Hugh McDonald and Alec John Such
 

Hi everyone!

I was checking out hueymcdonald.com and corfirmed something that a friend of
mine told me: Hugh McDonald has played in all of the Bon Jovi albums (Except
in "7800° Fahrenheit").Unfortunate his work wasn't recognized until 1995
in "These Days", in the previous albums he didn't appear on the credits,
just in the "Thanks" section, Why? I don't know, but I think it was unfair,
'cause, yes he was payed for, but in this life the money ain't everything,
he should be recognized as a player in those albums as another ones
were in "Bon Jovi" and "New Jersey" for example.Obviously when he played
in the studio recording Alec John Such didn't, so I'd say the "bass work"
in those albums was made 50% by Alec John Such and 50% by Hugh McDonald.
Yes, it's true that in all of the concerts and shows since 1984 to 1995
Alec John Such was the only one who played the bass,but in studio he wasn't.
In addition Huey wrote some bass lines and arranges, and (as I know) Alec
never wrote an arrange or bass lines.What am I trying to say? Simple, Huey
McDonald must be recognized as an official member.Maybe you're thinking:
Alec John Such were with the band 10 long years, but Huey has played with BJ
13 LONG years and since 1995 he is in the shows, Huey HAS DONE MORE
for BJ than what Alec John Such did. JBJ said once Huey is MUCH BETTER than
Alec, and it's true; he said too: Alec John Such was a great friend, and a
friend can never be replaced, but we don't want Jon Bon Jovi to replace his
friendship with AJS, just to recognize HM as a member.It's true that Huey
plays with another bands, but I think when Huey become a Bon Jovi
Official Member he'll know he should not play anymore with those bands, just
with Bon Jovi.And if Jon wants to, not to take pictures of Huey alone, like
the pictures of Richie, David & Tico in "This Left Feels Right" for example,
I think it be... ok.But take pictures and photos with him (I mean that in
the cd covers should appear photos of Jon, Richie, David, Tico and Huey
together, but not of Huey alone if Jon doesn't want to).Personaly I think
Huey is better than Alec, so all this would be fair.I know that this depends
on Jon and not on Huey, but if we ALL let know Jon we want Huey to become an
offical member he will recognize him, I'm sure of that, after all to Jon we
are the most important after his family.I invite you to join that idea
by making big posters of "HUEY FOR MEMBER", "BON JOVI: JON BON JOVI,
RICHIE SAMBORA, DAVID BRYAN, TICO TORRES & HUGH MCDONALD" or something like
that and take them to the BJ shows, other idea is to send an e-amil to
bonjovi.com asking Huey for member, signed for ALL of us.I know it sounds
impossible and hard to do but it is not, TOGETHER NOTHING'S IMPOSSIBLE.
Well, I hope you understood my message and join me.

Your friend José Antonio.

P.S. I'm sorry about my english, but it is not my first language and I'm
still learning.I'm from Mexico (Where the main language is the Spanish)

P.S. 2 If you couldn't understand what I tried to say and speak spanish,
send me an e-mail (joseavm87@hotmail.com) or a private message and I'll
explain it to you in spanish.

P.S. 3 Don't forget visit: http://www.bonjovi.com
http://www.richiesambora.com http://www.davidbryan.com
http://www.ticotorres.com http://www.HUEYMCDONALD.com and
http://www.drycounty.com . THANKS :)

Erm... I was going to show you the link to a similar discussion we had recently and saw that you had started it!

Here's the link to your own topic :?

http://drycounty.com/jovitalk/viewtopic.php?t=26080

This discussion is burnt out, but anyways, good luck with your erm..
Huey for membership in BJ campain.

Re: Hugh McDonald and Alec John Such
 

What has the record company to do with this? Absolutely nothing. It is a contract between Jon and Hugh and not with the record company.

And if Hugh was unhappy with the situation he had stopped making contracts with Jon long ago. And who cares what stands in their contract? It's absolutely not our business but only and absolutely only theirs. What would be the difference if they would make a contract in that stands that Hugh is official member? The only difference is that Hugh would have more work for BJ with photo shoots and would have to sit in interviews as decoration like David and Tico do. Probably not very interesting. He wants to have time to work with other artists.

I don't understand why it is THAT important for so many fans what stands in Hugh's and Jon's contract.

Dude, its not like Hughs gonna be a more recognised member just cos your a little angry about it. Besides, to me he's an official member, and thats all that matters really

Keep On Rockin'

ps. Thanks for the links. www.drycounty.com? Never heard of it

He got paid, he's a session muso that's what he does.

He may not be on the playing credits on the sleeve but he sure as hell will be on the ASCAP form and if Alec is on it then Hugh will have been paid much more as a result.

No one signs a contract that they don't want to so why start bitching?


and who cares if he;s officially regarded as a member or not? again he wouldn't be there if he didn't want to b. It would probably go against him cos as it stands: he's still a session player that can will get alot of work. if he's officially part of Bon Jovi i'd put money ont he work trailing off cos he'd be too busy and he wouldnt be regarded as a proper session guy either anymore.

Richie does sessios, so does noel gallagher, so do many guys in full time bands but they're not regarded as full sessioners and dont get called up as often.

First of all, bienvenido, José Antonio

It's good to have some compatriots here... If you want, you can add me at MSN (twistercorp@hotmail.com)

I know your intention is good... but learn that you alone cannot do anything against this rotten machinery that our world has become....

But still, congratulations for the initiative!!

Something else that I don't think has been mentioned... if Hugh wrote the bass line to LOAP then surely he should be one of the writers of the song, coz the bass line and vox is the main riff to the song. Any ideas? :D

It was the Keep the faith bassline but anyway. I wonder, too, esp. since Jon said once that everyone who is somehow involved in a song is mentioned as the writer. Hugh isn't on KTF.

A year later, Slippery When Wet, the band's third album, transformed Bon Jovi into superstars and MTV favorites, thanks in part to the memorable McDonald bass hook that opens the smash hit "Livin' on a Prayer". "That bass line went through a lot of changes," recalls McDonald. "Originally, it sounded like the intro to the Four Tops' 'I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)'. Bruce Fairbairn, who produced the album, noticed the similarity, and so did everyone else. So Richie, Jon and I worked until we came up with the line you hear on the record."
Off his website

I think that the writing credits don't tell the whole truth about the music anyway, cos despite the fact that I think Jon is one of the greatest songwriters of all time, I refuse to believe that he wrote all the music, and especially the guitar solo, for Dry County

Keep On Rockin'

He even wrote both then. Anyway, he isn't mentioned at all on both songs.

I completely agree with you on that one m8!

Duh. You fon't get songwriting credits for a bassline. It's called arranging. Hugh came up with the bass line, Jon & Richie wrote the song.

Of course he didn't write the guitar solo, but he did write all the chords, melodies and the lyrics. The rest was _arranged_ by the band and the producer.

Ice

Still think the "arrangers" should get more credit. The bass line to KTF is PART of the song and a bloody important one too, as is the one on LOAP. I think Hugh or whoever wrote it should be considered as one of the "writers" but that's just my view

You are right for usual songs but in KTF the bass line is a very important part of the song. I think esp. in that song the bassline is more than just arrangement.

Maybe, but still, bass lines do not earn song writing credits. Why doesn't Tico get credits for playing drums? Or David for playing keyboards?

Ice

exactly.

otherwise any old fella could come in and add a 'triangle' in production and get a credit. songwriting credits go for lyrics, melody, major song structure etc. (although some bands seem to dish writing credits out all too easily)

FOR ME ONLY IS ALEC

UNDERSTAND NO CAN ONE POST YOUR.

Ice

a bit off topic but I just now understood why Huey's website is called bassically Huey.
It's because he plays bass and it's called bassically, I thought bassically was just a way to add more chik to the site.
Duh!!
sorry carry on. :roll:

Carry On My Sons Forever
Carry On When I Am Gone
Carry On For When Day Is Long
Forever Carry On
For As Long As We’re Together Then
Forever Carry On


Sorry, just bored somehow, I'm off to bed now :)

Alec had a ton of charisma.. definately a stage presents in the 80s

he'll always be the bassist of BJ even tho Huey is way better technically

huey has been in one pic with Bon Jovi on the single of Real Life, the song they did for the movie ED TV... umm Davie wasnt their so he filled in lol

AWESOME, AWESOME SONG... shouldve been on an album.

Check it out here:
http://www.cdmusicsongs.com/hardrock...B00000IP0D.jpg

http://aintnocureforlove-bj.tripod.c...oundtracks.htm

There are 2 kinds of credits with regards to songs.

the song writing credit and the performance credit.

The songwriting obviously goes to stuff like chords, melody etc...

performance goes towards who's played ont he reocrds. If keys are a big partof a song say like Piano man by billy joel and he wrote that then it's a song writing credit, Drums are much harder to get to be a song writing credit. MAYBE and at a very stretch, a tiny writing credit could be given to whoever came up withthe intro drums to It's My life but that would probably go to the guitar anyways.


Now when a song is recorded and published the bandsmanager will fill out a form from the respective royalty agencies (ascap, BPI etc...) which says who had a part in the songwriting and what percentage of the song they wrote. Ifd it's 2 people it will probably be 50/50 but if there's a collaboration then they;'ll have to decide how much each contributed and what it's worth to the full song.

Performance credits are just the same really and YOU can actually lay down a track playing the triangle and make a fair bit of money off of it if you go down on record as playign the triangle in the performance credits. You will get paid alot less for the performance credits though which would explain why Noel Gallagher is worth 4 times more than Liam and why richie and Jon make more money than dave and Tico.

What one must remember is that anything can be written on this form. Jon may not even have touched a song but get a 50 or 33% song writing cut on it just like artists like madonna etc.... do.

and what is on this form isn't necesarilly what's on the booklets credits so hugh may very well indeed be getting paid some songwriting credits without it being widely known.

Being a session muso though chances are he was just paid to be there and in their contracts most sessioners sign a clause saying anything they come up with that ends up in the song wether it be a riff melody or arrangement will not gain them a song writing credit.

Some of the greatest hooks and riffs ever have been thought up by session guys in the studio but they've got no writting credit for it.