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Summary: The Rise And Fall Of Guns N' Roses, video by video
Review: I am, and always will be, a monster fan of Guns N' Roses. As a 16 year old listening to "Appetite For Destruction" in 1987, I thought the sky was the limit for this band. They were young and talented, and I was convinced they would become one of the greatest acts in rock n' roll history, and not just the hard rock genre. To me, Axl Rose was the next John Lennon. He seemed to possess it all- a unique voice, exceptional songwriting skills , and a captivating stage presence. Unfortunately, he and the other band members never lived up to the promise of "Appetite For Destruction"- internal tension, drug use, and the increasingly egotistical behavior of Rose ultimately resulted in a complete implosion of the original lineup. These days, only Rose remains, and there has not been a new Guns N' Roses album in more than ten years,as fans of the original GN'R find it difficult to refer to Rose's new lineup as Guns N' Roses.The "Welcome To The Videos" collection has been available on VHS since 1998, but finally hit DVD in 2003. The best videos are from the early, "Appetite" era- watching "Welcome To The Jungle" brought me all the way back to 1987, at least temporarily. Back then, the band was hungry, living the true "sex, drugs, and rock n' roll" lifestyle. Guns N' Roses took over MTV in the spring of 1988 with the video for "Sweet Child O' Mine", which catapulted the band into mainstream America, and both the single and the "Appetite" LP to number one on the charts. GN'R closed out the 80's with clips for "Paradise City" and "Patience", and as the 90's approached, GN'R seemed ready to lay claim as one of the great rock bands of all time. The two "Use Your Illusion" albums, released in September 1991, spawned nine videos, including "You Could Be Mine" which does not appear in this collection, likely because it contained several clips from the film "Terminator 2". The videos for "Don't Cry", the epic "November Rain", and "Estranged" attempt to form some kind of three part story. None of them make complete sense, but "Rain" is gorgeous to look at. Prominently featured in the clip is model Stephanie Seymour, Axl Rose's then-girlfriend. However, these videos and the others from the "Illusion" albums reflect the changes occurring within the band; two original members were gone by then, and the once ferocious intensity which carried Guns N' Roses to the top in 1988 was slowly but steadily in decline. Videos for "The Garden", "Dead Horse", and "Garden Of Eden" are all throwaways, without any memorable images. None of those songs were released as singles, so why were there videos for them? Worst of all is the band's final video effort, "Since I Don't Have You", from "The Spaghetti Incident". Featuring actor Gary Oldman as the devil, the video presents the band members frolicking on a beach with women, while Rose is tied up and gagged for some reason. It essentially completes the band's downfall- no longer hungry, GN'R were now rich and uninspired, a trend which still carries on as fans continue to wait for Rose to release "Chinese Democracy", complete with new band members, delayed since 1999. This video collection garners four out of five stars from me, based on the strength of Guns N' Roses early videos and "November Rain". I'll always love the music of Guns N' Roses, but definitely not all the videos.
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Summary: Welcome to the videos
Review: Awesome!!! Awesome!!! Awesome!!! I love it, brings back many memories still waiting for the band to get together and give us some new sh** diehard GNR Fan
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Summary: Gotta have it
Review: this is a must have dvd for any gnr fan. quality and sound are great. a pretty cool menu. A+++++++
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Summary: Who makes these DVDs?
Review: Hi there, GN'R is my all tyme favorite, because of these guys I became a musician, everything they do is breathtaking. But the makers of this DVD didn't care about the sound quality at all. Use your Illusion tour DVDs also. I bought all of them a week ago. I had them on VCD and VHS, but I hoped DVD will be more good sounding and stuff. but it was a dissapointment for me. Why they can't make a production like those of Van Halen and Poison, their DVDs sound excellent. Why GN'R doesn't deserve it, why? I don't care for money I paid, but these DVDs could have been better.
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Summary: Welcome to the videos...
Review: This is a pretty good collection of the old videos. As mentioned, there's not any bonus material and "You Could Be Mine" isn't here, but if you're a fan it's cool to have GNR on DVD.
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Summary: Classic metal videos.
Review: I agree with Michael Zoglio -- the exclusion of "You Could Be Mine" is disappointing. Chances are they had trouble clearing rights to footage from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (which is now distributed by Artisan, I believe), which had been used liberally in the video, since the promotional value of "You Could Be Mine" has long passed. Too bad, because that was a great Guns N' Roses on-camera performance. There's still tons of great music video filmmaking here. "Sweet Child O'Mine" is a bare-bones performance video, but superior because it's free of the hyperactive post-modern techniques that characterize music videos today. And I seem to remember the girl in the video is Axl's ex, Erin Everly, who had inspired the original song. "Welcome to the Jungle" is chaos incarnate, with Axl's prominent hairdo and psychotic performance sending the song over the top. "Patience" has Slash's pet snake and Axl's subdued studio performance, "Don't Cry" began the band's experimentation with narratives in its videos, and of course "November Rain" is one of the greatest videos ever made, with a grand stage performance (Axl doing his Elton John, sitting at the piano with Roger McGuinn-flavoured 'granny' sunglasses) juxtaposed with beautifully shot narrative footage, and the dizzyingly gorgeous Stephanie Seymour. The small moments in this video (Seymour licking wedding cake from Axl's finger, best man Slash losing the wedding ring) were beautiful to behold, and Slash's guitar solo outside a hilltop church is still rock n' roll at its most sweeping. Guns N' Roses were one of the great on-camera performance bands of its time and this DVD release was long overdue. Essential music-video viewing.
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Summary: COULD HAVE BEEN 5 STARS
Review: It's about time that G N' R put in a DVD appearance with this 13 track video compilation (and the 2 Use Your Illusion live DVDs). That's the good news. The bad news is that this release is the exact same as the VHS that came out in 1998. Why is that bad? The VHS was missing the "You Could Be Mine" video (and had no extras such as the other material from the 3 Making The F@*!ing Videos [1993/94] VHS tapes). The more things change (format), the more they stay the same (content). This DVD could easily have been a 5 star affair. Instead, it'll have to do for those of us wishing for a G N' R fix while waiting for Axl to drop Chinese Democracy (if ever).
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Summary: Sound is horrible!
Review: I was very excited when I heard that the whole video collection of my favorite band was going to be released on DVD. I've been waiting for this for a long time. I finally received the disc a couple of days ago, but oh, what a disappointment! The sound is just horrible, unbearable. The sound is too harsh, contains a lot of treble, it seems like it's over-compressed or something, and then they have raised the high frequencies. At Patience, the whistling is scratchy and noisy, and after that I couldn't watch it no more. I've asked to return this.
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Summary: FANTASTIC!!!!
Review: Finally a GNR DVD release. This is a MUST have for any GNR fan. The video quality and sound is unbelievable. Furthermore, all the videos except for you could be mine are included. Do yourself a favor and purchase today!!!
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Summary: Finally, a Guns N' Roses DVD!!!!!
Review: Yes, we know - Axl Rose will probably still be working on the "very long-awaited" new Guns' album for years to come; with Guns N' Roses, however, it's just good to have ANYTHING new from them, even if these DVD reissues of "USE YOUR ILLUSION I & II: LIVE FROM TOKYO 1992" concert films and the '98 video compilation "WELCOME TO THE VIDEOS" are only new to DVD. I always wanted these clips, and the VHS format is so boring, so it's good to finally have them on DVD. But these three DVD's could have been two in a single slimline jewel case: the two "ILLUSION" concert videos could have fit on one DVD, and then the "WELCOME TO THE VIDEOS" on the second DVD. Here's what could have been instead: DVD 1:
"USE YOU ILLUSION I: WORLD TOUR/TOKYO 1992"
1. Introduction
2. Nightrain
3. Mr. Brownstone
4. Live And Let Die
5. It's So Easy
6. Bad Obsession
7. Attitude
8. Pretty Tied Up
9. Welcome To The Jungle
10. Don't Cry
11. Double Talkin' Jive
12. Civil War
13. Wild Horses
14. Patience
15. November Rain
"USE YOUR ILLUSION II: WORLD TOUR/TOKYO 1992"
1. Introduction
2. You Could Be Mine
3. Drum Solo & Guitar Solo
4. Theme From "The Godfather"
5. Sweet Child O' Mine
6. So Fine
7. Rocket Queen
8. Move To The City
9. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
10. Estranged
11. Paradise City DVD 2:
"WELCOME TO THE VIDEOS"
1. Welcome To The Jungle
2. Sweet Child O' Mine
3. Paradise City
4. Patience
5. Don't Cry
6. Live And Let Die
7. November Rain
8. Yesterdays
9. The Garden
10. Dead Horse
11. Garden Of Eden
12. Estranged
13. Since I Don't Have You
14. You Could Be Mine (bonus video)
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