In many ways this is the proper version of not one but two recent blogposts which were both posted with the promise that they would be followed up by a better version.

These two blogposts are:

Diehard recording for sure | Bon Jovi 1987 07 11 East Troy | Unlocked after 37 years

and

I’m halfway there | Watching “Thank You Goodnight” part I (spoiler warning)

And yet for both I struggled to come up with the new blogpost.

The first blogpost mentioned, is about a recording of the 1986-1987 Slippery When Wet Tour, which as the most intimate of fans will know,  was still not Bon Jovi’s 80s peak!
A casual fan would assume their biggest tour was the one named after their knockout bestselling album Slippery When Wet, but it was actually its successor, The New Jersey Syndicate Tour 1988-1990, that was the behemoth tour that not just crushed it in terms of revenues, number of gigs, and probably had the fastest selling tickets in rock n’ roll history;
But that was also the tour that nearly crushed the bandmembers as well.

The New Jersey Syndicate Tour.

Homesick, disillusioned and suffering from every ailment 16 months of non-stop touring will give a man, the band closed their New Jersey Syndicate tour in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Which ended up as being two concerts on the same day.
The report on what happened is actually the most compelling part about the whole documentary series “Thank you, goodnight” (end of episode 2), as they face student protests and riots, blocking the stadium they were scheduled to play.

The footage of those draining, confusing days in Mexico, the endless waiting, the boredom, the restlessness of knowing you are so close to being able to go home but instead you’re stuck in a hotel with nothing to do except being angry with an antagonistic manager who you hold responsible for having worked you to absolute exhaustion;
Split in with voice-overs from Tico Torres, Richie Sambora, David Bryan and Jon Bon Jovi, all vividly remembering how Guadalajara ripped the band apart within days.
As well as enriched with interviews with others like audio engineer Obie O’Brien, songwriter Desmond Child and manager Doc McGee himself;

Guadalajara claims the spot as most compelling part of the entire four part documentary.

The endless touring had worn out and stretched their bond so thin, there wasn’t any cohesive strength left.
It all fell apart, like dust, and after finding a compromise around the student protests which involved playing two Guadalajara shows in one day;
A lot more had ended than just the New Jersey Syndicate Tour.

For years, the band would now be hanging by a thread.

So in comparison to the New Jersey Tour disintegration in Mexico after 240 concerts, the dramatic ending of the second episode of the documentary;
Oh, sweeties, compared to that, the Slippery When Wet Tour was JUST THE BEGINNING!

And the East Troy 1987 recording, unlocked after 37 years at February 2024,  by niche channel Fighter BJ, was no exception.

Fresh!
Light!
And boy, were they wild and eager!

You see, although Bon Jovi had two big hits second half 1986 (You Give Love a Bad Name and Livin’ on a Prayer) they did not feel like being at the height of their career.
And even when in July 1987 a third evergreen Wanted Dead or Alive had already been added to that list, they were still giving it their all!

The album Slippery When Wet was bringing them the success they had been dreaming of, but they had been working hard for this.
And the success had not come early.
In fact, it had come at the make or break point and the album (their third) had been their absolute final shot at having a career.

So when that album took off, the final thing the band was going to do was resting their laurels. They were working hard.
They were pushing.
They were fighting.
They were using every show, every interview and every country, to make their mark deeper. To burn their very existence into the souls of those who where there.

They would not take prisoners, and there was no failing.
The show had to go on, at any cost.
They were not going to let this chance slip away, not now when the train was rolling….

So the 1987 energy of the East Troy concert, unlocked last February by niche channel Fighter BJ, who specializes in their oldest work;
That energy was fresh.
Thirsty.
Young.
Even though July 1987, the band had been tired, having toured almost for a year at that point, and even though Jon Bon Jovi’s voice was in all probability going through one of its many iterations of being shot;
They delivered.

Over the past few months, I must have listened to that East Troy show somewhere between 30 and 60 times.
I have three different A4’s with notes, because I started over every time, because I was discontent with the results and thought that starting over and really paying attention, my notes and therefor the chances of writing a review, would improve.

But regardless how often I listened to Bon Jovi, East Troy, July 11th, 1987;
I came up with close to nothing.

And that is close to nothing actually LIKING the show!
Close to nothing being COMPELLED by all the spoken word and speeches, between and in the songs.
And having no idea what it was about.

All talking is either aimed straight at the audience, or it addresses people and situations relevant in the American media around the date of the concert.
Even someone from America not having lived through the era, wouldn’t have a clue.

So writing a review about East Troy got postponed and postponed. Assuming that because I was listening to it on repeat, and because I ve written a ton of these blogs (check the older content on my other blog dailybonjoviyoga) I really thought there was no other way possible than that LIGHTNING WOULD STRIKE!

And I would write the perfect East Troy 1987 review.

In the meantime I setup a draft post for East Troy 1987, chose a title, wrote the first paragraph, created an image on Canva, and put in all the links.
Only to have more time go by, in which I switched to focusing my efforts on YouTube.

I picked up a series “Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs”, and committed to writing a blog post about the song that was up, before I would shoot a video about it.

And then it happened;
Somehow, in the process of writing a Life lesson post about the song Let it Rock, I inadvertently clicked Publish on the draft for East Troy 1987.
Which then got posted incomplete, and with an apology I would soon make it up by writing the real review.
Now almost 6 weeks and about two dozen more listenings of East Troy ago.

Six weeks in which the much anticipated Bon Jovi docu series “Thank you, Goodnight.” came out, and I wrote:
I’m halfway there | Watching “Thank You Goodnight” part I (spoiler warning)
Promising a part 2 in the process!

So now I had not one, but two follow up posts to write.

And because episode 2 had ended on such a strong note, I really expected that after watching episodes 3 and 4 of “Thank you, goodnight.” I would be able to write one hell of a review!!!
So I watched episodes 3 and 4, where the story picks up after the double concert at Guadalajara, and… nothing.

First I thought it (my lack of enthusiasm) was just because the documentary had left out the whole Holy Month of April 1993- saga.
The part where Bon Jovi had survived their near-break-up, updated their looks, made the contemporary album, only to find their tickets were no longer selling and this could be the final year they were a bonafide touring band!

And the legendary gig at the Rosemont, March 5 1993, where they had to carry Jon off-stage, because he was no longer able to walk.
That’s how spent he was…..

FOLLOWED BY THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE HOLY MONTH OF APRIL HOLY F HOW CAN YOU LEAVE THAT ON THE TABLE?!

I get it you know, that chronologically speaking for the story to work, you cannot have a pivotal moment in spring 1993, if you’ve just made the near breakup years 1990-1992, the heart of your documentary series.
I know.

But how about doing it in a non-chronological way?
How about, instead of making Jon’s recovering voice the closing argument of this docu series, you take us back in time to that struggle in 1993, and the culmination of frustration, of giving it their all, of nearly dying on that fucking stage because they knew that having survived EVERYTHING?
They were this close, to being nothing….

This close, to being kicked back into the 80s, ruthlessly and to suffer the same fate as their peers, becoming relics of a great era.
A musical museum.

But I didn’t know all that immediately.
What I did know was that although I was able to accept April 1993 wasn’t in the documentary, I wasn’t feeling it. So regardless of what reasons they had had to brush over this dramatic moment, they were not working for me.

Okay- a little break here, I just want to fantasize together with you;
Did you see the documentary?
Do you agree the whole thing would have been lifted to an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT LEVEL, had the final 10 minutes been a flashback to that rocky-as-hell first months of 1993, where the band ended up fighting for their life once more, and Jon needed to be carried off stage because he had collapsed from exhaustion?

Would that not have made us understand why this man is not giving up?

Why Jon Bon Jovi is holding on, and going back onto that stage and into that studio, regardless?

Why maybe, even, he allowed for the professional but generic sound of John Shanks to take over, and why he was willing to sacrifice his friendship and the complicated working relationship with Richie Sambora, because he wanted a sense of control over the fate of the band and John Shanks was giving him that where Richie’s prize was that you accepted all the rocky inklings any creative in the history of the world could have told you ARE PART OF THE FRICKIN’ DEAL?

Yes, yes…. me too.
That would have been a great addition.
Having the series close cutting back to 1993, seeing Jon collapsing on stage in 1993, metaphorically indicating he had given his life to hold on to his place in the spotlights;
Would have made us understand.

And instead we got a clean and boring ending, that didn’t hold enough emotion to even count as a proper Disney ending.
(the series streams on Disney+)

At least for now, trusting the band is telling the truth;
I am NOT blaming this on the band.

From what I hear they gave free rein to director Gotham Chopra, which means Chopra chose this ending where Bon Jovi no longer performing at the level they once did, is blamed fully and entirely on Jon’s voice struggles, and on the choice of letting John Shanks determine the sound of Bon Jovi.
But even that last bit is not used to the point where it is working as a dramatic angle.
It is not explicit.

And from the looks of it, the three remaining members of the original band have been working their asses off, to promote this docu series, giving long and candid interviews, that make you pull your hair out thinking;

WHY WASN’T THIS IN THE SERIES!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently not because they were shy about it.

In particular in the final two episodes, it’s like Chopra is diligently coloring between the lines.
For reasons unknown to us, so I m guessing when I say that (most likely unconsciously) he wanted to stay accepted by Bon Jovi, regardless of what they said about giving him carte blanche to make whatever he wanted to make.

I think he put being a likable documentary maker over one that cracks open the defensive layering, and bringing a story we never heard before.
And every Bon Jovi fan will have their own thoughts about what that story could have been, but he had a chance to actually bring it!

Chopra seems uninterested in anything that smells like investigative journalism.

And for me that is a disappointment, that the director who got so close, and with the blessing of the band, did not knock this one out of the park.

The last two episodes just do not hold up, for cinematic and storytelling reasons.
You feel almost choked, from everything being kept from you.

Episodes 3 and 4 are like coming into a room where everybody is pretending everything is okay, but you feel a bomb just went off.

But even in the first two episodes, you can see the story of that they were living the rock n roll life, and what that entails, being TOLD, not SHOWN.
Breaking the very first rule of storytelling (show, don’t tell)

In one of his many interviews promoting this series, Jon Bon Jovi implies he has slept with a hundred women, (making you wonder why that was not in the documentary and we are only talking about his wife Dorothea) but also suggesting this (promiscuity) was something from the past.

Now personally, if I was married to someone who made his money from his creativity, and whose sex appeal was paying for the bills, I would not ask him to slow down;
I would have insisted he kept up the pace!

And when I say “personally” I do mean it is indeed personal, not just in monogamy preferences (or lack thereof) but also in musical taste.

Because the documentary shows how on the 1995 Tour, all band members had their partners and children with them on the road.
Not rock n’roll in theory, yet many consider it their best tour because the band was playing so tight!
And I believe in a heartbeat that from an objective standpoint, the 1995 tour with the families present, resulted in their best live performances.

I believe that in theory, a rock star getting his shit together, raising a family, becoming a philanthropist, staying on the road and in the studio for four decades;
Yes, I can see that is all great, and preferable, to many of the hell and mayhem we’ve seen being caused by them.
And all the sorrow and heartbreak they suffer themselves as well.

Got it.
But it will never be my, preference.

Less than three years apart, but to me the 1995 Tour recordings no longer have that all-in;
Ready-to-give-my-life-for-this GUSTO;
Not the Going to have to carry-me-off-stage-half dead URGENCY;
That were the hallmark, of the legendary gig at the Rosemont on March 5th, 1993

The perfection, and the properness of what is known in fandom as 1995’s
mighty These Days Tour?

Give me 1987’s random messiness, the rants about subjects I know nothing about;
Give me Richie’s birthday show performing “We’re an American Band” with Cinderella on stage.
Give me Jon risking his life flying over the crowd playing “Never Say Goodbye” from the back of the venue;
And give me the piano-driven Bob Seger cover Drift Away, melt me with your singalong sorcery.
All, for the taking on East Troy July 11th 1987.

And, instead of four episodes of docu series?
Give me that piercing thing of beauty that was Jon’s goodbye speech, wrapping up that gruesomely long New Jersey Syndicate Tour in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Where 240 concerts, 18 months of travel, days of riots and one maleficent manager had ripped and torn the band apart.
In the midst of the second show that day, and possibly last Bon Jovi show ever, it was all coming to a close, and Jon Bon Jovi spoke:

“Muchas gracias amigos.

Tonight, they tried to stop a rock show.
And the protests with the students and the college, they didn’t want us to play here tonight.
They didn’t want you to come here tonight.

But you see the power of wanting something and helping it to go smooth, that’s what this is all about.

And they couldn’t stop a rock n’ roll show, because you can’t stop a good thing.

Now this is the two hundred and thirty second, the final tour, the final show.
And after twenty countries, and three million and some odd people, a lot of cold beer and warm nights, we have to say goodbye.

It’s been a long time, there’s guys out here that have spent two birthdays on this tour, that have had children born, that have had divorces, we’ve had more cold beer than I could think of….

And I learned a long time ago from a guy on tv you never say goodbye, you just say Goodnight.
But you remember to say Thank you.

And it doesn’t matter what country you’re in, if it’s America, or Mexico, if it’s England or if it’s Russia, if it’s Australia or wherever we’ve been;

This is dedicated to the guys who set it up, to the guys who break it down, to the guys who made it possible;
We’re here with you tonight.

To the greatest road crew in the world, my brothers, and sisters.
It’s called Blood on Blood.”

source (video): 
Bon Jovi Live Blood On Blood, Guadalajara 1990, Rare Pro Shot

Night had set over the Mexican crowd as the wind carried Jon’s words away.
There had been too many shows to count. 34 Years later archivers, working to support the creation of a documentary series about the band, would count there had been 240 concerts.
Not 232.
And the director would use a snippet of the speech, and chose the Thank you, Goodnight reference, as his title. 
But the rest of Guadalajara’s speech would go unused.

But maybe, just maybe, rock n’roll was never about that one phrase that clicked.
Not about those moments when your words managed to touch eternity.
Not about that time you made the right decision, or about when you smoothed out the rough patches and you created something that was perfect.

Maybe rock n’roll is in the one hundred women that should have been a perpetually growing number.

In the guitarist like the Chinese nightingale;
Replaced by the emperor for a mechanical one, trimmed with jewels. Forever singing the same song.

Maybe rock n’ roll is not in wanting to matter, but in fearlessly being contemporary.

Saying things that will be forgotten, before the sun will rise the next day.

To speak up and to commemorate the political riots, that had surrounded the concert, for the 33.000 people who had waited the whole day for the second show at Estadio Tecnológico in Guadalajara.

To keep talking, as if in an endless conversation, locking in each and every one of the 20.000 people at the the Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, as if it’s just the bunch of you hanging out in a bar.

And maybe rock n’roll is thanking the enthusiastic and supportive audience at the Rosemont Horizon, over and over again, realizing that even if your career would end the next day because an unimpressed music journalist would write that one bad review that will be the death verdict of your career;
Tonight, you are with friends.

Maybe timeless rock n roll is not created by hard work and planning ahead and doing the thing that’s wise, let alone by doing the thing that’s proper.

But by your heart, your soul, your whole entire being oozing, shouting, and roaring;
“YES!”

And loving every minute of it.

—

“Thank you, goodnight”
the Bon Jovi story
streams on Hulu and Disney +

And the newly unlocked concert

Bon Jovi
11 July 1987
Alpine Valley Amphitheatre, East Troy🇺🇸
🏟️ Slippery When Wet Tour

has been added to:
New in Bon Jovi concerts before 1997

And to the playlist:
“Part I: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 10 June – 5 December (before 1997)
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT”
at 11 July 1987.

.
~Suzanne
🇳🇱 Tikkie
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