If Jon attempted to sing...

Save the World, I Want You and Hearts Breaking Even nowadays, I'd tip my hat but I'd probably piss myself laughing. Jokes aside, isn't it a pity that neither songs were ever played live ? I mean, what's the point of writing stuff that you're not gonna play live ? I know these aren't the sole examples but it saddens me that they were not played by the time they were released and they never will now, given how hard they'd be for Jon to sing them, unless he murdered them much the same way he murdered Santa Fe. Not that it sounded bad per say, but let's face it, the climax of such songs was the high notes. I'm not crucifying Jon for not being able to sing like he did in the 90s or anything, but it'd be somehow a good surprise if he tried to play those lost rarities..

Because 13 albums worth of stuff is a lot of songs! Roughly about 150 songs worth of hits. Even by Bon Jovi's value that would be one long gig!

Seriously though, I dont think the core reason why Bon Jovi write these songs is for live shows. Having said that it'd be nice to hear some variety. Just that Jon wont go against his ethos if he believes that the songs we hear every night are crowd pleasers. But we go on to the set list thing again. People want more variety

I don't think it's fair to say Sante Fe was murdered. It was a nice, moving performance! Plus, there is a whole thread (two even) moaning about boring setlists and how if only such and such was played then it would be great! What's the point though? They play such a rarity and fan favourite and it gets slated?!

If you can't do what you're supposed to do, stop doing it.

I'd rather see Bon Jovi stop than to see them become any worse than they already are. I've said it before and I've said it again, quit while you still can. It won't be quitting from the top anymore, but it's stil better than watching them butcher old memories on stage. The Washington videos are horrible to watch. It's painful to hear Jon try to reach even semi-high notes, with at least half-step down-tuned instruments.

It's just not happening any more.

And to answer the first question, AFAIK, I Want You was performed live once on the KTF tour. Of the other two, I've no idea. I have a feeling HBE was performed a couple of times.

Ice

I was only listening to the 13 min live 'Blood on Blood' today from the New Jersey special edition and thinking about just how much Jon's voice has changed.

I see the band as almost having two different singers - the raspy singer up to 1997 and a different singer from Crush onwards.

It must hurt Jon to look at his back catalogue and know there are songs he can't sing anymore.

Mind you he's not alone. Saw an interview with Joe Elliot recently and he spoke about going back into the studio to re-record 'Rock of Ages' and 'Sugar' for iTunes and how the session left him in pain on the floor trying to sing like the 1986 Joe Elliot.

Murdered it? I wasn't there, I saw only YouTube videos but the performance gave me shivers. It was great, I really, really loved it. Yeah, is not the original one, but it was a nice performance.

don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to say the song was totally butchered. it was moving indeed, it just wasn't what we imagined it would be.
They should tune the instruments down another half step. It would help Jon in so many ways. So many songs that aren't being played could be played at least decently.
I was listening to some of the live stuff from 95/96 and you can clearly hear a difference from 92/93. He sang beautifully but you can tell his voice became a bit nasal in 95. not nasal as it is now, more like he had a cold constantly. again, it only 'affected' his tone compared to the keep the faith era, not the performance as a whole. I guess it was clear his voice was bound to change and he didn't really see it coming. Again, even the most nostalgic fan isn't asking for Jon to undergo a miraculous vocal cord surgery that'll make him sound like he's 25 all over again. We can't stop time and its side effects. But we can't simply blame it on age since a lot of older singers still sing in the original key and blow people away, like Macca or Springsteen. But if Jon was clever enough to tune everything down a half-step in the late 80s, he could do the same thing, AT LEAST on certain songs. for example, when he sang Queen of New Orleans live it sounded shit because it was such a low key in the studio version that it was almost like he couldn't get that low live, everything being a half-step down. Plus, with all those guitars and basses and competent roadies, everything could be done smoothly.

Its not the first time a tour has started out like this. Lets not forget the I believe performances at the end of the Circle tour.

Which songs are talking about in particular? Last tour, in the current setting (one half step down) we got Something To Believe In, Let It Rock, Only Lonely, Blood Money, and pretty much every hit ballad in their catalogue that they ever performed live in their careers. When Jon's voice is in decent shape (which never is the case at the start of the tour), he can still pull the majority of the catalogue to a satisfactory level. The only songs that come to my mind that are absolutely out his current range (and half tuning wouldn't help much) are My Guitar Lies Bleeding and All About Loving You.

I disagree about tuning it more, because it is a thin line. Some songs really suffer from it, others not so much, but I just don't like when artists do that. Everyone knows Here I Go Again by Whitesnake. A long time ago I watched the live DVD from 2006 and it was downtuned half a step, Jovi style. It was OK, I can understand. But I watched live videos from 2011 and 2012 and it was downtuned even further, which I thought was unnaceptable. Once you start performing songs at a certain key it shouldn't be changed (unless we're talking about a completely different rendition). But I'd hate if Jon downtuned, for example, Always some more just to ease his job at singing it, when last tour we had some decent performances.

Yeah, again I mean only in certain songs that he's CONSTANTLY struggling with, or others he hasn't performed in over 15 years because he just can't do it. Not Always.