Guns N' Roses has become something of a parody of itself, a punchline to a self-inflicted joke. It wasn't always so. I'd argue they hit their peak with "November Rain," a song so filled with nuance and regret that nobody saw it coming--certainly not from this band. Alas, it was all pretty much downhill from there. As mature and thoughtful as the song is, the video goes out of its way to remind the viewer who's actually performing. That opening shot of the wedding dress pretty much says it all.
I've been on an Esquivel kick recently. If you are unfamiliar with the late bandleader, you're in for a treat. His musical style was described as "Space Age sounds for the jet set" and that only scratches the surface. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have left behind any video of his live performances--at least, none that have made it to YouTube. Fortunately, Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica--and in this particular case, the Waitiki Orchestrotica, a precursor to Mr. Ho's incarnation--does elaborate Esquivel tributes, such as "Let's Dance". Esquivel used huge orchestras in his productions, and his arrangements of popular tunes (as well as original compositions) were insane. He combined instruments in ways that brought out sounds never heard before. So that's challenging in it's own right, but to make things more complicated, almost none of Esquivel's arrangements survive. All were destroyed several decades ago due to an unpaid bill on a Las Vegas storage locker, so Brian O'Neill of both Waitiki and Mr. Ho transcribed the arrangements by ear. This took roughly 20 hours per song. Madness, yes, but madness you and I benefit from.
