthy Grunge but he didn't. Deep in his heart i think Axl really wanted to be an artist and he saw that, artistically, there was most substantial in that whole grunge type era...and they were supposed to be fuckin' rednecks of a sort too and Axl was that already, by default, plaid shirts and jeans ain't a revelation to Axl...but then part of him wanted to be The Dead Boys too. A sort of similar dilemma to Kurt really.

Edited March 14, 2014 by sugaraylen

[alfierose]

I don't watch them regularly. Like a lot of things they were a product of their time so in retrospect they seem corny. Around the same time I was obsessed with a comedy duo called The Mary Whitehouse Experience (I bet Lenny will recognise this). I had their video at time and played it to death, I re watched a loton YouTube recently and a lot of the humour hasn't stood the test of time. Or maybe I got old!

[Guest Len B'stard]

The Mary Whitehouse Experience (I bet Lenny will recognise this)

Christ, there's a name from the past...Punt and Dennis and David Baddiel and them, yeah!

[sweetness]

Yeah, haven't watched them in a while but I've seen them all, even the You Could Mine and Its So Easy videos, which aren't on "Welcome To The Videos" for some reason.

Sweet Child O Mine is probably the coolest music video of all time.

[Lio]

Yeah, they're a product of their time and if Axl said that he thinks they're stupid or corny, I think that he's being stupid. I thought the videos were very important to Axl at the time and then to say almost 20 years later: Meh, they were corny...

Because of this thread I just watched some videos again from that time: George Michael's supermodel videos, Aerosmith's Alicia Silverstone's videos, the Beastie Boys' Fight for your Right... What a trip down memory lane...

[jekylhyde]

I do. I like them. They are corny and cheesy (especially the ones from Illusions) but that's part of the charm. Better has a cool video, Baz is hilarious on it.

Music videos from the 90's are usually great.

Edited March 14, 2014 by jekylhyde

[alfierose]

The Mary Whitehouse Experience (I bet Lenny will recognise this)

Christ, there's a name from the past...Punt and Dennis and David Baddiel and them, yeah!

You're forgetting Rob Newman, he was the most talented. I had a massive crush on him secondary only to The Cure's Robert Smith so when he used to do the Cure skit I was in seventh heaven. :-D

I wonder why his career nose dived. I remember reading he had some mental health problems and him and Baddiel massively fell out Axl/Slash style.

[wasted]

I watched the Nov Rain one the other day. I feel like I prefer the song with the video. Don't Cry vid isn't bad either. YCBM and SCOM are classics. YCBM is everything you want in a video.

[Ana_1991]

Sometimes yes! But I've been watching then for the last 15 years, so I get bored while watching them now. New material needed!

[sweetness]

YCBM is everything you want in a video.

I dunno, maybe this is petty but I think it's pretty annoying when it's obvious the live footage was shot at 2 or more shows and the band members are wearing different clothes between cuts. I'm a fan of continuity.

[Chainsforalice]

Lol Welcome to the videos is great SCOM is shit as they obviously used different takes eg axl glasses on head, no glasses, repeat for last 30 seconds, also goes to show

How fucking much Gilby had to do, he was in so many video clips as Izzy bailed !

[Guest NGOG]

I usually agree with you Amir, but you've got to be kidding me on this one. While I find the video for Garden of Eden pretty unbearable, most of the videos are fucking perfect. November Rain, Estranged and Don't Cry are so unnecessarily excessive - I love it. They're completely in sync with Axl's UYI mentality. Very few videos capture the narrative of the song like Jungle or Patience. Again, they give an insight into the spirit of a hungry band.

The video history is a very important part of why I love GNR.

Edited March 14, 2014 by NGOG

[Amir]

I usually agree with you Amir, but you've got to be kidding me on this one. While I find the video for Garden of Eden pretty unbearable, most of the videos are fucking perfect. November Rain, Estranged and Don't Cry are so unnecessarily excessive - I love it. They're completely in sync with Axl's UYI mentality. Very few videos capture the narrative of the song like Jungle or Patience. Again, they give an insight into the spirit of a hungry band.

The video history is a very important part of why I love GNR.

Patience doesn't seem to have much narrative to me, just random shots of Slash lying in bed smoking with some chick or whatever. The "film" scenes in Jungle are cool but I can't help but laugh at the teased hair in the concert footage. My main problem with Estranged and Don't Cry is the direction, I think it's really overdone, the same narrative in the hands of a more talented director could have been much more effective. I mean, Andrew Morahan went on to make Highlander III, he's not exactly David Fincher or Ridley Scott. I like the concert footage in YCBM.

November Rain is the one I can watch over and over again.