Guns N’ Roses – Don’t Cry

“Don’t Cry” – Single by Guns N’ Rosesfrom the album Use Your Illusion I and II with “Don’t Cry” (alt. lyrics) (LP version) on the B-side.
Released on September 16, 1991

Along with “Estranged” and “November Rain,” it forms a narrative inspired in part by the short story “Without You” by Del James. The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band’s fifth Top 10 hit there.

As stated by Axl Rose in an interview with Geffen Records for a video collection, this song pre-dates the band. Before Guns N’ Roses formed, Rose wrote it with guitarist Izzy Stradlin after they each fell for the same girl. She wouldn’t make a choice and told Axl while he was sitting on a park bench, “Don’t Cry Bill,” which provided the title.

Shannon Hoon, who was lead singer of Blind Melon, sang backup on this track. Hoon and Axl Rose both grew up in Lafayette, Indiana. Hoon also sang on “November Rain.”

The band performed the song live in their early years, but stopped once they recorded Appetite. Bootleg recordings of the song were floating around, however, and Shannon Hoon had one – when he was in a cover band he would sometimes play it. Finally, in 1991, Guns N’ Roses issued the song on an album after keeping it dormant for four years.

This song appears on both Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. The second version is considered the alternate, and contains different lyrics.

The song reached the top 10 in many countries, including peaking at number eight on the UK Singles Chart and number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In Ireland, “Don’t Cry” became Guns N’ Roses’ second number-one single, and in Finland, it became the second number-one hit from the Use Your Illusion albums. The song also topped Portugal’s music chart, reached number two in New Zealand and Norway, and peaked within the top five in Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland.

The video is a grand production, with a story written by Rose and Josh Richman. It was directed by Andy Morahan, who also did the “November Rain” video (Rose’s girlfriend at the time, Stephanie Seymour, appears in both videos).

Several very distinct scenes comprise the 5:14 clip, starting with baby. Zooming into his eye, we dissolve to a snowy scene where a frozen Axl is holding a gun; referred to as the “Frozen Man” scene, Axl says it is meant to show “somebody trapped in time.”

From there, it gets even more conceptual, with scenes of a funeral, a drowning, and domestic unrest intercut among footage of the band performing on a rooftop.

Things to note:

A sign that says “Where’s Izzy.” This refers to Izzy Stradlin, who had left the band, replaced by Gilby Clarke.

The scenes where Slash is getting beat up by a girl in the car got pretty intense – he says that she was hitting him for real, and he was really trying to fend her off, since he was supposed to keep his eyes on the road.

Shannon Hoon shows up on the rooftop, singing along in the chorus.

The band:
W. Axl Rose – lead vocals
Slash – lead guitar
Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals
Matt Sorum – drums
Dizzy Reed – keyboards
Additional musicians
Shannon Hoon – co-lead vocals
Steven Adler – drums (Demo version)

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