1. Welcome to another episode 00:00 Of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs.
Quick warning that in the next video, we’ll need to break the chronological pattern! Because I found a rare outtake from the previous Bon Jovi album, called “Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die”. So the next Life lesson in Bon Jovi songs, will about a song that’s one year older.
2. Game of the Heart 01:46 Was written for their 1986 breakthrough album Slippery When Wet.
If you were a song in 1986, you had 3 chances of ending up on an album: 1- On Slippery When Wet Which this song didn’t, making it one of many OUTTAKES. 2- On the 4-disc box set 100.000.000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (2004) But this one was also not released there, making it extremely rare. or 3- Being included in a very rare bootleg compilation called “We Are Not Unused” You can listen to this excellent “album” here: Bon Jovi – We Are Not Unused | 17 Completely Unreleased Tracks | Demos 1986/1992
Game of the Heart was included in that bootleg compilation.
3. Two YouTubers chipping in 04:54 Outtakes are notoriously poor documented, but I did find 2 YouTubers who made uploads that are worth mentioning.
4. Striking gold 06:52 There I was, ploughing through the few things I could find on this song hoping to get inspired and coming up with nothing. Until I studied the lyrics, and OMG!
This is a song about what has got to be one of my favorite topics to talk about! Even though it’s lofty, abstract, and I have NO CLUE how to express or go about this. So let’s go! 😅 Illustrated with Jon Bon Jovi as a yellow highlighter and the femme in this story is a hot pink stress ball.
Next stop, the 7th outtake; Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die!
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.
1. Welcome to another episode 00:00 Of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs. Deep Cuts the Night was never released on the album it was written for, making it one of many OUTTAKES. But this one was also not released on the 2004 box set either, making it extremely rare.
But this song WAS brought to the studio in Vancouver, so it was actually recorded properly! Which is great.
The rarest of rarest outtakes, are the songs which stayed in the basement, where the first demos were recorded. The “basement tapes”.
So this one is still pretty high up!
2. Deep Cuts the Night 04:45 Since I didn’t have much sources to go on, I started looking around. There was only one source, specifically mentioning this song. YouTube channel Rock Remastered, made a remaster of the song in 2021, and mentions in the description box: “It can remind us of “The Hardest Part Is The Night” or “I’d Die For You”” Which was the only mention of this song I could find.
3. A Forgotten Bootleg (from 1995-ish?) 06:36 I found a wonderful collection of songs, still available on cd as well as on YouTube, with numerous outtakes from the first 5 album (so that’s up to 1992) In chronological order! That’s pretty impressive, since this is pre-internet and knowledge about material like this was rare.
And the funniest thing is the title of this album: “We are not unused”
The description box there, gives all songs, including where they originated.
4. We Are Not Unused 09:52 This rare 20th century outtake-album has a cute title. Since the songs are now indeed finally “used”, for an album.
5. Double Meaning of Deep Cuts (the Night) 10:40 The song refers to the loneliness of the night, cutting into you. But takes on a second meaning because “Deep cuts” is also a noun: It means an outtake! A rare song. Googling Deep Cuts (the night) and Bon Jovi, will turn up with pages and list about all kinds of rare Bon Jovi songs. All kinds of deep cuts.
6. The Lesson in this Bon Jovi song 12:45 I’m leaving the honor to the title of that rare album, “We are not unused”. It’s so brilliant, I can see tattoos happening for us there.
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.
1. Welcome to another episode 00:00 Of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs. Out of Bounds was never released on the album it was written for, making it one of many OUTTAKES. But it was released almost two decades later on the box set “100.000.000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong”, which contains 4 cd’s and one dvd
2. As (not) talked about on the DVD 01:08 Like many other outtakes released on the Box Set “100.000.000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong”, Out of Bounds was one of the songs “discussed” in the complementary documentary, the 5th disc in the box. However, it is not really talked about and instead Jon skips to telling a very interesting story about the title of the Slippery When Wet album (you can find it in the documentary at the 42:14 marker)
Which led me to also tackle this song with a different story about the album title and cover.
3. The Cowboy Era That Never Really Was 02:22 Both the album title story Jon tells on the dvd, as well as my story on the album title, are rooted in the fact that for the longest time, they went with a cowboy theme! They had gone through lengths growing beards, purchasing cowboy-appropriate clothing, and had even invested in a professional photoshoot.
But the whole cowboy theme was thrown out of the window, only to return briefly, for the single Wanted Dead or Alive.
4. Another “detour” 07:00 The last minute cover-change! After already “losing” a considerable amount of time on the cowboy theme, AND with a whole shipment of first pressings already shipped to Japan; They changed it again.
The album cover was cancelled, within a day the photographer and Jon Bon Jovi came up with an alternative; And we got the Slippery When Wet album as we know it today.
5. The lesson in this story 08:25 Work is never lost! By throwing themselves headfirst into the theme they would ultimately abandon; And by taking their first cover design all the way into print, and shipping out the records to Japan; Bon Jovi had gained so much momentum, that they could now make their final cover in minutes!
Go with what inspires you. It will give you the momentum to make adjustments, even at the very last minute.
Next stop, the fifth outtake song: Deep Cuts The Night!
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.
1. Welcome to another episode 00:00 Of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs. This channel has been quiet, as I was figuring out how to keep creating content. But I now have everything sorted, and we’re back!
2. What’s an outtake? 01:44 A song that was never released on a regular studio album. But very often, as was the case with Edge of a Broken Heart, they were released in a different way. The most common ways for outtakes to be released in on a B-side or on Bon Jovi’s 2004 box set.
3. Edge of a Broken Heart 02:45 Written for their biggie, Slippery When Wet (1986) Edge of a Broken Heart was not released until 1994, as a B-side to Always. And on special edition(s) of their 1994 Best of album Cross Road. But it is best known from the 2004 4-cd-box set “100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong”
The song was also already given to the movie Disorderlies in the 80s.
4. Top 3 Best Bon Jovi songs ever 05:10 The most notable thing about this song, is that it was put at number 3 in the juggernaut piece “All Bon Jovi songs ranked” by Tony Kuzminski Number 3! For a song that is not even on a real album, and in an article that meticulously lists out all 359 songs.
Tony gives a voice to many fans for whom Edge of a Broken Heart is “the song that got away”.
5. The Underdog Position 07:27 What is notable about this song, is that it is so clearly written from the viewpoint of a man who lost his woman, who is not a Don Juan, or maybe he was but now he was discarded.
It is here where there is a fork in the fanbase road; Because my take on Edge of a Broken Heart is that men will like it, and women will not.
6. My personal take on this song 08:42 There are two reasons I don’t like this song.
The first reason is neutral and simple; I simply don’t like pop. And Edge of a Broken Heart is a pop song and not a rock song.
The second reason I don’t like the song is because of the lyrics. I think it is problematic how the protagonist behaves towards a woman who has clearly given him her No. In the first verse you still give him the benefit of the doubt, but this changes near the end when it becomes clear he has been stalking her.
I think the song is difficult for women to enjoy because we all know what it’s like when our No is ignored.
7. The first song they wrote with Desmond Child 14.00 Edge of a Broken Heart was the first song they wrote with Desmond Child with whom Bon Jovi would wrote their biggest hits.
My take is that Edge of a Broken Heart is like the first Dutch pancake: It’s a mess, but some love it!
Next stop, the fourth outtake song: Out of Bounds!
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.
1. Welcome to another episode 00:00 Of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs. And forget I am pitching it so dryly! But if you do bear with me, then today we’re starting the outtakes from the third Bon Jovi album. It’s way better than I made it sound, because this was from THE Bon Jovi album!
2. Disclaimer time! 01:00 There will be no actual life lesson… Just could not come up with anything. But I will be having not one, but two stories for you, tied to this rare Bon Jovi song.
3. The 2 albums this song is tied to 02:08 One is the album Borderline was supposed to be on, and the other is the album it actually appeared on. Almost two decades later.
4. Why was it dropped? 03:05 Giving you the you-have-never-heard-this-take-before story. To my knowledge no one has mentioned this before. But if you were born in the 70s or earlier, you might know it too, the moment you see the question in front of your eyes: “Why would Bon Jovi not want to be tied to a song called Borderline in 1986?”
5. The Mystery of Richie’s Version 08:40 The second story with regard to this song, could benefit from someone with better detective skills than me. But here’s my best shot 😇
7. Next up “Edge of a Broken Heart” 14:05 An outtake crowned as one of the top 10 Bon Jovi songs ever! (https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bon-jovi-songs-ranked/) Yet, this song might be a bit polarizing because everybody seems to agree this is one of their best songs ever. All but one person. ( Anyone else who did not fall head over heels in love with it?)
But what I will do, is get you a proper life lesson next time!
So next stop, the third outtake: Edge of a Broken Heart!
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.
#30 We Rule The Night | life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
Welcome back, Jovi friends! Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs continues with We Rule The Night.
This is the very first life lesson about an “outtake”;
A song that was never included on the album.
We Rule The Night was written for Bon Jovi’s second album 7800 ° Fahrenheit (1985).
It is the only unreleased song (outtake) we have, from both the first and second album.
And it is the first outtake in this series, of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs.
If you’re not familiar with the song you can listen here.
The picture with all Bon Jovi members in golden suits is from the box set 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong (2004), on which the song was released, twenty years after the date.
1. Welcome to another episode 00:00 Of Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs. And after the first episode of this series?
I think this is the most important one!
2. What is an “Outtake”?! 00:30 Let me fill you in! Because we’re talking deepest layer of fandom-stuff here.
3. New discoveries I just found three “new” outtakes even I had never heard of. They are demos from the Slippery When Wet album (1986). You can find these three, together with all the others, on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06SfkAr0Ll4wz-GlGnZJNZDYh Rolling List of Hidden Bon Jovi Gems 1985 – current day
4. 3 LINKS 03:51 I expected to be posting this video without a proper description box. But everything is in place now. Here are the links I mention in this video, that are the most essential:
5. We Rule The Night 06:25 Where this outtake is from, and how it was eventually brought to the public after 15 years. The cd box set behind me, to which I am referring in the video, is called: “100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong” (2004)
6. The fourth link 08:41 My favorite Bon Jovi article and indispensable for this series: – https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bon-jovi-songs-ranked/ By Tony Kuzminski. List also covers any outtakes from the 2004 box set. He writes anything between a few lines and a few paragraphs, of every Bon Jovi songs (bar demos/ unreleased songs that did not appear on the Box Set)
7. It reminds me of…. what?! 09:28 We Rule The Night struck me as being familiar to some kind of 80s rock. But which band was I reminded of?! The article immediately filled in the blanks.
8. It’s not about lovers 10:30 I immediately assumed We Rule The Night would be about lovers. Just like that Bruce Springsteen song (Because The Night Belongs To Lovers, live 1978) But the lyrics are actually a lot darker.
9. The Shadow Twin We Rule The Night is the unknown brother to another song; One that did make it to the album! The life lesson being…. (watch 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.
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.
new story on YouTube:
new story on YouTube:
new story on YouTube:
new story on YouTube:
new story on YouTube:
new story on YouTube:
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.
Rock Star Writer 