Tag: New Jersey

Coming Soon to 2 Loud 2 Old Music – The Bon Jovi Collection Series

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You read that right. The next series here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music will be Bon Jovi. It is coming July 4th, 2023. What better way to spend America’s birthday then to start reviewing one of the most American Bands there is…BON JOVI!!!

This Collection Series will include everything I have in my collection and that includes Jon Bon Jovi Solo stuff as well as Richie Sambora as to me, they are Bon Jovi (even if it is Jon’s band). No Richie, No Bon Jovi…okay, no real good Bon Jovi without Richie. There, I said it and got that out of the way. We have around 60 reviews coming to you and of course, that is going to take over one year to get through as we normally do 1 post a week on a series.

Here is what we are going to cover….

The Studio Albums…

The Live Albums…including Bootlegs

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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 – “Lay Your Hands On Me” – 45 Single

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On my Summer vacation back in June, I found over 20 singles with the picture sleeve. I’ve been through a bunch of them so far and now we are tackling the Bon Jovi singles that I found. There were 5 Singles found and we kicked it off with the following:

Now it is time for the final single and it is also from ‘New Jersey’ with “Lay Your Hands On Me”. The opening track of the album and the fourth single which only went to #7 on the Billboard Charts and the band’s fourth Top 10 in a row for this album. The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and was inspired by a guitar riff by Richie rather than from a song title like they did a lot of the times.

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Bon Jovi – “I’ll Be There For You” – 45 Single

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On my Summer vacation back in June, I found over 20 singles with the picture sleeve. I’ve been through a bunch of them so far and now we are tackling the Bon Jovi singles that I found. There were 5 Singles found and we kicked it off with the following:

Now it is time for another ‘New Jersey’ single with “I’ll Be There For You”. This was the third single off the album and it went to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 Charts. This was the band’s fourth #1 song and if I’m not mistaken, it was their last but not from lack of great songs as they still put out some fantastic tracks even after this one. This particular song was written soley by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora with no outside help. Same with the B-Side, “Homebound Train”. Bon Jovi was at the top of their game and no one could touch them. They could have taken a piss, recorded it and it probably would’ve gone to #1 too as long as Jon and Richie were in the video.

If you ever wanted to know why this era of rock bands were called “Hair Bands”, just look at the cover. Aqua Net stock was riding high at that time as the amount of hairspray being used put a hole in the ozone layer…true fact!! My version of the single is a standard U.S. version and the single version and album version aren’t really different. There are only a couple seconds shaved off the single. The big difference is the radio edit which this is not.

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Bon Jovi – “Born to Be My Baby” – 45 Single

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On my Summer vacation back in June, I found over 20 singles with the picture sleeve. I’ve been through a bunch of them so far and now we are tackling the Bon Jovi singles that I found. There were 5 Singles found and we kicked it off with the following:

Now it is time for another ‘New Jersey’ single with “Born to be My Baby”. This was the second single off the album and did pretty dang great going all the way to #3 on the Billboard Top 100 and it was one of 5 Top 10 Singles off this album…crazy!!! It was another track written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and of course, Desmond Child. There is no denying his impact with the band.

As you can see from above that the B-Side is “Love For Sale” also from the same album. However, that is WRONG!!! Ok, not really, that is truly the B-Side, but my copy is not normal. It is actually a promo that was sent out using the regular single cover. So, my copy has “Born to Be My Baby” on both sides. It even says on the single label, “Promotional Copy – Not For Sale” which I think is cool. Like some older promos that I have which has one side Stereo and one side Mono, this one is all Stereo and the same song on each side, no differences.

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Bon Jovi – “Bad Medicine” – 45 Single

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On my Summer vacation back in June, I found over 20 singles with the picture sleeve. I’ve been through a bunch of them so far and now we are tackling the Bon Jovi singles that I found. There were 5 Singles found and we kicked it off with one of Bon Jovi’s most popular and famous songs, “Wanted Dead or Alive” off the band’s 1986 album ‘Slippery When Wet’. That was the only one of ‘Slippery When Wet’ as the rest are off their stellar album, ‘New Jersey’. Next up is the first single off the album which was ‘Bad Medicine’. The song was released on September 3, 1988 and went all the way to #1 and was the band’s third #1 single and I don’t think it was their last.

The version I have on 45 is the standard U.S. release with the B-Side as “99 in the Shade”. The only really good thing about it is that the song “Bad Medicine” is actually the single edit which cuts off more than a minute off the album version which sits around 5:16 vs 3:52 for the single.

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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)” →

My Sunday Song – “Wild is the Wind” by Bon Jovi

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For My Sunday Song #197, we are going to go with a song off Bon Jovi’s New Jersey album called “Wild is the Wind”.  The song was from 1988 and it was never released as a single, but it stuck with me and was one of my favorites on the album.  Like a lot of their albums, the deep cuts can sometimes be better than the actual singles and this was one of those for me.  Next to “Blood on Blood” from the New Jersey album, this is one I go to more than others.

This song seems to be an admission of guilt for Jon as he seems to be feeling bad for not being there for his wife.  It is something deeply imbedded in him that drives him to be on the road all the time.  He feels she would probably do better finding someone else that can give her what she needs because he feels he is failing at that task.  And as much as he lived that rock star lifestyle, I would say he failed quite a bit at giving her what she needed.  In the end, we know how the story ends in real life as he and his wife are still together after all these years.

What I loved about the song is something that was a common theme on the New Jersey songs, it was this cowboy spirit drenched in the music style.  It wasn’t a country twang or anything like that, it was mostly in how the acoustic guitar is used in the songs.  There is this restless feeling in the songs.  Musically, it is a cross between a ballad and just a plain old rock song. It has its slow moments, but rocks out in the end with some damn fine guitar work by Mr. Richie Sambora, the backbone of the band.  Tico Torres has some nice drum fills and great moments as well so I don’t want to leave him out.  Jon sings with all his heart and his emotions on his sleeve like he always did back then (now the new stuff feels like is his just going through the motions, but that is another story for another day).

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Kiss – ‘The Summer of Satan: The Devils Ride Out!’ (Bootleg Series) – Album Review

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And now we are on the third Kiss Bootleg I picked up in Paris.  This one is a beauty.  It is called “Kiss – The Summer of Satan: The Devils Ride Out!”.  The package is fantastic on this release as you get a beautiful gatefold, some awesome pictures on the vinyl sleeves and some colorful vinyl.

The show is at the Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ on July 10th, 1976.  It is a full soundboard recording (and I believe this show was videotaped as well and circulating).  You get 15 tracks plus 3 solos, so yes, a full show.  Before we get in to the music, as always, let’s go over the packaging.  You’ve seen the cover above, now take a look at the back cover.  It is a picture of the band on motorcycles.  I really cool shot!

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And It is a 2LP set and they did it right with a gatefold.  The full picture on the gatefold is a shot of the stage with all the band and the Kiss Logo!!  Okay, Peter is  little blurred by the smoke…lots of smoke.

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Bon Jovi – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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Formed in 1983, just a mere 35 years ago, Bon Jovi defined the 80’s music scene.  They have since had 13 studio albums, 3 live albums, numerous compilations and even a box set.  With so much music, some of course is bad, some is good, some is great and some is legendary.  They have had line-up changes as most bands have had and yet the still keep rolling on.  They have even made it in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  Since there is so much about the band, they deserve to have their albums ranked from Worst to First.  I am going to do all 13 of their studio albums, plus 1 compilation which I thought was a studio album, but apparently not…who knew.  So, 14 albums in total will be coming at you.  I hope you have time to get through all of them.

And as always, let’s start with my least favorite album and work our way to my favorite…so sit back and enjoy…

15. THE WORST – ‘THE CIRCLE’ (2009):

‘The Circle’ was supposed to be the band’s return to rock after a very Nashville based previous album, ‘Lost Highway”.  The big problem for me with this album was the lack of credibility the songs had with me.  They tried to return to a “working man” sound such as “Work for the Working Man”, but I didn’t believe it.  It felt forced and fake.  Nothing on this album resonated with me in the least bit.  Even today, I can’t think of the names of the songs on this album.  They were not memorable and just seemed stale and uninspiring.

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