WTF Search Terms is a new feature here at LeBrain’s, where I reveal some amusing words that people typed into search engines, ending up at my site. Today I’ve gathered 10 of the funnier Rock-related search terms! If you missed the last one, click here.
10.“show me all of iron maidens art dra” “Show me”? Pfft. Show me your dra first.
9.“pol rodgers fire and waters”He knew how to spell Rodgers, but not Paul.
8.“band acting like a puppet”My best guess is Supergrass.
7.“jonbonjovi phoyoes never seen”If you’ve never seen it, neither have I.
6.“where was montly crew attacted in saskatchewan”He spelled Saskatchewan right.
5.“deep purple songs about nature appreciation”This thought had not crossed my mind once before now.
4.“when will def leppard be on itunes”Perhaps the answer is, like my old Psych 301 prof used to say, “On the 12th of Never.”
3.“why does burke shelley sound like a woman”Maybe because his last name is Shelley, huh-huh, huh-huh.
2. “paul di anno teh beast”Teh.
1.“does sebastian bach really like model trains”Yes, him and Sheldon Cooper!
BON JOVI – “Because We Can” (2013 Island Records Japanese single)
There was a time I used to look forward to new releases by Bon Jovi. It’s been a long time since I felt that way. I thought the band bounced back (pun intended) with 2002’s Bounce, then they lost me immediately again with This Left Feels Right. I don’t like to give up on bands that I used to feel strongly about, so I decided to check out Bon Jovi’s newest single, “Because We Can”.
I chose the Japanese single as it had one more track than the European. I had not even heard the song yet. It is written by Jon, Richie and songsmith Billy Falcon, produced by Jon and John Shanks. (In other words, more of the same…) The single came with a small 6-panel fold out poster and lyric booklet in English and Japanese.
The light glare completely erased Dave Bryan from this photo!
Like many fans who have been hanging on long past Bon Jovi’s best before date, I found the song disappointing. Rather than growing, it sounds like Bon Jovi are returning to the mainstream modern pop sounds of Have A Nice Day or even Lost Highway. Bon Jovi’s never been the hardest rocking band, but they have written some great passionate rock songs in the past. “Because We Can”, by title alone, should be in your face and proud of it. Instead, it’s another faceless Pop Jovi song. I’m going to write my own Pop Jovi song called “Who Says We Ain’t Strangers Tonight Because We Got It Goin’ On”.
I hate the chorus, it would be embarrassing to be caught singing this one. There are some nice guitar licks flitting here and there, almost Brian May-like in sound, but barely audible. Everything is buried under a thick blanket of backing vocals, plastic drums and electronic sounds. You can barely make out Richie’s voice, and what passes for a guitar solo is really just a layered guitar melody. At least the Japanese single comes with an instrumental version, which will allow you to hear Richie’s simple and sparing guitar.
The third and final track is a 7 minute live version of “Keep the Faith”, from 2010 in New Jersey. Even this is slightly more laid back than the original 1992 version. But at least it shows that Bon Jovi can write and play challenging material while keeping it accessible. From the manic drum patterns to Richie’s smokin’ solo, this live version is everything that “Because We Can” should be. Richie really shines on this track; I hope he comes back. Bon Jovi without Richie ain’t Bon Jovi.
Based on this single, I won’t be buying the new album What About Now unless I find it cheap.
BON JOVI – These Days (Special Edition, 2010, Universal Music)
Just as a general comment on the series of Bon Jovi “Special Edition” remasters from 2010: They’re crap. Sorry but they are. A couple unreleased live tracks? That’s it? Come on. They remastered these things 10 years ago and I bought them all then. I’ve bought almost every Bon Jovi album, in some cases multiple times. These Days? Three times now, just to get all the bonus tracks scattered hither and yon. For that reason these Bon Jovi remasters are in my $10 or less purchase range.
As for the album, These Days, I think it’s the best Bon Jovi album. It’s definitely more laid back than any previous Jovi platter, but it has a genuine quality to it that I like. You may like the cheesey 80’s keyboard sounds yourself, but in 1995 Bon Jovi couldn’t release an album like that. Keep the Faith was a great success, but These Days took the band to a new, darker, more soulful place. The production, once overly glossy, has been reduced to a purer, more live sonic clarity. This is a very organic album and many tracks sound live off the floor, such as “Diamond Ring”. Tico’s got a great drum sound on this album too, the snare has a great tonal quality.
Lyrically, Jon has never sounded more real and heartfelt. A song like “These Days” gets me right where it hurts every time. Unfortunately, the biggest hit from this album was the single “This Ain’t A Love Song”. Well, it may not be a love song, but it sure sounds a lot like others I’ve heard, like “Always”. Contrasting the generic ballad were some heavier rockers. “Hey God” is positively angry. “Damned” has swagger. Bon Jovi are always melodic, but the chorus in the infectious “Something For The Pain” is just awesome. “If That’s What It Takes” and “Hearts Breaking Even” are memorable and as strong as any previous Bon Jovi hit, but sadly remained overlooked. The quiet “(It’s Hard) Letting You Go” is one of Bon Jovi’s best ballads ever, because it’s so understated, with the actual vocal delivering the song.
The best song is the brilliant “Something To Believe In”. If I was going to pick one song as the absolute peak of Bon Jovi’s entire career, it could be this one (tied with “Dry County”). Driven by some sparse dark bass and piano, it soon picks up the pace. Richie’s backing vocals punctuate Jon’s powerful chorus beautifully, and you won’t be able to get that “Hey! hey! hey!” out of your head.
Yeah, I’m a sap. I love this album!
I like Eddie Vedder best.
What really sets These Days apart are the sweet harmonies of Jon and Richie. They’ve always done great work together vocally but These Days is a whole level beyond that. If you are a fan of Richie Sambora, I think you will enjoy These Days. In a very real sense I think this represents Sambora’s greatest contributions to Bon Jovi.
This new remastered edition has two live bonus tracks, which unfortunately are both ballads. “This Ain’t A Love Song” is one, I guess because it was the hit single. Shame they didn’t use “Hey God”. “Diamond Ring” is the other live ballad. This one was a bit of a cult song I guess. They wrote it back in the days of New Jersey and almost released it, a few times. It got bootlegged and became an underground favourite. This live version is recorded in Italy. It’s great to hear Jon and Richie singing together like this, but again, I wish they put on a rocker instead of a ballad. Richie’s guitar solo is awesome though.
My preferred edition, which I will cover in a separate future review, is the European 2 disc edition. In a beautiful magnetic digipack, it contained lots of bonus tracks: “All I Want Is Everything”, “Bitter Wine”, “Fields Of Fire” (Demo), “I Thank You”, “Mrs. Robinson”, “Let’s Make It Baby” (Demo), “I Don’t Like Mondays”, “Crazy” (live, lead vocals by Tico Torres), “Tumblin’ Dice” (live, lead vocals by David Bryan), “Heaven Help Us All” (live, lead vocals by Richie Sambora).
There are other editions with bonus tracks, including an Australian edition with a live CD (this is on my “want” list). There were plenty of singles, and I’ll cover each of those in future reviews as well, because they each contained notable bonus tracks. One was a track called “Lonely At The Top”, which to me sounds like it’s about Frances Bean Cobain. It has the lyric, “Tell Frannie I’m sorry she didn’t get to know her dad.” There was even a (great) cover of “Rockin’ In The Free World”, as well as a cover of “634-5789”, which featured Jon cracking up and laughing right in the middle of a verse!
So there you go. Get this album, but buy wisely. Choose an edition that suits your bonus track needs (or lack thereof).
5/5 stars for the album, -1 for this ripoff edition!
Below, pictures and tracklists for all the singles that I have from this album, as well as the Special Edition 2 CD set from 1996. It was a digipack with a neat magnetic clasp to keep it closed.
A lot of Rock-haters (people who hate Metallica’s output from 1991-2003) have no idea that the man is quite the musician himself. Canadians remember the Payola$ and Rock & Hyde, but then there was Rockhead. Bob Rock found a great Canadian punk rock vocalist named Steve Jack, who as it turns out, was also a great screamer. Some of the screams on this album are unreal — check out “Bed Of Roses”, “Heartland”, and “Chelsea Rose” for some awesome vocals. Face it, Canada has some great screamers (James LaBrie, Gerald McGhee, Sebastian Bach!) but Steve Jack was a contender.
This album was born during the the difficult Motley Crue sessions (not to mention a Bon Jovi album), while Bob was going through a divorce. This comes out in the song “Warchild”. In fact it ACTUALLY comes out during that song: Bob can be heard yelling and throwing stuff around the studio at one point, which he recorded after a painful phone call.
I don’t find there is a weak track on this album, and plenty of Bob’s buddies show up. Art Bergmann, Billy Duffy, Paul Hyde, Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora all contribute songwriting skills. Duffy and Sambora also contribute solos. From the screamy Aerorock of “Bed of Roses” to the metal of “Heartland” to the acoustic Zeppelinesque “Angelfire”, every single track is worth a listen. It’s a diverse album actually, running the gamut from light to dark and embracing different sides of rock. Boozy, bluesy, epic, acoustic, you name it. Its roots are firmly planted in the 1970’s, but if this had come out in 1989, it could have spawned 5 singles.
Sonically if you like Bob Rock, you will like this. It’s right in the ballpark of that Motley Crue/Keep the Faith sound he had going on during that period. Big big drums, layers of guitars, a lil’ bit of keyboards here and there, but mostly, lots and lots and lots of guitars.
Record store employees get a lot of free shit. From shirts to discs to posters to the oddest promotional merchandise you can think of, they get a lot.
Used record store employees, like myself, do not!
Reason being? The word “used”. The record distributors automatically assumed we would sell everything that we got for free. Which we didn’t, because we didn’t want to hurt our already tenuous relationship. This is where my personal experience differs from the average record store guy. I got very, very little free stuff over the years.
Sometimes you’d see the odd promo disc arrive, but it was either something completely unknown that nobody wanted, or something like Much Dance 2002, that nobody wanted.
I did get a few things. Most of this stuff isn’t around anymore, either given away or wrecked. Here’s a complete list of everything that I personally ever got for free from a record label during my 12 year tenure at the store, and it ain’t much! This stuff would just show up in boxes of discs that we ordered.
A Jon Bon Jovi golf ball, to promote his solo album Destination Anywhere. Ended up selling it at a garage sale for 25 cents.
A very nice Green Day Nimrod sweatshirt. It too was green. Don’t know what happened to it.
I had to fight for this one: A nice black Kiss sweat shirt. The higher-ups didn’t want me to get it. (Don’t know what they wanted it for!)
A Jann Arden “Insensitive” baseball hat.
A Vince Gill blue denim hat.
Two rolls of Star Wars stickers to promote the DVD release of the Original Trilogy. These have lasted a long time and I still have a partial roll. You’d be amazed how many things look better with Star Wars stickers on them
A bunch of Yoda buttons to promote Attack of the Clones. Gave these away to kids.
A bunch of Lord of the Rings buttons, to promote Fellowship. Also gave these away to kids.
Of these things, all I have left are the stickers and the Kiss sweatshirt, slowly fading from many washes. Not a lot to show for 12 years of the record store grind, but as I said, the record companies really hated giving us anything for free. The funny thing is, other people (DJ’s, employees at other record stores) would come in and sell us dozens and dozens of promotional discs that they got for free. So the irony is, even though we played by the rules, we got stiffed. The other people who broke the rules got free shit all the time! Ain’t it the way?
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