Bon Jovi - The 90's - KTF n TD

As I continued to serve my second weekly suspension here on Dry County, I’ve been reading up on a lot of the box set discussions going on here and decided to give a small recap of the 90’s… More of my interpretation based on facts....

Unlike the 80’s and ‘00s, the 90’s were a very diverse and unknown period for the band. In the 80’s they ruled the Hair Band era and remained consistent. In ‘00s they had their comeback which set-up the formula for the following years to come.

Although most see the 90’s as just Keep The Faith and These Days, it was truly an action packed decade for Bon Jovi, including 4 solo albums between Jon and Richie.

90’s Time Line:
- 1990 – Jon Solo – Blaze
- 1991 – Richie Solo – Stranger
- 1992 – Keep The Faith
- 1993 – Movie Track – Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White
- 1994 – Cross Roads
- 1995 – These Days
- 1997 – Jon - Destination Anywhere
- 1998 – Richie - Undiscovered Soul
- 1999 - Movie Tracks – Real Life / Mr. Big Time

Out of each album there were tours to follow, except for Blaze.

We also saw the changing of the lead bass player from Alec to Hugh. Back in ’95, the internet and mass media didn’t exist like it does today so to turn on David Lettermen and see this other guy standing there was a bit of a shock. He wasn’t that same familiar face we are all used to seeing today. We then learned he was the replacement bass player but also played on every album since the beginning.

Richie also went Hollywood with high public relationship and marriage to Heather Locklear.

Jon breaks into movies, something he stated that he would never do. Jon’s 5minute part in the low budget Moonlight In Valentino created more buzz than most blockbusters that year. On top of that he roles in a handful of other independent films as well as stared in an episode of the hit series Sex In The City.

Overall, it was an interesting decade and diverse one to say the least.

Even though Bon Jovi had 2 big hits with Bed Of Roses and Always, Bed of Roses was still somewhat of a disappointment to Jon in comparison to what he accomplished in the 80’s and 2 years prior with the Blaze Of Glory single. Always was an accidental hit. It was an unused soundtrack song that was thrown onto a greatest hits album to help promote it. With Bed Of Roses peaking at #9, Always was not nearly as crafted and I don’t think Jon had high expectations for that song at all.

Keep The Faith most likely started out as a Jon Solo album. Although YG2 had a huge hit with Blaze, it didn’t sell nearly the large amount of records that the band had sold. Stranger was just an all-around commercial failure.

During that period there was an uncertainty for Bon Jovi and if either one of those solo albums killed it, Keep The Faith might have been a Jon solo album. There was also some speculated tension with the band over needing a break, money, creativity, or all of the above.

Whatever the reason, they realized that Jon and Richie need to be together as Bon Jovi to have enormous continued success and for also touring purposes.

Similar to what we think today of What About Now being a Jon solo record because of Richie doing his Aftermath thing is how it was back then when Jon was doing Faith. While Richie was on his solo tour in 1991, Jon wrote 6 of the 12 songs on Faith himself including some of the big ones such as, Bed Of Roses, Dry County, & I Believe. In These Arms was Dave. Richie and Jon only collaborated on 3 of the 5 remaining songs without Desmond’s interference.

On to These Days....

I think one of the reasons These Days is such a fan favorite is because it’s truly a real collaboration between Jon and Richie becoming Bon Jovi again. I would think that the album was their answer to the grunge revolution considering it was a darker album and The Something For The Pain video was clearly a mock of the grunge style. The album was not written around Always as some have rumored. It was clearly written way before Always became a hit. TAALS might have been marketed around it but not the entire album.

Unlike today, both albums received a decent amount of air time and because the singles didn’t chart extremely well, doesn’t mean they were ignored.

KTF, BOR, & ITA all received decent airplay with top 20 videos to follow.

Always received decent airplay with a top 20 video to follow.

TAALS & SFTP also received decent airplay with top 20 videos to follow. The SFTP video even made it onto Bevis and Butthead. Lol

Bon Jovi really didn’t get ignored until their solo albums in ’97/’98 fell flat and even after that they still received some play.

After the These Days tour, Bon Jovi took a cooling off period as they waited for the music scene to change in America while Jon spent the time working on his Movies (Or wasting his time on his movies)

In 2000, they went back to being a rock and roll band again with the release of IML but if it wasn’t for that song, Bon Jovi the band might have ended right after that.

Your interpretation of success/failure is clearly based on the US market. I think Destination Anywhere sold 1 Million copies in Germany alone and got Jon Bon an Echo for best male (German equivalent of the Grammy) which the band had never got prior to that. The album wasn't quite as big in the UK but still, pretty massive.

While my first exposure to the band was the raw performance of I Believe in the music video, the first time I really got hooked onto the band was Someday I'll Be Saturday night…and by the time These Days came out, I was already a massive fan. Still…when Destination Anywhere came out, JBJ was everywhere. Music channels, non-music channels, documentaries about him…I have never before or never after experienced such a media frenzy about Jon Bon Jovi or any of the band. Had It's My Life failed in the US, I don't think the band would have ended. I think all they would have done would have been focussing on Europe and Asia. And hell, if Jon wanted to, he could have done that on the back of Destination Anywhere, certainly in Europe. Unlikely they would have become the global touring machine that they are now, but I bet that they'd be making much better music.

Choices.

Aloha !

What a lovely return. Let's see for how long you're capable of having a civilized discussion here. I'll give it another try.

No it didn't.

It's not similar at all. The songs Jon came up with for the Keep The Faith record were songs he wrote because he enjoyed writing songs and needed to get things out of his system. It's common knowledge how Dry County turned into a whole different beast as soon as the band got involved, yet Jon's the only one with the credits to his name. Who's to say the same didn't happen to other songs on the record? The band got back together, Jon had a lot of songs, so they started recording. What's the point of trying to write more stuff when there's already quite a few on the table anyway?

In regards to What About Now, this is a solo record with a bit of input from the band here and there. But then again, every new Bon Jovi release has been more and more of a Jon solo record. A lot of what was recorded for Crush were essentially new songs for a possible new solo record from Jon. Plenty of the demo's don't even have the band playing on them, but Jon's solo band instead. The difference with What About Now and Keep The Faith is that with Keep The Faith you hear the band play. With What About Now you hear a lot of noise, but rarely an actual band, let alone a band called Bon Jovi.

The reason These Days seems to be a fan favorite on the messageboards is because the messageboards have mostly 30-40 year olds on them, which are essentially the same people who were a teenager once These Days was released. It's the music they grew up with. These Days gained them a larger fanbase internationally, but the ones who stuck around after Keep The Faith hoping the band would return to their roots a bit gave up on the band as well. There's not many who love the eighties music and grew up with it that are saying These Days is their favourite.

I've got no idea what the rest of your post is about, and as a matter of fact I've no idea what the point of this topic is.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

You're are right it was actually a busy decade, but I am with Devilsson, you are just basing it all off the US market.

These Days was a monster in Europe, it scored 5? top 10 hits in the UK, it was a huge record. Keep The Faith was big worldwide too. I am not trawling for figures but the albums much have sold upwards of 12 million between them, and I am probably being modest with the figure. Of course Cross Roads in between was a giant seller too.

I really think they were on the cusp of becoming a truly different band, in that I mean something that appealed to the fans and was favoured by the critics. It's My Life changed that, whether for the worse I don't know, but probably.

I am not going to bash the post 2000 output because I can take enough songs I like from it and be content with the past too. However, in the late 90s they could have been anything they wanted, they chose a specific kind of longevity over another that is all.

They are from the US, so I totally get them wanting continued success in their homeland, but without it they may have been better off. Maybe.

To respond to some questions:

- I think the 90's gets overlooked as being 2 simple albums when in fact; there was so much more going on with no real direction. Some for better, some for worse. That's what this was about and in hopes of continuing with some good conversation on a topic other than the same ones that continue to be repeated over and over

- Yes, US Market

- If IML wasn't a hit, we probably would still have some Bon Jovi but not to the same mass as we see today. We'd get more Jon/Richie solo stuff.

- Jon wants to be successful in his homeland however I agree that Europe would be his stomping group

Hmmm, my comment disappeared so here goes again....This was an interesting and informative recap of the 90s. Being from the US it made complete sense to me as I lack a European perspective. I agree that the 90s had much more diversity on many levels. As men in their 30s, they were trying different things (don't we all do that in our 30s in our careers?)

I didn't start following the band until the 00s and then backtracked through their catalog.
I *still* would like to see a proper acoustic, "unplugged" release of their music. The fans expected The Left Feels Right to be that and were shocked and disappointed with the re-workings.

I am enjoying WAN and have nothing again John Shanks but I would like to see how another producer would develop their sound. However, at this stage in their career (post peak), I think it would be hard for them to try something new and risk a critical and commercial drubbing. Any failure would be heralded by critics and fans as a downward death spiral. Realistically they don't have many albums or tours ahead of them. Currently their various solo efforts show strength and diversity and on WAN it is easy to identify Jon's solo efforts versus the band tracks. I would dearly love to see the whole band come together and work on an album rather than just Jon (and Richie and John) bringing them together at the end to record. But those days might be past.

It's funny-I was thinking about TLFR the other day and I decided I personally would have enjoyed it a lot more if it was all original songs-I love Thief Of Hearts and Last Man Standing-10 other new tracks in that format would have been much more preferable to re-worked Jovi classics.

I think at this point, it's much to late for an acoustic album. Jon will be mumbling through the entire thing.

I appreciate Jon's creativity with TLFR and he might have even pulled it off if he was in better voice hitting higher notes.

Yes, I agree. I was thinking that if there was another boxed set for their 30th anniversary, one portion could be acoustic. And yes, Jon's voice has really changed; there are some places in WAN that it drives me crazy and not in a good way.

Do you think Jon would ever let Richie take the lead in the future on a new Bon Jovi song -- from recording to performing?

I doubt it. The album has very strong material, it is doubtful Jon can do that without any help.