Quote:
Originally Posted by thesedays2014
Credibility? Self-credibility, self-belief, self-esteem...exactly what he’s been lacking definitely since Richie left and probably since Lost Highway (like it or loathe it, it’s probably the last record Jon believed in).
Go and listen to Jon when he believed in himself, listen to some Jason Mraz; Jon needs to think about himself, you guys will keep moaning whatever he does anyway 😹
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I agree about Lost Highway having been the last record he's really been into, all the other stuff was just going through the motions. And you keep moaning on whatever he's currently doing too, just because you'd like to hear TLFR and Stand Up Guys songs doesn't make it much different
And just to clarify: I would've wished for them to do something different, be it an acoustic tour or re-arranging songs with a symphonic orchestra like Kiss, The Scorprions, Metallica (hell, even Bounce) had done. But they never had the balls to do so and always played the safe card because that meant steady tickets sales and big tours.
Even up until 2011, they would've been great in doing such a thing as a laid-back acoustic show where they dug deep into the albums. The band definitely would've been up for it, it usually was Jon who stopped this. Just like that show in 2010 when people requested In And Out Of Love and Richie spontaneously started jamming on his acoustic guitar until Jon made him stop. Or in Mannheim 2011 with the NSG sign where he kept asking him "you wanna do that?! you wanna do that?!" until Richie said no and they started I'll Be There For You.
I feel that, of all people up there, Jon's always been the one least interested in digging out rare songs. Once something wasn't successful, it was cut off. Fahrenheit wasn't the breakthrough they had hoped for, so it all got scrapped from the setlists once SWW and then NJ had hit big. These Days failed in the states and was basically ignored on setlists there onwards. Bounce didn't follow up the success of Crush, so it was even scrapped from the Greatest Hits. Who Says and then the Lost Highway record were quite big in the USA, so we get in everywhere now. And so on...
He could've done a solo album and then tour these kind of songs, but ever since Destination Anywhere failed on US soil, I feel he doesn't have the guts to do another one. Which is rather sad. After the big break in 2014, they kept touting that they don't have to proof anything anymore, yet we get another carbon copy of the same album. After the RnR Hall of Fame, they said the same, yet we're most likely to get WAN part 4 next year.
If Jon wanted to lay the focus on rare songs he truly believed in, he could easily do a solo tour and play these. His current solo line-up sounds a lot better in terms of guitar playing and vocal harmonies anyway.
But if the artist doesn't believe in his work, how could one expect the audience to do so?