Stories about Bon Jovi songs
These stories come from infos I found on the net.
Runaway
" I wrote this one in New York, it's a great place to work, but I had the desire to go home to my parents"
Jon Bon Jovi
You give love a bad name
" When I and Richie decided to write songs for other bands Desmond Child helped us, because we didn't have the time to go out and sell the songs. All began when we wrote "You give love a bad name" for Loverboy and I said 'I want to keep this one for me'"
Jon Bon Jovi
Livin'on a prayer
"I knew that Livin'on a prayer was a great song but I didn't expect that people would like this one. Fortunately things have gone in a different way"
Jon Bon Jovi
"It's a great song, it has a nice groove, and the lyrics are amazing. When we say "'Cause it doesn't make a difference if we make it or not, we've got each other and that's a lot....", these are words that people have said at least one time in their life"
Richie Sambora
Never say goodbye
"We wrote this one initially for trash metal band Panthera, but we turned this one in a ballad"
Richie Sambora
Wanted dead or alive
"I didn't know were I was that morning. We were playing somewhere with Ratts in that period. I was still sleeping when Richie went into my chamber to let me hear a riff he composed with guitar. Wanted is born in that moment"
"We wrote the whole song an evening at Richie's house, we wrote two songs that evening"
Jon Bon Jovi
Bad medicine
"We wrote this one when we were making a commercial spot for a Japanese video-cassettes mark"
Jon Bon Jovi
Lay your hands on me
"We wrote this one into the studio, this don't happen very often, altough we wrote other songs in studio. I wasn't very happy of this song, I thought it was a stupid rock song, but Curt Marvis thought that this one was a great song, he was right. People like this one live"
Jon Bon Jovi
"It was the ideal song to open the album"
David Bryan
I'll be there for you
"This song belongs to the magic moments of Slippery When Wet, we were leaving our parents houses to go live in our own houses. This happened only after Slippery because we didn't make much money with the first two albums"
Jon Bon Jovi
Keep the faith
"People was expecting another Bad Medicine from us, but they have been a little surprised by this one"
Jon Bon Jovi
Dry County
"I was in a place somewhere in New Mexico. I was thirsty. I went into a service area and I met an old man that asked me to cross the border with him and to go play with darts. I did that all the night. The morning after I wrote Dry County"
Jon Bon Jovi
Always
"I wrote this one in a Norwegian hotel for a movie called "Romeo's bleed".I recorded the first version of Always with Richie playing guitar, David on the piano and Pino Paladino played bass. But when I saw a preview of the movie, I decided to keep the song for me, I recorded this one with the whole band, and because it didn't fit the new album project, I decided to put Always into the greatest hits"
Jon Bon Jovi
Hey God
"A moment of coming to my senses. I walk through 57th street in Manhattan and carelessly step
over a guy that's laying on the side-walk. Just like that, as if it's the most
normal thing in the world. But why do we do that? Why do I do that? And why is
it not me laying there? Anyhow, a song that makes you think."
Jon Bon Jovi *
Something for the pain
"This was the toughest job of all. We rewrote this song no less than 10 times!
The last time on request of John Kalodner, one of the Columbia Records
big-shots. He just said: "Put some accordion in there. And a twelve-string
guitar" so we did that immediately, ha ha. Originally we ment this song to be in
the seventies-legend T-Rex tradition, but now it sounds so unique that there is
no trace of any of that influence left. Except of the influence of Kalodner that
is. I had originally named the song "I've been Lovin' you too long to turn back
now'" but John didn't like that at all. So it became 'Somethin' for the pain'.
But other than that nothing but good about John!"
Jon Bon Jovi *
This ain't a love song
"Just another good rhythm&blues song without any psychological depth. It's about
broken hearts, you know. A better singer than Jon Bon Jovi could have made it
into something of a huge magnitude. Imagine if Otis Redding would have done this
song...wow!"
Jon Bon Jovi *
"The first line is a partial reference to Bed of Roses, it's a nice picture that will remind people of
that."
Jon Bon Jovi **
These days
"Well, that's funny. Now I think about it, for a large part this album deals a
lot with my past. I used to always want to be one of the Asbury Jukes, after-all my
dearest possesion is a blue satin Jukes-jacket from 1977. That Rhythm and Blues
influence you can clearly hear in the first two songs of These Days. In the
titletrack I sort of play with people from the past. At one moment I sing 'Jimmy
Shoes busted both his legs'. Jimmy Shoes is the nick-name of Jimmy Lovine, the
big-boss of Interscope Records, but in my song he's just a little boy. A little
boy that breaks both of his little legs. Ha ha!"
Jon Bon Jovi *
"It's the one that I'm most excited about playing live, because of the lyrical content, the
emotion of the song, and what it says."
Jon Bon Jovi **
Lie to me
"And there's Tom and Gina again, known because of my big hit 'Livin' On A Prayer". They are having some problems with their relationship and at one point one of the two says: 'If you can't tell me you
love me, lie to me!' And I didn't make that line up!".
Jon Bon Jovi *
"It's the kind of song you get a charge out of playing live every night"
Jon Bon Jovi **
Damned
"I can't wait until we get to play this live sometime. 'Damned' we recorded with the original
brass section of the Asbury Jukes. Hey, this way I turn out to be a Juke
afterall !".
Jon Bon Jovi *
My guitar lies bleeding in my arms
" A lesson a learned during the struggle that preceded the making of 'Bed of Roses':
Never throw you guitar in a corner when you can't make it work, but keep on
trying, keep on trying. Do you know that scene from 'Tommy', where he walks into a room and a sees all these posters of himself? I had a dream like that too.
I walk in to a room and I see my head all over the walls. And all the posters
growl: 'Come on Jon, write another song. Come on, you remember how to do it
don't you?'. That is the shit I always have to deal with. The constant fear that
you dry out creatively. I always have those thoughts wandering around in my
mind. Will I ever write a good song again? Can I still do it? Will I still enjoy
doing it? In 'Guitar lies bleeding' I write all those frustrations off of me.
And that feels great, you can take my word for it!"
Jon Bon Jovi *
(It's hard) Letting you go
" I made this for the movie I can been seen in soon, 'Moonlight and Valentino', and it
will suprise the fans. This really isn't a Bon Jovi song. You just hear me,
Richie, and some electronic equipment. I play the keyboards in this song and did
the singing live. It really was a gift for the producers of 'Moonlight and
Valentino', recorded on a tape. A sort of 'thank you' for letting me play in
the movie. And promptly the used it as a soundtrack. And now I put it onto this
album too. It's funny really, originally only a few people would have heard this
song. And now, all of a sudden, it's both movie-music and a real album-track.
But I'm happy with it anyhow".
Jon Bon Jovi *
"I had the script, I know the story well, but I didn't want to write a
song for the movie. But I couldn't help myself. I wrote it as a gift to
one of the producers who was so kind to me. I gave her the cassette and
she loved it. So I recorded it."
Jon Bon Jovi **
Hearts breaking even
" I wrote it together with Desmond Child, when Richie was out of town. Great guy,
our Rich. Comes up to me and just tells me: 'I don't have time right now, I have
to catch my plane. I have a date with Heather Locklear". So I answered something
like 'Have Fun'. And the moment he's back there's another song finished: 'Hearts
Breaking Even'."
Jon Bon Jovi *
Something to believe in
"The first song I wrote for this album. It deals with my state of mind at the end
of our last tour. I needed something to believe in. I felt good, but I did have
to sort things out for myself".
Jon Bon Jovi *
If that's what it takes
"We knew from the start that the chords and couplets were allright. But we just couldn't
get the chorus to work. Until suddenly, just before finishing up the album, it
was there."
Jon Bon Jovi *
"It's a typical Bon Jovi song in the vein of I'll be there for you. Musically it was greatly influenced
by Richie. He's real fond of it."
Jon Bon Jovi **
All I want is everything
"With this song I intended to deal with the apathetic attitude of the
so-called Generation X. I am not saying that everyone can get himself a house with a swimming pool and some
expensive sportcars, but you can always strive after it. You should never start
with telling yourself:'I'm not going to be able to do this'. And never let
anyone else tell you that you won't make it, damn-it! Always try to strive after
a certain goal, is the message that Bon Jovi wants to give you through this
song. I admit, not very in depth, but certainly sincere".
Jon Bon Jovi *
Bitter wine
"A Stones-like ballad...like 'Wild Horses'. A bonustrack."
Jon Bon Jovi *
Credits: all the stories in this page come from
* : from Erik Vlugt (100621.3074@compuserve.com).
** : from Kyle Maurer (maurer@cps201.cps.cmich.edu).
I thank you both.
Some of these photoes come from certain webpages. I thank the maintainers
of those pages.
This page is made by Sari Hassinen
Last update on Sat 18th May 1996
Back to Sari's Bon Jovi page
