Monday/Tuesday:  ‘Hallelujah’
This one is unusual in that I do know where it came from; I heard a clip of the song in a movie on Sunday night.  But it lingered for two days.  It may not be my first choice in a live Bon Jovi show, but it is still a beautiful song.

Wednesday: ‘Spaceman’
I’ve known this song for years and it still bounced around my skull all day on Wednesday.  I was pretty much singing the whole thing to myself, over and over again.  I’m not sure if that’s more or less annoying than ‘Hallelujah’, where I only remember some of the words, so I end up just humming the melody to myself.

Friday: ‘Dream Police’
The universe has a sense of humor.  Why else would I have woken up with this stuck in my head today?

No related posts.

Now, this is another song that I have an odd batch of mixed feelings about when it comes to live performances.   ‘Living In Sin’ is one of my all-time favorites out of the band’s songs.  It even convinced me to sign up for satellite radio.  (That’s a story for another day.)

I did get the Madison Square Garden DVD which has ‘Living In Sin’ on it.  And to be honest, I found the performance on that DVD to be rather disappointing.  That particular performance always seemed kind of flat to me, lacking in the emotion that made the original studio version so powerful.  I can understand why Jon doesn’t sing the original bridge anymore–the high scream can’t be easy on his voice.  However, the rest of the song just didn’t have the punch that I expected from it.

But the performance from Montreal has that emotional punch that I was looking for in the song.  If Jon and the boys ever do ‘Living In Sin’ like this at a show that I go to, I have to say that I’d be overjoyed.

The only downside is that I’m all around just not keen on the ‘Chapel of Love’ ending.  I guess it’s meant to be ironic, but nothing in the performance itself ever really signaled that to me.  To be blunt, I could do without it completely.

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I like the groove to the verses.  The lyrics here have that flow to them that I really like.  I love when a song has lyrics with a natural rhythm that fit the beat this perfectly.   This is one of those songs that will probably work well live; the beat just calls out for me to bounce along with it.

The sound of this song is interesting–it’s somewhere in between Bon Jovi’s more pop-oriented stuff and the country of Lost Highway, without really being classifiable as either.  The distorted vocals scattered throughout the song don’t thrill me in their own right, but I think they add an important element that breaks up the overt pop sound of the song and improves the overall feel of the entire song.  I don’t think the song would work as well without them.

And Richie’s got another great solo.  It’s not a long one, but this one’s got some energy to it, and I like it.  (Actually, this song and the last two before it have all had some really good Richie moments in them.)

I ‘d say that so far, this song is most likely to become a long term favorite though.  As I was listening to it to write up this review, I found it growing on me–a lot.

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For one thing, they really let Richie shine on this one.  He’s got the talkbox out here and there in the verses, which adds a nice and very Bon Jovi touch to the song.  And there’s a real guitar solo in this song as well, one where Richie really makes the guitar soar.

Jon’s voice is also amazing here.  It’s the best I’ve heard him sound in a long time, and this song really lets his voice shine.  The original reason that I got into this band was all because of Jon’s voice, which is incredible when he’s at his best.  This song really reminds me a lot of why I first became a fan, and that’s a good thing.

I really like the lyrics in this song as well.  The verses here are confronting aging and the realities of life, and I think that they did a good job on them.   Then you have the more upbeat lyrics of the chorus that kind of balances things out, and the song as a whole works really well.

All together, this is my favorite new track from the Greatest Hits so far.

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Sure, they’re both pretty much exactly what I’d expect from Bon Jovi (in a good way).  But this one’s got more energy to it, and I think the chorus on this one works a lot better.  It’s got way more potential for sticking in somebody’s head–like mine, at this moment.

Lyrically, it’s another ‘positive message’ song, but it’s a better one.   I really prefer the lyrics here to the ones in some of their other recent songs that had similar messages.  The verses especially have some good imagery in them–that kind of writing is part of what’s made me a loyal fan of the band.

The overproduction is still here, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it was on some of the tracks on The Circle.  This one has way more guitar in the mix in the chorus and the lead up to it, and that gives it more of the sound that I like.   And I love that I can hear that the backing vocals are done by Richie–that just sounds totally right in a Bon Jovi song.

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It seems like a switch has finally clicked somewhere and  Jon and the rest of the guys have started getting the respect that they deserve.   I’m used to people dismissing them (unfairly, in my opinion) as just another hair band. But now Bon Jovi is getting a lot of recognition for their achievements and influence.

They have gotten big awards before–I did catch the ceremony when the were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame a few years ago.  But now they’ve gotten two big nominations and a big award in a short space of time.

Maybe, just maybe, awards like this will lead to the band getting the respect that I’ve always thought that they deserve from more people.  As a fan, I have to say that I find it quite satisfying to see others finally seeing and recognizing the same outstanding qualities that I found in my favorite band.

Bon Jovi is my favorite band for a reason.  They’re good.  And they deserve recognition for that.

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Anyway, I shut down the computer and went into the living room to watch the storm. I used to do that more when I was a kid, but I haven’t just watched a thunderstorm in a long time.

I started thinking back, and realized that the last time that I really just sat around and watched it storm was right around when I first discovered Bon Jovi’s music. I had just gotten my copy of New Jersey, and I’d loaded it onto my mp3 player to take along on vacation. A couple of days after we left, it stormed.

I remember sitting in the big window in the dining room of the house that we’d rented, watching it storm, and listening to New Jersey. It wasn’t the very first time that I’d listened to it–I’d been listening to it in the car–but it was pretty close to the first time.

So, that’s what I decided to do last night, all over again. I got out the Zune, and fired up New Jersey while I watched the lightning and just listened. It’s not something that I do very often anymore–my music collection is more relegated to the background while I work on other stuff.

But listening with half an ear doesn’t really let me hear everything. I hear what I want to hear, what I expect to hear. If I want to experience an album, I have to actually listen. I do it now and again, when I write up the Random Song posts for this blog, but that’s not the same as just sitting down and listening to a whole album.

Last night just served to remind me that I should listen to music more when I want to relax, rather than automatically turning on the Xbox all of the time.

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I will admit that I was kind of hoping that the ongoing lack of Bon Jovi tracks in the store meant that there might be an entire game dedicated entirely to Jovi in the works.

However, with the release of the Greatest Hits album, the timing is good for a track pack like this.  And if it’s based on the Greatest Hits track list, which is what the post from Harmonix said, it ought to be a decent assortment of songs.  Plus, it means that I can finally have more than two Jovi songs to pick from when I’m playing around on a Saturday morning, which is a good thing. With this I can do entire sets of nothing but Jovi songs when I’m playing in the Tour mode!

I had been disappointed that there weren’t any Bon Jovi songs included in Rock Band 3, but a full track pack of hits like this more than makes up for it.  And with the addition of keyboards in RB3, I’m really hoping that ‘Runaway’ gets included in this pack.  The thought of getting to play along with Dave’s awesome keyboards in that song is the first thing I’ve seen that makes me think seriously about getting one of the new keyboard controllers.

Combine this with the rest of the great songs that they already announced for Rock Band 3, and you’ve got a recipe that guarantees that I’m going to be wasting plenty of time with Rock Band games again.

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Anyway, back on topic…

Both Bon Jovi and Alice Cooper have finally been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!  (You can pick up the whole list of nominees and the rest of the details from the announcement on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame site.)

Alice Cooper’s nomination has been a long time coming.  In my opinion, he should have gotten in a long time ago.  The man is a walking legend.   I can hear his influence all over the music industry.   His work was (and still is) groundbreaking stuff.

And Bon Jovi is finally, finally getting some credit for the amount of influence that they have.  Their influence should have been obvious after they did Unplugged back when Lost Highway was released.  The guys in the All-American Rejects–another band whose work I really enjoy–openly said that Bon Jovi was one of their big influences on that show.

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So, anyway, back to today’s topic.   Jon did an interview with the Australian Today Show.  It’s actually pretty good–he’s smiling, and he seems to be happy to do the interview.  (Love his smile.  Can’t resist it.)  Most of it’s not news, but there were a few interesting bits and pieces, plus the eye candy.

Anyway, Jon mentioned that his acting career is dead.   I found that a little bit disappointing.  Yes, he’s done a few real stinkers, but he’s also done a couple of movies that I really enjoyed.  Both The Leading Man and U-571 were solid pieces of work.  I know I would enjoy seeing him do more of that kind of work.  Maybe he’ll channel some of that acting impulse into more of the band’s videos, like one of the commenters suggested on my review of ‘What Do You Got’.  I think it’s a good idea; it certainly worked out well on the video for ‘Make a Memory’, which I thought was a well acted and beautiful video.

In terms of the eye candy, Jon’s wearing the light blue shirt this time.  It fits nice, but I think it’s too light.  A brighter or darker blue shirt would help highlight his blue eyes–and you know I’m a sucker for his eyes.  However, he is looking good in this interview.  He looks like he’s rested and relaxed, and that brings out the handsome aspects of his face.

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