Bon Jovi Nominated for Rock Hall- Discuss.

Cafe Society
1

As a corollary to the “main” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thread, I wanted to discuss my favorite band.

Now, I will never advance Bon Jovi as the band that saved the world. I won’t ever claim that they revolutionized music or shattered paradigms.

However, they have put out album after album of great tracks. The first record was solid for what it was, 7800 was an acceptable sophomore slump.

Slippery? It was a juggernaut. Far and away the best album of its genre and a magnificent rock-n-roll album by most standards.

New Jersey? Again, a back-to-front kickass album. Tinges of real blues influence.

Keep The Faith- my favorite record, put out at a time when everyone was afraid of Nirvana. It was a departure from the prior records, a little edgier in spots, but still recognizably Bon Jovi.

I liked “These Days,” but most fans didn’t, and there’s some truth to the accusation that thereafter they boys did like the Stones and sold the “Bon Jovi brand” from that point on, although each record had some great B-sides and concert standards in the “Captain Crash” vein.

“This Left Feels Right” and “Lost Highway” were swerves that I welcomed and thought showed depth.

Add in Jon’s two solo records (I LOVED “Destination Anywhere”), and Richie’s solo records (which never got enough credit), the constant lineup and the loyalty therein, and the fact that Jon is near-universally acknowledged as the hardest-working dude of his generation, I ask you…

25 years. All those hits. Inventing “MTV Unplugged.” Sticking around and putting out well-received new material when their contemporaries are… well, let’s just say I saw the original lineup of Winger in '08 for 15 bucks at the Middle East. Yet every tour it’s me and 20,000 people at every Bon Jovi Show, and they play their HEARTS out for us.

Isn’t that enough? Shouldn’t it be?

If not, what DOES it take?

2

You make a good case. They’re a good band with good marketing & consistent strength of output. For a ‘younger’ act, they have done a strikingly good job of earning that spot.

3

Cite?

4

I believe Jon and Ritchie’s live acoustic version of Livin on a Prayer is largely credited with being the impetus to get more bands acoustifying their songs, but I could be wrong.

Anyways, I largely went off in a different direction after New Jersey, though I did buy This Left Feels Right at some point. Either way, Jon is one of the hardest working guys out there, and their concert sales and the aforementioned hugeness of SWW and NJ definitely earn them a spot in my opinion.

5

Also, Stranger in this Town and the Young Guns II Soundtrack were both awesome.

6

By any chance did **Happy Scrappy Hero Pup **grow up in New Jersey? Possibly in the 80s?

7

What I like about Bon Jovi was how they brought marketing chops to their albums - for Slippery When Wet they recorded 25 or so songs, market tested them, and then selected the top scoring songs to appear on the album. (Cite: A long-ago Rolling Stone article).

Nothing does that good ol’ Rock and Roll “Fuck the Establishment” attitude prouder than mixing your album according to the songs relative Q ratings. :wink:

8

Yes. Yes he did.

This is mostly correct. It was “Prayer” and “Wanted Dead or Alive” at the '89 VMA’s.

Depending on the direction you went, I think you should pick up “Keep the Faith.” It’s a harder record and a departure from what was, to that point, their signature sound. It’s a damn fine record.

Facts.

Hey, they’re Jersey rock, not punk. Besides- it worked, didn’t it? There’s not a bad song on that album.

9

This.

Taken for what they are (slick corporate rock, which they are through and through), they’re not too bad, at least on record. They also, it must be noted, happen to be one of the shittiest live bands I’ve ever had the bad luck of witnessing (they’re rivaled for this distinction chiefly by bands with names such as Ratt and Mötley Crüe).

But, hey, chicks, guidos, and all-around, NASCAR-lovin’ dudes seem to really dig 'em, so who am I to bitch?

10

It’s Jon’s hair. It’s all about the hair.

11

Well, then your luck was bad. I’ve seen them around 15 times or so, and, while I wasn’t a fan of “The Circle” tour, that’s because I didn’t like the new record as much as I liked the others. It was still an “all right” show as rock and roll shows go, though.

Besides, regarding all the flap about the surveys for songs on “Slippery:” it’s not like the songs that missed the cut were “Me and a Gun” or “In Bloom,” for pete’s sake. Bon Jovi asked Bon Jovi fans what Bon Jovi songs they’d most like to hear.

If “Slippery” was going to be “Sgt. Pepper” had the survey gone a different way, you might have something.

And the “corporate rock” moniker is bogus. Bon Jovi has been playing the same genre since 1985. They’re not Nickelback or Sugar Ray, who played what the execs told them would probably sell. It’s not their fault that the music they play is accessible.

And has everyone forgotten the “Living in Sin” video? Not too corporate to lose all that money making a video that would never be shown.

Wow. You really MUST have the right opinion, since you’re so much better than all those little people!

12

I feel I owe it to the kid that went haywire over Slippery to try out Keep the Faith, and am buying it today.

Also, I’ve seen them live back in the day, and was a great show. I did see, maybe 10 years back, a live show on TV where Jon’s voice sounded like he might have lost some of the dynamics, but hey, getting older sucks.

13

A buddy of mine, local musician Norman Nardidni has collaborated with Jon on writing a few songs, and has always said that Jon Bon Jovi is under appreciated. Maybe he is right?!

14

I have heard this several times, too - they appeared on a MTV awards show- Jon and Richie doing an acoustic version of Wanted Dead or Alive - it was so well received that it sparked MTV to come up with the Unplugged idea…

As for their candidacy for the RRHoF - meh. I agree with most of the assertions made by the OP and if they get it I wouldn’t be at all surprised. But they didn’t push out new boundaries or make a powerful statement - they are a well-produced, high volume band who play it reasonably safe - which is totally fine; more power to 'em. But I would like to see them produce a Bohemian Rhapsody, a Tommy or American Idiot or a song like Like a Rolling Stone or Satisfaction - those types of artistic statements raise bands to a HoF level, IMHO…

15

I f’in hate Bon Jovi, but my first reaction upon seeing the HoF recommendations was that the band should get the nod. Happy Scrappy Hero Pup nailed the salient points.

They’re not just popular… they’ve remained popular for a quarter of a century in a genre that is not known for its long-term support. They were/are influential in rock and the marketing of rock. Their hits are definitely classics (despite my opinions of them); a DJ can hit any crowd with “Living on a Prayer”, 24 years after its release, and get a huge reaction. Their old albums remain huge catalogue sellers. Their new albums and compilations hit the top of the charts. They’ve stayed popular no matter the movements of the music industry. They have serious talent-- I don’t know a guitar player who would insult Richie Sambora, no matter how much they hated his work.

There’s also a bit of my old punk background steering my opinion. 30 years in, they still love to plug in and play, and they don’t give a damn about whether they’re taken seriously or not? Rock.

16

For someone who cut his chops in Seaside Heights in its longhair heyday, Bon Jovi were fucking well anthem.

Bwuh? I’m going to have to guess this was either in the past couple of years or you caught them on the worst night possible. At the arena concert level, the top three shows I’ve ever seen (out of a good 150ish) were 1: Bon Jovi on the New Jersey tour, 2: Iron Maiden on the Number Of The Beast tour, and 3: Bon Jovi on the Slippery When Wet tour.

Those guys know how to play their asses off and work a crowd.

17

Not to be unkind, truly, but mightn’t you be just a wee biased, considering your location?

And to answer your question, the one time (thankfully, it’s only been one time) I saw them was on their Slippery When Wet tour. And opening act Cinderella handed them their asses, performance-wise (and considering the fact that we are talking about hair bands here). But the chicks in the audience, who they shamelessly played to (even more shamelessly than did Poison when I saw them in concert, and that’s saying something), really fucking dug the show.

18

That’s slightly unfair, because it just so happens that Cinderella is the single most under appreciated band to come out of the hair band era. Though they had the makeup and the ballads at the time, they could have just as easily been awesome in a straight up rock era.

Also, Tom Keifer is a badass singer/songwriter/lead guitarist. So it surprises me not at all that Cinderella would blow anyone off the stage.

19

Has Barry Manilow ever been nominated? Now That JBJ and his bros are in the mix, I think it’s time.

20

They’re talking about the Rock Hall of Fame, not the Bland.:smiley: