After 16 months of touring for ‘New Jersey’, the band was simply exhausted. Without so much as a goodbye, the band members went home and did their own things for awhile. Jon Bon Jovi became real disillusioned with the music “business” so he fired everyone from management to advisers to even agents (which was Doc McGhee). Jon took control. And in October 1991, he brought the boys back together down in St. Thomas in the Caribbean where the band hashed out their issues and decided it was time to work again.
In January 1992, the band headed back to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada to start work on their fifth album. They tried to get Bruce Fairbairn back to produce, but he was busy with a little band from Boston called Aerosmith and their smash album ‘Get a Grip’. So, they got the next best thing, Bob Rock, who engineered their last two albums with Bruce so he was taught very well. They worked on the album through August of that year and wrote/recorded over 30 songs for the album. Of which, 12 made it and a couple were used for various bonus tracks whether in Japan or Australia.
Things had changed significantly since their last album. Some thing called Grunge had taken over and even Rap was growing in popularity. But the boys ignored all that, they also ignored their old sound which was full of cliches. Instead, the focused on righting real songs about more serious topics. Now, not all the songs were that way, but enough were that we got a band that sounded more mature, more focused and more serious.
The album came out on November 3, 1992 and would spawn six singles – four in the U.S. and two around the world. The album would chart at #5 in the U.S., #1 in the UK and high on so many charts around the world. It would sell over 8 million copies worldwide and have 3 Top 40 hits. Bon Jovi was back and in a big way. They were actually more popular around the world then in their home country. Why did this album do so well, let’s dig in to the songs and see.
The first track on the album was “I Believe” which was also the fifth single and released in the UK Where it went to #11. As typical with a Bon Jovi album, the first song is huge with a lead in build up to a massive guitar sound and then the song explodes with a classic Jon Bon Jovi scream. You immediately realize this isn’t the Bon Jovi you remembered. The song will lift you up and inspire. The flashiness is gone, but in its place is a well crafted song and musically it is on another level as there is so much going on you hear something new each time you listen. The solo isn’t flashy, but subtle and fits perfectly in the confines of the song. Jon’s writing has improved and it sounds like he has something to say. A brilliant opening track that sets the tone quickly for the album.
The title track is up next. “Keep the Faith” opens with a killer bass line then Tico’s drum beat settles in driving the groove. The song is uplifting and almost happy without being cheesy. It drives forward like a marching army and I think actually outdoes the opening track for inspiration. The guitar solo on this one outdoes the opener as well and sees Richie slay with those fingers. The funky groove, the aggressive vocals from Jon gives us a solid rocker. Jon actually speaks a portion of the vocals which adds to the impact of the song. Two of the bands most powerful songs right out of the gate.
Then with “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”, we get back to the old Bon Jovi sound. They have a little fun with this one with its old school rock style. It even has some honky tonk piano to lift you up. They prove the old Bon Jovi is still hidden underneath and they haven’t abandoned it. Its catchy with a simple driving drum beat and a full on party.
“In These Arms” is another with a strong bass groove. The song is about love, a love that won’t die, but it isn’t a ballad as it rocks out too much. Jon really feels this song as he gives it his all with the vocals. The chorus will suck you in, grab hold and won’t let go as you will sing it long after the song is over. Another old Bon Jovi style track that is simple and perfect.
Then we get the actual ballad of ballads with “Bed of Roses” which was written by Jon when he was hungover in a hotel room. The slow, long drawn out guitar notes, the piano playing so softly and the vocals that are so damn emotive gives us one of the best ballads they have ever done. Even the solo by Richie feels the pain of loneliness in this song. Jon paints a beautiful picture with those lyrics as his writing keeps getting better. You would have thought that ballads were dead by 1993 when this was released as a single, but this one went all the way to #10 on the Top 40 charts.
Then out of left field we get the most metal song the band has done with “If I Was Your Mother”. The first song that wasn’t a single on the album. This song also has some of Richie’s best work on here as well. The song is aggressive, angry and almost violent sounding. Jon’s vocals open with an almost hollow, radio sound before coming in full stereo. The song closes out the first half of the album with a bang and giving us one of the most solid opening half of any Bon Jovi album.
The second half of the album opens with “Dry County” which might be one of Jon’s best songs he’s ever written, but at almost 10 minutes in length it does drag on for quite awhile. A song about the decline of the domestic oil industry and it feels a little out of place with all the other songs. It also reminds me of Jon’s work on Blaze of Glory as it has that style. The song is damn near a masterpiece. Musically, the piano, the guitars and the drum work are all perfectly suited for the tone of the song and pull the essence of the lyrics to life. The tempo changes about 5 minutes in as the song keeps building and building and then completely rocks out with more fine work by Sambora. Then the song returns to form to close it out. An ambitious track for sure.
“Woman in Love” is the first song that sees the quality dip for me. It is a little dull although it is a lively track. It is lacking the quality of the other songs and leaves me a little bored. It is too generic and doesn’t offer up anythign special for me.
Then “Fear” sees the heavier side of Bon Jovi return. More hard driving bass lines, an angrier Jon on vocals. The chorus is catchy and the song will have you moving to the beat. There is nothing overly special about the song, but it is still fun and a little exciting.
Then we get the final ballad with “I Want You” which sees a decent enough song, but a little weaker when compared to other ballads they have done. The chorus is catchy enough, but the verses are a little bland at the same time. Richie’s solo is just okay as well. When compared to “Bed of Roses” it definitely is lacking.
“Blame it on the Love of Rock & Roll” is similar to “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” in both style and execution. It is another fun track and I do love the line “I got my vaccination from a phonograph needle”. But honestly, it is full of cliches and feels like filler.
To cap off the album we get the soulful “Little Bit of Soul”. It isn’t a bad song, just nothing to write home about honestly. I’m bored just listening to it now as I type this. Enough, let’s call it.
Track Listing:
- I Believe – Keeper
- Keep the Faith – Keeper
- I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead – Keeper
- In These Arms – Keeper
- Bed of Roses – Keeper
- If I Was Your Mother – Keeper
- Dry County – Keeper
- Woman in Love – Delete
- Fear – Keeper
- I Want You – Delete
- Blame it on the Love of Rock & Roll – Keeper (1/2 Point)
- Little Bit of Soul – Delete
The Track Score is 8.5 out of 12 Tracks or 71%. The first half of this album is one of the strongest the band has ever done, but the back half fades away quickly. Here’s the thing, those first seven tracks are just so good that you don’t mind skipping the rest (well, except “Fear”). The band has matured, the songwriting has improved and they are even better musicians. The band has aged well and one of the few bands from the 80’s to survive the onslaught of grunge. “Dry County” might be the best song they’ve ever written or performed and then with “Bed of Roses” one of my favorite ballads, this album has a lot going for it. The production is top notch and I still find this album to be exceptional. My Overall Score is a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars. If you haven’t spent time with this, you are missing out. Grab it and play it!
NEXT UP: BON JOVI – “I BELIEVE” – 7″ SINGLE (1993)
THE BON JOVI COLLECTION SERIES:
- Bon Jovi – The Albums Box Set (2017)
- Jon Bongiovi – The Power Station Sessions (1980-1983) (2001)
- Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi (1984)
- Bon Jovi – Shot Through the Heart: Live in Cleveland, OH March 17, 1984 FM Broadcast (Bootleg)
- Bon Jovi – 7800° Fahrenheit (1985)
- Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet (1986)
- Bon Jovi – New Jersey (1988)
- Bon Jovi – New Jersey: Super Deluxe Edition – Disc 2/DVD (1988)
- Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You” – Cassette Single (1988)
- Jon Bon Jovi – Blaze of Glory (1990)
- Jon Bon Jovi – “Blaze of Glory” – Cassette Single (1990)
- Richie Sambora – Stranger in this Town (1991)
- Bon Jovi – Keep the Faith (1992)
- Bon Jovi – “I Believe” – 7″ Single (1993)
- Bon Jovi – Crossroads (1994)
- Bon Jovi – “Please Come Home for Christmas” – CD Single (1994)
- Bon Jovi – These Days (1995)
- Bon Jovi – Live From London – DVD (1995)
- Jon Bon Jovi – Destination Anywhere (1997)
- Richie Sambora – Undiscovered Soul (1998)
- Bon Jovi – Crush (2000)
- Bon Jovi – Live From Osaka E.P. (2000)
- Bon Jovi – “Thank You For Loving Me” – CD Single (2000)
- Bon Jovi – The Crush Tour – DVD (2000)
- Bon Jovi – The Love Songs E.P. (Promo) (2001)
- Bon Jovi – Tokyo Road: Best of Bon Jovi (2001)
- Bon Jovi – One Wild Night Live: 1985-2001 (2001)
- Bon Jovi – Bounce (2002)
- Bon Jovi – Unauthorized: Rock ‘n Roll Legends – Bootleg DVD (2002)
- Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right (2003)
- Bon Jovi – Target E.P. (2003)
- Bon Jovi – Wild in the Streets: Unauthorized – Bootleg DVD (2003)
- Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right – DVD (2004)
- Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Part 1) – (2004)
- Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 1, Part 2) – (2004)
- Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 2, Part 3) – (2004)
- Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 3, Part 4) – (2004)
- Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 4, Part 5) – (2004)
- Bon Jovi – 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong (Disc 5, Part 6) – (2004)
- Bon Jovi – Have a Nice Day (2005)
- Bon Jovi – Live from the Have a Nice Day Tour (Walmart Exclusive) (2006)
- Bon Jovi – Lost Highway (2007)
- Bon Jovi – Lost Highway: The Concert (2007)
- Bon Jovi – The Circle (2009)
- Bon Jovi – When We Were Beautiful Documentary DVD (2009)
- Bon Jovi – Live at Madison Square Garden – DVD (2009)
- Bon Jovi – Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection (2009)
- Bon Jovi – Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Video Collection – DVD (2010)
- Bon Jovi – Inside Out – DVD (2012)
- Richie Sambora – Aftermath of the Lowdown (2012)
- Bon Jovi – What About Now (2013)
- Bon Jovi – Live E.P. (RSD – 2013)
- Bon Jovi – Live 2 E.P. (RSD – 2014)
- Bon Jovi – Burning Bridges (2015)
- Bon Jovi – This House is Not For Sale (2016)
- Bon Jovi – This House is Not For Sale – Live From the London Palladium (2016)
- Bon Jovi – The Albums Box Set – The Extra LP (2017)
- RSO – Radio Free America (2018)
- Bon Jovi – 2020 (2020)
- Bon Jovi – 40th Anniversary Box Set (TBA – I Hope it is out by the time we get here)
We’ve reviewed a bunch of pieces already over the years and won’t review again. They are as follows:
- Bon Jovi – The Brotherhood Tour Book (1988-1990)
- Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi Tour 2011 – Tourbook
- Bon Jovi – The Rock History – Bootleg CD
- Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name” – 12″ Single
- Bon Jovi – “You Give Love a Bad Name” – 7″ Single
- Bon Jovi – Red Hot & 2 Parts Live E.P. – 12″ Single
- Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive” – 7″ Single
- Bon Jovi – “Bad Medicine” – 7″ Single
- Bon Jovi – “Born to Be My Baby” – 7″ Single
- Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You” – 7″ Single
- Bon Jovi – “Lay Your Hands on Me” – 7″ Single
- Bon Jovi – “Living in Sin” – 7″ Single
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
Saw you on TCM channel today. You picked some good movies, and had some nice sentiments about civics being taught in American schools.
https://sunmedia.pressreader.com/article/282454238609806
Surprised you didn’t pick one of your own!
I heard this album once. I think one of the songs from it became a staple played in Mormon ads during commercial breaks in baseball games around here. Not making that up!
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Ha!! That is a strange ad to have a Bon Jovi song.
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I haven’t heard this one much, I don’t think I’ve checked out their 90’s stuff much at all. Was just too busy with other stuff around that time and their changed direction probably threw me off too.
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The U.S. started to go away from the during the 90’s while Europe and the rest of the world loved them!
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Haven’t listened to this for years but I used to listen to quite a lot. Was a good one for the walk to work… That said, I can’t really remember much about any of the songs that come after Dry County on the album.
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There is at least one great one after that song, the rest are okay, nothing to memorable I guess.
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This was the last great album for me. I see Slippery, New Jersey and Keep The Faith as a trilogy. The big Bon Jovi years. I remember the An Evening With unplugged set they did to promote it on MTV. Some of it was better than the album. I don’t think Grunge got to them but Zoo TV certainly did. I really liked Little Bit O’ Soul and Save A Prayer the two add on songs. Some of their best studio work
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I didn’t listen to this album until years later although I’d heard quite a lot of the songs when it was first released. I thought These Days still had a lot of the classic Jovi about it too… maybe a few too many ballads but some great songs on it. But those ones definitely form a trilogy like you say. I’ll need to try and track down the Unplugged, never saw/heard that.
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It wasn’t branded as Unplugged as Richie still played electric for some of it and there were synths but it was sort of going for a ‘Elvis Comeback Special’ kind of vibe. It was a great sit down set. Keep The Faith sounded superb
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Your writeup about the last track is one of the best “lets call it ” is simply brilliant! lol For me this is the last Jovi album I could listen to. Scott said it best I can’t remember anything past Dry County as well. I going to steal that line for the next Jovi album …
Great stuff John
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Interesting that the break and re-grouping led to such a successful change. A lot of bands don’t survive that process. I’ve heard Jon Bon Jovi is a hard working guy. Seems it’s true.
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so what happened to the other 20 songs? lol. I always wonder when I hear bands wrote all these songs and only a certain number made it. Follow up albums maybe?
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Interestingly enough, with Bon Jovi, their unreleased songs are really good. There’s some good unreleased stuff on their 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong box set.
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As good a song as “Dry Country” is, that’s where they started to lose me, the same way Poison did with “Something to Believe In” or the Crüe with “Time for a Change”. Those guys just don’t cut it as socially conscious rock stars. At least Bret Michaels and Vince Neill recognized this, but JBJ tragically based his whole latter-day career on this delusion.
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I agree that Jon got carried away with writing about political and serious subjects in the band’s latter day career. They went a rock ‘n’ roll band to just a “rock” band. I do like some of latter day stuff though, which Richie that is. Anything after Richie, I don’t care about.
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I guess without Richie, there is no one to restrain Jon’s worst impulses, like his Springsteen fixation. He just doesn’t come off as an authentic “man of the people”, more like that guy who shoots off his mouth on current issues without being asked. I get that he doesn’t want to sing about partying all night at his age, but there are enough other subjects more in his wheelhouse – relationships, life on the road, outlaws, etc – that he could approach in a mature way.
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I’d rather hear more songs about life on the road and outlaws than what the current Bon Jovi is singing about. I mean, even with Richie, they were singing about political stuff. But, even more so now.
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He has shown in the past, with songs like “Livin’ on a Prayer” or “Runaway”, or even on some songs on “Bounce” that he can make entertaining, uplifting rock music while addressing social issues. I just find his current sledgehammer approach to politics tiresome. If he really needs to go the Springsteen route, he should use “The Rising” as a blueprint instead of “Born in the USA”.
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Yeah, “Livin’ on a Prayer” is probably the best example out there. You mentioned ‘Bounce,’ I like the first track from the album, “Undivided.” That’s a very political song without overdoing it. I don’t even like Springsteen. No offense to the people that like him.
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Yes, “Undivided” is politically charged rock when done right, and his latest album is when it’s not. Even the most overtly political bands like The Clash or U2 knew that too much tub-thumping takes the fun out of R’n’R.
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Oh good, at least some bands have self-awareness and don’t always have their heads up their butt. The ‘2020’ album is basically a Jon Bon Jovi solo album and it’s horrible. I’d be lying if I said there’s hope for him, but unfortunately, his songwriting has gone down the drain since the 2000s.
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He can still go the G’n’R / Mötley Crüe route and have a much-publicized reunion tour with Richie, which would also make sense from a creative standpoint, as his best songs were collaborations. But judging by the recent output of the above bands, those things don’t exactly get the creative juices flowing.
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Richie also said controversial things about John Shanks and Phil X recently. The interview was so bad that it got taken down after a day or two. To be honest, neither Richie nor Jon are in good shape to tour (in my opinion).
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Jon always wanted to be seen as Springsteen.
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The irony is that he wants to be Springsteen more than Springsteen himself. Bruce has spent half his career trying to get rid of his mid 80’s patriot image, while Jon spent half his career trying to pick up the mantle.
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That is true.
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‘Keep the Faith’ is my favorite Bon Jovi album, despite the first half being stronger than the second half. We differ a little bit on songs we like/dislike. I actually like “Little Bit of Soul” and can’t stand “I Believe.” But that’s cool we like different songs because it’d be boring if we liked the same songs. Once again, Jon proved his genius songwriting skills with “Bed of Roses,” which he was hungover when he wrote the lyrics. I think Jon Bon Jovi is one of the few people that got away with writing a great song while drunk.
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Most bands write songs while they are wasted and all drugged up, so alcohol shouldn’t be any diffferent.
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Why do I find that surprising? I just assumed that most people write songs when they’re in the right state of mind.
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Ha! If that was the case, we’d never have had such great songs.
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That’s a very good point. Some of the greatest songs happen by accident!
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Although I like the hit songs like KTF and ITArms it’s tracks like Dry County and If I Was Your Mother that really capture me. I also like the lyrics in I Believe.
On the Aussie version we had A Little Bit Of Soul, Save A Prayer and Starting All Over Again.
They should have replaced some of those songs with these three.
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I think I have all those tracks as well. They do usually have a ton of extra tracks for every album. I hope the 40th Anniversary Box Set pulls out all the rest of their unreleased tracks like 100,000,000 Fans box set did.
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This, These Days and chunks of the box set show that the ’90s really was their best decade in terms of songwriting and quality. There’s so much great stuff here – if they swapped out ‘Save A Prayer’ (did you guys not get that bonus track?) for ‘Woman In Love’ and ditched ‘I Want You’ this would’ve been damn near faultless.
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