The Best and Worst of Bon Jovi Part 1 (Ep662)

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1:38Music playing.

1:46Music playing. welcome back to another exciting edition of the decibel geek podcast my name is aaron camaro you know me i'm halfway there and a man whose love is like bad medicine but if bad medicine's what you need he's right here with it it's chris sinzak my man are you ready to ride the steel horse today

2:20i am but i just have to comment the radio the radio aaron may have left the radio but the radio has not left it like that was that like just throwing in the titles and everything that was that was that was awesome yeah that's cool man yeah i was we waiting for you to get ready and i was like i should have came up with something and then i'm thinking thinking like i ain't even got time to type it down it's like i hope i remember all that and i nailed it that's awesome no yeah i'm i'm well i i've you know this has been in contention for a while like we're you know we planned on doing

2:53this a while back and it seemed like it would just be oh that'll be fun and then the more we initially got into it especially aaron kind of like oh man but then and we pivoted to something else quickly but then he didn't let me off the hook because he'd already started doing work on it so and i actually had two so uh i've been looking forward to doing this so we're only going to do part one which we will go through 2002 in the history of bon jovi part two i think we're both dreading yeah we might have to put that one off for a little bit what it reminds me of

3:25is way way back in decibel geek history the early vips will remember this one it was the chris and aaron show but it was entitled drunken bon jovi versus def leopard oh yeah i tried to block that one out it was way back in the day we both been drinking quite a bit that night and i think my consensus at the end of it was they both suck yeah pretty much but we're gonna find out for sure here today

4:00because i've done it i've i've professed over the years that i don't like bon jovi but i sat down and i listened to all these albums i graded each song and we're gonna go through all the whole history of bon jovi like you say thankfully just the first half here today but before we get to all that we're gonna have some fun we're gonna acknowledge some people that took some time to leave us some feedback on our last episode which was the decibel geek times top fan tony smith he says it's party time and he's right we had fun with that one stacy sullivan you're the man what is a

4:36temple ball a temple ball is a traditional style of cannabis concentrate made by hand rolling pressed trichomes trichomes i don't know what that is i don't either it sounds pretty good you take that you press that stuff into a dense spherical mass this method of producing hashish has been used for centuries so now you know what's temple balls it's those i mean i just assumed it was something else

5:08and suddenly i like this band name way more than i did yeah it's it's pretty cool now before it was just fun and now it's awesome aaron baker says he loved the new michael monroe album he says it's got a little bit everything that he likes might be way too early but he thinks it could be easily in his top 10 by the end of the year it's a good album poly dewog says you mentioning album covers reminded me of back in the day in high school when i bought crocus's headhunter and uriah heaps abominog

5:41based solely on the amazing images on the front of the albums i hadn't listened to either band at that point just like we were talking about looking for cool albums going it's got to be awesome one of those albums became my favorite album by that band and prompted me to buy more albums going forward the other one had a great cover song that still kicks ass in my opinion i don't remember anything else off it and i never bought another album by that band and you mentioned also that this band has put out a ton of albums over the years in their long career well i mean he's talking

6:14about either uriah heep or crocus right yeah so uriah heep yeah that was the other one they had a lot more albums than crocus did so that solves that mystery right there that abominog album man i remember the first time i saw that i was kind of young i was like am i gonna go to hell if i listen to this like whatever that demon or whatever it is on the cover like that would somebody should have made a horror movie with that as the villain or something because it looks straight out of a horror movie to me terrifying yeah scared me too when i was a kid all right so i mean we love it we love

6:50it when you guys comment and get in on the conversation with us over at the facebook page the decibel geek podcast and also on the decibel geek community which is a group post whatever you want to in there rock and roll get the conversation happening just like we do here on the show man we love you guys for always supporting us we put ourselves through hell for you for this one today going through these bon jovi albums but we do it because we love you and we appreciate you and everybody that appreciates us there's a perfect way to do it and show it and that is when the new

7:24episode comes out you see it out there on your social media you want to reshare it and retweet it and all that good stuff help us get the word out more people listening to the show we like that and then pantheon podcast thinks we're extra cool and they love us they bring you this show people share our stuff we love it a lot so much that we got to call you geeks of the week geeks of the week this week are adam cox rocking ron runyon kristin shimbeck aaron baker troy maturin grayson gallegos james macklehenny dodd vernon boris petrovsky mark starsky shea hargett mike pornell

7:58shane abeir samuel wetz david kathy tony smith brian nepp ed dinges al horta tom logston sit and spend with joe in obscuria podcast john phillips boris petrovsky mark alden taylor freeform rock podcast the bs sessions david kathy again ralph viera bill wang will honeycut joseph capone whiting guitar works vet halen scott crouch and as always the mooger fooger oh yeah thank you guys so much for helping us spread the word like i said you know if you do that so simple you're gonna hear your name

8:30among that awesome list of people right there so give us a share you know you got some cool friends that need to rock and roll with a podcast you got some big bon jovi fans in your life share this with them and your name will be included next week right here on geeks of the week so with all the business aside it's time to get down to business this one's special because we don't do a lot of talking about bon jovi on the decibel geek podcast i know you're a

9:02fan big fan pretty much through 95 and then it starts trailing off and then not long after as far as we're gonna go today i was like nah i'm done do you want to know why deep down inside i don't like bon jovi yeah there's some childhood trauma stuff right here everybody brace yourselves for this so when i was in the sixth grade is when slippery when wet was out and everybody loved bon jovi

9:33and the teacher was this old guy and he was really nice to the girls but he was really mean to the boys and so he took the classroom and he split us in half and he said all the boys on one side and all the girls on the other side you know and he would do stuff like send all the boys out to recess but then like the girls would get to have a pizza party with him in the classroom oh i don't like the sound of where this is going yeah no no looking back on it it's kind of weird but at the time we were just like this guy is a dick yeah i thought about one of the boys for sure so he split us in half and then

10:10what he would do is make us compete against each other he would teach us stuff and then quiz us and make us battle each other in these quiz contests the things we were supposed to be learning and of course the girls always kicked our asses and they always got the prizes and like we never won and we never got nothing and they got to do all the fun extra stuff and it was terrible but when it was first broken down the teacher says you know hey we're going to split the classroom in half boys against the girls girls it's a team now what do you want your team to be called and his favorite little girl

10:45she goes we want to be the bon jovis we're over on the other side of the room and we're talking about like yeah what are we going to be like we're going to be the motley cruise yeah we're going to be you know we're going to be awesome and then he says all right the bon jovis that sounds good he goes okay girls what do you want the boys team to be named and we're like what and she goes their team name is the peewee hermans and we are like ah no so all year long they were the bon jovis and we

11:24were the peewee hermans and we always lost and got treated bad and i hate bon jovi can i interject real fast yes please when they deemed you the peewee hermans and the girls made fun of you did you say i know you are but what am i of course okay of course what other recourse did we have that's all we could do okay we're stuck with it damn it bon jovi well i think there's we have a we need to go

11:55on the vip after this and do a deeper discussion about your teacher's motives because i'm kind of creeped out by that yeah i know it's weird why would anybody call themselves the bon jovis right it's don't make any sense he was the adult he should have stepped in and be like no no your team kiss so is that your first kind of bon jovi in you know in introduction or how did you how did you discover them when slippery when whack first comes out i've got my awesome cousins robin and

12:29ronda will tell my aunt and uncle what records to get me that i would like for christmas and so like they hooked me up like i got cinderella night songs that way like between the two of them they would tell uncle ronnie and aunt fay like get them this and get them that and get them this and then on christmas that'd be the best gifts anybody got me worth of rock and roll records but it was only because they were telling them which ones to get because they were cool and they knew but my cousin ronda got her to get me slippery when wet and you know what when i was in yeah probably i guess around

13:05fifth sixth grade i listened to it you know it was just a rock band you know just like all the other ones and i like kiss and i got to hear some of that stuff and we get to hear some stuff at my uncle bruce's house and i don't know it didn't really jump out at me or me i didn't think it was better than kiss or motley crew or nothing but then all of a sudden it's super popular and everybody loves bon jovi and i just thought it was okay yeah well for me it was actually this was another that just

13:38like kiss it was my brother that it kind of introduced me to this band because uh he was just an era he would see stuff on mtv before me sometimes and uh you give love a bad name had kind of started getting popular on mtv and he got we this was right around the time we got columbia house and started having cassette tapes delivered and that was that was one of the ones he had delivered and you know he just liked that one song and you know he listened to it for like a week and

14:10then i was like well do you care if i listen to this he's like no and and i just never gave it back but that that was how i got into bon jovi and then they just exploded from that point forward so like right as i'm getting into them they just blew up right on so i guess going through these i've got a bon jovi fun fact i guess for each one of these so do you want to start where you got to start way back in 1984 yep january 21st 1984 self-titled bon jovi released on mercury records recorded at the

14:46power station produced by lance quinn who i did some reading about earlier uh interesting life that guy led um but uh you know from what i gather from this record it was he got a deal basically as a solo artist initially because runaway took off on local radio that he had recorded at the power station because he was a janitor at the power station before that yeah because his uncle ran the place right yeah yeah tony bon jovi right at least ran it and was like the main producer there and yeah which i

15:20don't want to ruin one of your fun facts because so i because i know a lot of nerdy shit about this band okay well then here's here's my fact runaway was recorded before bon jovi was even a real band yes john cut it using new york studio session players and only later then the label heard the song it took off and he was going to get signed and they were like well you got to make a you got to form a band and write some other songs and come out with an album john bon jovi then goes out and forms bon jovi as we'll come to know it we can go back even further in time though do you know what

15:55his first recorded uh work was i do that was a beat the geek question one time i can't remember what it's called but it's some kind of star wars song it was called r2d2 we wish you a merry christmas yeah and bon jovi just was going beep boop boop beep boop beep no i've heard the song it's not much better than that no yeah it's pretty bad and like the fact that that tells you how amazingly huge

16:29star wars was where they're like well of course it has to have a christmas album why yeah yeah because people will buy it and it was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away but they celebrate christmas okay that's wild it's wild how that works and if the snow becomes too deep just give a little peek we'll go in by the fire and warm your little eyes spreading christmas cheer be easy with you here we'll dance and sing and play

17:07from christmas eve to christmas day watching the quaver converter isn't complete yet it isn't finished lock in your circuits again so well do you want my thoughts on this and my picks and then you'll go how do we want to uh don't matter to me i can go you can go whichever we'll take turns you can go ahead on this one first

17:40okay well it was you know the most interesting part of preparing for this one was i hadn't really gone back and listened to the first two in a pretty long time i never was a big listener of them they you know i think most of us got into them later i mean runaway i remember being on the radio when this was out but i didn't i don't remember anything other than that but uh you know it was interesting going back and listening to it the band doesn't look back fondly on these first two records much well obviously because the first one especially i think is i mean almost like a lot of it was written

18:13without the other guys in the band i think it's pretty good i mean for a debut album it's not bad there's a lot of you know very dated stuff the first two albums do suffer from getting stuck in the 80s on certain songs the keyboards are overwhelming on some of the songs and even the songwriting style is very cookie cutter what was big at the time and and we talked about in a previous episode where i was watching the documentary series they did on hulu and john is recounting talking to doc in the early days and doc's like you know you got to go tour with bands like scorpions and

18:45and rat and stuff like that and he's like i don't want to tour with those bands i want to tour with brian adams and it's like you know listening back it makes it so clear because like you can even in the songwriting you can hear like he wasn't really writing for hard rock fans you know they just kind of beefed up some pop songs but for me i make no apology for becoming a bon jovi fan when i did i was like nine ten years old and you know i was into pop stuff before i really got into rock and they had bigger guitar sound and it was tailor-made for for kids i wonder if it was if that was the marketing

19:19angle but either way even if john wasn't happy being in that crowd i it helped get get my foot in the door to discover all the other bands i don't know it's pretty interesting because like when we talked to like michael wagner and he said all the first albums always the easiest because they've had their whole lives to write those songs not in this case yeah it kind of appears in this case that's not the way it works it's like you got the one song and it's good and it's enough to get you signed and now it's like not only do you got to go find a band but you need to write some songs

19:54because before you even go out on tour or anything you got to have an album yeah so i mean they're just strangers thrown together i mean this could have been some kind of reality tv show well yeah and it's uh it was more of a rush job and like if you know john's history and richie and the rest of the guy like they all just came up in the cover scene in new jersey so most of their time was filled playing other people's music jersey shore 1984 yeah so i mean it was there they were a lot of them they knew

20:27how to play really well they knew how to play a lot of stuff they just didn't have a lot of original material so it was it was a rushed job yeah but uh you have your fun facts i have a little bit of interesting trivia too so like it peaked at 43 on the billboard 200 and albums that charted nearby at that time was thriller 1984 and sports by huey lewis and the news obviously thriller and 1984 were on their way down at that point but uh it's just uh i don't know it's it's a it's a cool debut album but yeah the when you know the story behind how it became what it was you kind of i don't

21:01know i give it a little bit of grace because it was thrown together um for my best on this album i think roulette is my favorite song on this record runaway is a great you know pop rock song and i i still like it a lot um but roulette is a good solid hard rock song and i wish they'd done more stuff like that like that play my numbers four by one find a shot a name of your door

21:33restless love a pain of the past cheating hearts don't think twice when you make the rules no one can slow you down You just keep on waiting When you're on the ground Rolling You're going round in a spin Gonna be the game you can't win

22:05You're just a fantasy It's everything that you're wanting to be Rolling You're going round in a spin Gonna be the game you can't win You're just a fantasy It's everything that you're wanting to be Back to a runner, gotta win this time Leaves her mark to see the crime

22:37Nothing matters, no faces, no names You're just a number, it's all the same You just love to play the game For my worst, well, other ones that I like, I like Breakout, I like Burning for Love, I like that.

23:15Shot Through the Hearts is good, which obviously they would recycle that line for a bigger song later But it's a little mixed But Love Lies, even though I don't even hate it, I'll put as my worst I can't tell you when the last time I listened to this album I can't even honestly tell you if I've ever actually listened to the whole thing But in anticipation and knowing that we were going to be doing this someday I started picking up Bon Jovi CDs when the price was right And so I got all these

23:45And to pull them out and listen to them There's some on the list we'll talk about today that I know I've never listened to before At all Sure Other than maybe hearing a song or two But these, man, you know, I didn't know about Bon Jovi until 86 When Slippery When Wet came out So I go back and I listen to this And I'm really, really listening to it with fresh ears Because I don't know any of this music It's okay I mean, grading this one I got two B pluses

24:16A D And a whole bunch of C's C's pluses mixed in Runaway is pretty awesome I like Runaway It's catchy as heck Awesome guitar solo I mean, I see why that song got them signed Like, if you can write more stuff like this You guys are going to be a hit Because it's like that perfect blend of pop and still rocks And the guitar solo is killer in it So, I mean, I got to give that at least a B plus

24:47Tick the light every night Guaranteed to blow your mind I see you out on the streets Call me for a while, tell me So you sit home alone Cause there's nothing left that you can do There's only pictures hung in the shadows Just left and look at you You know she likes the lights at night On the neon road with signs

25:19Cause she don't really mind It's only love she wrote to find Ooh, she's a little runaway Daddy's girl that passed All those things he couldn't say Ooh, she's a little runaway The other B plus, yeah, you nailed it

26:08Roulette, it's the heaviest song on the album Kind of Dockin-ish a little bit And I like it It's cool, man That's my best one I agree with that 100% Yeah, the rest of them are all okay That breakout's like a foreigner song Yeah Get Ready's a heavy song It's got bad piano in it I mean, there's a lot of that on this album Like you said, it's keyboard overkill On a lot of it And it's not like cool John Lord keyboard

26:40It's like Man, 80s ZZ Top keyboards Yeah, very of the time And also, you know, David Bryan was learning how to rock himself Because, like, it was You know, he was a I think he was a Juilliard-trained piano player Yeah But, you know, he got better at what he did And he kind of learned how to play for the song But in these first two records He definitely oversteps several times For me, I think the worst one is She Don't Know Me And it's a D

27:11You know, I didn't even give no Fs on this album You know, so I thought, like, I'm gonna hate this I'm gonna hate all of it And it's gonna all be Fs And I'm not gonna like any of it But not a single failure on this Even the worst song I still gotta give it a D Just kind of poppy, generic Michael Bolton-y type song And it's I don't know It's not very good But the rest of the album's okay Runaway and Roulette Definitely the high point on it I will say, among the fan base She Don't Know Me Is usually the one that people pick as the worst

27:43Yeah, it kind of sucks I don't hate it But, uh And then we get to 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit Which came out in 1985 Do you know what 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit it represents? No It's the temperature at which rock melts That's awesome Like, knowing that makes me think This is gonna be the Bon Jovi metal album This is gonna be amazing Well, was it?

28:15Um, well I mean, again This is another one Outside of In and Out of Love I don't know any of the songs on here So, I mean Listening to this is Like a brand new album to me, really So I give In and Out of Love an A It's I'm giving Bon Jovi songs A's I can't even believe this It's hard rocking When I listen to this I get excited That I'm thinking Alright Hopefully the rest of the album is like this This is So far Out of anything they've done My favorite song

28:46Yeah I'm thinking This is gonna be amazing And then Price of Love comes up next It's got like this awesome drum intro Tico Torres Freaking rules, man This That goes without saying This whole thing Then I'm like Yeah This is awesome And then it Drops out And kind of gets lame There's a lot of Bon Jovi songs like that Like certain parts of the song Will be really cool But then it'll like Drop out into something Real wimpy And like It goes from heavy to soft To heavy to soft

29:16You know And That song's okay I go Okay Let's keep on going Up next You got Only Lonely It starts out It's kind of got this Iron Maiden Kind of chug to it With the guitars I'm like Oh hell yeah You know It's got that gallop This is rocking And then it drops out And becomes real soft You know I go What the hell You know They did it to me again It's alright King of the Mountain I liked It's I give that one a B plus It's got this thumping bass It's pretty heavy For Bon Jovi standards And Awesome drums

29:47And great guitar on it Silent Night Man This song sucks It's not good It's super Super Boy It's like the Stereotypical 80's Cheesy Ballady song And the only Redeeming quality Is the Richie solo Man That dude Is a killer Guitar player Even when he's young He's coming up With all this great stuff That fits the songs Perfectly And even a terrible song Like Silent Night His guitar solo

30:17Is amazing in it Yeah So you go Oh man You know Okay Alright Well you gotta Kind of expect Something like that You know You gotta It's Bon Jovi You know They're gonna become Known For their cheesy ballads That women go crazy for So that's part of it You know I think Okay let's Hammer on See what else we got So up next We got Tokyo Road And Like the first thing Is like It's got this Weird Japanese intro And then Boom It just kind of Kicks in It's like a Catchy pop rock song

30:48It's Pretty Springsteen-y In the chorus So when you're Talking about Jon Bon Jovi Wants to be Bruce Springsteen It really comes through On a song like that Then Hardest part Is the night You know what This one's not A terrible power ballad It's It's alright I'll give it a B I mean I'm Yeah It's not bad The guitar Is outstanding in it Then track 8 Is always run to you Boom I give this one An A I love this song

31:19Tico Is On the drums It's awesome The guitar intro Is killer Richie Solo Is amazing in it Man Those keyboards Ugh If it weren't For the keyboards I might knock That down to a B Because the keyboards Really do kind of Wreck it And then Number 9 To the Fire Bon Jovi's got a song Called To the Fire I was like Wow It's actually pretty cool I like it It's heavy It's awesome I kind of dig it And then they wrap up

31:50The album With an album A song I just kind of Gave it a C Called Secret Dreams Kind of mid-tempo It's got a nice build to it It's alright Um So Actually gave a couple Of A's on this I guess Well Bumped the one down I guess I gotta go In and out of love For the best I mean It's just a hard rockin Catchy song You kind of Pump your fist to it Reminds me of like Classic Def Leppard In a lot of ways Yeah I like that song A lot Runnin' wild

32:24When me and my boys Hit the streets Right on time She's here to make my life complete That I'm long gone I got another show One more town One mile to go One endless night of fantasy It's all she left on earth with me It's all she left of earth with me In and out of love

32:55Hear what I'm saying In and out of love It's the way that we play In and out of love When we're together In and out of love Those two months forever In and out of love In and out of love In and out of love Hear what I'm saying In and out of love In the way that we play In and out of love In and out of love In and out of love In and out of love Too much is never enough She's gonna get you Get you Oh Oh

33:26Oh Oh Oh Oh Hey What are you doing? Look you Oh Oh Oh I got your top of the face Brown eyed by your road Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Hey You guys Want to take a ride? On the bus Bring it Don't Bring it Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh and then the worst yeah it's silent night even that guitar solo can't save it it's terrible

34:15we're pretty much in agreement before i get to my picks uh chart performance this one peaked at number 37 on billboard and albums that charted nearby were reckless by john's hero brian adams and uh songs from the big chair by tears for fear so that's what was big around the same time uh i had i think i owned both at some point um to me you're completely right in and out of love is a great song and yeah i'd love the whole album of them doing that type of thing yeah you know they

34:47influenced a lot of bands just from that song i'm sure yeah but uh you know that one's definitely the head and shoulders above the all so for me but i have a tie for the worst and we're going to disagree here a little bit um well for my first part of the tie is silent night dog shit terrible song yeah it's bad um richie solo is the only good part of the song everything else is is cringy i heard that santa even wanted to sue them over this song yeah yeah yeah um and the tie though for silent

35:20night to me is a song you just referenced that you liked it and that's to the fire i hate that song really yeah try annoying it i hate the end especially all the keys on the intro so yeah see the keys do hurt the stuff like i listen to this album i think man you eliminate the keyboards all these songs get a lot better like the keyboard really takes away from a lot of it you

36:01you you you you you you you you you

36:35me my 78 degrees fahrenheit fun fact is that the band hates this album john bon joe has repeatedly called it unfinished and rushed blaming inexperience and label pressure but you know it's got some

37:11decent songs on it it's not bad it does have a better sound than the first album it's definitely much better produced um but yeah oh and also you mentioned earlier how certain songs will kind of hook you in and then let you down and they'll get hard and then soft and hard well you know these days there's pills for that so that's good listening to some bon jovi here's a little blue pill for you yeah miss a missed opportunity for marketing campaigns um all right so then we go

37:44to 1986 and here's where most of the world became aware of bon jovi before that obviously on the last tour um kiss fans all know they opened for kiss during the european tour and what the only funny thing i have to say about it was i remember gordon gebert he had his book out and one of the stories in there um mentioned something like as secondhand information like bon jovi was opening for kiss over in europe and they were hanging out at the hotel and remember this was around the time paul had gone through uh share's sister and uh lisa hartman and uh the woman that married dan ackroy like all these

38:22actresses and uh so he was in the tabloids all the time and paul walked into the lobby and one of the members of bon jovi i'm betting it was alex john such because it seems like it would be him that would ask him he's like hey hey paul what famous chick are you fucking this week and it really pissed paul off wow that seems like an alec thing to do yeah doesn't that i could just picture him asking him that yeah the other guy's all going shut up shut up dude and then hugh mcdonald was in the background

38:52rubbing his hands together yeah my interesting fact for slippery when wet this album was inspired by a toronto strip club sign the original cover featured the wet t-shirt i think us young young guys back then all appreciated that one and then it was pulled due to the backlash and replaced with the black design that was the one i had when i was a kid on lp yeah and that was all the photos including the trash bag photo all shot by mark weiss you know former rockin pod guest and i actually heard that

39:26story from him and how much of a rush job it wound up being because john was like that is not going to be my album cover you know again brian adams would not put have put that album cover out you know right but again you're talking about like they're not trying to be like rat and motley crew and stuff but yet they got the wet t-shirt girl on the cover of the album but that wasn't john's call that was the record company that wanted that okay i got you and he was like that's why the trash bag wound up getting

39:57used because he was like i will not have that be my album gotcha you'd rather have the trash bag one that's yeah he was like they came up with the name slippery when wet from a strip club sign so i mean yeah i mean the name of the title alone was sexual enough yeah but uh i don't know that but yeah that's a crazy story and that it's a there's a cool retelling of that in the documentary but yeah this album was the one we all kind of came to know them and they were just they hit mtv and it was like the crown was

40:27given to them paul stanley was hanging out with them and he says you know what you guys need to do you need to put the x in sex like we did and they're like yeah slippery when wet that's what's up well i mean there's a out there's a bit of truth to that because it was paul stanley that introduced them to desmond child who you know if it wasn't for him this album would not be what it is yeah true he is the hit maker especially in 86 i mean damn he's in his prime well and it's like if you look at the team that put the album together you've got desmond writing the songs with them also aldo nova wrote

41:02songs with them for this yeah in the studio you've got bob rock and mike fraser right what a team and bruce fairbairn producing it and we know what he does for everybody he takes your rock songs and makes them so that everybody can enjoy it so it's palatable to everybody and can be played on radio and uh not surprisingly this peaked at number one and stayed there for eight weeks on billboard when it when it blew up i mean it was a perfect storm of talent involved in this thing like it was designed

41:36to go to number one yeah basically and i remember yeah mtv fell in love with them they were everywhere for me i i love this record i love most of the songs even though you know i will admit going back and listening to some of this stuff i'm like man that is that's a lot cringier than i remember it being but i was also a kid so um so i kind of get why the older brothers of a lot me and a lot of my friends were like that stuff sucks you know because yeah to them it was zeppelin sabbath bands like that

42:06and they're like this shit's terrible which i can see why they would have that opinion but to us we're you know bon jovi borrowed from a lot of people back in those days so but we didn't know any better just like what poison borrowed from a lot of bands and i still got into them but i didn't know about the bands that influenced them but it didn't it didn't like take them down a notch when i discovered who influenced who it just made me appreciate more artists but uh yeah but i get why people didn't like it at the time but i like i like most of this record uh for me i'll go with the

42:38best i have to go with you give love a bad name it's overplayed as hell but it's an amazing riff the songwriting is top notch paint your smile on your lips blood red nails on your fingertips a scoop or a stream you act so shy your every first kiss was your first kiss goodbye oh oh oh oh you're a loaded gun

43:11oh oh oh there's nowhere to run no one could save me the damage is done shout through the heart and you're to blame you give love a bad name living on a prayer could have been my pick i think both of them are

43:48a and a a and a plus but uh for worst well i would go with without love and for one specific reason well i mean many reasons it's not a good song but the there's a part in the middle where john is trying to sound so over emotional he's like some things i took for grace so so many simple changes and he's like all breathless and i was like it's just the corniest shit i've ever heard um so yeah that one's gonna be my worst what

44:20about you i gotta agree with that it's a bad ballad it's so generic i mean it's you know bon joe is known for their good ballads this is a bad one really bad worst song on the album by far i don't know there's some stuff on here i like i give it there's three a's on here first off for once i gotta give it up to the keyboard player the introduction to the album and the song let it rock it's great it's great it's good that's that's

44:54quality keyboarding right there i'll take it the song is anthemic as hell it's it reminds me of like a def leppard song so i mean bon jovi's looking around you know what's going on around them and they're picking and choosing some stuff they're being influenced by their peers there's no doubt about it we'll go down to the roadway where everybody goes

45:28to get up on their rocking horse horse and radio yeah don't rock it on the table a girlfriend down below then give it up to the king of swing before it's time to go it's all right it's all right all right if you have a good time it's all right all right if you wanna cross that line break on through to the other side

46:04let it rock let it rock let it go let go you can't stop the fire burning out of control let it rock let it go let it go let it go not a fear at land away let it stay behind where all the lives選ed if you can't stop the fire burning out of control let it rock let it rock let it go let it go

46:38You give love a bad name? You know, it's funny. These songs I all know, because I heard them a million times when I was a kid. Because like I said, I had the album, and I didn't have a lot of albums, so you listen

47:10to what you got quite a bit. There's a lot of songs on here. If I never hear them again, that's okay, because you hear them all the time. And commercials, and the store, and everywhere you go. But trying to listen to these with an open mind, and trying to be like, okay, if I was hearing this for the first time, what would I think of it? You've got to give You Give Love a Bad Name an A. It's as catchy as it gets. It's a perfect blend of heavy and poppy at the same time. It builds and drops, and builds and drops.

47:42But not in a way where it's cool and then it sucks. It actually fits. It's an awesome song. It's a reason why it was such a big hit. Living on a Prayer, I mean, that's close too. Not quite as good. I'll give it a B+. It's the guitar box intro, man. That's killer. The bass groove is badass. It's so poppy. How could that have not been a hit in 1986? It almost didn't make the album. That's crazy. That's crazy to think that.

48:13Yeah. Wanted Dead or Alive, it's another one. Can I have a dollar for every time I've heard that song in my life? I don't know if I could pay off my house, but it'd be nice to have that money. It's a unique blend of country and rock. You know, Poison and those bands are all kind of doing that too. Like, Every Rose Has Its Thorn and stuff like that. The guitar solo, man, I forget how epic that song actually is. You know, you got to give it an A. It's awesome. Other than that, Raise Your Hands, I give it a B.

48:45I got some Ds and Cs mixed in out of the rest of the album.

48:50Social Disease. It's got that naughty intro to it. It's such a, it's like, it's a Motley Crue song from that time. Like, I could totally hear Motley Crue doing Social Disease on Theater of Pain. Yeah. Or on Dr. Feel Good, because it had stuff like Rattlesnake Shake on it, and it kind of falls in those lines. But I like, that song actually has aged well compared to some of the rest on here. Yeah. I still got to give it a C, minus points for the saxophone. So yeah, With All Love, Terrible, Worst Song.

49:22Best one? It's hard. Never Say Goodbye, right? No. That one's pretty cheesy, but it's perfect for its time. No, I like that. It's a ballad I like by them. But it's funny how many of my worst are going to be ballads, which I didn't expect.

49:42I mean, you kind of got to give it to You Give Love a Bad Name. I mean, it's shit. That's an awesome song. It really is. I can't believe it. So here I am, three albums deep, and I haven't given Bon Jovi a single F. Who would have thought that? Well, we'll see how things play out.

50:05I didn't do letter grades, but I would definitely have Fs to give if I did. So far? Oh, so far, no. No. Absolutely not. But down the road, for sure. Okay. We'll see. We'll see. But also, with some of that, though, it's like it's bias, because we're the hard rock fans. So, like, do I begrudge them for wanting to change? Because it obviously worked out for them to change, but, you know, it's not what I would want. So I try to also be objective of, is this a good song, and is the writing good, or does it just suck?

50:41So I'll be honest if I'm biased. While we're biased in all our answers, that's why you're listening. What am I talking about? Right, yeah. That's why we're here. Yeah. So then we've got a New Jersey. So how do you build upon the success of Slippery When Wet? Which was huge. You put out this, and this came out September of 88, and it was fucking Bon Jovi mania everywhere. They were the biggest band on the planet for a while. Same production team for this one. Bruce Fairbairn, Bob Rock, Mike Fraser, Desmond Childs, Back to Write Songs.

51:15Peaks at number one, no surprise. Albums charting nearby, Appetite for Destruction, and Hysteria. There's your trilogy of the top of the rock world at that time. Yeah, 1988, right there, those three. And Motley Crue right on their heels. Yeah. They wrote over 70 songs for this album. Holy shit. And they were going to put it out as a double album, but the record label talked them out of it, because they're trying to cash in. And they almost broke up around this time, too, because the record company was working them to death on the road.

51:48Well, Doc McGee included. Tons of good songs on this. Some real cringy shit on here for me, too. This is one where it hasn't aged as well as I remembered it, because I really loved this album when it was new. But yeah, some of the favorites. I mean, Bad Medicine's a great song. To this day, it's still a great riff. The video's awesome with Sam Kennison in it, where they let everybody film them. I thought that was cool. Homebound Train's an underrated song. It has that awesome harmonica part on it.

52:19But then you got Wild as the Wind is so over-dramatically kind of syrupy, lame. Ride Cowboy Ride, it's like, so you want to be a cowboy? It's like, oh, God. Musically, I like it, though. Then Stick to Your Guns. It's like, what's this cowboy obsession that John had? And then, of course, The Blaze of Glory came out a couple years ago after that, or a couple years after this. 99 in the Shade's a good song that would have fit on an earlier record. I like Love for Sailor, and it's just a goofy little jam thing they do on acoustic at the end.

52:50But for me, the best song on here, and if I hadn't heard it when I was basically a kid, I probably would think it's cheesier now, but Blood on Blood's my favorite song on this record. We'll be right back.

53:31But we were so young, one for all and all for one, just as sure as the river got a ride. Blood on Blood, one-on-one, one-on-one, one-on-one, Which seems as though it all was said and done. Blood on Blood, one-on-one,

54:03Blood on Blood, one-on-one, one-on-one, one-on-one, one-on-one, one-on-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one, one-one

54:33and it's one that a lot of the fans love they do it live but i don't know just it's it reminds you of the friends you grew up with and the bond you had and stuff and that's corny and stuff i know but um but as i get older i kind of appreciate that even more uh worse for me living in sin it's very cookie cutter yeah power ballad but trying to be trying to be provocative in the video with oh god they're having sex before marriage uh but yeah that's that's my best and

55:04worst yeah it's bon jovi's every rose has its thorn i think i think bon jovi looks around and sees what's happening around him what's hitting because it's like a kind of a mimic of that song i don't like it i gave it a d blood on blood man it's it's a springsteen song like it doesn't even sound like bon jovi oh it totally is a bruce springsteen ripoff i'll give you that that homebound train is pretty awesome i like it it's like heavy rock and blues it's got this awesome

55:35bass line to it i think the only thing it'd be make it any better would be if jack russell was singing it because it kind of reminds me of a badass great white song and then i don't know no f's on this one either got some d's like i said blood on blood i didn't like wind is the wind it's like a mexican love ballad what the hell's that you know just out of nowhere stick to your guns i think would have been a good stevie nicks song with distorted guitar that's what it sounds like to me i'll be there for you you know you guys got to start writing wedding songs you know things

56:09that stand the test of time that people a hundred years and from now will be dancing to at their weddings it's a decent ballad i give it a c 99 in the shade man i've heard van halen and you sirs are no van halen don't even try that shit and then love for sale you know it's kind of like a throwaway funny track at the end you know like van halen used to do that have the funny little acoustic guitar thing at the end of the album kind of black oak arkansas style i really like that i

56:41think it's funny and it's cool and i dig it best yeah you gotta give it to bad medicine because i mean it's so catchy it's a fist pumping song the guitar solo's killer i think number two if there was a coming up something else lay your hands on me is pretty awesome it's got that cool intro again doing it right with the keyboards these intros on these albums are pretty epic so i like that that song's catchy and cool but yeah i think i think you kind of gotta give it to bad

57:12medicine like if i'm listening to this not going oh man i don't want to hear that song ever again and actually listen to the song for what it is again they're finding on some of these songs the perfect way to be heavy but super poppy at the same time and i mean bad medicine nails it i don't need no needle to be giving me a drill and i don't need no anesthesia or a nurse to bring a pill i got a dirty down addiction that doesn't leave a track i got a choc-trial infection like a monkey on my back there ain't no paramedic gonna say this heart attack like your name that's what you get for

57:56oh boy who you love will you please will you please will you be on your knees like what you get oh boy who you love now this boy's addicted cause you'll kiss this the drill go-o-oh go-o-oh get up it's like bad medicine bad medicine it's what i need oh-oh-oh shake it up just like bad medicine so with keep the face you know grunge is starting hit around this time but bon jovi's still pretty

58:52big but you know john mitt changed his look this album is a little different it's a little less you can tell they started to move a little way from the hairband thing but there's still a lot of rocking stuff on here in my opinion it peaks at number five this does not go number one albums that charted nearby were automatic for the people by rem and the chase by garth brooks so that was the company they were in yeah i guess this is kind of when the adult rock thing started but i like a lot of songs on this one i think i believe is a good song the title track's good if i could pick us a best just on a solo but i'm not going to do that here it would have been dry

59:28county uh because the song is a little schmaltzy with its whole yeah you know people are people are dying of thirst and all that shit but then it gets to the solo and the solo just fucking kills it's richie's best solo ever in my opinion yeah i mean i almost didn't listen to the whole song because i was like i started getting into it like i don't know this it's all right i guess and then then you get to the guitar solo and it's like holy shit man i mean if you don't think you like bon jovi but you appreciate good guitar players if you want to get a real taste of what richie

1:00:04sambora can do check out that song dry county that guitar solo is epic yeah just fast forward four minutes and start there right but you know i don't know there's there's fear is a cool song it's kind of a straight ahead rocker and uh but then you get into a little bit of soul and blame it on the love of rock and roll and this is like there is some filler on here for sure if i was your mother has a good riff but it doesn't really it's not written well that's one of them like they're we're

1:00:38going to write a heavier song but it just doesn't sound convincing right but then the ballads you've got in these arms and bed of roses in these arms is pretty schmaltzy but it's a well-written one bed of roses is a very well-written ballad um also when you consider that his mistress in the song is not a woman it's being on the road which is kind of clever for for the back in those days uh for me the best the song that's aged the best for me is i'll sleep when i'm dead just because it's a straight ahead happy rock and roll song and sound still sounds good today when i hear it

1:01:12so you're looking for some action i got everything you need keep your motor running maybe i would feel for speed this ain't no slumber party got no time to catch and see they'll say they'll say they'll say they'll say the fan ain't healthy well they live up a disease come we're never gonna die baby come on let me drive you crazy we'll make every night the new year's eve

1:01:48Until I'm six feet under, baby, I don't need a bed Gonna live while I'm alive, I'll sleep when I'm dead They roll me over and lay my bones to rest Gonna live while I'm alive, I'll sleep when I'm dead Sleep when I'm dead, sleep when I'm dead Gonna live while I'm alive, I'll sleep when I'm dead

1:02:18Worst on here for me, I want you. It just sucks. It sounds like it's written from the perspective of a middle school girl with a crush.

1:02:46Hmm.

1:02:48Uh, let's see, I want you, your worst one I mean, Bon Jovi kind of goes back into their own catalog and said Well, that song worked, let's write another one like it I'm listening to I Want You, I'm hearing I'll Be There For You This is like I'll Be There For You Part 2 Just like Blame It On The Love Of Rock and Roll Is Bad Medicine Part 2 Similar but not nearly as good Right, yeah, because you can't just straight copy it But you take a lot of elements from those songs

1:03:20I mean, they're kind of rip-offs of themselves There's a lot of recycling in the Bon Jovi catalog And we'll go through it all Yeah, I'm kind of starting to notice that Your best song, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead I like that one, but It's a Cinderella song Check that out, listen to that song I'll Sleep When I'm Dead And tell me you can't imagine Tom Kiefer singing it It would have been a perfect Cinderella song So I think even in 1992, Bon Jovi's got to be looking at some of their contemporaries Where some of them are dropping off

1:03:52And some of them are hanging on I bet you they believed Cinderella would have been a band that would have continued on Something else on this one that's never come up before Is kind of like the song Keep the Faith Where it's funky, soulful, rockin' song It's almost like a Sly Stone song with a ripping guitar solo It's got a great solo, yeah Bon Jovi's kind of throwing in some funky stuff on this album, too

1:04:22There's only one song on here I gave an A to And that is Fear, it's awesome It's heavy metal Bon Jovi Maybe the coolest song so far Maybe, definitely, probably the heaviest Run, run with the ratchetness shit Makes you feel like you put partner in crime Girl, won't you a young and pretty No, won't you stop and watch that little girl die Hey baby, won't you stop and hear me

1:04:54Just being here while breathing heart attacks, yeah We can run, chase the jet sun, baby We can run, we won't ever look back, no Take my hand, I know we'll make it I let nothing slow us down I know you wanna curse this place There's only one thing stopping us now It's fear, fear, fear of a new thing

1:05:25Fear, fear, fear of a brass ring You ain't one for taking chances You work and you live and you bleed not to fight Still that's what you call living But yeah, I didn't expect that

1:06:09Like you're going along this album And you're hitting and missing on stuff And then fear And it's like Where did this metal song come from? And then falls right back into the next ballad So I mean It's alright The album's okay Worst song? Man, I gave a lot of C's on this one But I didn't give any D's I don't know, Bed of Roses is pretty bad In these arms is an okay ballad with a great guitar solo

1:06:40Hmm I guess I'm gonna give it to Bed of Roses Like in 1992, Bon Jovi's kind of inventing 2000's bro country You're kind of right, I hate to admit Like guys that are throwing bar stools off the top of rooftop bars Downtown Nashville country singers