Rolling Stone has an article about a poll that shows that Bruce Springsteen has a higher approval rating than the current governor of New Jersey, among other things. Now my question is this: if they had an election for governor of New Jersey and the race came down to Jon Bon Jovi versus The Boss, who would win?
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
…But Could Jon Beat the Boss?
Friday, July 22nd, 2011Work for the Working Man (album track)
Friday, November 13th, 2009Sorry that this is running so late. I meant to write this during my lunch, but things got hectic and I didn’t get time to log in and write up a review of the song.
Unfortunately the first thing that I notice out of the gate is that the bass of this song sounds exactly like Livin’ On A Prayer. The problem is that it immediately inspires a comparison between the two songs, and Work for the Working Man comes off poorly in comparison to its elder sibling in the Bon Jovi catalog. I’ve tried to give it a fair shake and try to evaluate it on its own merits, but all I can hear in this song is Prayer.
The two songs aren’t all that different; they both have the same theme and make the same point, more or less. However, Prayer makes it point with more subtlety and renders the plight of the ‘working man’ much easier to relate to. In comparison to the heartfelt plight of Tommy and Gina, Work for the Working Man comes off ham-handed and makes its point with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer blow.
However, on the good side, this song does come closer to delivering the classic Bon Jovi sound that was promised. It has a great chorus, which seems to be made for singing along in big arenas. If that’s not the hallmark of the true ‘Bon Jovi sound’ I don’t know what is.
Bon Jovi to Celebrate 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Monday, November 9th, 2009According to the Washington Post, Bon Jovi will be joining the celebrities and dignitaries appearing at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
The article states that they’ll be performing We Weren’t Born to Follow at the celebration. While it is the band’s current single, it also seems appropriate for the tone of the celebration.
My only question is this: Will David Hasselhoff be there too?
Work for the Working Man
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009Jon performed a new song on Monday at an event to encourage volunteerism. You can read up on it over at the San Francisco Business Times; they have a pretty good write-up on the event. The article even includes some of the lyrics from the song, and unfortunately, the printed lyrics make it look like a real downer.
I’d have thought Jon would have learned his lesson after Welcome to Wherever You Are, which Jon thought would be a protest song ‘for the ages’. He just doesn’t do political songs very well, at least not when he gets bogged down in specifics. (Generic, angry at the world protest, that Jon does very well. See Have A Nice Day and It’s My Life.)
Of course, it’s hard to tell anything about the song from a few lyrics, and let’s face it, a lot of the best Bon Jovi songs aren’t particularly profound. I’ll have to hear the music to go with them before making a final judgment on the song. If he can make it rock like older Bon Jovi stuff, he might have a winner on his hands.
Corzine Fundraiser in my Google Ads
Monday, May 25th, 2009Again from the Google AdWords File:
Ads for Jon’s fundraiser for Corzine are showing up in the ads on my Google searches today. I wonder if he’s trying to pull in new campaign contributors (who otherwise wouldn’t contribute), or if he just can’t get anyone to cough up $50 a head for his fundraiser dinner in the current economic climate.
I’m sure these tickets must have been offered to his usual campaign contributors first… or maybe not. The ad is phrased in such a way as to make it less obvious that it’s an ad from Corzine’s campaign. The headline of the ad just says “See Jon Bon Jovi for $50″. They’re clearly trying to suck in people who aren’t politically interested.
(Incidentally, $50 still only buys you a seat in the nosebleed section–just like a real tour.)
Raising Funds for Corzine?
Monday, May 11th, 2009According to this article, Jon will be doing an acoustic concert to raise money for Jon Corzine’s re-election campaign.
This is a brilliant maneuver on Corzine’s part–it’ll get money out of Bon Jovi fans who may or may not actually support his campaign.
Personally I won’t be going. Honestly, I’m not fond of the acoustic versions of Bon Jovi songs–the auto-ratings on the songs from This Left Feels Right in Windows Media Player on my computer all show up at 1.5 stars (or broken hearts in the Zune software). I doubt that I’d be getting all that much enjoyment out of this, especially since I don’t even live in New Jersey, so re-electing Corzine isn’t even remotely a priority for me.
Jon at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Sunday, May 10th, 2009I missed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on C-SPAN last night. (Too busy trying to move my couch into my new digs, which had to be done while I could get people to help, and I don’t have a DVR.)
Honestly, I have no idea why Jon would be invited to this, seeing as how he’s not exactly a reporter. I’m also not sure why he even goes to events like this unless he really does have his eye on Corzine’s job and is currying favor with the political elite. It’s not like showing up at the White House correspondents’ dinner is going to sell any albums or win any new fans. I really, really do think that no matter what he says, Jon has ideas about politics.
I suspect that if I want to see Jon in a tuxedo, Pucked was more entertaining anyway.