One of the things I ve been meaning to do, is give every Bon Jovi album a proper and extensive review.
You know, like serious folks!
Except of course, that will never happen.
So I just started at What About Now (2013) and am working my way back.
In tweets!
I m not going to url-link them all to the original tweet, but if you want to follow this topic Here’s my profile on Twitter
So here’s Part 1 of this quite enjoyable endeavor;
There were a few more tweets, inthe original thread. But these were the Big Five 😉
*Detail Alert*
In case you want to know exactly how I ll go from here:
Next up album Crush (2000), then all the way back through the 90s, the 80s ending with 1984 Bon Jovi- Bon Jovi And after that the two most recent albums, Burning Bridges (2015) and This house Is Not For Sale (2016).
*End of Detail Alert*
See you soon! And rock on!
~Suzanne
Update
In June 2020, I renamed this site from Rock Star Yoga to Rock Star Writer.
I ll update all blogposts (there are 46) and will get my fingers into the YouTube channel soon, including retrieving content I had to take down in January because of technicalities.
These blog posts will go out randomly, as topics reveal themselves.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably somewhere on the right.
* sadly enough all referrals/ links to the Rock Star “Yoga” page on Facebook (url), have become invalid. I intend to start curating this blog, and update the links.
First off, here is the Bounce album on YouTube.
Press Play to get a punch in the gut!
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See, feels good right??!
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It was one of the things that had been in the back of my head for a while, giving me little “What about?” reminders every once in a while.
What about Bounce?
Why did you buy that album?
Was it a coincidence?
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The zeros were Bon Jovi’s most productive decade.
Not only did they produce 5 studio albums, Bounce (2002) being one of them:
They also toured extensively, and had countless Bonus projects going on.
The 4-5 disc box 100.000.00 Bon Jovi fans was released.
Their One Wild Night live cd.
This Left Feels Right, an album with alternative versions to their songs.
And said 5 studio albums Crush, Bounce, It’s my life, Lost Highway and The Circle.
And that’s just what I know by heart, since getting back on the Bon Jovi wagon.
In the decade itself, I wasn’t a fan.
It was as if we lived in alternative universes.
With the exception of one album:
Bounce.
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With Bounce not being particularly memorable, as far as the general opinion goes, and none of its songs being played at any of their recent concerts: Had it then been mere chance this record had come in my possession?
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Interesting question. But not exactly an urgent one, and it was dropped the moment it arose. One day. Maybe. If I feel like it.
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Yesterday I listened to Bounce and it hit me right in the gut. There really are no words to describe what it DID to me – something I only knew from another vastly underappreciated record This House is Not For Sale: It filled my heart with joy, my gut with rage, my life with a strong forward moving force that NO MATTER WHAT- We were not going to back down!
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Don’t get me wrong: I immediately noticed Bounce having weaker moments. And even repetitive elements (just like This House is Not for Sale!) that you could criticize or question. And I decided to spend some more time with the record, and its history. What had happened? What was its context?
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And I stumbled upon The Forgotten History Of The In All Probability Best Bon Jovi Record Ever Made.
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Think August of year X. Bon Jovi had just ended their One Wild Night Tour, and was going to take it easy, musically. There were no plans to go into the studio anytime soon. Now think September 11. The world was shook, and a wave of despair came over us. New Jersey, being close to New York, was heavily hurt.And the band Bon Jovi, known for its anthems and its message of hope, leaped to the rescue, to the frontier, and after their first months of charity work were over, they had many stories to tell.
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“That was my brother lost in the rubble, That was my sister lost in the crush”
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Bounce, Bon Jovi’s 2002 almost forgotten album was the stab in the gut we had all felt in 2001, but they took it and put it to music.
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It was no coincidence that for two plus decades, Bounce was the only Bon Jovi release that immediately made it into my collection.
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And into my heart.
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~Suzanne
Update
In June 2020, I renamed this site from Rock Star Yoga to Rock Star Writer.
I ll update all blogposts (there are 46) and will get my fingers into the YouTube channel soon, including retrieving content I had to take down in January because of technicalities.
These blog posts will go out randomly, as topics reveal themselves.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably somewhere on the right.
* sadly enough all referrals/ links to the Rock Star “Yoga” page on Facebook (url), have become invalid. I intend to start curating this blog, and update the links.
I can confirm these arms are always open for cuddling, licking, fetching, scratching, biting, playing catch, hide and seek. Because I am her love child. ~Flipje
“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 apparently 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 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”;
Those lyrics say These arms are open all night.
Adding to the confusion about which song is which.
All-in-all Bon Jovi is open all night, usually with the arms included.
And it’s something that inspires them.
And lap sitting you have to tell them lap sitting too lap sitting is great it’s not just about the arms it’s also about the lap sitting because I am her love child ~Zaza
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.
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 explicitly 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”
Would not make me feel wanted at all….
For each their own I guess, but I m more than just a warm body and the shorter the encounter is gonna be, the more I want to feel that this man will do anything to be with me, because he desires me just so much it’s driving him mad.
Which brings me to:
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
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There were a few more tweets, in the original thread.
The zeros were Bon Jovi’s most productive decade.
Rock Star Writer 