The reason of all the Lost Highway songs...?

Aloha !

Most of us want them gone and wonder why they're in there anyway. I think the answer comes down to a few things. First, they're easy on Jon's vocals. Lost Highway is easy, Whole Lot Of Leavin' is easy, Memory is easy and We Got It Goin' On is easy. It doesn't require much effort from Jon and we all know that he rather takes the easy way out when it comes to his vocals. One thing is because he needs to save his voice, the other part is just lazyness.

However, what I think is the reason is that because Jon has this obsession with being relevant. Jon always seems to think that if your album is doing well, this means you're relevant. This is obviously not true, but in Jon's world it is. However, The Circle wasn't the success he (and most fans) thought and hoped it would be, so playing songs of an album no one knows isn't something Jon is too fond of. And no matter how much some fans love the songs of The Circle, many of them just don't work live.

So what do you do when your last album tanked? You play songs of the most recent album that in your eyes was a succes. So we end up with this many Lost Highway songs in the setlist. Were they hits? Apart from Memory, no. Do they work? Yeah, to a certain extent. Lost Highway goes over much better than When We Were Beautiful. Whole Lot Of Leavin' has Jon's "I need people cheering for me, do I got it?" moment in there, We Got It Goin' On is another one of the easy applause songs, and Memory is their most recent hit. Compare this to Superman Tonight where they completely lose the crowd once the song is done, or Work For The Working Man which is just one long dragging disappointment that no matter how much choreography they put in there, eventually leads to people just being confused, not knowing what to do with the song.

This is what I think is the reason as to why there are so many songs from Lost Highway in the set. Sadly, a large part of the set seems to be constructed around that album. Two of the first 6 songs are often of Lost Highway, then another one in the first 10, then one in the set on the catwalk. Instead of those songs being the songs that are swapped around for any other song, you end up with a setlist focussed on songs that never really achieved anything apart from some airplay here and there.

Another thing is though that it's not working the way Jon hopes it does. After all, what happens when you play a bunch of wannabe hits of the last 5 years of your career followed by your big hits from the eighties? People will still say that you were at your best in the eighties. Now I know many people agree with this and it's true to a certain extent, but it's not what Jon wants. By putting so many songs in there from the last 10 years you get a setlist that shows you pretty much released nothing too fancy the past 20 years. We all know there have been a lot of gems in the past 20 years, and some even worked live as well. And when performed with the right energy they could work still and convince the crowd there's more than just Prayer, Bad Name and Bad Medicine.

If only Jon would realize this though, and would focus more on what a live show could be, instead of what he wants the people's perception on the band to be. And if he wants people to stop ignoring the stuff he knows is good enough for a show, he should stop ignoring it himself as well. You can't expect people to come to your show being fully prepared, but there's nothing wrong with training them, and educating them as to what you've done the past 27 years, as opposed to those 3 years in the eighties and the last 4 years in the 00's.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Damn, gotta admit I agree with you there on everything.

Worst thing is the LH/WLOL double at the start of the show has become such a habbit that I can't see them snapping out of it.

And that milking the applause moment in WLOL, it really annoys me. C'mon Jon, is your ego really that much in need of a boost?

I do agree with a lot of what you said Seb but I think a lot of it too is that in the US the LH stuff really does go over well. I honestly do NOT think all the LH songs will cross the pond come June. But, we shall see!!

I agree with Seb. In addition, for the Raleigh or last Springs Charlotte show, I think Jon thinks since we are in the south we like that country crap and want to hear it. Sorry not thrilled with the 4 country flavored songs last night.

The annoying thing is that it is a self fulfilling prophecy, they have kept the LH songs in and so they become favourites, or at least tolerable and recognisable. If they persevered with The Circle songs in the same way, they do would become favourites. There is no way on earth that keeping LTOR and Thorn as staples would do anything other than make these songs favourites- Lost Highway wasn't a hit but it goes down well as its a regular player. Bon Jovi don't have hits nowadays so they should play whatever is strong from the album.

I don't buy the argument that the songs don't work live- most of them can and do. WFTWM may miss the spot but that's as much down to peoples dislike of the song as well as the nightly robotics that go with it. I think WWWB works very well- probably would have worked better if Jon stood on The Circle to sing it. WWBTF should work but its been played with such a lack of effort and Jon needlessly on his guitar- if he moved around the stage and encouraged more interaction it would liven it up.
Superman Tonight they have completely missed the point on with "everyday heroes" concept and it doesn't work- the song however does work if it was executed properly, maybe the recently done acoustic version could do this.

Thorn I will defend to the death that this is a must in any Circle setlist especially with the duelling guitar outtro. It's too good not to have on the set. Ditto, LTOR a great song enhanced by the live version. Yet these two are left on the shelf more often than not. Learn To Love could easily be sung on The Circle stage. Keep them in the set and the audience will take to them.


At least some of the LH songs have/had their uses- WGIGO has the very good affects and gets Jon to see the behind stage seats. WLOL shouldn't be there at the expense of a Circle track and certainly not so close to LH at the start of the set. Memory is a useful song to have in the set more often than not- can easily be switched up with Roses, Always, IBT4U and the like.
ILTT sucks balls.

But again, they persevere with the wrong songs- swap WLOL with Any Other Day and get rid of ILTT and give Everybody's Broken or Seat Next To You a whirl if you must have a LH track.

It's probably because the LH stuff is detracting from the Circle songs on The Circle tour, that it is a problem, I'm sure there would be no problem if the songs were in addition to other tracks rather than a replacement. Hopefully they can start to shed some of these and replace them with other tracks.

Well, he's not that wrong..as the country crap is very popular in NC, lol! I can say that as I'm from Raleigh!!

I know country is popular here. I guess my point was that Bon Jovi is a rock band and and I would think that most of the people attending(not just me) expect to hear a rock concert, even if it is in NC. I just think more than 1 LH song is too much when it is not a LH Tour. At least I got lots of bathroom breaks last night.

I agree. I do believe 'Lost Highway' should be in every set (to represent that album and I think it's a great song) while 'Make a Memory'/'Whole Lot of Leaving' should be played every 4/5 shows. Not one other song from the album should come close to a setlist.

I think the LH songs are easy to perform
That style of songs seems to fit Jon 's style well (if he is on his own he will play in the LH style even if it is not really LH songs)
In my opinion LH is comfort songs
And imo LH was more accepted than what it sounded like at first - as a country album- even among the fans (beside the real country market in the usa who said 'no thank you' ) most of the critics tolerated that cd so for Jon there is no reason to not perform that cd heavily at shows. Those songs apparently talk to him more than the older catalogue ...the more LH they do the less they will have to make efforts for other songs they don't fit in anymore as persons (like the Bon Jovi album or fahrenheit - I love those songs but this is not representing what is bon jovi today at all ) the more LH songs is also less hassle for songs they are not sure to perform well (because of a lack of practice)

LH is a SAFE choice I think.


I am not hating that cd at all it is well performed live. But it is too quiet for the fans that love the LOUD Bon Jovi
At some shows they play too much into the safe easy performance by picking up so many songs from that cd ...but also always the same ones

if they like LH , fine , play also the other songs from LH

More than too much LH I think what is annoying is too much of always the same songs .. and too programmed shows

I don't think we can change what Jon wants to do or seems comfortable with though

Oh I don't disagree. I like LH more than TC to be honest but I think we've had the LH tour, so one to two songs from that record is plenty.