These People Round Here Wear Beaten Down Eyes

First off, who knew that the lyrics to "Come On Ilene" were so...dark? If I recall correctly, weren't these the same people who were wearing overalls and dancing through the streets in their 80's video for the same song? They didn't strike me as quite so melancholy. But my track record for 80's song lyrics and/or their meaning is not good (think "She Bop" and later, "Pour Some Sugar on Me"), so I'll let this sleeping dog lie.

And while I'm digressing (or procrastinating) from the Rehearsal Dinner, I'd like to go off on a music-related tangent (which doesn't related to the Blog Title like the Rehearsal Dinner does, but life's short and this blog is not, so deal).

I am experience quite the conundrum on the wedding music processional. The one piece of music I always envisioned walking into at my wedding was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwoole (by the way, if you haven't heard it already, go on and take a listen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4XhMANcCbM - it's just beautiful). I heard it probably ten years ago for the first time and loved it ever since then. (And there are not a lot of things I love for ten years in a row. *Mr. F., don't worry, I'm SURE you'll be the exception to the rule. Ahem.)

The problem is that when I pictured myself walking down the aisle to this music, it was on a beach somewhere (and if you listened, you would understand why). Now clearly, that is not happening (feel free to read, oh, the first 10 posts on this blog to understand why that dream has died). Instead, I'm getting married in a historical venue with Corinthian columns and marble floors in the middle of the winter. Not quite your Hawaiian ukulele-strumming love song.

So since then I have been searching for a different song. And I know the song I want. But I'm conflicted by (get this, we're coming very full circle here again) its music video. And this is worse than being led astray by men dancing in overalls.

The song I love: November Rain. The video: Total wedding hotness. Stephanie Seymour marries badass Axl in a wedding for the ages; she struts down the aisle in a mini leg-baring wedding dress and then Slash plays a solo in front of a church somewhere in Kansas (presumably). And then it rains. And she dies.

Now when I mentioned the problem with this song (which both Mr. F and I love), Mr. F. looked at me as if I were crazy. "What are you talking about? She doesn't die in the video! Right? She was wearing that super hot mini-dress. By the way, are you going to wear a dress like that?" No and...no. That's not right. But that is just about what most hot-bloodied-Gen X males remember about the video.

So to prove my point, Mr. F and I pulled up November Rain on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siBoLc9vxac - and watched it together. You got it. She dies. (But you should have seen how attentive Mr. F was to that video - I truly hope I get as much attention on our wedding day as Ms. Seymour did when we watched that video. A tsunami would not have moved his eyes away from that screen.)

So really, there's nothing to say except I need to decide whether coming down the aisle to a video about a woman who gets married and dies is too macabre for an extremely superstitious (and slightly fragile by this point, let's not kid ourselves) bride-to-be. I'll throw it out to the crowd. Thoughts?