Posts Tagged ‘Jon Bon Jovi’

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Commentary: Jon’s Interview with E!

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

E! Online has a video interview with Jon about the end of the current leg of the tour.

Most of the questions are the same ones that get trotted out in every interview when the band is on tour.

However, the way that Jon talks about the upcoming Greatest Hits album is interesting.  He references Cross Road as a ‘volume 1′.  To me, that sounds like the upcoming album will pick up where Cross Road left off.  If that’s true, then my prior speculation about what would be on it was completely off base.  It opens up a lot more space for the post-1994 hits and makes it easier to fit in the new songs that were promised.

And now, for the shallow stuff: Jon’s looking pretty good. Now, as you know, I’m a big fan of the blond hair, so videos like this one are a complete treat.  The blue shirt looks especially good on him.

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Review: Elvis in Vegas

Friday, July 16th, 2010

I promised that I’d be back with a separate review of ‘Elvis in Vegas’ today. After all, it’s not every day that Meat Loaf records a song co-written by Jon Bon Jovi. That warrants a post in its own right.

I don’t know that I would have made this connection if I hadn’t known that Jon was one of the songwriters for ‘Elvis in Vegas’, but the song really reminds me of ‘Right Side of Wrong’ from Bounce. It has the same sweeping narrative feel as ‘Right Side of Wrong’, and it also has the same sort of living, breathing imagery throughout the lyrics. That’s probably Jon’s touch; he’s always been good at that kind of song that tells a story, but this one is an outstanding example.

I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised that ‘Elvis in Vegas’ turned out to be one of my favorite songs off of Hang Cool Teddy Bear–after all, it does have Jon, Desmond Child and Billy Falcon behind it, and those three have been responsible for many of my favorite songs.

But above and beyond that, I like the song because it plays to a lot of Meat Loaf’s strengths. This is one of the few songs on this album that really taps into the expressive range that Meat Loaf can bring to his performances. He can make you believe whatever he’s singing about–and with that power behind the lyrics, this song shines. The chorus on this song is nothing less than a thing of beauty.

This song is definitely a keeper. As a matter of fact, it’s probably going to shape up to be one of my all-time favorites.

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Santa Fe live at the O2!

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

This just goes to show that I need to pay attention to my own blogroll around here. Lee-Ann picked up on this over a week ago (she’s got the video of ‘Santa Fe’ and a few others over at Blame It On The Love, so I won’t repost ‘em here).

‘Santa Fe’ is only one of my favorite songs of all time… and it took me this long to catch up on my reading and figure out that they actually did this live at the O2. Makes me wish I lived in London, because the lucky folks in the audience at the O2 shows have gotten plenty of treats. (See also the blue sleeveless shirt that Jon was wearing in that video.)

Anyway, ‘Santa Fe’ has been one of my favorite songs ever since I first brought home my copy of Blaze of Glory. It has actually come up a couple of times when I was writing Random Song posts for this blog, but I always skipped it because I wasn’t sure that I could do justice to the song, or my feelings about it. Something about the powerful delivery in this song just spoke to me. It’s certainly one of Jon’s best outings as both a songwriter and a performer.

(I substantiate that claim by the fact that several people have simply refused to believe that the song they were hearing could possibly have been a Jon Bon Jovi song. The least insulting of these was my mother, who merely thought that it was Richie.)

That legendary status made me a little nervous when I saw the video show up on Lee-Ann’s blog, doubly so when I saw that it was one of the acoustic performances. I guess I was a little bit afraid that it might have gotten TLFR’d, or that Jon’s voice wouldn’t hold up, and I’d be disappointed.

Ultimately, though, it was anything but disappointing. Sure, the acoustic performance doesn’t quite have the same fire as the original, but it still works. Part of it is that Jon performs the song straight–it’s not a re-imagining (the TLFR treatment that I had feared) but just the real thing. Right down to the “Lord have mercy” before the solo. Jon doesn’t soar in quite the same way as the original, but his voice was great in this performance.

Also, Dave’s accordion is actually quite welcome here. I actually find its sound to be superior to the strings in the original recording.

And on a final note, I have to say thank you to Lee-Ann for gathering up all of these great videos, not just from the O2, but from all of the tour.

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Hotness from the O2

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Monsters and Critics has a photo gallery from the shows at the O2.

All I can say is how come we didn’t get that hot black leather shirt at the Wachovia Center back in March? Sheesh. Those pix hit all of my weaknesses when it comes to Jon. Black leather. Bare arms. Hairy chest. Floppy blond hair. Tight pants. That picture is almost as hot as my Keep the Faith poster. (Maybe even a little better–the KTF poster doesn’t have the chest on display.)

Plus, they’ve got a few good shots of Jon’s grin. The fourth shot of Jon in the gallery is great–I’m not sure what’s going on there, but it looks like he’s laughing. Makes me wish I knew what was getting that reaction. (So does the facial expression in the one where he’s holding up the guitar. He’s definitely looking at something-or someone.)

There’s also a picture of Jon and Richie playing their guitars that I just love. Those are classic Bon Jovi ‘solo faces’ on them both–Jon’s got the lip stuck out so far it’s blatantly visible in profile!

And the shot of Kid Rock sitting at the piano and sticking out his tongue is a great shot. Whoever got that one was definitely a good photographer–moments like that are tough to catch on film, but great when you do get them.

If you haven’t seen these already, they’re totally worth checking out.

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My Current Top 10 Songs (June 2010)

Friday, June 4th, 2010

There are the songs that you consider to be your favorites, and then there are the songs that you actually listen to.  And at least for me, the two don’t always line up.  Here, I present my current top 10 songs, according to the play count in Windows Media Player:

  1. Poison
    Artist: Alice Cooper
    Album: Trash
    I knew I liked this song–after all, I specifically ordered Trash just to get it.  But I had no idea that I played it so much that it had gotten all the way to #1!

  2. Hell is Living Without You
    Artist: Alice Cooper
    Album: Trash
    Not a surprise here–this is actually one of my favorites, being a collaboration between Alice, Richie, Jon and Desmond Child, and I knew I listened to it a lot.  It’s in most of my custom playlists.

  3. Cum on Feel the Noize
    Artist: Quiet Riot
    Okay, a bit of a surprise here.  I like Quiet Riot well enough, but they aren’t one of my all-time favorite bands.  But evidently I really like this song.

  4. Roulette
    Artist: Bon Jovi
    Album:  Bon Jovi
    Odd choice here.  I’m guessing because it shows up early in the list when I list out all of the songs in my collection, so I end up starting here a lot.  Otherwise, I don’t really seek this one out.

  5. This Ain’t a Love Song
    Artist: Bon Jovi
    Album: These Days
    I would have actually expected this one to rank a bit higher–in the #1 or 2 range, because this is actually a favorite that I do seek out on a fairly regular basis.

  6. Rainbow in the Dark
    Artist: Dio
    Album: Holy Diver
    I would have put this one as another of my top favorites–I know I seek this one out a lot, and include it in my playlists.

  7. Why Aren’t You Dead
    Artist: Bon Jovi
    Album: 100,000,000 Million Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong
    This isn’t a song that I truly think of as one of my favorites–if I were asked, I probably wouldn’t list it in my favorites.  But I do include in a lot of playlists, which most likely accounts for its rank.

  8. Temptation
    Artist: Bon Jovi
    Album: 100,000,000 Million Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong
    This is another song that I would have expected to clock in much higher.  This is one of the songs that I truly do think of as a favorite–but I guess I don’t actually listen to it as often as I would have thought.

  9. Santa Fe
    Artist: Jon Bon Jovi
    Album: Blaze of Glory
    Another well-liked but not essential track.  Evidently I listen to it way more than I thought I did.

  10. Nobody’s Hero / Livin’ on a Prayer (demo)
    Artist: Bon Jovi
    Album: 100,000,000 Million Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong
    I think this only got up this high because I replayed it a bunch of times when I was writing up a random song post on it.  I can’t think of any other explanation for it.

I find it interesting that there are no songs whatsoever from Stranger In This Town–even though I’ve long considered that to be my favorite album of all time.  Also conspicuously absent–anything from Slippery When Wet–only the most essential Bon Jovi album ever…

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Jon Interviewed About Opening New Meadowlands Stadium

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

NorthJersey.com has an interview with Jon about opening the New Meadowlands Stadium.

Nothing earth-shattering here.  But it’s kind of nice to get Jon’s perspective on getting to open the new stadium.  Especially since Bon Jovi has played the old Giants Stadium so many times and Jon has always referred to it as his home.

In a way, having Bon Jovi open the new stadium bookends things nicely–they had The Boss close the old Giants Stadium,  and now Jon’s coming to open the new one.  That way they’ve managed to get the two biggest musical legends from New Jersey involved in the transition, and no one group of fans has any reason to get cranky about it.

All that being said, though, this is home turf for the band, and they’re still trotting out ‘Hallelujah’ instead of doing one of their own songs?  Doubly so since Bon Jovi spent most of the 90s known for being a ballad band.  This, if ever, would be time to trot out one of the big ballads from their own catalog–something like ‘Dry County’ or ‘This Ain’t A Love Song’

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Songs that make me cry…

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

I had my Zune on shuffle earlier today, and the song ‘I Want You’ came up. I hadn’t listened to that song in a long time, but it still plays with my emotions whenever I hear it. That gave me the idea to revisit a few of the songs that can make me cry when I hear them.

‘I Want You’ – Bon Jovi
There’s something so heartfelt in this song, that it just gets me. The first few times that I listened to Keep The Faith, this song didn’t particularly stand out. But then one day, it just sank in. I was sitting at my computer playing Bejewled with the stereo on in the background, and the song just hit me like a ton of bricks. There’s something so completely anguished about the chorus, especially at the end.

‘Blood Money’ – Jon Bon Jovi
Whenever I hear this song, I remember the night that I got to hear Jon sing it live at the Prudential Center back in 2007. I wasn’t as familiar with Blaze of Glory back then, so this really stands out as the moment that I first appreciated that song. Plus, the performance that Jon gave that night was completely stellar. It made the lament of the lyrics come to life for me. I just remember how electric that moment was–with just Jon’s voice soaring through the song and into that strange sort of silence that you can only get when thousands of people suddenly go completely quiet.

For some reason, these songs seem to be hardwired straight into my emotions.

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Montreal Gazette Photo Gallery

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

The Montreal Gazette has a genuinely nice review of the Bon Jovi concert. The bonus, however, is the nice set of photos in the gallery that accompanies the article. (If you’re having trouble finding it, click the “Photos” tab at the top of the article.)

The best photo, in my opinion, is the shot of Jon bending over with his guitar. It’s a classic rock star pose, and he actually has a nice expression on his face. (So many concert photos tend to wind up being unflattering when the photographer catches the artist in mid-song.) Plus, there’s a nice slice of hairy chest on display in that one.

Plus, Jon’s wearing leather again. Personally, I’ve always thought that he looked great in black leather–it’s one of my favorite outfits on him. That was my one disappointment when I saw the band during the Lost Highway Tour–Jon wasn’t wearing leather.

Also, he’s got the floppy blond hair back. I love it. Go check out the gallery on their site, it’s great.

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Another duet, this time with Ray Davies

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Jon seems to be a busy boy lately. Today I stumbled across an interview with Ray Davies of The Kinks, where he mentions that he is in the process of recording an album of duets.

This sounds interesting. Usually, I rate this kind of album as a low priority, mostly because in a lot of cases, I haven’t gotten around to getting the original albums and I really think that I should familiarize myself with the originals first. However, I already have a lot of stuff from The Kinks, and I definitely have stuff from most of the artists he’s working with. Plus, The Kinks, and most of the songs that they have recored are just plain awesome. They are one of the few bands to produce songs that can still feel completely fresh and new, even decades later. Every Kinks song that I’ve ever heard could have been written yesterday.

Plus, the list of artists working on this so far includes nothing but artists I like. Both Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen have what it takes to do a good job on a duet of a Kinks song. The Killers do as well–they’re one of the few relatively new bands that I enjoy. And I’m really interested to see what Metallica can bring to this project.

I’ll have to give the samples on Amazon a listen when this comes out. It sounds like one I’d be tempted to buy, which is rare.

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Jon on 30 Rock

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Thanks to the snow, I caught Jon’s cameo on 30 Rock last night. (I had been scheduled for an evening meeting, which would have relegated me to catching it later on the internet.)

I guess that I misread the information that I had gotten on this, because I thought that he was going to be doing a guest star role, as opposed to a cameo as himself. That being said, what we got was pretty good. (NBC had better do its best to hold onto Tina Fey as long as possible. She’s one of the few truly talented people that they’ve got right now.)

Personally, I loved the jokes about the band’s “Artist in Residence” stint that they did with NBC earlier this year. The satire there was pretty much spot-on in skewering the overexposure that the band managed to get out of it.

Jon’s acting skills usually aren’t all that great, but for some reason, he’s good at playing the straight man. (Probably years of practice around certain of his bandmates.) That was also put to good use here.

Also, FINALLY, Jon’s hair is blond again! It actually looked decent for the first time in quite awhile. Not sure what it’ll take to get him to go back to being a blond permanently, even though it’s the most flattering hair color for him these days.

All told, a decently good evening’s entertainment.

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