Most of the songs, where the "traditional" ad-libs appearead, are already mentioned here:
- I'll Be There For You: The way Jon added lyrics changed from the NJ tour (with those screams added) to "just" lyrics with them going back to the "woohooo" part. My favourites are: Philly '89, Giants '89, Yokohama '96 night 1, Giants 2001 - there are many more, especially the OWN tour had great renditions! Most of the above mentioned are on YT.
- Living In Sin: When the song became a steady in the setlists for the odd 50 or so shows in mid-1989, that was when it really developped. Many remember the B-side (I think from Lakeland '89) and the performance from Santiago 1990. My personal favourite is from Phoenix (Jon's energy was unbelievable throughout the entire show):
I also adore the one from Rotterdam in late '89, but mostly for Jon screaming the part "...sign it on the dotted line!"
- Someday I'll Be Saturday Night: Probably THE song with the most amazing improvements throughout their career. Amsterdam '08 had a great one, as did Giants '06 (night 2). I saw him inserting parts of "Jersey Girl" into the song in Munich on the Bounce tour which was magical. Overall the Bounce tour probably featured the best ad-libs for the songs - go and look San José and Mannheim up on YT.
- Something To Believe In: Jon used to add the "for John F. Kennedy..." line many times in 1996, however, on the last few concerts that summer he changed the lyrics slightly. Listen to this example from Helsinki:
- Hey God: It's a common thing that Jon sometimes changed the lines from "these nights you know I wanna scream" to "these nights are longer than they seem", but on the These Days tour there was some almost rap-a-like break in the middle of the song where he partly really went for great ad-libs, like in Paris:
- Dry County: There were countless versions on the KTF and TD tour where he gave an introduction speech and added a rant before Richie kicked into his solo. Most memorable are probably Milton Keynes '93, Oslo '93 (with the part "ey, **** you!") and Wembley 1995 (I think night 1 it was). I also enjoyed him picking it up at Giants '06, but a scream would've enhanced it more I guess.
- Runaway: There was a performance at Jones Beach '95 (night 2) where he sang some additional lyrics over Richie playing the outro.
- Livin' On A Prayer: Not really ad-libs, but there were times where he either altered the lyrics of the first (Helsinki '96) or the second (Countdown Revolution '89) verse.
- When We Were Beautiful: At some occasions Jon sang some lines over the shalalala outro of the song, like in Munich 2013:
- Blood On Blood: late NJ-tour. During the break (where Richie and partly Alec got to sing afterwards) there were some ad-libs. I'm thinking of Rio '90 (and probably more from that period of time). Their show at the Meadowlands Arena in '93 also featured some more lines near the end:
- Born To Be My Baby: After having played the harmonica Jon opted to sing a few more lines - mostly on the late NJ-tour. Again Rio '90 is a good example to be looked up.
04-26-2014, 05:24 AM
