video: the original on the box set

2nd video: the cover “Rockin’ All Over The World” was the main inspiration for
“I Get A Rush”

For a wee moment, I was afraid I would have to create something out of nothing.
There seemed to be no significant information available about the eighth song on the box set 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong (2004)

But I did find a few great lines in an article from 2018, that ranked all Bon Jovi songs!
It said (with I Get A Rush at position 80)

80. “I Get a Rush,” 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (2004)    

Inspired by John Fogerty’s “Rockin’ All Over the World,” which was later performed with Steven Van Zandt on their 1995 tour.   
“I Get a Rush,” from three years later, is an utter delicacy of joy, with a humble arm-waving chorus.

There are so many cute things in this description, I would add a blushing emoji with the hands, if I knew where to find things like that on my desktop.

First of all the song it refers to, “Rockin’All Over The World”, is probably their most played cover song.
And since I m reviewing the 1995 Crossroad tour on YouTube; I have heard it frequently, including the times Rockin’All Over The World was performed with Steven Van Zandt, which is Little Steven from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

But for us eighties people Little Steven rose to some kind of Untouchable Legendary Status because he wrote, produced, organized a collaboration between dozens of musicians “Artists United Against Apartheid” with a song called Sun City (1985);
About how you should not be playing this white resort in South Africa.

So with that background, that’s already a short circuit of things to like about the song that inspired the eighth song on the box set.

The only “big but” I have with the description of this song, at place 80, is that unlike what that description says, I Get A Rush was not from three years after 1995;
It was from 1996.
A time when Bon Jovi were still touring, although the tour was now officially named the These Days tour and no longer the Crossroad tour.
Meaning “Rockin’ All Over The World” was still very fresh or even still being played, when the, and I quote, “utter delicacy of joy” that is I Get A Rush, was written.

But there is more.

Before I write these posts about the songs on the Box Set I always listen to as many (live) versions of the song, as I can find. And it was there, where I found the next gem.
I m so excited by this, and I don’t even entirely know what it means! 
But I think it’s about sex and Jon Bon Jovi;
So who needs to know more, right?
[ I would now have added an emoji with one big eye and one small eye and the tongue out of its mouth, so I guess this is the moment for gratitude that I m still on my desktop. ]

The video I am talking about, is I Get A Rush performed in 2009, by Jon Bon Jovi on a fan club day.
And here’s what (I think) Jon says:

“I’m gonna have to introduce all the songs because I’m telling you, it will go a bit crazy but we’re gonna start easy. It’s like foreplay, I m gonna get going real slow,”
* makes hand gestures indicating he’s touching a lot of curves*
“touching and feeling. Feel the whole way around.”
(at this stage the yelling in the crowd is probably costing a few eardrums)
“You’re moving just so close”
Jon now makes a hand gesture that indicates that he has brought his face very close to the woman’s, but doesn’t go for the kiss.
He drops the hand, and fully confident that he knows how this is done, he says the final words as he turns around, talking to the friends he’s playing with this night.
“And you wait for her to make the move BACK!”

And I’m yelling and screaming in front of my desktop:
“Oh my God, that is EXACTLY how it is done!”

That’s how you get a rush.

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer

In 2004 Bon Jovi created a 4-cd (1 dvd) box set with unreleased work,
called “100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong”.
In this series, The Box Set, I am discussing all of the 50 songs.

And it’s a welcome back post!
Because a few weeks ago, I quit this series. A major reason was that in 2019 I had already written about the songs that were up next:
So “Open all night” and “These arms are open all night” had already been discussed.

The following is an updated version from that post.
Making it the oldest post in this series. 

“This title, Open all night, we’ve used about five times.
We finally did a song on the Bounce record,
called Open all night.

Great title, we never could get it right.”
Jon Bon Jovi, 32 min 28 sec 

.
So according to Jon, there were five songs called Open All Night.
But even if you go with the three that were released, you’d have trouble distinguishing them.

The only mainstream version of Open all night is, like Jon said, on the album Bounce.

The Box Set, 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong, is for the fans and has the two other versions:
Open all night and These arms are open all night.

Three different songs, but they’re all ballads which makes them similar.
And although the title of the song on Bounce is “Open all night”;
The lyrics of that song sing “These arms are open all night.”
Adding to the confusion about which song is which.

I’ve listened to all three songs, and here is what I found.

For clarity’s sake, I m going to assume the protagonist of these songs is male, and preferably Jon Bon Jovi, unless he specifically says that he is Jones and he drives a dented red Chevrolet then we go with that.
And we’ll assume the other person is a woman.

So here’s the three different songs:

1. Open all night
at 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong
live version Atlantic City 2004

Is about a girlfriend who has left to make it in the world and her boyfriend waiting at the bar, telling her not to worry.
Open all night refers to the boyfriend being open all night, meaning waiting for her.

2. These arms are open all night
at 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong
live version Borgota 2004

Is about a man who introduces himself as “Jones” and informs us he has a dented red Chevrolet, and gives a woman he met at the bar a detailed description how to get to his house.

Now if Jon Bon Jovi would try pick me up with this:
“These arms are open all night
If you need someone to talk to
A hand to hold onto and if it feels right
These arms are open all night“
That would be a Hell YES! if ever there was any.

I would feel completely seen, wanted, desired, and although I m not a night person at all, I would make an exception.
However.
This song identifies him as not being JBJ, but as “Jones”.
And I m actually surprised Jones sees the headlights of the woman behind him following him, because he confesses (out loud!?):
“God only knows how long it’s been that I been this lonely”

So instead of the gorgeous man Jon Bon Jovi – and then I have not even talked about the husky speaking voice Jon has and the sensitivity of the songs, and so on – so instead of that man who was glued to my wall in the 80s, who was my first concert, and who still falls into the category “I still definitely would”;
We’re now talking about someone I just met, in the middle of the night, who feels lonely?

I have not heard one reason to say Yes to this.

And even if it had been Jon “Rock God” Bon Jovi?
The shorter the encounter is gonna be, the more I want to feel special and loved, and a real connection. 

Which brings me to:

3. Open all night, main version, Bounce
album recording

There is a reason this is the one that made it to the main studio album.
It starts with a verse where Jon – Jon’s back! I like him MUCH better than somebody who introduces himself with a surname Jones – shares with us that he saw us coming from a mile away and noticed our poor little heart was bruised black and blue.

Then we get a verse where he tells us that he too, has been hurt. He knows how it feels. And that the last thing we need is another pickup line, so he’s not going to do that.
Wait.
Maybe I should just quote this. Here are those verses:

“I saw you coming from a mile away
Trying to hide behind that pretty face
Bet my last dollar baby you been bruised
Poor little heart all black ‘n’ blue

Last thing you need’s another pickup line
You must have heard them all a thousand times
God only knows what you been through
Believe me I been broken too

It aches, it breaks, it takes your breath away
I’ve been around that block a time or two”
…
Okay, if there is a woman now, considering to NOT immediately go with Jon, she’s lying.

We just got picked up in 2,5 verse.

Bring in the chorus:
“Baby, I don’t want to fall in love with you
I try, try, try but I can’t get around the truth
Please don’t say my name, give this heart a break
I don’t want to make the same mistake but it’s too late
I’ll leave on the light
These arms are open all night”

Song number 3 wins.
Jon gets the girl.

This is such a no-brainer that I feel like an idiot even going through the rest of the song, but I will do so, as a sign of song-appreciation.

So we had Jon buttering us up with perfect verses and bringing it home with the best pickup chorus in the history of rock music and then we have:
(Take it away Jon)

“I got your taste in the back of my mouth
I want to reach in and pull it out
And I’d be lying if I didn’t say
When you’re this close I’m afraid

Of the way I’ll feel if I touch your hair
The way I’ll miss you when you’re not there
And that I’ll see you when I close my eyes
It’s too late, I’ve crossed that line“

Not only did Jon have us at “Baby, I don’t want to fall in love with you”;
He now burns the very last of our entire defense system to the ground,
by admitting he too has fallen hard for us.
That he didn’t want to fall in love, he wasn’t looking for it, he wasn’t needy or lonely, and yet it happened anyway.
*soft sigh*
Isn’t life beautiful?

Are we now not all dreaming of being swept off our feet by someone we don’t want to fall in love with, but we just can’t help ourselves?

In another documentary, Jon speaks about his mixed feelings of singing ballads in front of a live audience. The interviewer tells him that the crowd was completely quiet the other night, when Jon sang his version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
Jon answers:
“There is a ballad called Open all Night, on Bounce, that I love for that reason.
But it gets the polite applause at the end, because it’s not that..”
*makes energetic hand gestures*
(18 min 30 sec)

After this analysis of the lyrics of Open all Night on Bounce, I don’t believe Jon.
I don’t believe anyone would not get it, if Jon sang this live.
That was not a “polite” applause.
That was “God that hurt please play a rock anthem to make it go away.” – applause.

It was a crowd with arms that were not just open for Jon;
They would have given them both to have him in it.

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer

In 2004 Bon Jovi created a 4-cd (1 dvd) box set with unreleased work,
called “100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong”.
In this series I discuss all of the 50 songs.

I m still early in this series, yet this post may end up being my favorite one.

2022 preface:
Miss Fourth of July is one of the “one-song videos” from the full concert Bargota, Atlantic City 2004, that is still available.
The full concert, where Jon gave the song an introduction [ Bon Jovi, Atlantic City 2004 ] is no longer online. Luckily, I wrote out Jon’s introduction below.

Miss Fourth of July

26 November 2020

There will be times in this Box Set series, where I supply you with a fascinating origin story of the song, hail it for its profound meaning, or conduct science experiments how few sentences it took before Jon had us crying like babies;

And then there will be times when I will diligently write out, an entire speech or full verse or chorus, because I think it should be swallowed whole and that we should not be picking it apart in an effort to understand it.

Or the third option, which is my personal favorite;
I write about why the song is about sex.

And then!
Then there is apparently the one in a 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong– chance that I just might be able to deliver all three of them! 

Because after hearing Jon’s elaborate explanation on how bad he was doing when he wrote “Miss Fourth of July” and how deep his crisis, and I then read along three verses, three repetitions of the chorus, and the outro I thought:
“This is about sex and you tried to slip it by us.”

So either, you can read along and overthink it with me.
New rare video footage to support my vision will be delivered!

OR you can just take Jon’s word for it and keep it at that, and look for a video on YouTube called:
Bon Jovi – Live at Borgata Events Center | Full Concert In Video | Atlantic City 2004
{ this is the concert that is no longer available, unfortunately, 2022 }
And start at 29 minutes 5 seconds.

This was the introduction from Jon Bon Jovi to Miss Fourth of July on the Borgota concert: 

Jon introduces Miss Fourth of July, as follows:
“This is a little something I wrote back in ’91 and a period I now refer to as the grey period. It was cloudy for about two years of my life.
It was a very interesting time because we were trying to figure out who the hell we were, as people.
The twenties were now behind me, the thirties were just coming on strong. Innocence seemed to have all be gone. But fortunately for us we got over that hump
[…]
But this is written during that period that if we didn’t get over this hump at that time we would have in fact been another one of those casualties that you hear about on “Where are the now?”.
[…]
So if you can just imagine I am in this little teeny eight by eight bedroom in Malibu California, probably either drunk or hung over, with a rented piano, and I happen to like the song more now because it doesn’t hurt as bad.
Check out the lyric, it is called The Fourth of July.”

Now, if at this point, you’re shaking your head at me.
“How can you possibly see this song as being about sex?”
Then I m going to cut you short because I too didn’t see it as being about that at this point.

Just like you, I docilely listened to the acoustic song with Jon and Richie on guitar and David Bryan on accordion.
And wept with them over losing their youth, as the price they paid for growing up touring pretty much back to back, from 1985 to 1990.
No wonder they were in crisis.

Yet there was probably already a sign that they would make it. Because contrary to other, I would almost say contrary to “most”, hardrock bands in the 80s, the Bon Jovi members were not addicted to heroin. 

The band Bon Jovi started in the early 80s, with Jon Bon Jovi delivering enough material for an entire record all by himself, before (after launching the single Runaway) they pulled together a band.

With their self-titled album (1984), their second album 7800 Fahrenheit (1985), their biggie Slippery When Wet (1986), and the absolutely brilliant shockingly good successor to that New Jersey (1988), under their belt and non.stop.touring.
– New Jersey was in fact even often “excused for” not being that good because they didn’t have time to properly innovate their music, while also touring –
that when that final tour finally ended early 1990;
Of course they were beat.
Of course they were stressed out.
Of course there was going to be a massive withdrawal from touring for years on end, that would pull each and everyone of the members into their personal versions of hell.

Of course it was going to be a time of staring into the heart of darkness.
Alone.

But! 
This did not mean that fans from Jon Bon Jovi, would have to miss out.
Early 1990, he joined the cast of Young Guns 2 on location, and started writing for the soundtrack.
The script and emotions it provided for him, gave him not just a sense of direction on what the music should be about;
It also gave him a mask.

He was not Jon Bon Jovi the singer who had probably lost his entire band and himself;
He was writing music to fit the script.
He later said he had put a lot of himself in that album Blaze of Glory, but at the time he hid behind the cowboy hat and leather clothes. 

So there I was (current day me, not 1990 Jon) listening to Miss Fourth of July and reading the lyrics.
And I stumble upon a lyric that makes me think that he did not have real sex, but only watched (a stripper, or a couple, or two women, something along those lines), and yet someone (I think his wife) was upset with him anyway.

This was the lyric, it is in the first verse:
“For a night I just watched and you walked out of here”

I don’t consider myself a knowledgeable Bon Jovi fan.
Just last Sunday I mixed up the intros from It’s My Life and Livin’ On A Prayer.
So I will never even remotely suggest you should take me seriously, as far as facts about the band go. I m not a typing encyclopedia, and often even fail to Google things.
But there is one area I am an expert at:
Sex.

And with Jon Bon Jovi, this usually means that I have a knack for when he’s talking about cheating. And even when I later find he was doing it “in character”, like in Always which was originally for a movie so it’s not his own story, I can’t imagine that he did not pour from his own experience when he wrote that.
But this is not about Always.
This is about Miss Fourth of July, that we are supposed to take at face value about being about an entirely sexless coming of age, or maybe coming of fame is more accurate, theme of a rock star finally returning home with almost Odysseus like pathos, suddenly realizing is he no longer the man who left, filled with hopes and dreams.

“For a night I just watched and you walked out of here”
This “baby-level” Bon Jovi fan, who cannot tell the difference between It’s my Life and Livin’on a Prayer intros, thinks Jon Bon Jovi tried to stay faithful within limits, yet got in an argument with his wife about it anyway. 

That’s the baseline I got when I started this blogpost. I had honestly not thought any further.
Until I started typing out that entire speech, which was a lot of work, I think I easily spent an hour on it.
And in that hour, the tiny bedroom in Malibu remark started to look very familiar. Even though Jon was referring to a two year period, I was suddenly certain this referred to the mansion he had rented, which he called “Disgraceland” and where he stayed when he recorded the Blaze of Glory record.
It is also the location where my favorite Jon Bon Jovi interview was located:
An MTV interview with Julie Brown, which was supposed to air on Independence Day.

(if you’re currently shouting “But that’s on the fourth of July!”; That is correct!) 

To mark the occasion Julie was dressed in America’s independence colors red and blue.
“Now I see where the white is,” Jon says as he lifts her skirt.

As soon as I saw this interview, which was early 2019, I knew for a fact that we had watched a genuine sexual attraction between Jon and Julie.
That it was both staged, and real.
Julie and Jon were hiding in plain sight.

The only problem this presents, now that I know that Miss Fourth Of July was written in the backlash of a one-night stand, or encounter, with someone special yet you can’t make it work, was that I no longer understood the sentence:
“For a night I just watched and you walked out of here”
I no longer know what that sentence means.

Yet Jon being messed up after Julie left, does explain many other lyrics. 
“Don’t say we never tried”
“I ain’t too proud to let you see tears fall from these eyes”
“Just look me in the eyes and say it meant nothing at all”
“Nothing but a heavy hit of heartbreak ;
A handful of blues”

” I used to live, but now I survive”

It took eight words.
Eight words to make us cry.