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#48 Ride Cowboy Ride
| life lessons in Bon Jovi songs

Welcome back, Jovi friends!
Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs continues with Ride Cowboy Ride

Ride Cowboy Ride is the eighth song on Bon Jovi’s fourth album;
New Jersey (1988).
Which was the one released after their biggie, Slippery When Wet. Bon Jovi were now the biggest rock stars on the planet, and the band had to deliver. And they did.

Unfamiliar with the song?
🎶🎧 listen to Ride Cowboy Ride here
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context: DOUBLE NEW JERSEY

New Jersey would (and definitely “should”!) have been a double album, if it had been up to the band.
The record company blocked it, on grounds that they didn’t think fans would be able to pay for the higher price.
You can listen to all unreleased Bon Jovi outtakes here:
Rolling List of Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – current day
The extra songs from New Jersey start at “Love is War” all the way to Bon Jovi’s secret gem “Let’s Make It Baby”.
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video recorded Tuesday 21 April 2026

Photobook behind me: The Decade That Rocked by Mark Weiss

In this video:

1. Welcome to another episode 00:00
Of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs

And it feels a little bit like bottom of the barrel here!
Because I need a holiday, and I will be having one.

The next video will go up 21 May 2026, and goes out in a once-every-2-week rhythm.
Want to see me more often?
Subscribe to: @TheNewRockStarChannel
My other English channel.

2026 is the New Year New Jersey!
In 12 months we’re going over the 10 songs on the album as well as all the outtakes/ extra songs that didn’t make it to the album.

2. Very low-key song 01:53
Ride Cowboy Ride is only 1 minute and a half, the only instrument is a guitar, and it was recorded in mono, and as if you’re listening to a record over an old radio.

3. Why does a cowboy do? 03:02
And why does Bon Jovi feel so much affinity to them?

I realized that although I had always gone alone with the idea of Rock Star on Tour = like a cowboy visiting one place, and then moving along;
I had no idea what this analogy is about.
In particular not with the guns in there as well.
I discovered I was clueless on what cowboys actually did.

The song functions as an introduction to the next song Stick to Your Guns.
Ride Cowboy Ride is on side B, as the second from three cowboy themed songs:
Wild is the Wind – Ride Cowboy Ride – Stick to Your Guns
You could even say the song before that, Homebound Train, is already a cowboy themed song.

4. Streets of Moscow 1989 06:53
I found a performance of Ride Cowboy Ride, recorded around the time of the Moscow Peace festivals.
This very well documented festival took place in Moscow in what would become the final year of the cold war/iron curtain.
The line up consisted of multiple hard rock bands.

On the streets of Moscow, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora performed Ride Cowboy Ride and Wanted Dead or Alive. The recording was restored a few years ago:
Bon Jovi | Ride Cowboy Ride | Wanted Dead Or Alive | Acoustic | Moscow 1989

Ride Cowboy Ride played as an intro to Wanted Dead or Alive (not an intro to Stick to Your Guns), was consistent with how the song was played during concerts of this tour.

5. Life lessons 10:45
This being my bottom of the barrel video, it are probably not going to be my best life lessons ever!

Don’t speak about things you don’t know anything about
For decades I assumed I understood enough to know what Bon Jovi was speaking about, when they said they felt like cowboys when on tour.

And life lesson 2: bottom of the barrel = time for a holiday
Take a break and refresh yourself.

Next stop:
Stick to Your Guns!

~Suzanne Beenackers

🇳🇱 Tikkie
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THIS SERIES
All videos, of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs (playlist):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06SeCKg4jvR2EoVHBOfXzHm_R

SOURCES for this series:

1. OUTTAKES
Handmade list with rare Bon Jovi songs
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06SfkAr0Ll4wz-GlGnZJNZDYh
Rolling List of Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – current day

2. RANKED
My favorite Bon Jovi article and indispensable for this series:
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bon-jovi-songs-ranked/
By Tony Kuzminski.
List also covers any outtakes from the 2004 box set.

3. QUOTES
https://twostorytown.com/new-jersey-quotes
full page of quotes EVERYTHING anybody ever said about the 4th Bon Jovi album

4. BJ TOURS
https://bjtours.jimdofree.com/the-albums/1988-new-jersey/

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