Homebound Train

You know..... this would boggle most minds here...but I'm having an extremely delayed arrival at appreciating this song. New Jersey was a slow burner that never engulfed in flames fully. At the time of release...it was Blood On Blood followed by Lay Your Hands On Me followed by a tolerance set for the rest of the album. From my point of view, the album definitely demonstrated the creative and artistic growth of the band, but a bit overly saddled with the demands of their position at the time.

So despite the fact my gag reaction upon initially hearing Bad Medicine on MTV during the Premiere with "Bon Jovi Is Back." You could hear Jon's voice was maturing, you could hear some good stuff going on in parts of the song...still the obvious formulated attempt at Bad Name II did not go over well with me at all.

Born To Be My Baby.... oh jeez. It was an improvement over Medicine, but just like how some of you have issues with Sha La La's....I have a revulsion to Na Na Na's. Since they smack you in the face with that right off the count of 4. The chorus was just plain boring. The most exciting part being the last verse following the chorus.

Without going on and on.....Homebound Train I usually reached for the needle to skip forward during the first chorus. The "Whoo Hoo!" bugged me for some reason and the rest of it just wasn't my groove. It was Richie's groove. It sounded like he may as well have been the one singing it. It pretty much became habit to skip it...meaning I wrote it off as a throwaway.

So here we are 23 years later and they are doing it live night with Richie on lead vocals. I've been going back and listening to the catalog alot lately, giving more attention to things I hadn't before. Obviously I'd check out Homebound Train and I'm really starting to love it. I did check out a bit of one You Tube clip and some of the Arizona show audio, but I'm trying to save it for in person.

Homebound is going to be a highlight on Saturday no doubt. After honestly being bored during his I'll Be There For You spotlight..... this is honestly some exciting shit that really makes him shine in one of the coolest spots of the entire set. Just the few lines of the first verse he grabs that song with a vengeance.

Somehow I knew this coming album and tour was going to be the time to come back home.

I never liked Homebound Train much, because it was right before Wild Is The Wind and I always waited for it to finish fast so I could hear one of my all time favorites.
Hearing Richie perform it blew me away and really look forward to seeing it live and not on youtube.
It just shows that Bon Jovi are better live than in the studio.

Better late than never . . . says the person who completely ignored Jovi in general (not just a song or 2) until 2007!

I can't wait to see Homebound Train live. The YT videos are so good, and you know there's no way they do it justice. Woo hooo! Three weeks from today for me, but who's counting?

I think you can be forgiven by now

I'm not forgiving myself! Just think of the fun I missed, damn it.

I was never into music until I hit my mid-life crisis a few years ago and belatedly discovered Jovi and live music. In high school and college, I listened to whatever came on the radio (Styx, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Rod Stewart, etc.), but I bought almost nothing and didn't follow any bands in particular. Most of my free time was spent on football, baseball, basketball, etc.

I always skipped this song on NJ.
But yeah I have a new appreciation for this song.
And I hope Richie is still singing it at the O2 when I go
I know some people want him to sing other songs but I really wanna hear him sing this one.

I always loved New Jersey from start to finish. I guess like some of you I'm listening to it more often since the tour started and the band decided to play some older songs.

It's kind of obvious that Homebound Train really fits Richie's voice and his bluesy style I love so much. I'm impressed by Seattle's performance on the second night and I'm sure it will get even better every night.

While I was listening to NJ today I was thinking that Love For Sale is a very cool song and different from a "classic" Bon Jovi song. I'd love them to play it on this tour!

I really don't get the song skipping you all seem to do. If I'm listening to a Jovi album rather than just random songs on iTunes or live tracks, I'll listen to the whole thing. Even songs I don't think are the best in the world.

And on every listen, you do hear something new in every song.

For the record though, I've always loved Homebound Train and will much prefer Richie doing that to IBTFY