Tag: Alec John Such

Bon Jovi – ‘Shot Through The Heart: Live in Cleveland, OH – March 17, 1984’ (Bootleg) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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Bon Jovi the touring act was extremely fresh and new as the band hadn’t been together for very long. Even Jon said the band was terrible until their third album when things started to click. While out crate digging years and years ago, I found a Bon Jovi bootleg of a radio broadcast from only 2 months after their debut album, ‘Bon Jovi’, was released. A great snapshot of the young band in all its rawness and newness.

The show takes place on March 17th, 1984 at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, OH. The show was broadcast on WMMS-FM Radio so of course we get some of the radio DJs on here during the show. The bootleg I have was released in 2015 and 2 LPs (both black) and it was limited to only 500 copies. The cover is pure Bon Jovi with the denim blue jeans with a picture of Jon on the front and the band on the back. I mean, it is Jon’s band don’t forget. The band plays all but “Burning for Love” from the debut and you get a Sly & The Family Stone cover. Let’s get to the music.

The album opens with a Radio DJ introducing the band and they come out slowly with a very long drawn out build which you mostly hear the crowd screaming. Some weird distorted voice says something and then the guitar kicks in and we get the opening to “Breakout”. There is no doubt it is live as it is rough, raw and not very tight. Jon actually sounds pretty decent, still a little unpolished, but he can still hit some high notes that he can’t now. And he should be able to hit them since he is only about 22 or so here. Richie lays down a great solo and things start getting better as the band jams it up a little here.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Bon Jovi’ (1984) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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By 1982, Jon Bon Jovi re-recorded “Runaway” which he had originally recorded back in 1980 and had shopped it around with no luck. This re-recording he did with what he liked to call The All-Star Revue which consisted of guitarist Tim Pierce, keyboardist Roy Bittan, drummer Frankie LaRocka, and bassist Hugh McDonald (remember this name). The song started getting a little traction and eventually Jon Bongiovi got a record deal and changed his name to Jon Bon Jovi. He was an artist with a deal, but no band. Jon wanted a band and he was going to go with Johnny Electric, but Pamela Maher that suggested he use the name Bon Jovi since a two word name worked so well for Van Halen. No one really liked that idea at first, but eventually Jon came around and Bon Jovi was born.

So, Jon called his old buddy from his old band Atlantic City Expressway, David Bryan Rashbaum, and the ball got rolling. David called his buddy Alec John Such to handle bass and a drummer he knew by the name of Tico Torres. Alec and Tico were formerly in a band together called Phantom’s Opera. They needed a guitarist, so Jon reached out to his friend Dave Sabo (or “Snake”) who played with them for a very short time. He never actually joined the band, but thankfully he would go on to something almost quite as good with a band called Skid Row…maybe you’ve heard of them.

But the band still needed a guitarist. Jon had seen, and was impressed, by a guitarist by the name of Richie Sambora. Richie had played with Joe Cocker and was in a band called Mercy. Hell, Richie even auditioned with Kiss to replace Ace Frehley, but that didn’t go well. Jon asked him to join and now the band was complete. The band had a new manager by the name of Doc McGhee and with his help, they went off to record their debut album.

The name of the album was going to be “Tough Talk”, but that didn’t end up as the title as the record company had other ideas. They felt a self-titled album was certainly the way to go and they wrote the checks so they got their way. The album came out on January 24, 1984 and has been certified platinum. It reached #43 on the album chart so not a bad start for a brand new band. There is even an Aldo Nova connection to this album as he supplied some additional keyboards and guitars as the band hadn’t been complete yet while Jon was in the studio. We will touch on him more later in the series.

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Bon Jovi – ‘The Albums Box Set’ (2017) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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We are starting out things a little different. We aren’t starting with the earliest Bon Jovi piece in the collection. We are going to start the Bon Jovi Collection Series with the piece that convinced me to start the series. I picked this up around Christmas of last year and when I had all the album on vinyl, I thought, let’s do it. I took some time filling some holes in the collection and arranging what I wanted to review and now here we are. Currently this collection is going to take some time as there are around 60 pieces to review so this will take over a year to complete so I hope you are along for the ride. We will save the history of the band and how it got started to later. For now, let’s look at this box set in all its glory.

The Box Set was released on February 10, 2017 and was released on both vinyl and CD. I chose the Vinyl collection as I love to have their albums on vinyl. The set carries all studio albums up to that point which means it stops at ‘This House is Not For Sale’. But that isn’t all, it has both Jon Bon Jovi solo albums as well as an “Extra” LP with a bunch of their international B-Sides which is a nice treat. But that is it. There no extra posters, stickers, booklets or anything. Each album though is remastered on 180g LP and the 16 albums are spread over 24 LPs. At the time this was released, 7 of the albums had never been released on vinyl and then you have the “Extra” LP which is the first time this had ever been released. So, for the vinyl collector this was the easiest way to get everything. Now, they did release the albums individually, well the Bon Jovi ones were, I don’t think I ever saw the Jon Bon albums ever in the stores…I mean ever.

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Bon Jovi – “Living in Sin” – 7″ Single

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In my quest to find good homes for 7″ Singles with picture sleeve covers, I came across another Bon Jovi single. This time around it is for the song “Living in Sin” off the mega-seller ‘New Jersey’ and was released on October 7, 1989. Bon Jovi was the king of power ballads and this fit the bill nicely as the song went to #9 on the Billboard Top 40 charts. It was the 5th and final single off the 7X platinum status album which means it sold over 7 million copies in the US alone.

The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi and talks about cohabitating with the person you love out of wedlock, thus the “Living in Sin” part. True love outweighs every thing. Jon doesn’t need a wedding, a preacher, a ring to tell him he loves her and they should be together. He doesn’t need her father telling them it is wrong either. The only thing that matters is that they are together.

My copy of the Single is the standard U.S. release with “Love is War” as the B-Side. The picture sleeve is in pristine condition and a great find to add to my singles collection. I have a ton of Bon Jovi singles which makes sense as millions were sold so there should be some out in the wild for the taking.

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Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name” – 7″ Single

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In my quest to find good homes for 7″ Singles with picture sleeve covers, I came across another Bon Jovi single. This time around it is for the song “You Give Love a Bad Name” off their mega-selling album “Slipper When Wet”. It was the first single off the album and was the band’s first #1 single and wouldn’t be their last. The song was written by Desmond Child, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and is about a woman who has done her lover wrong. So wrong that she gives love a bad name.

An interesting note about the song is Desmond had written this song for Bonnie Tyler, but it was called “If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)” which had completely different lyrics. The song did poorly so he brought it to his writing session with Jon and Richie and pitched it. They completely re-wrote the lyrics and turned it in to the big hit it is today.

The single I have is the standard U.S Release which was released on July 23, 1986. The B-Side is also off ‘Slippery When Wet’ and is the song “Raise Your Hands”. The picture sleeve I have is in great shape and the vinyl is clean and sounds great. For being 36 years old, I would say it is in pretty great shape.

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Bon Jovi – The Brotherhood Tour Book (1988-1990)

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Back in the late 80’s, Bon Jovi was huge and on one of the longest tours in their history in support of their multi-platinum selling album ‘New Jersey’.  The tour went to Europe, Asia, North America, Europe again, North America again, Australia and even South America.  It hit everywhere and lasted for over 2 years and over 200+ shows.  Sadly,  I don’t think I actually saw that tour and I am not sure how I would’ve missed that tour either.  Maybe I did and I had so much I fun I can’t remember and I lost my ticket stub (I normally keep all my ticket stubs).

Anyway, the tour set list was usually something like this…

  1. Lay Your Hands On Me
  2. I’d Die For You
  3. Wild in the Streets
  4. You Give Love a Bad Name
  5. Homebound Train
  6. Born to be My Baby
  7. Let It Rock
  8. I’ll Be There For You
  9. Blood on Blood
  10. Get Ready
  11. Livin’ on a Prayer
  12. Never Say Goodbye
  13. Runaway
  14. Ride Cowboy Ride
  15. Wanted Dead or Alive
  16. Bad Medicine

I do, however, have the Tour Book. I found at an an Antique Mall here in Charlotte called Sleepy Poet.  It was cheap at only $7 and in great condition, so I grabbed it. Now you get the pleasure of enjoying it page by page.

What is really cool about this one is it has the song lyrics for all the New Jersey songs as well as the flyer for joining the fan club and buying merchandise is still included.  Here are all the pictures, I hope you enjoy… Continue reading “Bon Jovi – The Brotherhood Tour Book (1988-1990)” →