This song is perhaps the worst disappointment on the album. I was hoping for an ode to some of the great cars that Jon and Richie have owned over the years and instead I got a bad analogy dragged out for three minutes. Suffice to say, the lyrics on this one really don’t cut it. There has to be another song that they wrote that would be better than this stinker.
Jon doesn’t do all that well vocally here either. He’s right back to being nasal again, at least in the beginning. His voice does seem to improve as the song goes on, but the beginning is especially bad, and there is less backing in the beginning to cover it up. The beginning suffers from a generally generic feel. There’s nothing about it that speaks of anything other than the generic pop-rock that is all that seems to be out there right now. Plus, the song is never really allowed to build up any kind of momentum. As soon as I think it’s starting to build up to a good bit, it goes right back down again.
The guitar part of this song is unfortunate as well. None of Richie’s outstanding talents are put to use here at all. All he does is play a very limited supporting role, and there’s nothing there to really take the spotlight. He doesn’t even get to perform any kind of a solo in this song. I’m just left with the feeling that the guitarist could have been anybody. There’s nothing about it that makes use of Richie’s talents at all. It’s too bad, because Richie might have been able to salvage this, much as he saved ‘Thorn in My Side’.
Unfortunately, this song has earned a rare distinction among Bon Jovi songs–the Immediate Skip. I really don’t like it and don’t want to listen to it. Up till now, the only other songs by the band to have earned this honor are ‘Mystery Train’ and ‘She’s a Mystery’ from Crush.
Related posts:
- When We Were Beautiful (album track)
- Bullet (album track)
- Live Before You Die (album track)
- Brokenpromiseland (album track)
- Happy Now (album track)
Tags: Bon Jovi, The Circle
[...] Fast Cars [...]