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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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.
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
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!
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 playlistis 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.
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.
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
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!
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)
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.
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.
2nd video: the cover “Rockin’ All Over The World” was the main inspiration for
“I Get A Rush”
For a wee moment, I was afraid I would have to create something out of nothing.
There seemed to be no significant information available about the eighth song on the box set 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong (2004)
80. “I Get a Rush,” 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (2004)
Inspired by John Fogerty’s “Rockin’ All Over the World,” which was later performed with Steven Van Zandt on their 1995 tour. “I Get a Rush,” from three years later, is an utter delicacy of joy, with a humble arm-waving chorus.
There are so many cute things in this description, I would add a blushing emoji with the hands, if I knew where to find things like that on my desktop.
First of all the song it refers to, “Rockin’All Over The World”, is probably their most played cover song. And since I m reviewing the 1995 Crossroad tour on YouTube; I have heard it frequently, including the times Rockin’All Over The World was performed with Steven Van Zandt, which is Little Steven from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
But for us eighties people Little Steven rose to some kind of Untouchable Legendary Status because he wrote, produced, organized a collaboration between dozens of musicians “Artists United Against Apartheid” with a song called Sun City (1985);
About how you should not be playing this white resort in South Africa.
So with that background, that’s already a short circuit of things to like about the song that inspired the eighth song on the box set.
The only “big but” I have with the description of this song, at place 80, is that unlike what that description says, I Get A Rush was not from three years after 1995; It was from 1996. A time when Bon Jovi were still touring, although the tour was now officially named the These Days tour and no longer the Crossroad tour.
Meaning “Rockin’ All Over The World” was still very fresh or even still being played, when the, and I quote, “utter delicacy of joy” that is I Get A Rush, was written.
But there is more.
Before I write these posts about the songs on the Box Set I always listen to as many (live) versions of the song, as I can find. And it was there, where I found the next gem. I m so excited by this, and I don’t even entirely know what it means! But I think it’s about sex and Jon Bon Jovi;
So who needs to know more, right? [ I would now have added an emoji with one big eye and one small eye and the tongue out of its mouth, so I guess this is the moment for gratitude that I m still on my desktop. ]
“I’m gonna have to introduce all the songs because I’m telling you, it will go a bit crazy but we’re gonna start easy. It’s like foreplay, I m gonna get going real slow,” * makes hand gestures indicating he’s touching a lot of curves* “touching and feeling. Feel the whole way around.” (at this stage the yelling in the crowd is probably costing a few eardrums) “You’re moving just so close” Jon now makes a hand gesture that indicates that he has brought his face very close to the woman’s, but doesn’t go for the kiss. He drops the hand, and fully confident that he knows how this is done, he says the final words as he turns around, talking to the friends he’s playing with this night. “And you wait for her to make the move BACK!”
And I’m yelling and screaming in front of my desktop: “Oh my God, that is EXACTLY how it is done!”
That’s how you get a rush.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
.
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
video:
The song Open All Night on the Bounce album (not the Box Set) is from the same family.
In 2004 Bon Jovi created a 4-cd (1 dvd) box set with unreleased work, called “100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong”. In this series, The Box Set, I am discussing all of the 50 songs.
And it’s a welcome back post!
Because a few weeks ago, I quit this series. A major reason was that in 2019 I had already written about the songs that were up next:
So “Open all night” and “These arms are open all night” had already been discussed.
The following is an updated version from that post.
Making it the oldest post in this series.
(These arms are) Open all night | series: The Box Set
For all women currently between 42 and 50, this was the male bench mark. God have mercy on our souls.
“This title, Open all night, we’ve used about five times. We finally did a song on the Bounce record,
called Open all night.
Great title, we never could get it right.”
Jon Bon Jovi, 32 min 28 sec
.
So according to Jon, there were five songs called Open All Night.
But even if you go with the three that were released, you’d have trouble distinguishing them.
The only mainstream version of Open all night is, like Jon said, on the album Bounce.
The Box Set, 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong, is for the fans and has the two other versions:
Open all night and These arms are open all night.
Three different songs, but they’re all ballads which makes them similar.
And although the title of the song on Bounce is “Open all night”;
The lyrics of that song sing “These arms are open all night.”
Adding to the confusion about which song is which.
I’ve listened to all three songs, and here is what I found.
For clarity’s sake, I m going to assume the protagonist of these songs is male, and preferably Jon Bon Jovi, unless he specifically says that he is Jones and he drives a dented red Chevrolet then we go with that. And we’ll assume the other person is a woman.
Is about a girlfriend who has left to make it in the world and her boyfriend waiting at the bar, telling her not to worry. Open all night refers to the boyfriend being open all night, meaning waiting for her.
2. These arms are open all night
at 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong live version Borgota 2004
Is about a man who introduces himself as “Jones” and informs us he has a dented red Chevrolet, and gives a woman he met at the bar a detailed description how to get to his house.
Now if Jon Bon Jovi would try pick me up with this: “These arms are open all night If you need someone to talk to A hand to hold onto and if it feels right These arms are open all night“
That would be a Hell YES! if ever there was any.
I would feel completely seen, wanted, desired, and although I m not a night person at all, I would make an exception.
However.
This song identifies him as not being JBJ, but as “Jones”.
And I m actually surprised Jones sees the headlights of the woman behind him following him, because he confesses (out loud!?):
“God only knows how long it’s been that I been this lonely”
So instead of the gorgeous man Jon Bon Jovi – and then I have not even talked about the husky speaking voice Jon has and the sensitivity of the songs, and so on – so instead of that man who was glued to my wall in the 80s, who was my first concert, and who still falls into the category “I still definitely would”;
We’re now talking about someone I just met, in the middle of the night, who feels lonely?
I have not heard one reason to say Yes to this.
And even if it had been Jon “Rock God” Bon Jovi?
The shorter the encounter is gonna be, the more I want to feel special and loved, and a real connection.
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.
Click to go to YouTube playlist of Dry County live performances, starting with the very first in 1993
You never know if something is the beginning or the end of something, don’t you?
With relationships, I think many of us have thought we were at the beginning of something.
A thing that, in retrospect, never quite started but was held together by a desire for a lover, for a friend, for a career.
It was a Fata Morgana from our desire to belong, that did not exist in reality.
Once we took our eyes off it, just for a moment, it evaporated. When we looked back, all we could see was hot vibrating air over desert sand.
And in all likeliness, that’s all there ever was.
But the opposite happens as well. That you do not wish, don’t want nor will it to life yet year after year? That friendship is still going strong.
That lover is still your number one.
You still work for pleasure, the good experiences just layer on top of each other, and you have to pinch yourself time after time.
Is this real?
I am someone who does not count on anything to be there in the morning; And as a result, I frequently get happily surprised. Often I believe that something is so good, so outstanding, it can never last forever. Or, like I had with the 2019 Bon Jovi concert; I KNOW, it’s not forever.
It’s 2,5 hours, and then you have to wait for years. And if you add a Covid pandemic, you may have to wait for years times twice, before Bon Jovi plays Nijmegen, The Netherlands again.
Yet little did I know that the 2019 Bon Jovi concert I had been looking out for and preparing for for half a year; Would not bring about an apocalypse of being a fan, where it would all come crashing down in a violent post-concert rebound.
No.
The concert had been just the beginning.
I had not even scratched the surface of what being a Bon Jovi fan was going to bring me.
My journey into fandom, into Bon Jovi, and probably also the journey into me, had just started.
I know so much more about Bon Jovi, since then. And one of the songs that keeps unraveling and revealing its secrets, is Dry County.
Although of course it doesn’t;
No matter how often you listen to it, you can never fully understand it.
No matter how often you take your gaze off it;
No matter how many years go by;
No matter how often you listen to it, or alternatively regardless of how little attention you pay to it;
Dry County is the well that has always more to give.
video: the latest addition to the expanding collection of memorable Dry County performances. An extremely rare rendition of Dry County, sung in the original key.
In 2004 Bon Jovi created a 4-cd (1 dvd) box set with unreleased work, called“100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong”. In this series I discuss all of the 50 songs.
I m still early in this series, yet this post may end up being my favorite one.
This video from Miss Fourth of July live, is one of the “one-song videos” from the full concert Bargota, Atlantic City 2004, that is still available.
The full concert, where Jon gave the song an introduction [ Bon Jovi, Atlantic City 2004 ] is no longer online. Luckily, I had already written out Jon’s introduction to the song, below.
Miss Fourth of July
26 November 2020
Jon Bon Jovi revealed in this interview he drinks a fishbowl full of coffee. And that he’s a great flirt.
There will be times in this Box Set series, where I supply you with a fascinating origin story of the song, hail it for its profound meaning, or conduct science experiments how few sentences it took before Jon had us crying like babies;
And then there will be times when I will diligently write out, an entire speech or full verse or chorus, because I think it should be swallowed whole and that we should not be picking it apart in an effort to understand it.
Or the third option, which is my personal favorite;
I write about why the song is about sex.
And then!
Then there is apparently the one in a 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong– chance that I just might be able to deliver all three of them!
Because after hearing Jon’s elaborate explanation on how bad he was doing when he wrote “Miss Fourth of July” and how deep his crisis, and I then read along three verses, three repetitions of the chorus, and the outro I thought:
“This is about sex and you tried to slip it by us.”
So either, you can read along and overthink it with me.
New rare video footage to support my vision will be delivered!
OR you can just take Jon’s word for it and keep it at that, and look for a video on YouTube called: Bon Jovi – Live at Borgata Events Center | Full Concert In Video | Atlantic City 2004 { this is the concert that is no longer available, unfortunately, 2022 }
And start at 29 minutes 5 seconds.
This was the introduction from Jon Bon Jovi to Miss Fourth of July on the Borgota concert:
Jon introduces Miss Fourth of July, as follows: “This is a little something I wrote back in ’91 and a period I now refer to as the grey period. It was cloudy for about two years of my life.
It was a very interesting time because we were trying to figure out who the hell we were, as people.
The twenties were now behind me, the thirties were just coming on strong. Innocence seemed to have all be gone. But fortunately for us we got over that hump
[…]
But this is written during that period that if we didn’t get over this hump at that time we would have in fact been another one of those casualties that you hear about on “Where are the now?”.
[…]
So if you can just imagine I am in this little teeny eight by eight bedroom in Malibu California, probably either drunk or hung over, with a rented piano, and I happen to like the song more now because it doesn’t hurt as bad.
Check out the lyric, it is called The Fourth of July.”
Now, if at this point, you’re shaking your head at me.
“How can you possibly see this song as being about sex?”
Then I m going to cut you short because I too didn’t see it as being about that at this point.
Just like you, I docilely listened to the acoustic song with Jon and Richie on guitar and David Bryan on accordion.
And wept with them over losing their youth, as the price they paid for growing up touring pretty much back to back, from 1985 to 1990.
No wonder they were in crisis.
Yet there was probably already a sign that they would make it. Because contrary to other, I would almost say contrary to “most”, hardrock bands in the 80s, the Bon Jovi members were not addicted to heroin.
The band Bon Jovi started in the early 80s, with Jon Bon Jovi delivering enough material for an entire record all by himself, before (after launching the single Runaway) they pulled together a band.
With their self-titled album (1984), their second album 7800 Fahrenheit (1985), their biggie Slippery When Wet (1986), and the absolutely brilliant shockingly good successor to that New Jersey (1988), under their belt and non.stop.touring.
– New Jersey was in fact even often “excused for” not being that good because they didn’t have time to properly innovate their music, while also touring –
that when that final tour finally ended early 1990;
Of course they were beat.
Of course they were stressed out.
Of course there was going to be a massive withdrawal from touring for years on end, that would pull each and everyone of the members into their personal versions of hell.
Of course it was going to be a time of staring into the heart of darkness. Alone.
But! This did not mean that fans from Jon Bon Jovi, would have to miss out.
Early 1990, he joined the cast of Young Guns 2 on location, and started writing for the soundtrack. The script and emotions it provided for him, gave him not just a sense of direction on what the music should be about; It also gave him a mask.
He was not Jon Bon Jovi the singer who had probably lost his entire band and himself;
He was writing music to fit the script. He later said he had put a lot of himself in that album Blaze of Glory, but at the time he hid behind the cowboy hat and leather clothes.
So there I was (current day me, not 1990 Jon) listening to Miss Fourth of July and reading the lyrics.
And I stumble upon a lyric that makes me think that he did not have real sex, but only watched (a stripper, or a couple, or two women, something along those lines), and yet someone (I think his wife) was upset with him anyway.
This was the lyric, it is in the first verse: “For a night I just watched and you walked out of here”
I don’t consider myself a knowledgeable Bon Jovi fan.
Just last Sunday I mixed up the intros from It’s My Life and Livin’ On A Prayer. So I will never even remotely suggest you should take me seriously, as far as facts about the band go. I m not a typing encyclopedia, and often even fail to Google things. But there is one area I am an expert at: Sex.
And with Jon Bon Jovi, this usually means that I have a knack for when he’s talking about cheating. And even when I later find he was doing it “in character”, like in Always which was originally for a movie so it’s not his own story, I can’t imagine that he did not pour from his own experience when he wrote that. But this is not about Always. This is about Miss Fourth of July, that we are supposed to take at face value about being about an entirely sexless coming of age, or maybe coming of fame is more accurate, theme of a rock star finally returning home with almost Odysseus like pathos, suddenly realizing is he no longer the man who left, filled with hopes and dreams.
“For a night I just watched and you walked out of here” This “baby-level” Bon Jovi fan, who cannot tell the difference between It’s my Life and Livin’on a Prayer intros, thinks Jon Bon Jovi tried to stay faithful within limits, yet got in an argument with his wife about it anyway.
That’s the baseline I got when I started this blogpost. I had honestly not thought any further. Until I started typing out that entire speech, which was a lot of work, I think I easily spent an hour on it. And in that hour, the tiny bedroom in Malibu remark started to look very familiar. Even though Jon was referring to a two year period, I was suddenly certain this referred to the mansion he had rented, which he called “Disgraceland” and where he stayed when he recorded the Blaze of Glory record. It is also the location where my favorite Jon Bon Jovi interview was located:
An MTV interview with Julie Brown, which was supposed to air on Independence Day.
(if you’re currently shouting “But that’s on the fourth of July!”; That is correct!)
To mark the occasion Julie was dressed in America’s independence colors red and blue. “Now I see where the white is,” Jon says as he lifts her skirt.
As soon as I saw this interview, which was early 2019, I knew for a fact that we had watched a genuine sexual attraction between Jon and Julie. That it was both staged, and real. Julie and Jon were hiding in plain sight.
click the photo to go to the playlist of this interview
The only problem this presents, now that I know that Miss Fourth Of July was written in the backlash of a one-night stand, or encounter, with someone special yet you can’t make it work, was that I no longer understood the sentence: “For a night I just watched and you walked out of here” I no longer know what that sentence means.
Yet Jon being messed up after Julie left, does explain many other lyrics. “Don’t say we never tried” “I ain’t too proud to let you see tears fall from these eyes” “Just look me in the eyes and say it meant nothing at all” “Nothing but a heavy hit of heartbreak ;
A handful of blues”
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I immediately noticed something was missing when I clicked on what looked like a YouTube upload of the dvd Live From London. At 1 hour and 24 minutes, it was about right, although I remembered the dvd to be 90 minutes. But hey! Why would someone sneakily cut six minutes out of a Bon Jovi concert right?
And yet, the moment I watched the intro I knew Jon taking the stage was missing.
That you don’t start a dvd with Jon having magically appeared out of thin air at the mike, in his stone washed New Jersey jacket, black blouse with white stripes, chest hair luscious in a way we would never see again after it was taken off less than a year later for his movie role in The Leading Man;
Wearing his black bandana with white design tied around the head in the wide yet sturdy fold and wrap technique, only he and Axl Rose ever seemed to have mastered;
And the first words of this Magically Appearing Front Man being;
“Tommy used to work on the docks!”
That’s now how it works.
There is a “before”.
There is a leading up to.
There is anticipation.
In the previous chapter I referred to the long audience shots clapping in “We Will Rock You”-style.
And you don’t let the viewer wait, watching a sea of clapping hands, only to then cut to-
Oh.
Wait.
He’s already there.
So I knew the 1 hour 24 minute concert version I had found on YouTube was not the real dvd; It had been tampered with.
And I was right.
Both a YouTube clip of “Livin’ On A Prayer” from that concert, which I have included at the top of this post,
as well as the full 90 minute show Live In London which is available on Vimeo, and which I have included at the bottom of this post,
show the full intro of Livin’ On A Prayer.
We see Tico Torres standing behind his drums in a white vest, clapping with the crowd.
And then the camera shot from over the crowd, retreats back into the darkness of the side of the stage, we’re looking into the sun.
We see the silhouette of a tall, rangy man, walking up to the edge of the stage.
Sharp cut to a close shot at eye level:
It’s Ritchie Sambora!
He takes a bow, rising back up, his small round sunglasses mirror the Wembley stadium and the clear blue sky. Long dark mane, and long black coat adding to a rough cowboy-like look. He gives the crowd a battle cry; “Yeah!” Fist pumping in the air.
There is tangible concentration when the musicians set up the almost monotone, slow moving base sound with Tico Torres using a mark tree, a percussion instrument that consists of a set of hanging metal-like pipes. Until after a few seconds that moment we have all been waiting for when Richie folds his mouth over the talk box, and gives us the signature sound that will become Livin’ On A Prayer.
Richie’s almost synthesizer like tones join the auspicious baseline that the other instruments have set up.
The sounds from the talk box moves fluently up and down, as if gently caressing us.
Until we here the thin sound of a drumstick to the cymbals:
“Tick tick tick”
[….]
“Tick tick tick”
The Livin’ On A Prayer drums take over, a drum roll if ever there was any!
And a sound that I can only describe in a way that does not do justice to what many consider the best song of the best rock n roll band since the 80s: – in my defense; English is not my first language! – but here we go:
Oompa oompa oomp!
(repeat endlessly)
(keep it going)
(trust me on this)
And it is there! On the sounds of Oompa oompa oomp! that the man of the hour, the rock legend Jon Bon Jovi takes the stage with a run that goes into an energetic jumping up and down, legs wide, two feet jumping in the air again and again.
A wide grin over-viewing the stadium and just like Richie he has his fist in the air!
He stands with the microphone and in his talking voice, he delivers us the intro that we all know from the thousands and thousands of times we’ve heard this song: “Once upon a time.
Not so long ago.”
All this (I m now pointing and waving at the past paragraphs describing the epic rock star beginnings of this show ) was not included in the dvd upload I found on YouTube, and with that one of the biggest takeaways from this show was lost; How to make an entrance.
How to consciously, and conscientiously, show up.
I once attended a yoga workshop from an internationally acclaimed yoga star slash yoga guru, which I ended up hating and considered a waste of my time and money. And yet the lesson he taught in his first five minutes is one I will never forget: What is the basis for every relationship?
The answer was: You show up.
It is THAT choice, where you make the first commitment.
Either you give away your power, if you show up for things you don’t want.
Or you use it to show up for the things that you do want.
Show up for your yoga, was what this teacher hinted at. But it goes for every area of life; Are you showing up for it? Are you even THERE for the thing or the person or the hobby or the business or the audience or the 80.000 fans, to have a relationship with you?
And then, if you ve got that, if you know and decide that from now on “Hell Yes! I m gonna show the f up for my art, for my family, for my dreams, for my fans, for my LIFE!” Then this opening sequence of Bon Jovi in Wembley 1995 uplevels that for you.
Make your showing up as deliberate, as epic, as full of intent; As layered, as exciting, as full of bouncing, pounding energy, as Bon Jovi starting their Wembley show, and you really are living aright.
You’re living with Oompa oompa oomp.
Repeat endlessly.
Keep it going.
Trust me on this.
. ~Suzanne Rock Star Writer
new: LIVE FROM LONDON
Just. Show. Up. { Prayer Intro }
is the second 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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In 2004 Bon Jovi created a 4-cd (1 dvd) box set with unreleased work. In this series I discuss all of the 50 songs.
video: Just like the previous song on the Box Set, Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night, might have gotten its most phenomenal speech in Osaka, Japan.
Check at the 4 minute marker.
click the photo for a live version (video) of Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night, recorded in Argentina
“I’m feeling like a Monday, But someday I’ll be Saturday night.”
Someday I ll Be Saturday Night was released on the 1994 “best of” album, Cross Road.
An album I didn’t own, until recently.
I had also heard the song almost every time I listened to a 1995 concert to make a video for my YouTube channel.
And yet; I didn’t really “get” Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night until I started what I would qualify as “hoarding”, different versions of the song.
Ultimately I decided on limiting it to ten years.
That will also give you my channel, to subscribe for my upcoming 1995-1996 Bon Jovi reviews.
The Box Set’s demo of I’ll Be Saturday Night had been the first version of a song that would be performed live, over and over and over again.
Thematically it was comparable to Livin’ On A Prayer, meaning pushing through adversity and believing in a better future. But it was way, way more subtle
Which might also explain why I “managed to miss it” as an absolute gem, in particular in the live legacy of Bon Jovi.
At the 3,5 to 4 minute marker of these live songs, Jon Bon Jovi improvises. Sometimes “just” going through all the days of the week, and how hard they are. But sometimes, like in the above audio I included of Osaka, it was a straight up motivational speech.
It’s so unreal to think that live version in Osaka was recorded twenty years ago, and here I am in 2020. It’s a Thursday night. I just taught an online yoga class to friends, which I had not done in a very long time. By accident, I streamed it from one of my public pages.
Now it wasn’t nude yoga or anything, but during the class I had been very conscious of my body, and of what I will just call the “weirdness” of yoga; Something you usually do not have to deal with, until you start including “puppy pose” in your classes in the park, or into your YouTube videos.
Or until you find out you accidentally streamed a private yoga class on your public page.
Those are the moments when Jon’s words in Osaka, really hit home.
“I feel like that sometimes. It’s true. But when I do, I say; “Self?”
The beat picks up, Jon’s voice strengthens;
“You gotta just dust yourself off.”
And I say: “Self; You gotta put on the gloves, jump in the ring and go in there for one more fight.”
And I say: “Self, we ain’t gonna back down this time! Ain’t nobody is gonna come and throw the towel in this time! Ain’t nobody is gonna tell me they’re gonna save my ass this time!
NO!!”
And then the chorus comes in. And this time the words really hit home, and there is no way you’re gonna ever forget it again!
“HEY! MAN! I’M ALIVE!
I m taking each day and night at a time.
Yes I’m down But I know I ll get by.
Hey, hey, hey, hey! Man, I m gonna live my life. I’m gonna pick up all the pieces of what’s left of my pride I’m feeling like a Monday but -“
“Japan always seems to be getting the best shows. As if the deal was sealed, by that enthusiastic response on that very first world tour.”
video: The Radio Saved My Life Tonight, performed in Osaka (Japan!) with a speech at 3 minutes 10 seconds, about how Jon Bon Jovi (then still without band) started his career.
In 2004 Bon Jovi created a 4-cd (1 dvd) box set with unreleased work. In this series I discuss all of the 50 songs.
Today I’m doing two songs.
Song number 3, Taking It Back. And the second song on the first disc, a song they played many times on the tour that followed the Box Set release;
THE RADIO SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT
What is immediately apparent listening to this second song on disc one of The Box Set, is that the song is a finished, polished recording. It was obviously not dropped until the very final stages of Keep the Faith (1992)
It’s one of Bon Jovi’s lighter songs, less heavy on the guitar and drums, and that always makes it a tough cookie when it comes to winning my love. This song is no exception.
But nevertheless: If you were in a position as a band, that you could drop catchy songs like this for your record?
Even I understand the level you were playing at. The very highest.
TAKING IT BACK
What do you get if you mix AC/DC with Bon Jovi? Taking It Back One of the many amazing 90s songs that were released in 2004, on the box set 100.000.000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong.
But the song that closest resembles “Taking it back” is one of their own. On the album 7800 Fahrenheit (1985) there is the song “Tokyo Road”.
7800 Fahrenheit was the album right before their biggie Slippery When Wet (1986).
It “should have” been the big break for the band and then wasn’t. And the reason expectations were so high, is related to Tokyo Road.
The first self-titled Bon Jovi album, Bon Jovi-Bon Jovi (1984) had not brought them “world fame” but nevertheless; It had done exceptionally well. Not just in sales, but the band had also toured the world. Just check this site which still contains a list of all the continents and places the then relatively unknown band from New Jersey toured with just one album under their belt; http://www.bonjovi-archives.com/01_BonJovi/Live.html
Especially in Japan, Bon Jovi had been hugely popular. They had been kind of shook by the attention, but (of course) also flattered.
Japan 1985
With a debut album like that, expectations for their second album were high. Ultimately their second album wasn’t the big breakthrough they all had been expecting based upon (among other things) their popularity in Japan. But Tokyo Road on that second album 7800 Fahrenheit, was a reminder of how far they were on their way. They had already toured the world!
And seven years later “Take me Baaaack, baaaacck, back; Tokyo Road!” would echo in the song called “Taking it Back” (1992/ Box Set 2004) A song about which Jon Bon Jovi said; “We knew that we had to take control of our own destiny and songs like ‘Taking It Back’ were sung from the point of view of that chip’s back on my shoulder and I’m ready to launch into phase two of the band’s career.”
With regard to the topic (one night stand from Tokyo Road versus the fighter’s mentality of Taking It Back) the two songs Tokyo Road (Take me back) from the Fahrenheit album, and Taking It Back, the unreleased song from 1992, might seem worlds apart.
But they are brothers in arms. Both were written at a time when Bon Jovi wanted to prove they belonged at the top. And both songs were ultimately largely forgotten.
And yet: Their presence had been prophetic.
Bon Jovi kept coming back to Japan, every world tour. And from what I think I see – Japan always seems to be getting the best shows. As if the deal was sealed, by that enthusiastic response on that very first world tour.
And Bon Jovi did raise the bar with their Keep The Faith album; They did take back, what was rightfully theirs.
The place at the top.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
.
new: BOX SET SERIES
Taking it Back (and Tokyo Road) & The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
is the third post in The Box Set Series
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There are so many cute things in this description, I would add a blushing emoji with the hands, if I knew where to find things like that on my desktop.
And yet, the moment I watched the intro I knew Jon taking the stage was missing.
Rock Star Writer 