Why JBJ song writing wrong....

Where his songwriting went wrong? Right, like Bon Jovi was all about emotional songs in the first place. Could you take your copy of Slippery and point them out to me? They didn't exactly rise to fame 'cause of their emotional depth. That fans in general are crazy about These Days (me included), doesn't really make it their trademark album or sound.

SWW - Pointing out the emotional songs as requested....

Never Say goodbye

Id die for you

Wanted

Without Love

LOAP - even though this is an uplifting song, it has a lot of emotional base in it.

Dawn

I mostly agree with you, darker themes tend to produce great BJ songs (KTF, Dry County, BoR, TD, Hey God, HAND, LMS, Undivided etc).

Anyhow, I never considered Always to be about a stalker like you said. The video for it was kind of poor and clearly had nothing to do with the original idea. It´s a sad love song about a relationship gone wrong, not a ballad about a stalker.

When my longtime girlfriend left me a couple of years back, I totally embraced "These Days" again. It was my safety net and gave me hope. It was perfect. And while it has this melancholic feel to it, don't forget that Jon said the band was in a perfect, happy condition while writing it. He seemed a bit surpirsed about the outcome himself. So you don't have to have problems yourself to sing the blues. It comes from place within yourself. What did Jon say again when he introduced "Hey God" at Wembley? "From the bottom of my heart..."

When I was in love like crazy, back in 2000 when IML came out, that song encouraged me to confess my feelings to that girl. It wouldn't have worked after the break-up... talking about different effects or music.

I agree 100% that too often in this decade he seemed to have an eye on easy going, uplifting (and more commercial) songs. BUT there are still moments of bitterness shining through. "Last Man Standing". "Novocaine". "Whole Lot Of leaving". Not much, but still. And on the new record I can hear those tones too. "Working Man" is some kind of agressive statement, it's nowhere near "It's My Life". Same might go for other tracks like "Brokenpromiseland". And talking about IML, even "Have A Nice Day" came from a point of bitterness, but was transformed a bit. This element of "deeper" songwriting is still there, but Jon doesn't seem couraged enough or willing to let this caged bird fly, for several mysterious reasons. Which is a shame.

Jon said himself it was written from the perspective of a stalker, as it was meant for a movie, "Romeo is bleeding" or something, until he read the script and held the song back. But I also read he wrote it for his wife when she was pregnant in 1993. It might have different influences... in the end, it is a love song about a relationship gone wrong. Just like "I'll Be There For You".

A relationship gone wrong because the guy is a psycopath. It has a strong tone of desperation in it, Jon's high pitched cries in the chorus are meant to convey desperation. The cries of a man obsessed with a woman and overcome with jealousy.

e.g.
this romeo is bleeding
......
it's been raining since you left me, now im drowning in the flood
.......
i've always been a fighter, but without you I give up
.......
I know when I die you'll be on my mind
.......
If you told me to die for you
I would
......
I wish I was him cause those words are mine (from this line you can tell he believes this woman belongs to him)

Also check out the below line
now these pictures here that you left behind are just memories of a different life, some of them made us laugh, some of them made us cry, one that made you have to say goodbye
Maybe he was obsessed to the point of taking secret photos of her

I can see your point, no problem with that, these lyrics are common knowledge. I do remember that interview.

Still, it´s a sad love song above anything else, not a song about a psychopat. Obsessive would be a better word than psychotic.

The sorts of metaphors Jon is using on Always are quite common amongst BJ songs. For instance, dying has often been mentioned in BJ lyrics, quite often just to express loyalty or passion (I´d Die for You, Born To Be My Baby etc). Same goes with "bleeding". BJ lyrics tend to exaggerate things to pass the emotions more clearly. And that is extremely common in the art of writing pop/rock lyrics.

You make some very good points , Jon needs to fly !!!!!!!!! Do you think he has forgotten, life is to cosy so cant remember the feelings, rather than it being a choice to not write a 'downer' song? I want to shake him and shout the 'downer' song is the 'real' uplifting song u idiot Jon..... just go for it....

Dawn