Tutorial: How to write a proper setlist.

Also, as much as I love the song, I reeeeeeally doubt The Hardest Part Is The Night would work as the penultimate song in a set

1. Lost Highway
2. Born To Be My Baby
3. Raise Your Hands
4. Runaway
5. In & Out Of Love
6. Summertime
7. Captain Crash And The Beauty Queen From Mars
8. Lie To Me
9. Bed Of Roses
10. We Got It Going On
11. It's My Life
12. Keep the Faith
13. I'll Be There For You(Richie Sambora)
14. Living In Sin
15. Everyday
16. Blaze Of Glory
17. Have A Nice Day
18. Bad Medicine
19. Livin' On A Prayer

20. Always
21. Whole Lot Of Leaving Going On
22. These Days
23. Wanted Dead Or Alive

I don't have a clue whether I've done it correctly or not, but I gave it a go.

*Seb, I see your reasoning for the encore requirements and it's a decent guidleine to follow, but I can't see a successful encore being made by me with them.

Aloha !

Eh? What's this suppose to mean?


If they would've exchanged a big hit like Keep The Faith for something else no one would have mind. However, they dropped Keep The Faith and gave nothing back in return. That's the big difference over there. I'm a very big fan of Keep The Faith, but if I would know that I'd get (for example) I Believe in return of Keep The Faith at one show, you wouldn't hear me complain. It's the way it should be. Playing your greatest hits every single show is a nostalgia act, and is not respresenting your career at all. I agree that you need to play your big hits, an audience knows you because of those. You just don't need to play all of them.

Yes. Include Blaze Of Glory, include Stranger In This Town, include a David Bryan version of In These Arms, I don't care.

With that stuff in mind, I present an alternative set of rules for you all to tear apart:

For all shows:
1.Prayer
2.Wanted
3.Bad Name
4.It's My Life
5.Keep The Faith
6.Have A Nice Day

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Walrus 11.Bad Medicine or I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (they're both party songs which usually include covers, surey there's no reason to play them both at every single show?)

Why is Bad Medicine not included in your list of songs they should play every show? New Jersey was one of the biggest rock albums of the eighties, surely at least 1 song should represent the album at the show?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Walrus 13. I'll Be There For You, Livin' In Sin or Never Say Goodbye

This doesn't make much sense either. I'll Be There For You is a big hit, while Living In Sin is a small one, and Never Say Goodbye never made it in most of the charts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Walrus 19. Born To Be My Baby, Lay Your Hands On Me or Blood On Blood

So you really want a song from New Jersey in there, yet if Sleep is being played, the biggest song from New Jersey should be either an album cut or a smaller hit?

20. Album track from either Slippery, Jersey, KTF or TD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Walrus 21. I Believe, In These Arms, Something For The Pain, Someday I'll Be Saturday Night or Hey God

I understand where this is coming from, but it doesn't make sense either. If In These Arms is chosen, it'd exclude the other 4 songs from the list, meaning you'd get a These Days free setlist, unless you pick This Ain't A Love Song over the other ballads.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Walrus 22. These Days, Dry County, or Lie To Me

So it's either a socially conscious song or another ballad, just for the sake of it? I don't see what those 3 have got to do with eachother.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Walrus 24. Another song from either Crush or HAND - either a single or an album track

Why?

Look, Walrus, I'm not bashing you or anything, but most of the things you just mentioned have got zero to do with creating a setlist for everyone, but mostly with what you see as the perfect set. It wouldn't work at all though.

This also goes out for others like Sleep-When-Im-Dead (no offense) who've tried to change the rules I just typed out. It merely shows that you're incapable of writing out a set that everyone would like. Not including any song from Bounce means skipping everyone who became a fan because of the Bounce album, thus this means ignoring a large part of the fanbase. And my theory is build upon the thought that every single fan should be pleased. That's not going to happen if you mix it up or change it.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Curious Seb, what, if any, problems did you have with my set?

Right, let me try to address some of this:

I mean they don't need to play for example a song from the debut and 7800 every night, but there needs to be a possibility that they will play them ... they need to be in the 'pool' of songs that Jon considers when picking the setlist, y'know?


Mostly I agree, but Keep The Faith is one of my favourite of the live staples so I'm not taking it out Plus, Keep The Faith is on just about everything that the casual fan might be inclined to buy: Cross Road, TLFR, Live From London, The Crush Tour, One Wild Night, so including it is a sure fire way to keep the fans happy .... and most of the die hards love it too. I'm aware Bad Medicine pretty much falls into this category too (apart from possibly the "die hards love it too" point), but I'll address that in a minute.

Cos like I said, Bad Medicine and Sleep pretty much fulfill the same requirement in the setlist ... a fun party song that they can include cover snippets in. Plus, I can almost guarantee that most people would take Faith as a staple over Bad Medicine. Of course, it goes without saying that there should be at least 1 NJ song in the setlist every night, just it doesn't always have to be Bad Medicine.

Point conceded, but I'm not overly concerned with what was a big hit twenty years ago ... I'm more concerned with what the casual fans will know now. Granted, possibly I could shuffle I'll Be There For You to another spot, I'll have a look in a minute.

Again, I might be wrong, but I personally reckon LYHOM or BTBMB would get just as much reaction as Bad Medicine ... if you're going to remember a song that was a big hit twenty years ago, you'll probably know a few more too. And LYHOM is on most of the hit collections too. I might shuffle BTBMB out of here though, more on that in a minute.

Even before you posted I decided I wanted to move In These Arms out of there, and give it a seperate category with Born To Be My Baby. These Days has a chance to be represented in 3 other categories.

I wasn't going to include Lie To Me at first since I don't actually like it that much, but I was going along the lines of "slower songs from the 90s"

Cos otherwise you'd NEVER get chance of hearing anything from Crush and HAND except the 3 big singles.

I still think it'll mostly work, going on what the casual fan is more likely to know, rather than just what was the biggest hit. I do need to revise it slightly though, I'll post a new version in a sec

Revised:

For all shows:
1.Prayer
2.Wanted
3.Bad Name
4.It's My Life
5.Keep The Faith
6.Have A Nice Day

7 - 9. 3 songs from: A. Bon Jovi / 7800 B. Boxset / Full Covers (At least 1 from each category)
10 - 11. 2 songs from: Crush / Bounce / HAND / TLFR

12. Bad Medicine or I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

13-14. 2 songs from: Always, Bed Of Roses, I'll Be There For You or Never Say Goodbye

15. 1 sung by Richie

16 - 19. 4 New songs

20. 1 of: Lay Your Hands On Me, Livin' In Sin, Blood On Blood, I Believe, Something For The Pain or Hey God

21. In These Arms, Born To Be My Baby or Someday I'll Be Saturday Night

22. Album track from either Slippery, Jersey, KTF or TD

23. These Days, Dry County, This Ain't A Love Song, or Lie To Me (I'll keep LTM in here, but it only really needs to be played a few times a tour)

24. Who Says You Can't Go Home or Captain Crash

And there always should be:

At least 1 song from the first two albums
At least 2 songs from New Jersey
At least 2 songs from Keep The Faith
At least 1 song from These Days
There doesn't always have a song from Cross Road, but most of the time would be good

So a sample setlist (not in setlist order, in order of my points):

1.Prayer
2.Wanted
3.Bad Name
4.It's My Life
5.Keep The Faith
6.Have A Nice Day
7.Runaway
8.In & Out Of Love
9. Rockin' In The Free World
10. Last Man Standing
11. Bounce
12. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
13. Always
14. I'll Be There For You
15. Richie doing These Days
16. Any Other Day
17. Make A Memory (if they were going to do this many ballads in a set, an acoustic set might be needed though)
18. We Got It Going On
19. Lost Highway
20. Hey God
21. Born To Be My Baby
22. Anything you want: Die For You, Let It Rock, Wild In The Streets, Wild Is The Wind, If I Was Your Mother, Damned ... this is the die hards slot
23. Dry County
24. Who Says You Can't Go Home

That's at least 2 songs from Jersey, 3 from Faith, and 2 from These Days ... and I maintain that that setlist does not need Bad Medicine

Epic posting!!

I structured mine like the LH tour setlist:

1.Lost Highway
2.Born To Be My Baby
3.You Give Love A Bad Name
4.One Wild Night
5.Runaway
6.I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead w/ Mercy & Glory Days
7.Everyday
8.Whole Lotta Leavin’
9.Always
10.Blood On Blood
11.Let It Rock
12.We Got It Goin’ On
13.Bells Of Freedom
14.Have A Nice Day
15.Dry County
16.In And Out Of Love
17.Keep The Faith w/ Sympathy For The Devil
18.Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night
19.Livin’ On A Prayer

Encore I:
20.Wanted Dead Or Alive
21.I Love This Town
22.These Days
23.Bad Medicine w/ Shout

Encore II:
24.I’ll Be There For You

I tried to work within the rules to the best of my abilities, while at least making things a little fresh: (North American Rules)


1. Lost Highway
2. Runaway
3. Born To Be My Baby
4. Last Man Standing
5. Blood On Blood
6. If I Was Your Mother
7. Bounce
8. Sleep When I'm Dead~ Glory Days/Start Me Up
9. Whole Lot Of Leavin'
10. Living In Sin
11. Make A Memory
12. Always
13. Let It Rock
14. You Give Love A Bad Name
15. Livin' On A Prayer
16. Stranger In This Town (Richie Vocals)
17. In And Out Of Love
18. Have A Nice Day
19. Bad Medicine
20. It's My Life

Encore

21. Keep The Faith
22. Any Other Day
23. These Days
24. Wanted

Lost Highway really only works as an opener. I think songs 2-7 work well together and are good to keep the tempo going; I know they'd never play Mother in a million years, but it fits in the rules and would rock there, so dammit it stays. You have a little slow/dark spot before Always, that's the show piece of course, and then the secret weapon: the first three tracks of Slippery. It gets everyone zooming again after Always, and diehards and casuals will all love it. No one will have any idea what to expect next, and that of course is when Jon introduces Richie to play... Stranger. After the rarity song we get In And Out of Love (this is a totally unpredictable set by today's standards IMO) before going into the HAND-Bad-Life combo to close the main set. It's My Life is mediocre live, but it would end the main set on a high with everyone waiting.

Open the encore with Wanted, and then go into Any Other Day. Only other LH track worth playing, and they can do the band intros here during the high of the outro solo. We then get These Days as a treat to diehards and a sweeping rarity. Finally, end on a high note that can keep going on and on in KTF.

EDIT: Actually, I think putting Faith at number one and then Wanted at number four in the encore works better momentum wise, so I'll keep it as that.