As you may know, I grew up during the heyday of grunge, but that style of music never spoke to me at all. (Actually, I was so utterly alienated by grunge that I spent years unable to understand what it was that made people hardcore fans of any band.) I picked up an album here and there over the years as a song caught my fancy, but it wasn’t until I bought that copy of Cross Road that everything started to come together for me to really become a fan of rock music.
Posts Tagged ‘Richie Sambora’
Richie’s Back
Monday, June 6th, 2011So, today’s big news is that Richie has returned from rehab.
Top Ten Songs for Fixing a Rotten Day
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011I always wind up turning to music when I’ve had a bad day. Sometimes it’s a concert DVD, and sometimes it’s just turning on the computer and letting Windows Media Player shuffle until it hits the right song.
So, I present the top 10 songs that I turn to when I’ve had that truly rotten day… (more…)
Mohegan Sun Behind the Scenes Video
Monday, May 9th, 2011Philly Eye Candy Commentary…
Monday, March 7th, 2011And now, for the girly part of the post about last Wednesday’s Bon Jovi show… my commentary on Jon and Richie’s outfits! (The review of the concert itself can be found in this post.)
Commentary: Richie on Extra
Friday, October 29th, 2010I did catch Richie Sambora’s appearance on Extra last night. I almost forgot, but got lucky–they mentioned Richie’s appearance during a commercial on the news right before it that reminded me.
What makes a favorite album?
Friday, October 1st, 2010I’ve counted Richie Sambora’s Stranger In This Town as my favorite album from the first time I listened to it. But I’ve never quite been able to quantify exactly why that one album made such a deep impression.
Hotness from the O2
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Monsters 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.
Richie sings Homebound Train!
Monday, February 22nd, 2010I caught a video of Richie singing ‘Homebound Train’ in Seattle. If you’ve been reading some of my older posts, you know that for me, Richie forever owns ‘These Days’ after I heard him perform it at the Prudential Center back in 2007. (And above all else, it wasn’t ‘I’ll Be There For You’, which has to be one of the most tired songs in the Bon Jovi catalog.)
After seeing that video, I have to say that if I get to see Richie do ‘Homebound Train’ live when I get to see them, I think this song will be Richie’s too.
Richie was in fine voice when he did that song, and it was great. Like so many of the songs that Richie does on his own, he put that uniquely Richie blues spin on it. And Homebound Train is a song that works extremely well with that bluesy flair. Certainly better than ‘I’ll Be There For You’. I know that song is a Bon Jovi classic, but it doesn’t play to any of Richie’s strengths the way a song like ‘Homebound Train’ does.
It seems like Bon Jovi as a whole is putting a lot more effort into their set lists on this tour. Yes, they’re still covering the important bits, but by bringing out so much more of their back catalog and rotating it, it’s making us fans much happier and more excited. Now there’s a chance that I might get to hear some of my favorites–no matter how obscure.
The Music Video Exposed: Wayne Isham
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010I caught an episode of The Music Video Exposed on VH1 Classic this weekend. That’s not one of the shows that I ordinarily go out of my way to watch. You can tell that I was still very young during the golden age of MTV–most music videos hold very little appeal to me, and they’re usually completely secondary to the song itself, as far as I’m concerned.
I caught the tail end of the episode dedicated to Wayne Isham. The name honestly meant nothing to me. I had conked out and was too tired to keep up with the game I had been playing on the Xbox, so I powered down and settled for watching VH1 Classic until the show I was waiting for came on.
As it turned out, I got lucky. Wayne Isham directed the video for Livin’ on a Prayer, and the Prayer video was one of the ones featured in his episode. There’s no profound insights here, but some interesting storytelling from Wayne Isham himself. I had always figured that the silhouette of the guy running through the curtain of sparks was deliberate–but that’s the director, abruptly realizing that he was parked in the middle of the shot. That may have been a complete accident, but I always thought that it worked.
As for the rest of it, there’s nothing really profound there, other than a few brief interview clips with Richie. He mostly talks about how Isham helped the band break big. Not sure when it was recorded. Judging by how Richie looked in the clips, it was probably fairly recent.
The other neat video included in the show was the video for Skid Row’s 18 and Life, another one of my favorite songs. Once again, nothing terribly profound, but at least on that one they got Sebastian Bach to show up. Bach’s comments were more interesting–he was remarking on how, even after all this time, he can watch the video for 18 and Life without getting embarrassed. He has a point–Isham did do a fantastic job on that video, and it really does stand the test of time better than many of the other videos from the same time period that tried to tell a story.
It was kind of neat, just tuning in randomly and getting the scoop (such as it was) on the videos to two of my favorite songs.