Trying to determine Alec's TRUE involvement and abilities

(A long-time lurker, first time poster….)

Does anyone know if Alec John Such actually played on any of the Bon Jovi studio recordings?

I have heard he has never played on ANYTHING, that it has been Hugh McDonald from the very beginning, but I have also heard that he played on the first two albums THEN McDonald took over in the studio at the suggestion of Bruce Fairburn.

Also, do you think things went so far as to have the bass parts on the live recordings (New Jesery and Keep the Faith b-sides and on the home videos) over dubbed? I ask this only because to me they do not sound bad at all. Nothing tremendously unique or inventive, but nothing that would warrant Alec not being on a studio recording.

Just my opinion, thanks!

John

Hi there,

Lurking? Improve your lurking skills because this has been done.

You could probably search the topic, I think there was one last week. Anyway, he played nothing in the studio but obviously played live is the general idea.

This post still raises the good point, can someone provide audio or video examples of Alec ''messing up'' as JBJ so bluntly put it on the VH1 Behind the music doc? I have plenty of bootlegs from the early days, and aside from Alec's annoying super-high pitch backing vox, I've never heard any glaring mistakes, enough to warrant a sacking. Heard more mistakes from Jon to be honest..

The official live bsides etc. from that era could indeed have been doctored/re-recorded in the studio..it's not unheard of. For example the GNR ''live'' album is anything but live..that record was taken apart and many parts re-recorded in the studio, vocals and guitar.

But yes, Hugh has played on every record, straight from the mouth of the man himself.

Alec's sacking was probably due to other ''personal issues''.

Oh, how we've all come to love that explanation these days.. ''personal issues''!

Andi

God bless it, I am sorry...

Welcome! There are plenty of topics on Alec. You could find them if you do a search with his name.

The quick answer to your question is, no one knows for sure. There are rumors that Alec was the touring musician and Hugh was the studio one but I don't believe that entirely.

My theory is that Hugh was a studio musician that was better at writing some of the bass lines but Alec still played on the majority of the songs.

The best thing about Alec was getting Tico

The first bootleg that comes to my mind (and that's because Jon called attention to it) is the acoustic Madrid radio broadcast in 1992 (40 Principales). It was Blood on Blood I think and the comment was something like "Thanks Al - it goes back to D".

I will see if there is a YT clip of it. There is video of this also but that part is cut out of the video.

Here you go: at about 30 seconds in.

I think Hugh has said he didn't have any involvement with the recording of 7800 but had at least contributed to every other album.

As for live mistakes listen to An Evening With...specifically It's My Life. Alec gets the intro riff but once the first verse starts he gets bits wrong and simply stops playing at times..

Doesn't Access All Areas start with Tico bitching at Alec for messing up some rhythm section?

I don't listen to enough liver material to be able to make a judgement, but if anything at all, I thought Alec was more prominent in the mix, and had a certain groove, a certain feel to playing the bass, which has disappeared since he was kicked out. But yeah, overall, Hugh must be a more solid player. But to be honest, the band is so sloppy, certainly, Alec would have fitted in perfectly nowadays.

No one really knows for sure, but to my knowledge simply because Hugh played on every record does not mean that Alec never played a note on them. It's just Hugh is better at writting bass lines, but to me, the bass line for say, Wild in the Streets, '99 in the shade, Sleep when I'm dead is something that Alec could have played and written since he comes from a very 'stones' background. But no one will ever really know for sure...