Tag: Wanted Dead or Alive

Bon Jovi – ‘One Wild Night Live: 1985-2001’ (2001) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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2000 was a big year for the band with a hit new album, a live DVD and to follow it up, the band gave us their first ever live album. But don’t get your hopes up as it isn’t one show from the tour. No, I guess the Crush DVD was enough for that. Instead it is really a greatest hits compilation with live songs taken from shows from 1985-2001. So, not a true live album in my book. But I’m being petty. We do get 14 live tracks and one remixed studio track of “One Wild Night 2001”.

The songs are taken from 8 different shows and some are actually repeats as the London shows were on the Live From London DVD and The Crush Tour DVD so we’ve heard a few of the songs before. And the band has one small change during the songs. We get Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan and Tico Torres on all the songs. But we also get Alec John Such on bass for only 2 of the songs from Tokyo back in 1985 and then Hugh McDonald on bass for the rest. And we get one special guest with Bob Geldof on one song.

The album came out on May 22, 2001 and went to #20 in the U.S., but was never certified Gold. However, the album did better around the world as Bon Jovi continues to actually be more successful in Europe then their home country where the album sold over 1,000,000 copies in Europe making it Platinum status. It went to #2 in the UK as well as several other countries including Spain, Austria and the Netherlands and to #1 in Switzerland and Belgian. Europe continued to love on Bon Jovi.

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Bon Jovi – ‘The Crush Tour’ (2000) – DVD Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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The album ‘Crush’ saw Bon Jovi back on the scene and having major success. The album sold over 5 million copies worldwide and go to #9 on the U.S. Billboard charts. The band had a huge successful tour and to capitalize on the renewed love for Bon Jovi, they recorded one of the shows and released it on DVD and sold over 100,000 copies in the U.S. The show was recorded on August 30, 2000 in Zurich, Switzerland at the Letzigrund Stadium. The show was directed by a Jon relative by the name of Anthony Bongiovi. When all was done, it was released in Japan on December 7, 2000 while Wiki says it was released on May 28th, 2001, but since the date on the back cover says 2000, I’m going with the December date.

The boys are the same as it is Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan, Tico Torres and of course, Hugh McDonald on bass and not yet a full time official member. The DVD has the full show, plus some bonus features as well along with some music videos so it is jammed pack with goodness. My copy is a standard edition from the U.S., no extras above and beyond what is expected. I picked this up used and it was in great shape and probably cost about $5 so I was pretty happy. Enough chit chat, let’s get to the show.

The show kicks off with “Living on A Prayer”…how solid is your catalog when this classic opens the show? When Richie gets on the talk box and the drums kick in, the crowd goes nuts and starts bouncing up and down for the entire song. They don’t let up. Jon commands the crowd like a good frontman should. They go right in to “You Give Love A Bad Name” and they keep the party going at full force. The crowd doesn’t let a little rain dampen their spirit or their energy.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Live From London’ (1995) – DVD Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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The band’s first live concert video, ‘Live From London’ was released in 1995 on both VHS and Laserdisc. The tour was in support of their new album at the time, ‘These Days’ and the show was from their stint at Wembley Stadium on June 25, 1995. They played several shows I believe and all to a massive crowd of 72,000 screaming fans. This isn’t the full set either as I believe some tracks were cut for time and to get the runtime down to around 90 minutes, but it is a great setlist.

The version I have is the International DVD release which was in 2003. There was a DVD release in 1998 in the US and Canada, but mine is the 2003 release. There is absolutely no difference between the VHS and the DVDs, no remastering or anything. It is the same cut. The film is directed by David Mallett and produced by Andy Picheta. These two have to reign in Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan and Tico Torres along with touring member and studio member, but not band memer yet, Hugh McDonald.

The show kicks off with a couple of old classics with “Livin’ on a Prayer” starting the show. Richie comes out and immediately puts his mouth around the talk box and you know the song that is coming. The band kills it and like almost every song on here they don’t do a straight album version of the song, they change things up a little with either more musical breaks or longer, drawn out jams at the end of the song which makes things more interesting as you don’t know what they are going to do for each song. Then we get “You Give Love a Bad Name” and the crowd screams along with the band. Jon sound’s really great as he was still in his prime. Richie’s solo is quick and stellar and then the crowd gets involved with the chorus. Always a fun song live.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Cross Road’ (1994) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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After the release of their last album ‘Keep the Faith’ in 1992, the band set out on an extensive worldwide tour. They hit 37 countries while performing over 177 shows and those shows saw reached over 2.5 million people. The boys were busy and as a result of this tour, very tired. They also needed more time to work on their next album. To hold fans over, a greatest hits compilation was released by the band and the label. The album came out on October 11, 1994 and contained songs from every album including 1 from Jon’s solo album and 2 unreleased tracks. The U.S. version got a special track of Livin’ on a Prayer which had been redone and called “Prayer ’94”, however, my vinyl set of the album does not have that song.

The album was titled ‘Cross Road’ which is possible that was where the band saw themselves at. The music landscape was changing rapidly, their 80’s rock glam style was no longer popular, yet this band kept on chugging. ‘Cross Road’ sold went to #8 in the U.S. and #1 in so many country. Worldwide they sold over 21,000,000 copies as Bon Jovi was even bigger around the world than at home. The cover art was taken at a diner called the Roadside Diner and it was near the crossroads of Rout 33 and Route 34 so it was a very appropriate cover.

The one strange thing about the album was inside they had a picture of all the band’s albums including Jon’s solo album and even Richie’s solo album, but no song from Richie’s album made the set yet Jon’s did. Another prime example this was Jon’s band and even the back cover only had Jon on it. A picture says a 1,000 words I believe is the saying.

The compilation kicks off with one of their most popular songs, “Livin’ On A Prayer” off the album ‘Slippery When Wet’. It opens with a wicked bass line, finger cymbals and a talk-box. But that wasn’t all that was great about it, it is the story of Tommy & Gina in “Livin’ on a Prayer” that makes this such a great song. Jon has a way of making the songs human and easy to connect with. The everyday person with problems just like you so the songs feel personal.  The song is loosely based on Desmond and his girl-friend as she worked in a Diner, but he was a taxi driver and not working at the docks.  It was that Blue Collar feel to the song that made it resonate with so many people.  It was a time when Bon Jovi actually wrote songs that told a story that connected with people and not try to write just to make a hit. The funny thing about this one is that Jon didn’t like it, but Richie was able to convince Jon that this was a hit and it should be on the album. Thankfully for the band, it was as it went to #1 as well. Hugh McDonald who is currently the bass player for Bon Jovi in 2023, was the bass player on this song back in 1986.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Slippery When Wet’ (1986) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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Bon Jovi had two moderately successful albums under their belt. However, they weren’t happy with the fact they weren’t superstars yet. So, changes had to be made. Not in the band line-up as it was still Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, David Bryan and Alec John Such. Nope. They needed to change their approach. One of the first things they chose to do was bring someone in to help with the songs. That person was Desmond Child. Desmond didn’t try to change who the band was with the songs, but he helped refine them, make them better. Jon and Richie wrote well together, but with Desmond’s help, the songs became stories that connected with people, but first they had to record them.

To do that, they changed even more stuff. Jon was listening to Black & Blue’s album ‘Without Love’ and he loved the production of it. So, he reached out to Bruce Fairbairn and he was hired as producer..with some other cat named Bob Rock as the engineer. The band moved to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada and the record was started. The album was finished and released on August 18, 1986 and would become a 12,000,000 selling album making it Diamond. It would spark 4 Top 40 singles of which 2 went to #1 and would see the band tour massively. They would start out the tour as an opening act, but by the end they were the headliners. The band got what they wanted and they were now Superstars!

But before we get to the music, let’s talk about the album name and cover. It was inspired by a trip to The No. 5 Orange strip club in Vancouver. The boys saw this stripper who stripped all the way down to nothing, stepped in to a shower and lathered herself all up. That was motivation for the boys to finish the album and inspired the Slippery When Wet name. One of the original names was ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ and had the boys dressed as cowboys, but that was scrapped. They did use that cover for the single though.

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Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive” – 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 are going to kick 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’.  The song was the third single from this album and the third to crack the Billboard Hot 100 reaching #7.  The band was on a roll and growing to become one of the world’s biggest rock bands thanks in large part to this song.

My copy is the basic U.S. Version and is an Indianapolis Pressing. Nothing fancy about it. The B-Side is the album version of “I’d Die For You”. The A-Side is also the basic version of “Wanted Dead or Alive”, no single edit or anything like that just the same long version as the album. The short version cuts off about a minute of the song.

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My Sunday Song – “Wanted Dead or Alive”

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For My Sunday Song # 199, we are going to discuss one of Bon Jovi’s most popular and famous songs, “Wanted Dead or Alive” off the band’s 1986 album ‘Slippery When Wet’.  The song was the third single from this album and the third to crack the Billboard Hot 100 reaching #7.  The band was on a roll and growing to become one of the world’s biggest rock bands thanks in large part to his song.

The song’s title was inspired by old western movies and Jon thought the lifestyle of a band was similar to that of the outlaws in those movies.  Instead of horses, the band takes the tour bus (which is sort of a large steel horse) from town to town and raping and pillaging in each town…okay not really, but they were getting all the chicks and making tons of money performing, just not stealing it.

That whole cowboy vibe is felt in the music using acoustic guitars as well as electric.  There was a western sound with a hard rock edge and when they do play this as full acoustic, it is drenched in that sitting around the campfire feel telling stories of the road (or old west).  Richie Sambora’s guitar playing on this song spectacular and his background vocals mixed with Jon’s vocals takes this song to the next level.  And Richie’s solo is one of the most memorable he has done and how well it fits in with vibe of the song is magical.  Musically, according to Jon Bon Jovi, the song is inspired by Bob Seger’s song “Turn the Page” and if you listen to the song you hear that the slow driving tempo and groove and seriousness of the song and you can see why it was so inspiring.

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