Bon Jovi – ‘Tokyo Road: Best of Bon Jovi’ (2001) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

With Bon Jovi’s return and their ‘Crush’ album, the band was literally crushing it. The album was selling great and their worldwide tour was a smash hit selling out and reaching over 1 million people around the globe. In May of 2001, they released a live album with a collection of live songs from throughout the years to help capitalize on the new found success again. But before that, the band released a greatest hits package on March 28, 2001. The album was called ‘Tokyo Road: Best of Bon Jovi’ and it was released exclusively in Japan. As a result, I didn’t hear about it for years, but I finally did get a copy.

The album contains 16 songs only one of which is a new version which was “One Wild Night” which was remixed for this release. All the other songs appear to be album versions for the most part. Now, if you bought one of the initial pressings of the album, you were given a bonus 3″ Mini CD with 4 exclusive live tracks. My copy has that plus it still has the OBI strip and the extra booklet with the lyrics in both English and Japanese. It is all there in all it’s glory.

The opening track was the only unreleased track which was a remix of “One Wild Night 2001” which was originally off the ‘Crush’ album. “One Wild Night” originally had a cartoon tune opening, but that was removed and the song just starts with some weird sounding guitar licks that are less rocking, but then the song does rock out. The song is anthem and if you had heard this live your hands would be high in the airing, pumping along with the beat. The song is throwback to the early rock legends of the 60’s. They really changed up the sound and tone with this one all thought the heart of the song is still there.

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My Sunday Song – “You Can’t Fight It” by Rush

For My Sunday Song #384, we have Tim’s fourth choice with “You Can’t Fight It” by Rush. This is about as early as you can get with Rush and isn’t on any studio album. It is the first professional studio recording the band had ever done. It was done in Toronto, Canada with David Stock producing. In fact, this is part of the very first single the band ever put out with the song “Not Fade Away” which is a great Buddy Holly cover. But we are here to talk about the B-Side which was written by Geddy Lee and then drummer, John Rutsey.

It was written back in 1971 by the two gents, but Geddy ended up getting kicked out of the band, but cooler heads prevailed and John called Geddy and asked him to come back and by March of 1972, the band was set and ready to progress forward. No one would release the record so the band formed Moon Records and released it themselves, mainly in Toronto. It is extremely rare and a probably worth a fortune if you can actually find one. There is one for sale on Discogs as of my writing this for $1,500 if that gives you any idea of the value.

The song seems to be about the band just rocking you hard and you won’t be able to fight it. The song is short at under 3 minutes because according to Alex Lifeson, radio would only play songs that were around 3 minutes. A song that completely and utterly rocks out. A great bar sounding song with some wicked guitar riffs and soloing by Alex. Just Stellar!! John’s drum rolls on this song were killer as well as he would go nuts during his fills. Both Alex and John fed off each other with this one. Geddy’s vocals were perfect for this song as well as he slayed with the confidence and cockiness needed for a beast of a rock song. This might be a new favorite song of mine for Rush. Simply fantastic!!

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