We Weren't Born To Follow - Live question

Nah, I agree. I think the studio version is better than anything on What About Now, and one of only 3 songs on The Circle I listen to very much anymore.

This track is horrible live. I wish Jon would ditch it and throw-in something the fans would welcome.

I think this version is actually pretty good. And also further proof that Jon does NOT need his acoustic on it.

Jon needs to get around the stage and catwalk and sell this song. The very same thing would help Because We Can live.

I hear ya. I think my original point was usually when a song is recorded half a step down, it's still played half a step down and not dropped another half step. I guess it makes more sense for it to be recorded in standard or else why would they have dropped it further.

I have to disagree there.

I know that I'm in the minority of the BJ fanbase which actually likes the studio version. Live it's a bit dull, epecially when played along the classics.

However, I didn't want to talk about myself. I wanted to talk about my friends who aren't fans. I had a meeting with a bunch of my friends, doesn't matter what kind of meeting. We were about to play some music and I made myself in charge so everyone went like: "Oh no, it's gonna be Bon Jovi, don't play Bon Jovi unless it's Livin' On A Prayer, It's My Life or We Weren't Born To Follow!" I thought they were teasing me because almost everyone from the Bon Jovi world dislikes this song to some extent. So I asked them whether they had been serious and they with all seriousness answered that they had. Some of them showed me that it was their only song on ipod/smartphone.. and I got some replies how great and uplifting the song is. I have never imagined something like that. I also had a similar experience from my former sports club - two guys told me that I was allowed to play only WWBTF.

So it had some impact and some people heard it. Surpisingly some of my friends are familiar with Because We Can and they like it. What the hell is going on?

My friend, who is a casual fan, told me that WWBTF was the only good song on The Circle. I mean, I don't like The Circle either, but WWBTF out of all songs?

Also, the only BJ album on his iPod is What About Now.

I believe it's not so much the tuning of the song that makes it dull live, I really can't take the way-too-loud-over-the-top-keyboard on it, which you barely hear on the studio version (or which melds/sounds like one of the several guitar layers on that one). Give it more guitar, less keyboards and a little more energy from Jon live, and it should work a lot better...

Once again, I am in an obvious minority in here to love that song. Classic and anthemic Bon Jovi, cute and uplifting as ever. I´ve never seen it as naive or cheesy at all but quite the opposite. Definitely in my all time Bon Jovi top 5. I never get bored of the song, even if my honeymoon phase with The Circle didn´t last forever.

I admit it works better on the album than it does live, though. I think it suffers substantially from the downtuning, even more than most other live numbers.

They could have done it either way. The only reason I say that they recorded it in standard E tuning is that it makes really no sense in recording a song one way with no intention of playing it live like that at all....

I do agree, it seems backwards to do it that way. I've just always found it far easier to play in standard. I guess we'll never know.