NEW JERSEY (198


The band were exhausted after the long tour for the hugely successful Slippery When Wet, but they didn't lay down to enjoy the fortunes they'd gained; to the surprise of many they took only a six week break and began working on album number four. The band were afraid of how they could repeat the phenomenal success of Slippery. Few artists ever could repeat that kind of commercial success again, so it was natural that they were nervous about the follow-up. The band felt that they had a momentum they needed to grab and they felt confident enough to go back to the studio right away. Why fix what isn't broken was the philosophy when they returned to Vancouver with Bruce Fairbairn again as producer.
Jon and Richie were rather prolific in writing the new songs, in fact so prolific that the first idea was to release a double album. The double album concept was dumped by the record company with the sales in mind - double albums don't sell as much as normal albums do. To this day, all but two songs of those many written and recorded during the sessions for New Jersey (and initially planned for the double album) that didn't make the cut for the album have remained unreleased. To many fans' great delight some demo tapes for the album were stolen from the studios and a bunch of demos for officially still unreleased songs were released on bootlegs.
The album, entitled New Jersey (whose original name idea was "Sons Of Beaches"), was released in October 1988. It was another big commercial success, hitting no. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic and producing two US no. 1 singles out of its five single releases. The music on the album is to some extent much like that of Slippery, only more polished, well-written and smarter. New Jersey and the long tour that followed it closed the 1980s for the band and marked the end of the first era of Bon Jovi.



Lay Your Hands On Me

Written by: JBJ, RS
Status: Fourth single from the album released in July 1989, peaked at #7 in the US, at #18 in the UK

A drum beat fades in from silence. It strengthens, soon to become a loud, thunderous force. A crowd of mighty "heys" accompany it, and then we hear Jon's voice: "They say to free your body / you've got to free your mind...". Make no mistake, the introduction to Lay Your Hands On Me is very powerful. Then organ harmonies take over, and the song bursts into an excellent piece of rock'n'roll. Lay Your Hands On Me, which opens the New Jersey album, isn't quite your average rock'n'roll track. It is average in the sense that it's pretty plain and simple and the lyrics are what they are (or actually, although in many songs - not just by Bon Jovi - there are lyrics just to accompany the "rock" in it, the lyrics of Hands are actually good to this sort of thing; although they make no sense they're easy, fun and good to sing along to). But it's definitely not average because it's just so damn good. The big things, the "trademarks" of the song are the mighty drum beat and the organs. The drum beat is one of those that kind of were always there (a bit like We Will Rock You), just waiting to be picked up. The organs give exceptional solemnity to the song and when played live encouraged Jon to invite the audience into "the church of rock'n'roll".
It goes without saying that Lay Your Hands On Me used to be a massive live song. On the tours for New Jersey in 1988-90 it was used as the concert opener (as well as in 1996), but in my opinion the heyday of this song was in 1995 when they played a giant 10 minute version of it. It shook stadiums up with the drum & organ intro played by Tico and David, Jon's playing with the audience and an extra solo they added to the song. No doubt that at that time it was one of the numerous concert highlights.
Lay Your Hands On Me is excellent. It's a truly gripping rock song and your classic Bon Jovi rocker.

Rating: ****


Bad Medicine

Written by: JBJ, RS, DC
Status: First single from the album released in September 1988, peaked at #1 in the US, at #17 in the UK

This is the ultimate Bon Jovi rock'n'roll song. Bad Medicine, which was the first single from the album and another no. 1 hit, is no short of a Bon Jovi classic.
Bad Medicine begins and throughout the song is dominated with David's simple, heavy and catchy keyboard riff. The song has excellent guitar work by Richie, pounding drums and big choruses. The lyrics, which are a humorous story of a guy who is addicted to a woman, are definitely fun. The song has it all: it's melodic and fun, it has the irresistible big, loud and catchy choruses, it's lyrically very innocent but the song is still very heavy - it's no wonder the song was a hit. Bad Medicine is another integral Bon Jovi song. It's also a song that was always played live and had its live heyday in the 90s, when it was used as the closing song of the main set.
As said, Bad Medicine is a Bon Jovi classic. And what comes to those pure, fun rock'n'roll songs by the band, Bad Medicine is perhaps the very best one.

Rating: *****


Born To Be My Baby

Written by: JBJ, RS, DC
Status: Second single from the album released in November 1988, peaked at #3 in the US, at #22 in the UK

The fast paced Born To Be My Baby is probably one of the most famous and liked Bon Jovi songs. The speedy song just accelerates as it goes and it never stops, the fast beat keeps driving until the song eventually fades away. The song was another hit, and with the lovelorn lyrics so many teenage girls are known to be fascinated about, the catchy na-na-na's and the fast beat, it's hardly a wonder. And no doubt, you can't help but tap your feet to the beat of this song.
Born To Be My Baby is a very popular song among many Bon Jovi fans. It's that perhaps because it's such a characteristic Bon Jovi song, a song that encompasses a lot of this band: it's a rock song with a gripping beat and chorus, lyrics about love, and with such a neat covering of commercialism as it has it's a very likeable song, a song hard to resist. Live the song was never as good as on the album, and although it was great to hear it live when it was a fresh song, it was good that the band realised to drop the song off the set after 1993. Picking the song again up and playing it live in the 2000s was a really awful decision from the band as they couldn't do the song any justice anymore and it seems that they picked it up again only to destroy all dignity the song once had. But on the album the energetic song does still sound good. I like Born To Be My Baby. But, I used to like it more in the past. It's basically just too likeable song to be liked that much, perhaps too much of a "hit" in a negative sense, and the band's poor decision to play the song in the 2000s didn't help me to like it more. It's a good song, though. But on this album there are many better tracks.

Rating: ***


Living In Sin

Written by: JBJ
Status: Fifth single from the album released in November 1989, peaked at #9 in the US, at #35 in the UK

The only song on the album written solely by Jon is a decent piece of writing from him. The lyrics of Living In Sin are about two lovers whose love isn't accepted by the people around them. Supposedly the lovers have a strong religious background and therefore they're "living in sin" because they aren't married or something. I've always thought that the lyrics could just as well be about two homosexuals. I guess the strict religious background is the case here but the lyrics do fit very well for a common situation of a gay couple too (at least in such a conservative country that the USA is). But anyway, Jon did write good lyrics. And the song is great. It's another fine example of the band's talent, pretty much impeccable both lyrically and musically. It's soft like honey, silky, polished and spongy. It's a bit sad though that after the New Jersey tour the song became a very rare treat live and was played hardly ever during the 1990s. Also, although the song was a single and did chart well, I guess it would also be one of those fan's favourite songs. A great piece all around.

Rating: ****


Blood On Blood

Written by: JBJ, RS, DC
Status: Album track

For me and many others, this is the song of the album. A fan favourite if there ever is one, Blood On Blood is a powerful and rousing celebration of friendship and brotherhood. The lyrics are a walk down the memory lane of the speaker; Danny, Bobby and the speaker are the characters in this romantic tale of youth, and the themes of innocence of childhood and growing up are wonderfully presented in the song. Although more or less the same themes were explored in both Never Say Goodbye and Wild In The Streets, these openly romantic lyrics about adolescence are fairly good. But what's much more impressive about the song than the heart-warming, almost naive lyrics is the fact that the song is so powerful. It is the song's sheer power that astonishes you when you hear the song. And also because it's instrumentally so great, it's especially the dazzling drumming and the piano that shine like a gem, not to mention Richie's typically strong guitar work too. This was an essential live song as well, a song they always loved to play live and did play on all tours. The song was one of the band's own favourites, as well as being a big fan favourite. This powerful and beautiful song is for me the highlight of the album.

Rating: *****