Who would’ve thought that Bon Jovi would do a cover of ‘Paint it Black’ during one of their shows at the O2 right after I did a Random Song pick for it?
Anyway, a couple of days ago I was checking out the latest videos over at Blame it on the Love from the shows at the O2 in London, and one of them just happened to be a clip of Bon Jovi doing one of my all time favorite songs–’Paint it Black’.
Now I did get to see the band do ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ during the Lost Highway tour–they did it mixed in with ‘Keep the Faith’ during that tour. And for some reason, Bon Jovi seems to do a pretty good job when they’re covering the Stones. Now, don’t get me wrong–’Sympathy for the Devil’ is a great song, and it certainly beats a lot of others that I’ve heard. But it doesn’t quite hold the same place in my heart as ‘Paint it Black’. There’s just something about that pounding riff that ‘Paint it Black’ is built on.
Now, as for the Bon Jovi version, the video that I saw sounds a little funky. I suspect that it’s the addition of Dave’s keyboards that give it that odd edge. In the Bon Jovi performance though, it’s Jon’s vocals that really make the song.
This is one song where the more gravelly aspects of Jon’s voice really play into the bluesy, dark vibe of the song. Plus, Jon really puts his all into it. He really makes you feel it, and that makes for a good performance. Plus, for some reason, the Bon Jovi performance really changes the focus of the song over to center on the lyrics. In the Stones versions of it (I have both the studio version and a live version) the emphasis seemed to be more on the riff than on the vocals.
All together though, it sounds like the fans at the O2 that night really got a treat.
Related posts:
- Random Song: Paint It Black (live)
- Bible Black Video Released
- Black Sabbath Horror Movies Coming
- Random Song: Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
- Review: ‘Lost Highway’ Live
Tags: Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones, The Circle Tour
[...] If you’re looking for my commentary on Bon Jovi’s performance of ‘Paint it Black’ at the O2, that’s in this post: Paint it Black at the O2. [...]