Personal meaning...

For me this is the truly magical thing about Bon Jovi's music. On every record, somewhere, is a song or three that resonates with me. I ve never been able to say that about any other bands music.
lets see: Living in Sin was a big one for me because it was a fundemental change from what I was raised to believe, my family was not happy with my decision to "live " with my boyfriend, i got what Jon was singing about.
Lie to me is one that matters in my life because at the time my marriage was difficult and the song made me realize that sometimes you just have to say the words even when you don't always feel it just to get you both through the day.
I'm sure if i think on it awhile i could come up with several more but for now this is all i can think of.

Yeah it describes me in some ways too, but the song as a whole doesn't apply to me because I don't love someone that I am far away from.

I do...but the whole song doesnt have personal meaning to me in that way.

Alright, let's see.....

Never Say Goodbye - My family moved from Denver back in late 87, so it became the swan song at the time.

Every Word Was A Piece of My Heart - Post 9-11. Had just moved to NYC. Psychologically was in shambles, depressed. I always overlooked it off the album, but I picked up the Paris show pressing (Destination Europe) at a store and rediscovered this song and the Destination album as a whole. I spent alot of lonely nights listening to the song, drinking, musing over my relationships with various people that were now at a distance..hence "Hey now, I guess the night's just bringing me down." I was in a FUKKEDUP relationship at the time on top of the obvious circumstances. I was to be setting up house, was being told they would follow eventually which was utter bullsh*t, but I wasn't mentally sound to clearly see that at the time. It did the damage of adding too much weight and led to me resigning and leaving NY when my brother suggested going to stay with him, where I otherwise wouldn't have. Regardless, the lack of clarity with whether I was being played or not figures in to "Did I see a tear fall from your eyes, or did you laugh so hard that you cried?" It turned out to be the latter.

Open All Night - As in "Don't worry about me, I'll get along. I'm like the neon sign that's always on, it's alright. I'm open all night." Newly single again, only this time it was a good relationship. The kind where the love is still there and likely to become a lifelong close friendship. The song describes us and also describes a promise we made to each other at the onset that we would love each other unconditionally, even if it meant letting each other go to follow their dreams. "It's your life, better get on board."

There are plenty of other Bon Jovi songs that figure prominently. but the three above figure in the most naturally without going "hey that song applies to my life" after the fact. They were all newly released or discovered and happened to apply to what was happening in my life at the time. Those types hit home when you least expect it.

I Believe: Apart from the fact that it's my favorite Bon Jovi song, and second favorite song I know, I can heavily relate to the lyrics.
How he sings about knowing who you are, getting comfortable with yourself, believing in yourself, doing YOUR thing.

"You can't do this, you can't do that. They feed us lines but I won't act."
"Close your eyes and you will see that you are all you really need."


Dry County: When you're at the point of giving up on everything, you reach deep down in yourself to find that last spark of hope and turn it into something so powerful you will fight till the end. It's two years later now and everything is cool, but listening to the song reminds of the time.

It's more the Milton Keynes '93 live versions which had the lines I relate to (although the whole song holds the meaning as a metaphore of course):

"Everyday a man wakes up, everyday a man tries to pour himself a cup of coffee.
Take a good long hard look in the mirror and sometimes what he looks at he doesn't like, sometimes what he sees makes him angry, sometimes what he sees makes him sad.
Sometimes what he sees is himself and that disappointment gets at you and rips at you little by little piece by piece.
And sometimes you can just lay down, you can just play the game, you can just take the cards that they deal ya, you can pretend it's all over, but not me!"



Fear: I was always one of taking no chances and doing the same obvious safe things. I had to learn to take chances in life and I did.

"You ain't one for taking chances
You work and live and breathe that 9 to 5
Still that's what you call living
That's surviving to me"


Something To Believe In: Same time in my life, I had just left my friend group, because they couldn't accept me for who I was. I just went to live on my own, with having no one left in my near vicinity. I remember coming home after two days just feeling so ****ing alone in the world... These lines say it all:

"I lost all trust in my friends, I watched my heart turn to stone."
"I thought that I was left to walk this wicked world alone."

Now I look back and am just glad that I made a lot of right decisions in the meantime, getting me to where I am now.

I also noticed that each of these songs is written by Jon solo... thought it was just worth a mention.

It's nice to read everybody's posts btw. Nice topic.

Lay Your Hands On Me. But I'll not tell you why.

Nat

Ill Be There For You- girl, not much to explain

Wanted Dead or Alive- my favorite song, and even my friends that arent bon jovi fans like this song so it brings back some good times

Livin On A Prayer- pretty much the same reason as Wanted

Hey God

My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms

Wanted Dead Or Alive.. It's my Nº1 BJ song...

The one song I relate to totally is These Days... I feel the same way as Jon about these days...

And I cannot forget this one:
"But If I Get That Call In The Dead Of The Night I'll Be Right By Your Side..." -Blood On Blood

After 20 years as a fan their songs read like a dairy to my life, so many have meaning from first falling in love, having a baby, breakups, make ups, death , every mood you could possibley imagine. I cant really pick a song that means the most as too many do .

Dawn