Right, onto Blaze Of Glory. As I mentioned, I'm not sure how eloquently I'm going to be able to review this, as it's pretty different from the four BJ albums I've reviewd already, but I'll give it a shot ... anyways, I've got a mission to try to convince Alphavictim that the album ain't so bad

Also, I'll be updating this fairly sporadically over the next week or so, got quite a bit going on ... I'll do it whenever I get a chance though. Right, here we go ...

BLAZE OF GLORY (1990)

Overview:

In 1990, after spending a couple of months finishing up the almost year and a half long tour of New Jersey, the band were exhausted. As has been said, the five members got on five different planes, and went their separate ways. Bon Jovi, it seems, was finished.

Jon was approached by Emilio Estevez, star of the Young Guns film, an action packed western telling the story of Billy The Kid and the “Regulators”; in order to give permission for Wanted Dead Or Alive to be used in the forthcoming Young Guns sequel. Jon, however, didn’t feel the song was appropriate, and quickly wrote another song, which he called Blaze Of Glory. From this starting point came an entire albums worth of material based upon the film, and in particular the character of William H. Bonney, a.k.a. Billy The Kid; a character who, starting the film with a group of friends only to finish it a loner, Jon probably felt quite an affinity to at the time.

Indeed, Jon has said that he hid behind the character of Billy in order to write of some of the more personal issues he was working through at the time. The first two years of the 1990s are well known as being particularly difficult for Jon. It was during this period that he experienced what he calls the “Grey Summer”, and also considered jumping out of a moving car. Although most of this more likely took place in ’91, the demons would have been still building up in ’90, and as such the songs from this two year period are some of Jon’s most personally introspective. The Blaze Of Glory album has a very strong message of mortality: that no matter what a person does in their life, they must inevitably die. Other themes of the album include brotherhood and betrayal, religion and faith, philosophical musings and rejection of clichéd platitudes, the desire to leave a mark on the world, and learning to unapologetically accept who one really is, regardless of the consequences. All of it wrapped up in the imagery of the Old West and a vigilante antihero marked for death for his exploits.

Musically, there’s some pretty distinctive themes that can be seen in this album. The use of acoustic guitars, accordions, harmonicas, pianos and string arrangements and choral harmonies lend to the Old West feel; the keyboards add atmosphere; and the electric guitar adds to the rock. Broadly, the album seems rooted in two main styles: epic rock ballads on the one hand; and the bluesy hard rock reminiscent of music from the 1950s to 1970s period. Although in terms of instrumentation there’s a lot going on in these songs … indeed, most songs have an average of about 6-8 instruments playing on them at various points … the music for the most part seems to be more supplementary to Jon’s vocal delivery and lyrics. The fact that this is a solo album also allowed Jon to call in several guest stars to imbue the songs with their own character as well; most notably stars from a more classic age of rock n’ roll, such as Elton John, Jeff Beck, and Little Richard.

Vocally, this is quite stunning. Following the vocal problems he had at the end of the 90s, Jon had to restrain his voice somewhat; adopting a slightly lower register and cutting down considerably on the screaming. The result is that his vocals are a bit deeper, but also far more full and focused with it. His strength through this album vocally is his ability to vary his voice throughout in order to perfectly match the feeling of the music at that point: using a lower, huskier voice when he needs to; or really belting it out for climactic points. More importantly, he sings with 100% conviction, and it’s easy to see how much he’s feeling the words, even though they’re ostensibly not about him.

Lyrically there’s some pretty powerful stuff here. It’s worth noting that Jon wrote every single song on this album by himself, and his talent has always been with capturing a mood, and a feeling. Here he excels himself, managing to take it to the level of poetry as well. The only problem is, it can be rather heavy on the cowboy clichés; but this is almost forgivable, if you imagine this to be the sort of poetry an outlaw may have written at the end of the 19th century (assuming of course that he was able to write)

Although it’s difficult to say that Jon had completely free reign on this album; as he had to write in within the context of the film; it’s still pretty fair to say that it shows how he can take a concept and make it his own; breathing his own life into it. As an outlaw to the life he had built up since the beginning of the last decade, this album fits Jon like a worn leather glove. It’s certainly pretty different to Bon Jovi; but it seems to act as a stepping stone for the direction the band would take when they returned. A showcase for Jon it may be then, but it’s quite the showcase, and showed the world that Jon was an impressive enough writer and singer to function outside of Bon Jovi.