Rate: Do What You Can

Best song since Living With the Ghost


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My feeling is exactly how Seb puts it. There's a great song there. Catchy, up-tempo. Lyrics are good but it is wrapped in shitty production and uninspired playing.

The production is - unfortunately - again flat. Drums probably just computer, bass could be by anyone. It all sounds like the intro to any random american sitcom.
I can actually see it playing : When you can't do what you do, You do what you can. Starring (JBJ as : The artist previously known as Jon Bon Jovi, Phil X as: The ace guitar player using only his feet on this song, Tico as: the drum robot, Hugh Mc Donald as: Ronald McDonald and David Bryan as: Jon's puppet.

But here's a thought : When your voice is gone, when you don't use your band to it's potential, when you have Jon Shanks as your producer, when your band is in lockdown and you only see eachother on tour, ... When you can't do what you do, you do what you can!
(Although I wonder if that shouldn't be : When you do what you do, You can't do what you once could)

Well hell yeah. Can't argue with that - Isn't that ironic?

I'll rate it. 7.9

I get lost and have to adjust when I get used to Jon's shitty live versions before I hear the final studio track.

It happened with Working Man, Reunion, and now this song...

I'm a sucker for these type of songs overall. I don't need to get overly technical when reviewing it... It grabs me from the beginning and keeps me to the end.

I guess Jon needs to add a bridge to most songs now. This one isn't bad.

One major criticism is, just like how the chorus in Rollercoaster and Devils In The Temple were ruined by Shank's terrible production, this song falls victim to the same results. However I still like those songs and like this one too.

Man, Jon's voice... At least compared to other artist who lost it like Vince Neil, Jon's studio voice is still recordable. I'm not a fan of the effects. Not sure if they are done as a cover up or done to fit the times.

I'm really happy to see Jon go up a range. Like I've said in other songs, that's one of the keys to making a song great. Jon or someone in the camp must read my posts.

In short, this is a song that grabs me and keeps me from start to finish. I don't need to over analyze it. Sure it's not perfect and things that could be better but it still works. This is the Jon and the type of music style I like.

I'm very surprised about the positive feedback the song gets here.
What's up with you guys? Am I on the wrong board?

To me it's a mix of songs like Captain Crash, Who Says and Because We Can. And all of them get bashed here on a regular basis.
So I don't get the enthusiasm about Do What You Can. Have you lowered the benchmark that much?

Is the final version better than expected? Yes
Is the lyrical theme honorable? Yes
Does this song on a scale from 1 - 10 - let's say between King Of The Mountain and Dry County - deserve (at this very moment) a rating from 78% of 5 or better? Hell no!

I also need to get into the discussion about Shanks' production.
Yes, it's a wall of sound. Yes, a different, lets say "clearer" production would upgrade the arrangements.
But a good song is a good song, no matter how the production turned out.
So to me it's a ridiculous excuse to make bad songs better. It's not Jon's shitty vocals, it's not the lack of inspiration, it's not the lack of a tight band working on the songs. Nooo, it's the production.
And besides that I think most of you don't even have an ear for production-issues - me included. It's just one person once said something that sounded so professional and understanding so a lot of other guys think to know what's going on and hearing every nuance of every production move taken.

I'm still amazed by his voice. If John Shanks makes Jon's voice look as good on the entire album as on this one, I'll call him the wizard from now on.
:-RE

This needed a solo and backing vocals from Richie

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6/10 for me.

It's ok, although I think the original slow acoustic version suited the subject and lyrics better, although we do have enough of those already I guess.

Not a fan of the twangy country guitars and the song sounds way too much like Walk Like A Man to me.

I'm disappointed that this and Reckoning appear to be nudging other songs off the album though. There's no reason they can't have 12 on there, especially with the charity press release spoken over music that is Unbroken, and the lyrically better but still pretty dull American Reckoning, the album needs more balance to the upbeat and I don't think this one tips the scales enough in that direction. But its ok, probably just behind Limitless for me (yeah I don't mind it, shoot me).

??? This makes zero sense. You don't have to have an ear for production to know when something doesn't sound good to your ears. Hell, I think the songs on WAN were decent and I'd upgrade my rating if the production was better so I just don't agree with that.