Open All Night Revisited
 

When the Box Set was released, the These Days era track became one of my all time favorite band songs, particularly with the lyrical content accurately mirroring my own feelings at the time being in the midst of letting go of a relationship. I felt that out of the 3 tracks utilizing the title, this one was the best. It was just magical in it's arrangement, complete with the apprehensive build up of "Baby! Baby! Baby! Baby!!" to reassuring chorus and then the break down pre-solo.

Now I can barely listen to the song. I'm not sure if it's the changes in taste I've had since going bionic or if I'm a bit soured on the song since it comes from a time that I don't tend to look back on with as much optimism as the song had offered up at the time.

Now having cut ties with the relationship of that time completely, I found myself focused on recovering and revamping myself (hence why I've not been around here too much,) determined to keep myself single to not lose sight of my personal goals of self improvement as well as not cause any emotional strain. I needed a break. I wanted to be sure that I didn't repeat any mistakes that I had with relationships in the past.

It always comes out of nowhere doesn't it? Sappy as it sounds, it came at me like a truck out of a place where I least expected it and thought I was safe from. There was no way to deny it. I happened to discover the first track to appear on an album with the title "Open All Night," off Bounce at the same time this was happening. I wouldn't have expected I'd ever really appreciate that version. I did find it touching upon the initial listen when the album was first released, but boring. I guess it helps to live it to change your perspective. The quieter mood of the song is perfect for what it is saying.

It's truly a shame the song is overshadowed on the album by too many boring and soulless ballads that wind up getting lumped together. A common complaint about those ballads is that they lack pain. Yet, Open All Night is wracked with it.

I got your taste in the back of my mouth
I want to reach in and pull it out
And I'd be lying if I didn't say
When you're this close I'm afraid
Of the way I'll feel if I touch your hair
The way I'll miss you when you're not there
And that I'll see you when I close my eyes
It's too late, I've crossed that line

That entire verse summed it all up way too perfectly.

The only negative comment I have about the song is the line "It's 2 am, it's last call, baby. The barkeep's gone, I'll walk you home now. Save me, baby" It really doesn't fit with the rest of the song and winds up coming off as tacked on from some other song. It makes the song sound like they've just met at a bar, but if you read the verse I quoted above, it's obvious that it's a relationship that has been on-going. Either that or they just met and the guy has serious emotional problems that she needs to run like **** from. Perhaps it's the same guy from "Always?" at least if you believe the stalker interpretation Jon was pulling out of his ass. I think I'll just keep filtering that one line out.

Keep going back over those albums over time, even those you may have written off as crap. You never know what you'll discover that you didn't hear the first time around.

I liked the song from the beginning. It's repetitive, but I still think it's one of the best lyrics they've written in a long time.

I have a different take on the song. I've always seen it as a man who's been in a relationship with someone, but thing's ended up not too beautifully. And he meets this girl in a bar, they hit it off and the guy is dead afraid of getting into another relationship, because he fears he's going to get hurt again. But this beat up girl just makes him want to protect her, but also she needs her to save himself from the pain he's going through. If you'll allow this, sounds like something you're going through yourself.

This rarely happens to me, but I agree that people should listen more and judge less.

Ice

In the end, it still all comes to personal taste.

Me, after listening to it many times, its still one of my favorites(box set); Bounce version IMO isnt as good. I tend to like a song too when Im "feeling" it then lose interest til the next time I visit those emotions, but whenever I dont feel the song, I enjoy it for what its tune.

I like both versions.

I have no idea what IMO is someone please help! Probably being really stupid! lol

In my opinion

I had a similar discovery of this song a few years ago. It doesn't fit with the album at all, but on it's own it's magic. I can't say the same for "You had me from hello" but Open all night is just gorgeous.

Well put and you're right, it does describe my feelings accurately. We did/do need each other.

The title alone irks as well as the song just being plain boring even if you want to play something "feel good." Postcards From the Wasteland does a better job of being in that vein without being irritating. Taking All About Loving You and You Had Me From Hello off and replacing it with Postcards and Open All Night as the representative ballads of the album allows for both to compliment the album rather than drag it down. Among the rockers though, Hook Me Up and maybe The Distance (it could stand to be produced differently) are about the only ones that are standing the test of time for me. Right Side of Wrong also still holds up though not much in the way of personal empathy...but it was a decent attempt at something different.

I've always liked the song since Bounce came out, it just doesn't fit at all with the rest of the album. And on the contrary to the other love ballads on Bounce it sounds and feels honest. Same can't be said for "All about lovin you" and "You had me from hello".
I like the boxset version but IMO it's not as good.

I must be in the minority in this thread but i really don't like it and never have. I think the lyrics are ultra cheesy.

I love Open All Night from Bounce. prior to this thread I thought I was in the minority on that one. Open All Night and These Arms Are Open All Night, from the box set are great as well.

I used to be such a huge huge huge fan of the distance. Now it's hard to listen to. Somewhere underneath the chunky downtuned guitars is a great song. You're right, it needs to be freshened up. It's not as timeless as it should be.

I do concur

Me, i dont like the Bounce version of the song, but i am absolutely in love with the box set version. I think its one of the top 3 boxset songs

The Bounce song is okay. It's got a horrible production / sound and Jon sounds very weak at times, but the melody and lyrics are alright. I always thought it was about a guy being afraid of falling in love with a girl he just met. Definitely better than You Had Me From Hello or All About Loving You.

do you still think the distance blows?

Aloha !

Who knows. I think it blows though, but then again, there's more things on this board that blow lately, and it's not me.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I do prefer the boxset version. The bounce version is ok.. sometimes i like it, other times i just don't want to listen to it. Lyrics are good though.

Exactly my words.

The first time i listened to "Bounce" I ended up skipping songs due to disappointment. I only listened to the first 10 seconds of "Open All Night" and then had enough and pushed the stop button. Then there was much negative talk about the song being their worst ballad, and as "Bounce" was called their worst album ever, it said a lot about people's opinions about the song. Half a year later, when I started to like "Bounce" and embrace it (a little less then the previous albums though), I liked the mood of OAN and the guitar sound that reminded me of an empty train station hall at night, or some guy playing the blues on a street corner at night. What kept me from really appreciating the song was Jon's cringy vocals near the end, but with time the melody and the lyrics crawled into me. And then, suddenly, I liked it.

Still I thought "Postcards From The Wasteland" would have been the better song to close the album, but given that OAN was on that position, I had to deal with it, and found a song, that was really touching in its own way, and sounding more honest too. Plus I've made a similar experience as Bleeding Purist, so I could connect to some degree.

The boxset version never touched me. I only listened to it a few times, it didn't connect. Yet. You'll never know what happens with time. Revisiting songs after years can give you really a totally new perspective. And again, I gree with Ice and (try to) listen more and judge less. It's always the same, I like songs that others don't (like "She's A Mystery"), and once you admit it, you get slagged off, or you are "gay" because you like "Cpt. Crash". I don't take that too seriously though. Still I find it very interesting that suddenly some people here "confess" that they like OAN. Miracles happen! ;-)

I might go back to Youtube now and listen to the live performance.

What's with bringing all these old threads back up?

Anyway, I love both versions, always have. I know I'm in the minority, but there you go. I can understand people finding the Bounce version cheesy. But, let's face it, this is Bon Jovi we're talking about. They are often served with a chunk of cheese. :p

The Bounce version is not a bad song, I find it far from amazing though ... all three big ballads from Bounce fall short IMO. However, Open All Night is quite possibly the best of the 3 ... it's definitely not You Had Me From Hello, but I do have a bit of a soft spot for All About Loving You, even though it's quite an average song.

The boxset song is a solid song, but I've always though it's a tad overrated on this board ... I like the odd breakdown in the bridge (here's a thought, I wonder if that was the inspiration for the bridge in Last Cigarette?), and otherwise I find it to be a well written, well performed, but ultimately unremarkable song ... I could probably name at least 10 songs off the boxset which I prefer.

What I did enjoy was the performance of it at the 2004 boxset show ... it's going along pretty much as you'd expect, and then right at the end Jon really gets into it and really starts belting out the lyrics ... it's an awesome moment, and one that caught me completely off guard

Hmm, Where did you get from my posts that I think it blows? I still really like it, I just would love to hear it in a different light.

i like all the versions
specially the one of the boxset.... "dont worry about me ill get along"

and the one from bounce

Incidentally, These Arms Are Open All Night is bollocks :D

I love it !!!

Originally Posted by Captain_jovi
I used to be such a huge huge huge fan of the distance. Now it's hard to listen to
.

Ohhh. Naw, I don't think it blows, It's still in my top 10 overall, I got over my problem with it.