Tonight’s song is enormous: nine minutes long, with a piano, an orchestra and some of the most famous guitar solos in rock. And yet the words are simple: two people who need time and patience.
Learn from Songs · Unit 9b: Second conditional · B1–B2
November Rain
Guns N’ Roses’ nine-minute power ballad with an orchestra: if we could…, I could…, the second conditional with could, nothing lasts forever, and need (everybody needs some time on their own), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Nine minutes! Do we have to listen to all of it?
SOPHIA
Yes. And you’ll see why people love it. The singer says that nothing lasts forever, not even the cold November rain.
DEMETRIA
So the rain will stop. That’s hopeful.
Before you listen: the song
Los Angeles, 1991
Guns N’ Roses were a hard rock band from Los Angeles, famous in the late 1980s for loud, wild songs. Their singer Axl Rose wrote “November Rain” years before it was recorded, and worked on it for a long time at the piano.
It appeared on Use Your Illusion I (1991) with a full orchestra, and the single reached number three in America in 1992. Its video, with a wedding, a storm and the guitarist Slash playing his solo outside a little church in the desert, became one of the most famous music videos ever made.
In the song, the singer tells the woman he loves that if they could take time and be honest, they could be happy. Everybody needs time on their own, he says, and nothing lasts forever, not even the rain.
Storms end. Patience lasts.
Listen: the storm and the calm
PHILO
Listen once. What does everybody need? What doesn’t last forever?
SOPHIA
Listen to how the song changes: piano, orchestra, guitar. Then answer Section A.
🌧️ Listen to the song: “November Rain” (Axl Rose, 1991), by Guns N’ Roses.Find the recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “November Rain”, Guns N’ Roses.Read the lyrics →
If we could…, we could…
MARCOS
If we could talk honestly, we could be happy. If I could fly, I’d go home now.
SOPHIA
In the second conditional, could can go in the if-part (= were able to) and in the result (= would be able to): If I could play the guitar, I could join the band.
Need
DEMETRIA
Everybody needs some time on their own. You don’t need to shout. Do you need help?
SOPHIA
need + noun: I need time. need to + infinitive: I need to rest. Negative: don’t need to / needn’t = it isn’t necessary: You don’t need to come.
Nothing lasts forever
PHILO
Nothing lasts forever. Everybody needs time. Nobody is perfect.
SOPHIA
everybody, nobody, nothing, everything take a singular verb: Everybody needs…, not “everybody need”. And their is used after everybody: Everybody needs time on their own.
Sophia’s comparison: Noah’s rain and the rainbow
PHILO
The rain fell for forty days and forty nights, and the whole world was water. But it stopped. Noah sent out a dove, and it came back with an olive leaf. Then God set the bow in the clouds.
SOPHIA
And Heraclitus said: everything flows, nothing stays still. You cannot step into the same river twice. Sad things pass too.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| If + could…, could / would… | second conditional with could | If we could talk, we could be happy. |
| need + noun / need to + infinitive | necessity | I need time. I need to rest. |
| don’t need to / needn’t | not necessary | You don’t need to shout. |
| everybody / nothing + singular verb | indefinite pronouns | Nothing lasts forever. |
| Everybody… their | pronoun after everybody | Everybody needs time on their own. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. How long is the song?
2. What does everybody need, according to the song?
3. What doesn’t last forever?
4. Who wrote it?
5. Where does Slash play his solo in the video?
6. Which album is it on?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. If we talk honestly, we could be happy. (can)
8. If I could fly, I go home now.
9. Everybody some time on their own. (need)
10. You don’t to shout. I can hear you.
11. Nothing forever. (last)
12. Everybody needs time on own.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Everybody need a rest.”
14. “If I could swim, I’d come with you.”
15. “You don’t need to worry.”
16. “If I can fly, I would go to Rome.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
If I could… In pairs, make a list of six things you could do if you could… (fly, speak every language, stop time). Then say what you would do with each power.
Discuss. 1. Do you need time on your own sometimes? When? 2. Why are long songs so rare today? 3. “Nothing lasts forever.” Is that sad or comforting?
Write (120–150 words). After the storm. Write about a difficult time that passed. Use if + could, need / don’t need to, and nothing lasts forever.
Now play the gamebook: two friends, one storm, and a long way across the city.Play the gamebook →