Category: songs

A Sexual Awakening | Let it Rock by Bon Jovi (Slippery album, 1986) | blog post { pre-work for YouTube video }

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

video: One of the last performances of Let it Rock. The song would disappear from the setlist after the New Jersey Syndicate Tour.

I create
“Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs” videos for YouTube.
This blogpost is the pre-work.

“Let It Rock” is the first song on Bon Jovi’s sales-through-the-roof, mega-successful album Slippery When Wet.

The song was played live both on the Slippery When Wet Tour (1986-1987) as well as its successor the New Jersey Syndicate Tour (1988-1990).
Bar a few collector-worthy vinyls that showed up on the Google search, it was never a single and the song wasn’t played anymore after these tours either, with the exception of an occasional appearance the 2010 Circle Tour.

Probably fueled by its rarity, the song has become a fan-favorite, and I would say it is the unexpected gem, the secret weapon, that solidified the album.
“Let it Rock”, although never revealed to the broader public, was the proverbial icing on the rock n’ roll cake, that made the album Slippery When Wet work, in particular because of its intro:
An originally unnamed instrumental composition on keyboard (it’s not even in the official sheet music book!) that became known in the internet era as “Pink Flamingos”.

But in the 80s it was simply the first minute of side A of the album.
The first unforgettable, 57 seconds, your first impression of the album.
And we ALL know, how important those are!

Let It Rock was also the song which on the Slippery Tour had the questionable honor of having its hallmark intro clipped, and being shamelessly pasted in front of the performance of the B-side opener of the album, Raise Your Hands!
And not just 57 seconds because Pink Flamingos was turned into keyboard  player and composer David Bryan’s time to shine on the stage, as he took the familiar opening tunes of the Slippery album to a whole new level for the live audience.

An audience which, I can only imagine, must have been slightly disappointed when it was then treated to Raise Your Hands, and not Let It Rock!
Usually (I am not that big of a connaisseur to have numbers or percentages) Let It Rock would get played, later in those shows. But without its characteristic intro.

So it is those first 57 seconds of the album, the part that would later be known as “Pink Flamingos” that actually make the song, and therefor the album, work.
I would go as far as to say that although the album sales were obviously driven by their hit singles, You Give Love a Bad Name, Livin’ On A Prayer and Wanted Dead or Alive;
It was in fact the David Bryan’s composition that made the album itself, stand out.
That made it more than a collection of hits and that push it right out of the gateway, from good to provocative. Unforgettable. Epic.

After 57 seconds, the song breaks into what is obviously the “real” intro; A series of  whoo hoo hooos, moving up, and then another moving down the ladder, effectively supported by a heavy, slow pulsing push, of guitar-driven rock!

And then?
“Aaahhh” (01:17)
In a moment of silence we hear an erotic, close to grunting, sigh!

Jon Bon Jovi’s first individual contribution to the Slippery When Wet album was, in my opinion, a faux orgasm.
A feature that, perhaps understandably, would never be repeated live.

Now as we have all been professionally warmed up, the actual, actual, Let It Rock begins.
And with every beat, it manages to hammer you deeper into your desires, your power, your darkness, your strength!
Its pace slightly slower than you would like, or would expect, keeping you on the edge, yearning for more.

My own experience with Let It Rock is a very personal one, as I credit this song for my early sexual awakening.
I mean I was, sexually awakened from as long as I can remember. Details which I will omit here, because they’re probably too much information.
Yet my early teens had been a time when I was recalibrating.

I had had my first idol, a Dutch teen idol only a very few years older than me, so it was nothing radical or out of the ordinary.
But although I was still collecting his articles and pictures, the intensity of idolization had lessened, and I was on the lookout for something else.
Or to be more exact;
Someone else.

So when You Give Love A Bad Name, and Livin’ on a Prayer dropped, in the final five months of 1986, I was open for business.
But I definitely took my time, before I made my choice.

The most likely time of me getting the cassette of Slippery When Wet would have been summer 1987, for my 15th birthday.
It was then, that I heard Let it Rock.

And although it would still take almost a year at that point, before I would get my first boyfriend, Bon Jovi, their music, and the idol Jon Bon Jovi, had already started keeping me company.
Their three singles, You Give Love a Bad Name, Livin’ On  A Prayer and the 1987 single Wanted Dead or Alive, had opened the door, they had me engaged for sure.
But it wasn’t until I had that album, the actual immersion in their music, that gave me the full, exciting, and satisfying thrill of being a Bon Jovi fan.

And although my first boyfriend and me were a difficult match, and our circumstances challenging, I was sexually curious and not afraid of this totally new physical experience of being with a tall and by all standards impressive, 17, 18 year old young man.

And when early 1988 I got my second boyfriend, I actually got a sex life that was so absolutely wonderful, I would still sign up both for a man like that, as well as for a sex life like that, although in all probability, the two went hand in hand 😉

And it wasn’t until years, decades later even, that I understood how all that had happened.
How, in a world where so many girls and in particular sexually adventurous girls have all these bad experiences, a sex life I would still die for, was bestowed upon me.

It was because in the solitude of my bedroom in the attic, I had exposed myself day after day, night after night, to the cassette of Slippery When Wet.
It had taught me pure, uncensored, and unapologetic, sex.

It had been an initiation.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
voor Nederland 🇳🇱 Tikkie van de week

Other stories about my fan years as a teen
in the book A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi

The accompanying Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs video on the topic of 
Let it Rock 
will be recorded and will be published on my YouTube around the 15th of April 2024.

The next article in this series will appear around 20 April 2024 about:
You Give Love A Bad Name
Subscribe to this blog to receive it in your Inbox

.

That was it! 

Thank you for reading my Rock Star Writer blog!
Subscribe to the blog, to get them in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

SOURCES for this series:

I
https://bjtours.jimdofree.com/the-albums/1986-slippery-when-wet/

II
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bon-jovi-songs-ranked/
“All 334 Bon Jovi Songs, Ranked Worst to Best”
by Anthony Kuzminski

my businesses since 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

This Rock Star Writer blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 3]

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: writing + YouTube videos
leg 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
leg 2: The Void April 2022 – January 2023
leg 3: Storytelling 17 January 2023 – 

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer
2. About Bon Jovi concerts: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga 
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

3 YouTube channels, all rebooted late May 2023
1. English YouTube Stories of Bon Jovi and the White Tigress
2. Nederlandse YouTube de Club, Yoga voor Generatie X (Dutch)
3. YouTube Rock Your Business

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

1 Instagram
as probably the last person joining there! 

🌍🌎 📚🛒
An online bookshop

& One company since February 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company, expected late May 2023

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

Books

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

A Meta on JBJ and Diane Lane | Secret Dreams by Bon Jovi (Fahrenheit album, 1985) | blog post { pre-work for YouTube video }

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

video: a May 2023 (!) fan-made lyrics video of Secret Dreams (1985). That’s 38 years after its release.

“Secret Dreams” is the 10th and final song on Bon Jovi’s 1985 album “7800° Fahrenheit”, and one of the three songs of the album that was never played live.

Since the 2015 album Burning Bridges, Bon Jovi hardly plays the songs live that are on their new albums, but we’re talking 1985 here!
This was only their second album, and it was a make or break one!

Or so they and everybody else in their fatalistic mind thought.
Because in retrospect Fahrenheit neither broke them, nor made them. That  honor would go to their third album, Slippery When Wet (1986).
Which in its attempt to reach for the stars, also became the (or one of the) most-sold hardrock album of the 80s, depending on the country.
Europe and Japan have traditionally loved Bon Jovi more intensely, than the USA did.

So Secret Dreams was one of the three songs of the Fahrenheit album, that was never played live. The other ones never seeing the limelight of the stage are (I don’t want to fall) To the Fire and Price of Love. This last one despite being a single in Japan, the country that has a long status of getting exclusive editions, the best performances, and also the rarest played songs;
In particular of the Fahrenheit album!

Because this was an album that was inspired by Bon Jovi’s first tour in Japan in 1984.
This is most obvious in the album’s song Tokyo Road, but also visible in their video In and Out of Love which depicts the story of being a band traveling the world and being chased around by fans. This video, and its footage, was predominantly inspired (or their confidence was!) by their success in Japan, where they now had two tours under their belt.
Even there, in Japan, where fans were hungry for every snippet Bon Jovi and at a time when they could only choose from two albums – their debut album simply called “Bon Jovi” (1984) or 1985’s successor Fahrenheit-
even there, these three songs were never played.

But if we dig a little deeper than the album’s production process, a drama-filled rush job with unsatisfactory results, we can find something these three songs, unexpectedly, have in common.

Or, as Anthony Kuzminski describes it in his indispensable article All 334 Bon Jovi Songs, Ranked Worst to Best;
“Jon Bon Jovi has never sounded as despairing as he does in Secret Dreams“

And about the second song (I don’t want to fall) To the Fire Kuzminski says:
“one-of-a-kind song that works as a prayer to an unknown power” 

And about the third never-played song Price of Love:
“A manic and unrelenting drum roll opens this spiritual sequel to Love Lies“

Three clearly deeply felt songs with Jon Bon Jovi transmuting all his pent up emotions, both from a career perspective where the band was hitting its hardest year from their entire career;
As well as on a personal level.

In the month of the release of the Fahrenheit album, Jon Bon Jovi turned only 23, but he had been as serious about his relationship to Dorothea, as he had been about music.
But the uncertainty of being a beginning band;
The unavailability of being in a touring band;
And the temptation of being the best looking frontman the 80s would bring forth, were too much for the two of them, to make it in one streak.

Ultimately Jon would marry Dorothea in 1989.
1985 would become the only year he and his future wife-to-be Dorothea were so far apart and officially split up, that we even know who he dated that year;
The actress Diane Lane.

Click this Google search for the only photoshoot the two ever gave. disclaimer: Probably will make whatever you have going on in your love life, look pale in comparison! 😅
In 2017, Diane Lane commemorated:
“every girl should have such a wonderful experience when she’s that young.”

Diane was 20, but more than her age being 3 years under Jon, it was his personality and the way he had been claiming and using every inch of opportunity coming his way -and even managed to confiscate some originally given to others- that made him the adult in this relationship.

Diane Lane was a Hollywood actress, a job that did not require and probably would never have even allowed for the strong willed, power driven, blind ambition that had been Jon Bon Jovi since he had been 16.
Even though Jon Bon Jovi was at the beginning of his career, his parents had encouraged his rock star path from his teens, allowing him to play at New Jersey’s Stone Pony, on weekdays.
And his cousin had given him a job as a gopher in a recordstudio that hosted world class stars.

The story goes it was Jon who did the actual breaking up, but that she forced his hand because she was a party girl, meaning non-committed in the relationship.
There are even accusations of her hooking up with Richie Sambora, causing the split with Jon.

But whether or not that is true, I think the deeper lying inequality came from Jon having been given free rein to pursue his biggest dreams, while she had been groomed into Hollywoods age-old solution to quiet women;
Parties, drinking and drugs.
Which acted as a double-edged sword.
First there is the fun and the substances to distract you from how you really feel about having no power and are dependent on Hollywood moguls to throw you an audition or other bone, hopefully avoiding the sexual predators;
And then what you do in those moments of oblivion and taking off the sharpest edges of your reality, become events that can harm your career and apparently even come back to haunt you 30 years after.

Just saying that I’ve never seen a couple, any couple, in the history of Hollywood, New Jersey or The Netherlands, looking more radiant and more meant for each other, than Diane Lane and Jon Bon Jovi did in 1985.
If you don’t believe me, you obviously forgot to click:
Google search for the only photoshoot the two ever gave

“The Netherlands? What does this have to do with the Netherlands?”

Well, first of all, that is where I live, but secondly because The Netherlands, was one of the countries Bon Jovi visited on their very ever first headlining tour in 1985!
The Fahrenheit tour, named after their second album.
The screenshot of the concert that I used for the picture to this blogpost, is the thumbnail from the hAnD90 upload of that concert.

The tour had two legs:
Japan and Europe, both eager to welcome the beginning band, and this time as headliners.

They played The Netherlands on Saturday May 18, 1985, at Noorderligt in Tilburg. The Netherlands is famous for its graphic designers, something which, in my opinion, shines through in what appears to be a Piet Mondriaan-inspired concert ticket.

The concert was recorded in audio as well as video, and in 2020 YouTube channel hAnD90 uploaded a remastered version.
“A must-see show for every fan of the first two records!” he writes about this beautiful recording.
From a decade few recordings were made and even less survived.

But even without watching it, you now know which three songs from these first two records will not have been played, at Tilburg, 1985: 
Fahrenheit’s Secret Dreams, (I don’t want to fall) To the Fire and Price of Love.

“Not good enough,” some may say, including Jon Bon Jovi.
But judging by their studio versions, I say these three songs were never played because they were so powerful, they ripped the beating heart right out of Jon Bon Jovi’s chest.

By 1986 Bon Jovi released their third album, Slippery When Wet. Their first single was You Give Love A Bad Name about a woman whose cruel breakup had shot Jon right through the heart.

And although the anthem was often introduced by a story of a girl he had met on the road, or a stripper he had met in Vancouver recording the album, I think we can all agree there is only one woman who we have photographic proof of, she had Jon’s heart in her palm. 
Only one woman, about whom we can logically assume, the biggest and certainly most important Bon Jovi song ever written, is about.

The relationship with Diane Lane did not survive in the form of a marriage, but it was the way she twisted Jon’s heart, after a five month “honeymoon period” so sweet, it still cracks the enamel of your teeth 39 years later;
That got him to write the song that brought him the fame and success he had been working for since those school nights spent on stage in the Stone Pony in New Jersey.

“You Give Love A Bad Name”.

The anthem of a broken heart overcome, would not just be played at every concert from 1986 and up, in the history of Bon Jovi;
It was the song that shot them to world fame.

Diane Lane had given Jon Bon Jovi, what he had always wanted.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
voor Nederland 🇳🇱 Tikkie van de week

The accompanying Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs video on the topic of 
Secret Dreams 
has been recorded will be published on my YouTube around the 7th of April 2024.

The next article in this series will appear around 9 April 2024 about:
Let it Rock
Subscribe to this blog to receive it in your Inbox

.

That was it! 

Thank you for reading my Rock Star Writer blog!
Subscribe to the blog, to get them in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

SOURCES for this series:

I
https://bjtours.jimdofree.com/the-albums/1985-7800-fahrenheit/

II
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bon-jovi-songs-ranked/
“All 334 Bon Jovi Songs, Ranked Worst to Best”
by Anthony Kuzminski

 

 

my business since February 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company, expected late May 2023

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

DEEP CUTS

I created a list with unknown Bon Jovi tracks from the 80s and early 90s.
You can listen to those tracks here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06SeTTE6ZfgsIE_Qvi6Cvb5h1
Bon Jovi 1985-1995 Deep cuts and cover songs (live)

They will be included in this series Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs

Bon Jovi 1984/85-1995 Deep cuts and cover songs (live):

This Rock Star Writer blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 3]

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: writing + YouTube videos
leg 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
leg 2: The Void April 2022 – January 2023
leg 3: Storytelling 17 January 2023 – 

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer
2. About Bon Jovi concerts: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga 
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

3 YouTube channels, all rebooted late May 2023
1. English YouTube Stories of Bon Jovi and the White Tigress
2. Nederlandse YouTube de Club, Yoga voor Generatie X (Dutch)
3. YouTube Rock Your Business

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

1 Instagram
as probably the last person joining there! 

🌍🌎 📚🛒
An online bookshop

& One company since February 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company, expected late May 2023

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

Books

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

You Never Really Know

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

 

At the risk of being expelled out of Bon Jovi fandom, and for good reason this time ;), I have never gotten my head around listening to Richie Sambora.
Regardless of how many times I was blown away by a live guitar prelude to Wanted Dead or Alive.
Or all the times he sang “I ll be There for You”, and in my opinion had earned the right to always be the one singing that song.
Regardless of how many times I was swept off my feet by HEAVEN HELP US ALL!!!!!
Oh God what a good song.

Anyway, despite all of those things-
Oh, and also, despite all the proper Bon Jovi fans (the ones who do not self-proclaim to be musically dyslectic, those ones) being solid disciples of the man, and his 1991 album Stranger In This Town being a musical version of the bible;
I simply could not get into Richie Sambora’s work the way I knew I was meant to.
Because I like his voice, I like electric guitars, and I like the blues WAY more than alternative, pop, and country. I like the blues more than protest songs, I like it more than meaningful singer songwriter-y types of things.
And I like Richie’s guitars because I think they will bite your fingers off if you play punk or ska on them, but maybe that’s just my imagination.

But all in all there had been ample signs that told me I would love Richie Sambora’s music and yet…
Not today. And the not-todays became years.

One week ago, hAnD90 uploaded a remastered 2012 Richie Sambora concert, with live chat, and because Today still had not come, it was one I knew I could skip.
Although unfortunately, there were also more personal reasons why I had to keep a way lower online profile than I found professional or desirable.
But yeah.
The fact that it was not a Bon Jovi concert but a Richie Sambora concert, whose music I hardly knew, did make it a painless decision to let the premiere of that video just pass, without joining in on the live chat.

Anyway, all those things, I m just reconstructing them for you here.
Because they surely were not on my mind this Sunday! 

I’m almost at my one week mark of being sick. It’s a common cold, but the virus-low Covid years combined with the fact that etiquette around public sneezing and coughing has changed dramatically since 2019 for sure;
This common cold has already trashed one week worth of premium appointments and dates!
Including sex!

I also did not film any videos for any of my 3 YouTube channels, but that was a minor setback, compared to the havoc the cold created in my personal life, to be honest.

And God knows how many more perfectly good parties, workdays and get togethers I will have to give up the upcoming week, before I can finally take part in everyday life, in a crisp and clean way.

So all in all, this Sunday was not dedicated to finally hitting it off with Richie Sambora.
That much was sure.
Or was it?

Because I just ordered Richie Sambora’s 1991 album Stranger In This Town.
I did enough research to be able to tell you it has a 99% Google rating of people liking it.
The 2012 Richie Sambora concert is blasting through my headphones, and I have devoured the well-written description box below the concert video as if it contained the secret to life. That’s how eager I now am to know everything about Richie Sambora.

Richie Sambora | Live at Circus Krone | Munich 2012
video & audio remastered by hAnD90

And also! Where I have always felt kind of uncomfortable to admit that if Richie Sambora would go touring, I would not know if I d go?
I know I ll not just GO! But PAY whatever it takes!
If it were the 90s I d sit a night on the sidewalk of the local record store to purchase tickets. So after all that time, I am finally, a Born-Again Richie Sambora fan!
With her musical bible, the album, “Stranger In This Town” on the way.

The reason this all happened and that this day had such an unexpected turn, is because I wanted to indulge in writing about something sexy.
After a week of my most intimate relationship being the one with a box of Kleenex and Thyme syrup, I was going to indulge in treating myself to writing about Zalman King movies.

Now, Zalman King movies are in general not very highly rated, because they are always about sex. And not the art house type, but the soft-focus, Emanuelle-type thing.
Do you know Emanuelle?
Loved those ones too so much…. but they were 70s and early 80s. Zalman King’s movies featured in the late 80s and 90s. 
His two most famous movies are 9 1/2 weeks and Wild Orchid, but my favorites are Two Moon Junction (1988), which you can still see on YouTube if you have an age-verified account, and Delta of Venus, which they very unfortunately took down recently.
It wasn’t until about two years ago, that I realized all those wonderful movies were made by the same man, and that he was also responsible for my absolute favorite series of all time;
The Red Shoe Diaries.

Now I haven’t seen any of those episodes back since then, so I m relying on a three decade old memory here, but The Red Shoe Diaries was about (and I m not going to Google it, to keep it real here!) a journalist or writer played by David Duchovny, who placed an ad to hear about women’s sex stories and then they all started sending him letters.
With his voice over, and the female voice over from the woman telling the story, every episode revolved around one story.

When I started investigating Zalman King, after finding out I had such an instinctive fondness for his work, I found that there was little “irrelevant” about his work, really.
Because they all had had the same theme:
They had all been about women’s sexuality.
A theme that has got millennia of repression to catch up on!
(plus one week)

The Zalman King movies had been an avid advocate of female sexuality, and at a time when the female voice in erotica was almost absent. When erotica itself, was almost absent….

Making this a wonderful theme to write about, to bring at least some zest and sparkle to these days when I saw my bed way too often and for all the wrong reasons, I sat down to write about Zalman King.
For starters I was going to look for the music from The Red Shoe Diaries, to listen to. 
Music that would bring me in the mood!
And I found a playlist that was titled after the Red Shoe diaries, but it appeared to be broader because it also had music from 9 1/2 weeks on it. But that was not what stood out for me;
This list, which the maker claimed was a soundtrack to The Red Shoe Diaries, contained two Richie Sambora songs.

Wait what?
Richie Sambora made music for The Red Shoe Diaries?
Are you joking?

Since the list was a bit of a hotchpotch with music from other Zalman King work as well, I knew his songs could be from one of the movies as well. But that would also come as a surprise me.
So I dug into that new finding, instead of diving into Zalman’s King work. Which was probably the better choice, considering I wrote the previous paragraphs Wiki free. I think I ve already studied Zalman King to a level that greatly extends the Minimum Rock Star Writer Requirement!
Whereas the work of Richie Sambora has been lacking in my knowledge, and I know it.

And as it turned out, the list had been correct! 
There are indeed two Richie Sambora songs on the original 1992 Red Shoe Diaries soundtrack:
You Never Really Know
and
Rest In Peace.

I have recreated the album, soundtrack to Red Shoe Diaries on my YouTube. Richie Sambora’s “You Never Really Know” is number 4 on this list and “Rest in Peace” the final track.

But it got even better!
Because as I threw “Richie Sambora You Never Really Know” into Google, it gave ONLY the Red Shoe Diaries album, as its source! 
No other album! 
Rest in Peace is the opening song to Richie’s 1991 album Stranger In This Town, but You Never Really Know? 
Never featured anywhere else.

A few years ago, I wrote a blogpost about 5 Unexpectedly Sexual Bon Jovi songs. One of them was a Richie Sambora song River of Love.
And in the paragraph about that song, I said:
“I don’t think any fan has any doubt which one of the two front men possessed the “raw, untamed power”, as Star Wars put it.”

Right now I m still listening to Richie Sambora singing his heart out in These Days, the Munich 2012 concert.
And rereading that post about the 5 Unexpectedly Sexual Bon Jovi songs.

In retrospect, I don’t think I would have chosen the Star Wars reference there. It gives a bit of a shock, in a post solely about erotica and Bon Jovi, don’t you think?
I m not sure, if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. Then or now in this post…  Zalman King would not approve.

But it no longer surprises me that Richie Sambora had two songs on the soundtrack of The Red Shoe Diaries. With that raw untamed power, that made it into my top 5 Unexpectedly Sexual Bon Jovi Songs.
Of course his music made it to Zalman’s soundtrack.

And three decades later, it was how I finally connected to Richie’s work.

You never really know.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week [de allereerste! 🤗 ]

That was it! 

Subscribe to the blog, to get these posts in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably somewhere on the right.

English channel:
Rock Star Yoga (yoga) + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs (talk)
And you can follow my Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga

Nederlandse YouTube:  “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga
Begint zodra ik beter ben

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
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This Rock Star Writer blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 2]

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer (current blog)
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
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1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

Bon Jovi 1985-1995 Deep cuts and cover songs (live)

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

video: just a snippet of Cadillac Man, lured me back in!

Click photo for the playlist. The first song is The Heart Of America, a song that was played only once. If I remember correctly, also Bon Jovi’s first show for a mega-crowd, at Farm Aid 1985. Remastered by hAnD90, who also picked the photo.

For months I ve mostly been Bon Jovi free.
In the stress of getting back to my yoga mat and yoga business after what we’ll call a yoga sabbatical the size of one pandemic, give or take 2 years, it was as if I couldn’t listen to music without feeling it distracted my thoughts and made focusing and prioritizing even more difficult.
I ve cancelled all news subscriptions, streaming services and cable, and only watch series or movies as a social activity.
Entertainment has been turned down pretty much close to zero, so that I can focus.
And I haven’t been listening to music, or at least I didn’t until a new upload on YouTube awoke something that I had not seen or felt this year!
Songs Written by Jon Bon Jovi & Notable Covers

The video contains footage from other artists performing songs by Jon Bon Jovi, but it also has footage from Bon Jovi performing them. 

And at 2 minutes I was WIDE awake when Cadillac Man from Osaka 1991 came by! 

It reminded me of the list of 102 deep cuts and rare tracks, that I had created 18 months ago or something.
A playlist that had been suffering from videos falling out, it now contained only 97 tracks. And I knew it had not been complete to begin with. Ever since creating it, I had realized there were plenty of songs not on there.

Which in turn, was a not so gentle reminder I needed to get my shit together, because for my YouTube series Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs, where I started with the first album, it WAS important to get all the deep cuts and rare tracks of the 80s lined up!
I knew I had been stalling in this YouTube series, but I also knew that once I started making headway, I was not prepared because I didn’t know what the songs were that were not on the studio albums.
I had not figured out what the complete list was of non-album Bon Jovi tracks, and the list that I had created a while back, the 102 tracks one, was not complete.

So yes, hearing Cadillac Man, Osaka 1992, in that fresh upload freaked me out. Unexpectedly.
But also: It got me back in.
What an amazing performance.
And there’s something intriguing about the year, because this is way before  the Keep The Faith tour, and years after the Jersey Syndicate Tour.
What was this?
Did they have a mini tour, in Japan, pre- Keep The Faith recording?
So many questions!
And one of the many that I will get answers to, now that I m back to listening to Bon Jovi and studying their history.

So the deal was sealed at the 2 minute marker, but it didn’t stop there.
At 3:30 Bon Jovi performing the Cher song, Does Anybody Really Fall In Love Anymore. That New Jersey album outtake with that slightly hoarse and husky voice!!
At 6:22 These Open Arms (2005)! OMG OMG. This song is so good, I m pretty sure there are countries where there are laws against pulling songs like this from your album, instead of putting them on the record and turn them into the giant hit they deserve to be. Or there should be.
At 8:20 the song Burn With Me (2013) that we ALL know should have been on the What About Now album.

It reminded me of all the occasions Bon Jovi had failed to put forth their strongest songs, but more importantly: It reminded me of ME failing everything Bon Jovi I wanted to do, and want to do!
Update the list with 102 gems, even when I knew it had been incomplete, just make sure the 102 songs are on there.
And dive into sorting out the deep cuts from the 80s so that I have them lined up for my project Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs.

So, I did.

Restored (the 102 gems): 
Bon Jovi 1985 – 2020 Hidden Gems In Chronological Order

And new:
Bon Jovi 1985-1995 Deep cuts and cover songs (live)

And to top it off, I very unofficially decided to get back to teaching yoga online, pronto. If you want to get on the wagon for that, I ll leave you the links below.

It almost feels like the past 24 hours I heard more Bon Jovi songs, than the past 6 months altogether. My ears are ringing, my heart is pounding, and I m gonna guess I m gonna sleep absolutely terrible tonight.

But I feel more alive than I have in a million years.

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
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Klassieke Yoga, Maan Yoga en Yoga voor Generatie X
nieuwe trailer en de eerste lessen volgen deze week

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You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
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Hey God, These Days (1995)

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

The Bon Jovi album These Days (1995) starts with a pounding heavy guitar driven intro that cuts open your ribs, exposes your heart, and then drops its message right where it frickin hurts;

Hey God,
I’m just a little man, I got a wife and family
I almost lost my house, I bought into the dream
We’re barely holding on when I’m in way too deep
We’re two paychecks away from living out on the streets

With two more verses and a bridge, “Hey God” delivers three more stories.

These Days is a socially conscious, powerfully honest record that makes its point right from the first song.

Not only should “Hey God” have been These Days’ flag ship single;
It is also the entire These Days album, crushed into one song!

Meanwhile on Wikipedia:

“Hey God” is a song from American rock band Bon Jovi’s sixth studio album, These Days (1995),
released as the album’s fifth and final single on June 24, 1996.

Although it did not chart in the United States, it became a moderate hit in Canada, Finland, Iceland,
the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

.
And after this first paragraph, on a page that will rank high in the category Ultra Short Wiki Pages About Amazing Rock Songs, the author could be explaining WHY this page is so short;

“As with most of the songs on These Days,
“Hey God” is one of Bon Jovi’s darker songs.”

“Bon Jovi’s darker songs”
Is it me or can you also almost hear the sigh in that?
Like a “Who needs that?”.

Worth the extra mile! 2 disc version, Main album has 2 songs extra (14 total) + really great bonus disc

Or maybe the author was a bit bogged down by the lukewarm reception of the album, and he or she had forgotten they had actually liked that album,
and – mind you!- that in Europe we have entire clans of people, and when I say people I mean Real Serious Music Lovers,  who would never have gotten on the Bon Jovi wagon if it were not for the 1995 album These Days;
Maybe they had forgotten what the album had accomplished.

And in all fairness, these people who suddenly recognized the quality of Bon Jovi after listening to These Days, did drop off the wagon pretty quickly.
And yet!
As far as I know them, all have expressed Bon Jovi has earned that place in their heart and extensive vinyl collection, just from that album.

The “darker songs” on These Days did what no other Bon Jovi album had ever done; 
It won the critics’ hearts.

Now that I think of it, this might explain why I myself have been unfairly harsh to this album.
In a 2019 song-by-song Bon Jovi video series for my YouTube, which I am still committed to restore, I even boldly claimed that, in all honesty? 
These Days may be my least favorite Bon Jovi album.

*mike drop*

Which was not just a very unpopular opinion but being a fan of heavy music, being a Bon Jovi fan, and I am also a proud citizen of The Netherlands one of the few countries where the album was well received and probably doubled Bon Jovi’s fan base;
Then WHY was I so harsh towards this strong album?

I never investigated that question too much, also because I was kind of attached to my own antagonistic standpoint here.
But I think now that I m typing this blogpost I inadvertently answered my own question;
It was BECAUSE the serious critics suddenly got on the Bon Jovi wagon.

And mid 90s?
I mean give me a break!

BON_JOVI_THESE+DAYS-52174
press kit/ promotional photo for These Days album

SURE!
Maybe, mid 80s, out of spite for Bon Jovi clearing out your country  of female attention, you refuse to admit the Slippery songs are among the best songs in rock n roll history.
I get it, it was the 80s, and it all went really fast when within 6 months you received a three puncher of three hits that was so tough to take in, you just couldn’t.
I get it.

But the album New Jersey, 18 months after you got your Slippery-hits-ass whooping completed (on a strong strike, I admit) with Wanted Dead Or Alive?
Jon’s award winning record in 1990?
Richie’s blues album in 1991?
Keep The Faith in 1992?

Are you honestly gonna tell me you needed to wait until These Days 1995 before you heard that Bon Jovi was amazing?
I m just not buying it.

I will admit that me still leaning towards claiming These Days is my least favorite Bon Jovi album, is not backed up by facts.

But in hindsight I can see why I just refused to agree with people who were NOT there, in the years when Bon Jovi was being talked down upon as being just another hair metal band.

I can see why I owed it to my teenage heart who had recognized good music when she heard it,
to ignore all the serious music critics when mid-90s they wanted a piece of very tasty pies.
As if the Bon Jovi bakery had recently finally gotten the recipe right.

Girls years younger than the serious music critics had heard it from the get go,
but you were too busy looking down on it!
(and listening to Pink Floyd I imagine)

Okay that was a bit ranty.
But you get the idea.

In a way These Days is for the Bon Jovi catalog what The Last Jedi is for Star Wars fandom;
A work of art that managed to double the fan base, but with two halves that hardly talk to each other.

Unlike all the Bon Jovi albums that had come before it, and I would argue pretty much all the Bon Jovi albums that came after;
These Days did not come to us, in the spirit of union.

It cut us open with the first riffs and in song seven we’re still bleeding on the floor.

I can’t write a love song the way I feel today
And I can’t sing no song of hope, I got nothing to say

I can’t fight the feelings that are buried in my veins
I send this song to you, wherever you are
As my guitar lies bleeding in my arms

My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms
(song 7)

These Days was a raw and honest “WTF God?!” message, that never pretended to be anything it wasn’t.
Least of all a regular Bon Jovi record.

And regardless of how long we’d been in fandom, regardless how old we were at the time that record was released, or regardless if we’d already been born;
We all felt that.

And to this day, 2021, painfully slowly clawing our way out of the pandemic;
We still do.

Hey God,
there’s nights you know I want to scream
These days you’re even harder to believe
I know how busy you must be, but Hey God…

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
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Red Virgin | Live From London

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

video: at 2:40 the fan who also knew red lipstick is key, in making your mark 

live from london audience red lipstick

There have been many things that messed me up.
Some bad of course. Like breakups that had the side-effect of breaking me, instead of merely putting an end to a relationship.
Or the humiliating experience when I realized that I would never be able to do things, other people can, without wanting to blow something up.
And out of courtesy, I would choose to blow up my own creative work,  I wouldn’t harm anybody not even myself.
But still. Not good for the ego.
.
In my twenties I was beaten several times in a row, in a memory card game, by a four year old.
That was funny, I thought. And not humiliating at all.
But realizing many of the things people commit to, do on a daily basis, allow for, and so on, when I know I would not make it until noon?
Painful.

However, the absolutely most staggering experience of failure is when the downfall and the failure comes from  a HUGE success! 
Something that went really well, and that you looked forward to learning from and fall back on, and that gave you the feeling you had discovered the secret to life, and boom!
Flat on the face!

The experience, the wisdom, the insight you intended to use as the foundation of your very life, bottomed out before you could even sit on it, lean back, and watch your life unfold in its now perfectly aligned order.

To me, one of those experiences was the Bon Jovi concert in 2019.
It was a PEAK experience (I m capitalizing, to emphasize the elements of success)
which I PREPARED in every way I could
(visiting the location, studying maps, knowing the regulations, studying set lists, videos and lyrics, dressing for the occasion, packing my tiny handbag with the precision of a Mount Everest climber)
and then I WALLED OFF all distractions on the day itself.

I was that one fan who did not make any recordings, did not take one selfie, and I did not post anything on social media.
.
Around 10.45 P.M. I made my way out of the park with everybody else. My ears were ringing, my gums were tingling, and I looked at all the people who had also been there attending that same concert, yet looked so different… 
It took a while before I realized they had attended the concert in a “normal” way. Hanging out with friends, making new ones. They had had something to eat at the many food stalls, drank a few beers, had used the bathroom a time or two I imagine.

And tomorrow they would probably go back to work in a job I would not be able to keep on a good day, let alone the day after an open-air concert on the other side of the country.

To illustrate:
My Bon Jovi concert was in the middle of what proved to be not a one, but a three week period where I ignored e-v’ry-thing. Unknowingly even!
But I was just so absorbed by it, that weeks later I had to contact the landlord of my yoga studio because I had not missed one but two monthly payments!
I had the money, but I just had not attended to my finances.
I had not attended, to anything.

The price had been a lot higher than anticipated (I m not even going to try to describe the mental fallout!) but I was super grateful, and determined to milk this experience for everything it had to offer me.
I still reap the benefits of it.
Daily Bon Jovi Yoga is finally taking flight because it has found its new format the past 24 hours, and that idea was born on that day in 2019.
So it’s not that I didn’t know I had gold, just that the concert recipe of success turned out to be non-repeatable.

You can, or perhaps it’s better to say “I can”, PREPARE for PEAK experiences WALLING OFF all you want, in an attempt to then create a unique experience;
It doesn’t work that way.
You can’t reverse engineer your way through life.
Or I can’t.

One of the painful lessons I learned is that just because I enjoyed preparing the f out of my Bon Jovi concert, does not mean that by preparing something I will automatically create something I enjoy.

In recent years I ve had a couple of job interviews for higher level jobs, and the interviews always went really well.
But it made me oh so resentful….
I would not say I started hating them, but I definitely started resenting such a company for having already “taken” hours (I gave them myself, obviously it was not their fault at all) or days of my time, where I got my head around their production process, their money flows, their customers.
Meanwhile my own daily purpose work had suffered, just like my payments to my landlord had suffered when I had all eyes on Bon Jovi. 

Preparing for something the way I did for a Bon Jovi concert is a process that comes at HUGE costs, and that you can’t just copy-paste-repeat in areas of your life where you strive for worldly success.
So my peak experience at Bon Jovi, didn’t really have applicable lessons the way I thought it would because the key element had been my favorite rock band visiting the park next to my house.
And that was the only situation it was going to work.

I remember my mother complimenting me that I knew a forest nearby so well. I had printed maps, combined routes, but what my mother didn’t know was that the interest had not lasted.
“It didn’t stick,” I said. “And unless Jon Bon Jovi is appointed as forester, I am just not that into it.”

I need to be deeply interested in something, in order to prepare, wall off, and create a peak experience around it. And in all likeliness it’s going to take a man I m into, in order for it to get to the level that Bon Jovi concert had.

Although these lessons have revealed themselves since that concert in 2019, I keep learning more.
The concert really is the proverbial well that keeps on giving!

Two things I learned that I want to share with you, are how this has all inspired me to finally get my head around Bon Jovi yoga. That vision I had in 2019 has taken a generous two years and counting, to take flight.
And the other one is about red lipstick, and I m going to save that one for last because that’s the most sexy one.

Okay, I know you now want to skip and move to the final paragraphs!
LOL
Hold on, I ll be quick, don’t worry.

I have (unexpectedly) given up on the idea of teaching Bon Jovi yoga, in a traditional sense of teaching, because I am not doing Bon Jovi yoga for myself. I m hardly doing any yoga, I m practically yoga free.

When you properly teach yoga (I was a teacher for 15+ years) you need to be doing yoga,
you need to be physically familiar with doing the poses,
and have a daily practice.

Honestly, because I have been doing yoga with Bon Jovi albums since 2019, I did expect that would turn into a daily yoga practice again. The sessions I did were fun, but I always dropped out.
A few years into my career as a yoga teacher, I became a writer as well, and that’s when it all started…
Writing is such an introspective profession, being alone on my mat became the last thing I needed.
I craved connection, not solitude. And having a yoga studio and teaching yoga fulfilled that need. And because I taught a lot of classes, it didn’t really matter that I started practicing less.

I am no longer a yoga teacher and before I went all-in on teaching daily Bon Jovi yoga on YouTube, 
I wanted to get back on my mat in private.
Which then did not happen.
And then Bon Jovi yoga on video also did not happen….

But now I ve flipped it around and I have decided to start “teaching” Bon Jovi yoga online anyway!
As a fan, just like you. Not as a yoga teacher.

All my yoga will be in the video, on screen.
I m SHARING what I do.
Instead of secretly yoga-ing my ass off off-screen and then showing up all poised and in control, and very professional; No.
I m going to show up as the hot, sexy, no-longer professional but definitely more fun than ever Daily Bon Jovi  Yoga practitioner, and we can all laugh en enjoy ourselves as we have fun on the mat.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel HERE 
And the first Daily Bon Jovi Yoga video will go up this week! 
It will be called Runaway, and I ll be taking it up from there, going through the entire catalog.

If you are such a big fan that you re now wondering if I ll be going album by album, and do the deep cuts separately?
Sign up!
You’re the ideal viewer for this series, and I mean it.

But no it’s all integrated. Deep cuts will be done within the chronological order of the albums.

I already made a study of 102 lesser known songs, and although YouTube has removed some of them in the complementary playlist I made, I created the list in writing as well, so the groundwork is already done.
102 Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – 2020
These deep cuts (I think I ll drop the covers, but have not made up my mind) will be incorporated in the series I ll be doing on YouTube. 

One more deep cut paragraph for die-est hardest of fans: 
“Let’s Make It Baby” will be made into a (very sexy I reckon) video for both the New Jersey album as well as These Days. And if you re still with me, and you can immediately “file” this remark in your head and think: “Okay, that makes sense.”
Please sign up because you re so going to love Daily Bon Jovi Yoga on my YouTube!

Remember, as I told you, I m no longer practicing yoga offline, off-screen, so I m practically as new to yoga as you are.
These videos will require zero yoga habit from me, nor from you!
You do not have to be limber or athletic to join. And as it’s on YouTube and created NOW, it’s as much about connection and laughter, as it is about yoga.

So Daily Bon Jovi Yoga. Subscribe HERE. Coming soon.

And then: Lipstick time!

Last year, in a moment of honesty and boldness that I rarely have, I posted a photo and wrote a post about it even I think, about buying condoms and two red lip pencils, to express my faith in restoring my sex life.
And this weekend, I bought new condoms and a mascara called Fear Me, and also a red lipstick. The name was  Red Virgin! 
How could I not fall for that, what an intriguing name.

I had already started with the introductory videos on the channel, wearing red lipstick, and I knew that was the right look for it.
But also: The condom and lip pencil investment early pandemic 2020, did work! 
I did not use all condoms but buying a few new packages and a new 2021 red lipstick this time (I ve also used up one of last year’s red pencils, and am on my second one) seemed like a smart thing to do.
I even took a photo, but unlike last year I do not feel bold enough to post it.

But it did got me thinking about red lipstick, and it brought back memories of the Wembley 1995 dvd (a 90 minute cut of the concert) where a woman with red lipstick plays an important role!
She’s very visible, and a photo of her has been used as a screen shot on YouTube, Vimeo, and during “You Give Love A Bad Name” she is edited in when the lyrics go:

“Paint your smile on your lips
Blood red nails on your fingertips
A school boy’s dream, you act so shy
Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye”

Just like me, she prepared for this concert, and she did it well.

She looked so extraordinary, and had such stage presence even though she was part of the crowd.
She could not be ignored. I believe in business success, there is an adage:
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

The platinum blonde woman, with the red nails and the red lipstick in 1995 Wembley concert was so flamboyant and present in the moment. She could not be ignored.

But what I learned, in those two years since the Bon Jovi concert in 2019, is that the only reason she could do that, and be that, and that we still can’t take our eyes off her 25 years later;
Is because of the man, and the band that was ON stage.
She was in full connection with that energy.

And that’s the takeaway for me: 
I m never going to do yoga at home, any more than that woman in Wembley would dress up like that with nowhere to go.

My YouTube, is because I think we all need that place to go.
A place to shine and to buy red lipstick for.

Come join.
.

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
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.

LIVE FROM LONDON 

Red Virgin 
is the fifth chapter to
“Live from London
Take the stage, rock your life and rule the world”
Click on “Live from London” to read all chapters.

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Lay Your Hands On Me | Live From London

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

video: at 3:00 Jonny welcomes you into his church

I saw the word in two places I did not expect it.
One was referring to author Gabby Bernstein and the second was on the cover of the famous bestselling book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
The word was “spiritual”.

Gabby Bernstein was referred to as a spiritual coach, and the cover of the book promised:
“A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity”

“Spiritual?” I wondered, as if it was an entirely new perspective. 
And in a way it was!
I was a yoga teacher for over a decade and a half, but I think this had made me compartmentalize spirituality a bit.

Spirituality was reserved for shops where you could buy a deck of angel cards, or a postcard with a bracelet  in the color of a chakra attached to it. 
Spirituality was related to Christianity too. And to yoga, because of Hinduism.

But to tie spirituality to life coach Gabby Bernstein or to a book on creativity was an entirely new concept to me.

And these two mentions of the word happened within the same day, and they caused an avalanche of thoughts.
Because pretty recently I had already realized other accounts where my own work had proven to be spiritual.

My main motivation, the thing that shakes me awake and that I can’t NOT look into;
Is I always look for meaning. 
I’m a storyteller, but not a real storyteller because I never know the ending. Let alone the moral of the story. Or what it’s supposed to prove or illustrate.
I write a story in search of meaning.

I have an uncontrollable urge to understand what happened and why.
And how it can be healed, or sweetened, if it’s a bad thing. How can a more compassionate viewpoint lead to a better understanding and less pain?

Or, alternatively, if something was really good, and want to know why it was so good and filled with love and light.
And then highlight and amplify those aspects. Perhaps record them in a way so they will be better remembered, or more people will see their beauty.

I look for meaning, and writing is my process of uncovering it.

Just this morning I tried to first make notes for this story, so that I would have breakfast first.
Without the computer on.

But although to the outside world, it must have looked like a picturesque image of a woman trying to have breakfast when her cat was standing on her lap and constantly wanted to butt heads with her, or climb into her neck, or otherwise insist on melting together with his human, in a way that made having breakfast at the same time almost impossible.

In reality it was a woman who had gotten out of bed, read a page in her “prayer book” (more about that in a minute) and KNEW she had a full and completely finished story in her that would unfold the moment she’d start writing.
But instead she tried to stay offline for her breakfast and note down the different elements and structure her story first. 
So that she would get to work knowing, what she would write!
Like a real writer.

And instead she felt the story falling apart.
As if it was picked on by hungry scavengers, the story started to disintegrate.

Sure!
I could now see what the different parts were, as they were randomly flying around over breakfast! 
Story elements that were no longer tied to the entity, to the story as a whole.

I would have to manually sow them back together to what I presumed the story had looked like.

So in my grownup attempt to hold and pause the story for the duration of one breakfast, and take the time to examine the story first, it was being ripped to shreds instead.
What an agonizing breakfast.
What a horrible way to start the day.

Back to what I call my prayer book.

The book is called “Until Today” by Iyanla Vanzant, and it has 365 one-page thoughts to start the day with, organized per date. So today I read the one for May 27.
It said, among other things:
“Intellectual spirituality will not save you.”
And:
“Practice grounding your spiritual philosophy in your heart.”

And suddenly I understood everything…..

WHY it feels so good, to be here on this blog always starting with “something Bon Jovi”.
* insert love heart shower *

WHY we feel so good when we’re at a Bon Jovi concert and it’s time for Lay Your Hands On Me.
And Jon Bon Jovi says:
“Welcome to Jonny’s church of rock n roll.”
And we get speeches about souls being saved, and a special welcome to the sinners!

WHY indeed intellect will not save us. Nor will angel cards I reckon.
Why structuring my story was pointless.

The one who knows what’s in their heart is already done for the day.
Whether it is Jon Bon Jovi, Lay Your Hands On Me, or a blogpost that is just waiting to be written.

There really is only one thing, and one thing only that is gonna save you.
Love.

Follow your heart, my friend. 
Or follow Jon Bon Jovi.
Gabby Bernstein.
Or follow the path of the Artist’s Way.

They re all the same.

“Welcome to Jonny’s church to rock n roll where all you gotta do is believe.
You gotta raise your voice so they hear you.”

Raise your voice.
So they hear you.

.

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
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LIVE FROM LONDON 

Just a few days ago, I had stopped writing for the Live From London series…
No kidding! And then what happened, right?
Story came out by itself.
Of course it did 🙂

Lay Your Hands On Me 
is the fourth chapter to
“Live from London
Take the stage, rock your life and rule the world”
Click on “Live from London” to read all chapters.

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Ditto for YouTube – but there I really have no idea yet what will happen:
(what the Lord wants I guess!)
Suzanne Beenackers YouTube
It’s a surprise!

NEW 2021: Art & Popular Culture: World Between Worlds 
NEW 2021: YouTube Rock Your Business
NEW 2021: My Main Project: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga

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video: fan made compilation of Bon Jovi’s faith-inspired songs and live performances.
“Welcome to Jonny’s Church of rock n roll.” is a classic line in live shows.

Livin’ On A Prayer | Live From London Series

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
bon_jovi-livin_on_a_prayer_s_2
Dutch single cover from Livin’ On A Prayer. Which I received as a gift on my birthday in 2019

On the evening before Easter, I ask of thee;
Do you think it was a coincidence “Livin’ On A Prayer” was Bon Jovi’s finite-no-going-back-now breakthrough?
Could it, for example, also have been called “Livin’ On Five Bucks” or “Livin’ On Love”?
Or was there a reason it was the song with the word prayer in the title that called on the Lord and touched our hearts?

That neither God, nor you and me, would have felt called if Tommy and Gina had been “Livin’ Hand To Mouth”.
Is it possible that in that song a prayer was said?
And because of that song a prayer was answered.

Tommy and Gina and Bon Jovi were given all their hearts desired, not because they only had their prayers to live on.
But because that’s the only thing that’s gonna work.

I know in that paragraph several more question marks could have been and probably should have been used. But they seemed obsolete. There was no reason to keep putting things in questions, because you get the gist;
Of course it’s not a coincidence.

All those who call on a higher power, consistently, will have their prayers answered. Whether you’re Tommy and Gina wishing to get Tommy’s job on the docks back and a nice pay raise for Gina, or Jon Bon Jovi wishing for world fame.
The procedure of how prayer works, is explained in several places in the bible. But since this blog is about Bon Jovi, I will happily choose for John!
(Jon’s original name is John, with an h)

John 16:24
Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

Ask and you shall receive.
It is as simple as it seems, but in many cases the relationship with God was an aspect of religion. And religion in turn, was an aspect of things like social life, community, parenting. Education. Power structures where religion kept a hierarchy intact.
And in questioning the status quo, religion was thrown out by many. As was their relationship with God.
And asking and praying, was lost.

By the time Bon Jovi was pounding the pavement, as a photo book I own eloquently worded their hard fought rise to fame, by that time hardly anyone grew up religiously.
In the Netherlands we got a good social security system, which meant that the task the church does in many countries, which is taking care of people who need help, was pretty much covered by government. So perhaps our secularization has been unintentionally thorough.
But in most Western countries, the church lost much of its power and less people called themselves religious.

In the mid-eighties, deregulation of the financial world brought forth a new generation of wealth, but at the same time unemployment for older industries such as steel, was on the rise.
In The Netherlands, those who are the age of Jon Bon Jovi meaning born between 1955-1965, have had an incredibly tough time trying to get a job, whether straight from school but also if you went to college.
There wasn’t any work.

And it was in that time, when there were no more churches to turn to for meaning and the world was weighed down by unemployment, that Bon Jovi brought the new gospel:
Livin’ On A Prayer.

It is their trademark song and every now and then it hits the charts again, inspired by a viral video of people singing along in the park; Or when a country is going through tragedy.
The message of Livin’ On A Prayer, is timeless.

Just that every 2000 years or so, we get a new John to bring the message.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer

new: LIVE FROM LONDON 

Livin’ On A Prayer
is the third chapter from
“Live from London
Take the stage, rock your life and rule the world”
Click on “Live from London” to read all chapters.

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at Suzanne Beenackers YouTube

concert upload on Vimeo

Someday Just Might Be Tonight | series: The Box Set

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

The ninth song on the box set 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong (2004).

You are in the premier league of Bon Jovi Fans if you immediately know which era Someday Just Might Be Tonight is from, upon hearing.
And on which album it would have been, if it had been used for an album.
Instead of not being released until the box set (2004), which has previously unreleased songs on it, from nearly two decades.

And within the premier league, you are at the top if you know which song is the  musical twin from Someday Just Might Be Tonight?

I however, do not belong to that category.
The era?
Destination Anyway era (solo album Jon Bon Jovi 1997)
Got that one.

The twin song?
Fortunately the answer was given to me, because I couldn’t guess.
But now I m standing by it;
It’s Ugly.

Ugly is the twin song from Someday Just Might Be Tonight 

Although there are multiple technical similarities, the biggest “Aha! Found it!” came from how they make me feel.
They’re both melancholic songs, but in a weird way. They’re…. I don’t know, “Anthems in Minor”, is what I would call them. With my dangerously limited knowledge of music.

You could imagine both Ugly as well Someday Just Might Be Tonight, having an entirely different feel if played with a heavy guitar, drums, and Jon throwing in some Woah!!!!s.

Like many Bon Jovi songs, Someday Just Might Be Tonight, is filled with messages of hope, and to never give up.
But I would have welcomed them to be a little more full-on, because they’re not even making a scratch in the depressed state I am finding myself in.
Day after day.

The only thing that keeps me going is absolutely refusing to think about it, going in full denial, and make firm resolutions to really go rock my life after Covid, and never be online again.

I think I m going to make a plan how I can live my life after Covid without ever having to spend one more minute behind my computer!
Maybe if I publish all my books (both English and Dutch, and all my accounts); Curate all my videos, and refrain from creating any new online content from the moment Covid is over until death do me pass?
So that I have no choice but to ONLY live in the REAL world?!

“We’re having an online meeting.”
“I don’t own a computer.”

It would be an art project, of living offline.
Yes… And Woah!
That sounds like an amazing plan.

Maybe someday.
And it just might be tonight.

.

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer

PS: Here’s my new YouTube channel, called Rock Your Business (former No Yoga channel) The first video was absolute gold:
#1 Your Fans Are Waiting For The Show To Start!
| Rock Your Business Channel Launch & Origin Story

.

The BOX SET SERIES

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

Someday Just Might Be Tonight
is the eighth post in
The Box Set Series

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102 Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – 2020

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
Click photo for An Evening With Bon Jovi (MTV October 1992) Also: I remember these rose pants were owned by both Richie as well as Jon, and got mixed up

Rare tracks, live covers, B-Sides, bonus tracks;
Fasten your seat belts because for the next 102 songs (!!), you’re in for a ride!

Listen to the playlist here:
Bon Jovi 1985 – 2020 Hidden Gems In Chronological Order

The first song We Rule The Night is from 1985; The final one Luv Can from 2020.
These are all tracks that were not released on the standard studio albums.

The Making Of

It has been a long lost wish of mine, to create a playlist with all these extra songs.
Today I encountered a playlist from another YouTuber, who had already done all the ground work of collecting all the songs.

With help from a friend, who was comfortable getting a 100+ song list with a line “Is this list complete?” and then come with a coherent answer within seconds (you have no idea how much I appreciate such friends), I added a few more.
And then the gargantuan task began of dating them, and lining them up in chronological order.

I am a purist, and instead of just chucking all the songs onto one list, and moving them around until they were chronological;
I wanted to add them, in this chronological order.
So that they don’t just line up correctly if you select “ordered manually”, but also if you display them in the order they were added.

For example, if I unexpectedly encountered a 1986 song (Out of Bounds), when I was already adding from the Keep The Faith era (early 90s)?
I had to remove all songs from the playlist until I was back in 1986, add the missing song, and then start adding 1987 until Keep the Faith back in.

The most meaty task was dating, marking, somehow systematizing, the 50 songs from the box set:
“100.000.000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong” (2004)
For which I used the Wikipedia page about the box set, which indicated for every song for which album, or from which year, it was.

However, an unexpected amount of work went into An Evening With Bon Jovi.
This VHS/dvd from 1993 was recorded in October 1992.
One month before the album Keep The Faith would be released.
More or less accidentally I found out, I did not have all (cover) songs from this show noted down, so I went looking for them.
Ultimately I found a couple more, which were added to the list. But this has resulted in at least one song being not so much double on the list, but double played in the videos (the video “Fever” also contains other songs).
An Evening With Bon Jovi videos are listed separately in the outline, or map, in the playlist below.

Another problem around this show An Evening With Bon Jovi, was related to dating.
“The Sole Truth” was dated (1991) but the video had a still/ a photo from 1992 An Evening With Bon Jovi.
Which meant I was confused and initially dated it wrongly, until I finally realized my mistake and put The Sole Truth earlier up the list in 1991 instead of 1992.

I think I must have spend an hour getting 1991-1992 straight, and it’s still one of the weaker spots of the list.
Maybe that is why with This Left Feels Right (dvd 2004, alternative versions of well known Bon Jovi songs) I was ruthless and threw everything off.
I only kept one cover song there, Sylvia’s Mother.

So all in all, like any curated body of work, the old question;
“What is part of the collection, and what isn’t?”
Reared its long haired rock n roll head.
And just like any curator, I made my choices, with which you may or may not agree.

This project, of cataloging the bonus tracks and rare songs, was my most satisfying Bon Jovi project to date.
And in retrospect this playlist is more a framework for work to come, than an end point.

For this website, Rock Star Writer Nijmegen, I am already writing stories about the 50 Box Set songs. And to know that after I have had them, I can continue with the other 52 from the rarities list?
That’s inspiring!

So who knows!
Maybe one day I will be able to give you an overview, a page, or even a book in print, with 102 Bon Jovi inspired stories.

No doubt, getting lost all over again, in an evening with Bon Jovi.

But then again;
Who wouldn’t.

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer

This is the exact list of all 102 songs in the playlist.
I will come back to these songs, writing stories about them.
Subscribe to this blog to receive these and more.

Outline/ Map To “Bon Jovi 1985 – 2020 Hidden Gems In Chronological Order 

A song with a link/ RED, means it is a song I can’t get enough of.

1985

1 We Rule The Night

1986/ Slippery When Wet

2 Borderline

3 Edge Of A Broken Heart

4 Out Of Bounds

5 Deep Cuts The Night [Slippery When Wet Outtake]

6 Game Of The Heart [Slippery When Wet Outtake]

1988/ New Jersey

(I could have marked all these 1988 New Jersey tracks red/ a favorite, to be honest)

7 Love Is War

8 Born To Be My Baby (Acoustic Version)

9 The Boys Are Back In Town

10 Rosie

11 Full Moon High (Demo)

12 Judgement Day (Demo)

13 Growing Up the Hard Way (Demo)

14 Love Hurts (Demo)

15 Backdoor To Heaven (Demo)

16 Now And Forever (Demo)

17 House Of Fire (Demo)

18 Does Anybody Really Fall In Love Anymore? (Demo)

19 Lets Make It Baby (New Jersey/Sons of Beaches demo (1988))
“Is it a coincidence this is bold?” I hear you ask.
No.
Let’s Make It Baby is the sexiest Bon Jovi song ever written.

undated 80s/ 1992 latest

20 Outlaws Of Love 

1991

21 The Sole Truth (New Jersey 1991)
“This one should be bold!” I hear you shout, avid Bon Jovi fan! 
Yes, it should.
The only reason I didn’t, was because the quality of the audio (a live recording) is suboptimal. 

22 Cadillac Man (Osaka 1991)
YES!!!!!!!!
Not just a great song, but also with video (image) and both Jon and Richie looking so hot my cat jumped off my lap. 

1992 / Keep The Faith

23 Save A Prayer [Keep The Faith Outtake]
I m having early U2 vibes, you?

24 Starting All Over Again 

25 Fields Of Fire [Keep The Faith Outtake]

26 The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
Not just an amazing song, it’s also very fresh and exciting;
I think Jon Bon Jovi had a cold, altering his voice.
It’s as if your boyfriend plays he’s a different man, you’ve never slept with.
Well the last part would be correct regardless, of course.

27 Taking It Back
Tokyo Road revisited. Damn! What a killer song, you guys!

28 Miss Fourth Of July

29 Every Beat Of My Heart

30 Sympathy
+ 31 Billy 
I don’t know what they were “on” in 1991, or as we say in The Netherlands “What was stirred through their porridge” but Sympathy and Billy show they were on fire.

An Evening With Bon Jovi October 1992 | VHS 1993

I m not even going to individually rate songs from this fest of musical mastery! 
But here’s the link to the entire 1992 show “An Evening With Bon Jovi”
WATCH -> Keep The Faith: An Evening With Bon Jovi (1080p)

And here are the (rare) ones which I copied to my playlist:
32 With A Little Help From My Friends

33 Brother Louie 

34 Fever

35 It’s My Life~We Gotta Get Out Of This Place Live

36 Baby What Do You Want Me To Do

1995 These Days

37 I Thank You [These Days Outtake]
Rare song with horns and female backup singers

38 Mrs Robinson [These Days Outtake]
Live recording, which is indeed very lively!

39 Let’s Make It Baby [New Jersey Outtake – remixed version 1995]
“I know this one!” I hear you say.
“I bet it is no coincidence the sexiest Bon Jovi song ever written, is bold again?”
That is correct!

40 I Don’t Like Mondays Live Duet with Bob Geldof
Recorded in Wembley 1995, ten years after Live Aid. 

41 Crazy [Live These Days Bonus Track]
Waltz sung by drummer Tico Torres! 

42 Tumblin’ Dice [Live These Days Outtake] 
Rolling Stones cover by keyboard musician/pianist David Bryan!

43 Heaven Help Us [Live These Days Outtake]
By guitarist and singer Richie Sambora!
OR!
As I have heard;
“Jon Bon Jovi may be the heart of Bon Jovi, but Richie Sambora is the soul!”
Amen!

44 Prostitute [These Days Outtake] 
You didn’t know you needed Bon Jovi to go grunge, until you hear this song. 

45 Lonely At The Top ( Bonus Track )

46 The End [These Days Outtake]

47 When She Comes [These Days Outtake]

48 Wedding Day

49 These Days (Acoustic Demo)
I can’t help it: I m a sucker for the raw, the real, the stuff that ain’t finished but that is So! Much! More! Powerful! 
(because of that)

50 634-5789 [These Days Outtake]

51 Bitter Wine [These Days Outtake]
If you liked Wild Horses by the Stones, you should not miss out on this one.

52 I Get A Rush
🎵🎶 I like it, I like it, I can’t get enough🎵🎶
🎵🎶 I like it, I like it, yeah I get a rush 🎵🎶
🎵🎶 I like what I like and I like it too much 🎵🎶
🎵🎶 You know what I like, yeah I get a rush 🎵🎶

I m not even going to apologize for liking ALL the songs on this list!

However, if I keep going at this pace, it will be March before I finish.
So I m going to be ruthless, and skip a bunch.
A bunch of entire cd’s from the box set.

1996

53 Someday Just Might Be Tonight

54 River Runs Dry 

1997

55 Shut Up And Kiss Me

56 All I Wanna Do Is You

1998

57 Last Chance Train 

58 Rich Man Living In A Poor Man’s House

59 Crazy Love 

1999

60 Real Life 

61 Garageland 

62 Maybe Someday

63 The One That Got Away

64 You Can Sleep While I Dream

65 Satellite

66 Too Much Of A Good Thing

67 Kidnap An Angel

2000/ Crush

68 I Could Make A Livin’ Out Of Lovin’ You
Heavy guitars which must be listened to by everybody.
Everybody.

69 Neurotica

70 Ordinary People

71 Temptation
Ooh….. this is a good one.
And fans of The Doors, may want to check out the organ and Jon’s dark singing technique. Just sayin’.

72 Hush

73 Stay

74 Gimme Some
In the category, Upbeat Bon Jovi Songs About Sexual Encounters That Never Get The Attention They Deserve

75 Do It To Ya

76 You Can’t Lose At Love

2002/ Bounce

77 No Regrets

78 Postcards From The Wasteland

79 Lucky

80 Breathe

81 Another Reason To Believe

82 One (demo later released as Undivided )

2003

83 Thief Of Hearts

84 Sylvia’s Mother (Live from This Left Feels Right)

2005/ Have A Nice Day

85 Dirty Little Secret

{ I don’t make the law but: }

THIS SONG IS THE KING OF UPBEAT SONGS ABOUT SEXUAL ENCOUNTERS! 

Damn, that’s a good song.

86 Unbreakable
YES! BRING IT ON!
Did I mention Bon Jovi is famous for its anthems that could bring you back from the brink of death?
And Unbreakable is proof of that.

87 These Open Arms
This is a good time to get your box of tissues.

2007/ Lost Highway

88 Put the boy back in cowboy
This fan made video just got chosen, as the closer on the bottom of this post!
Props for this fan who made this video featuring all the times Jon danced, kissed, or otherwise engaged with a woman on, or in the proximity of a, stage.
Or swayed his hips, in more or, more likely, less innocent fashion.

We need fans like this, who go the extra mile to create something special.

Speaking of fans who go the extra mile;
After starting early today to create this 102 song long playlist, and now this matching blogpost; Watching all this warm Jon-female interaction makes me feel needy and clingy.
And kind of like I m not focusing on the right things in life!
I m at 11 hours behind my desk.
Time to start wrapping up this post.

89 Walk Like A Man

90 Hallelujah
A little shy of midnight, after my computer crazy day, I m not going to watch this. But Jon Bon Jovi singing Hallelujah is so incredibly beautiful that it will not just be the best thing you saw in February.
But the best you saw this year. 

91 Lonely
I get it. You have already cried your way through your box if tissues, didn’t you? 

2010

92 This Is Our House

2011

93 Have a little faith in me

2013/ What About Now

94 Into The Echo (Japan Bonus Track)

95 Burn With Me

2015/ Burning Bridges

96 Take Back the Night

2016/ This House Is Not For Sale 

97 Touch of Grey

98 Color Me In

2018

99 Walls

100 When We Were Us

2020

101 Shine

102 Luv Can
Best track of the album “2020”; Which was never selected for the official album.
Luv Can was a bonus track for the Japanese album.
But what a song…. Beautiful.

It’s almost midnight.
I ve worked on this post and playlist the entire day, and feel a little overworked and exhausted.
But as said in the first paragraph it has also been very rewarding to finally get my head around it, and have a structure and starting point for future projects.

For now good night. 

Sayonara, adios, auf wiedersehen, farewell

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer

I m reviewing the 1995 – 1996 tour:
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Bon Jovi concert reviews 1995-1996 Suzanne Beenackers YouTube