Tony, I've got one word for you: Complicated. It's about as lyrically outstanding as the songs Madonna wrote/recorded around the time of "Holiday." It's much more embarrassing IMO than Bells. Bells took on new meaning for me through my friend Debbie in Biloxi. The song helped her get through loosing just about everything to Katrina. Picturing what used to be the Gulf Coast while listening to those lyrics touches my heart. The lyrics of that song were able to take on a meaning they never intended. I think that's one of Jon & Richie's gifts as songwriters. They do write songs that can appeal to people in situations they never imagined when they wrote the song.

Were they really taking chances and being different with SWW and NJ? We're about the same age, but I don't remember the songs from SWW or NJ standing out as anything really different than whatever else was on the radio at the time. The difference to my pre-teen and teenage ears was that I liked the singer better than I liked the others (Van Halen, Motley Crue, Poison, Def Lep, Aerosmith, Winger, Warrant). But either they were playing the same melodic rock and power ballads as everyone else or everyone else was striving to be Bon Jovi.