Last sightings of Jon's screams?

So-- because I find it marginally amusing-- I've been looking over youtube for Jon's last attempts at the famous screams in I'll Be There For You and Living in Sin.

The last one I can find for "Living in Sin" is 1993. But the comments say the audio has been replaced, which makes me wonder if it's not older. It sounds more like 89 Jon to me than 1993 Jon:

I found this from 1991:
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I found nothing from 1994-1999. Then this from 2000, and well, he skips and kinda makes some noises to cover the fact that he's not going to scream(preferable to him turning his back to the mic that he does these days):
I'll Be There For you makes more appearances during tours. The last scream I found is 2001:
Frankly, that's not really the same scream we saw through 96. You wouldn't want to show your grand kids that when feeling nostalgic.

Was 2001 the death of it? Richie started taking over on a lot of the tours. Any later sightings on either song?

Sad but sounds about right. Before even reading your post, the first thing that came to mind was 2001. Richie took it over during the Bounce tour.

I'm sure Seb could weigh in on this one. He’s got shit like this memorized.

I can confirm that in 2001 Jon's balls did indeed drop.

RIP high voice

Aloha !

Not really, 2001 mostly showed a lack of effort. If Jon really tried that tour he could nail Something To Believe In, for example. It was a much heard critisism during that tour, how people felt like Jon sleepwalked himself through shows.

Although 2001 was the last tour he did the scream in I'll Be There For You he still did them in songs like Twist & Shout. I remember me and Thierry saying "why does he do it here but not in his own songs?"

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Do you know if they played Living In Sin at all during the '95, '96 tours?

Wow, jon's voice is such a far cry from what it used to be.. even from ten years ago.. If he could still sing like that, oh man..

I think it was played a couple times during the KTF tour and that is all. It returned during the Crush/OWN tour.

Unfortunately, Jon’s voice is going to dictate the future of the band. If you don’t like what they’ve done post 2K, I don’t see it changing that much. The songs are written in a certain key. A safe key.

His voice used to be able to carry any song into brilliance. Prior to 97, there was no such thing as a bad Bon Jovi song. The Blaze album IMO is a perfect example. Just listen to songs like Sante Fe. It’s all Jon’s voice and great production. Listen to Bang a Drum and then the country version by Chris Delux. Is that even the same song? Jon’s voice on that album is so raw that even the imperfections make it perfect.

The magic question is, what makes a great song? Is it lyrics, production, catchy hook, vocals, the times itself?

If Bon Jovi want another big album, they will need to put the time in. They need to take their time recording it, stretch out Jon’s voice, rely on some technology, stop overproducing, and most important change their musical direction. I’d suggest go darker. Lyrically, they could remain optimistic but go darker in sound and production.

But it comes down to…..Does Jon want to put the time and money into any album if in his mind, it’s a “singles market” ? My guess is no, so we’ll continue to get repeat post 2k albums. He’s going to shoot for the big first single to drive the album and then overproduce the reaming tracks. He said Shanks is here to stay. I think with Shanks, they are cranking these albums out within a couple months which is wrong.

I love the solo idea of a lyric driven acoustic sound but I just hope Jon could pull it off. If this was 1995, I’d be counting down for this. I don’t care how good the lyrics are and what kind of hooks they throw in, if Jon comes across winey or nasally, it’s not going to work.

Rdk,I think you are pretty much spot on. It wasn't just high notes in early-mid 90s... it was tone. Jon doesn't go too high in Sleep, but if you listen to the album version... you may still see how you could use to like that song. There was so much power in his voice.

They will have to find another sound or reinvent themselves to cater to his voice. But (like you said) they will need to take their time writing it... say something important and for the love of God make it better than Bullet. I think Beautiful, Love/Rule, and Learn to Love were steps in the right direction. Thorm, BPL, WWBTF, Superman were sideways, and the rest is garbage. I believe they can do better than their last two albums. But will they?

I don't know, even if they could still write a song as good as These Days (or anything from that album), could they make it powerful or as meaningful in a lower range with less intensity?

On the other hand, I think Jon's solo/acoustic type solo album will probably work well with his voice... just as long as he doesn't go all tom waits again. Or if he wanted to go with another DA, his voice wouldn't be stopping him. That was the first time I hard weakness in his voice, but the album is still fantastic. He could sing that song for song and we wouldn't hear the differentce, I bet. DA gives me hope.

There is no answer to that. It varies for everybody. Lot's of songs I consider great don't have the greatest lyrics, some have mediocre production, some lack a hook at all, some of the vocals aren't great.