Jon had said everything he was going to say by age 35
 

After Destination Anywhere Jon never wrote a song that really said anything. The themes were largely recycled and even though some really good songs came after that point, nothing was lyrically original.

Rubbish.

The themes of IML and Just Older had not been written before. Themes on songs like Last Man Standing, Whole Lot of Leaving, Brokenpromiseland, I'm With You, Room at the End of the World, This House is not for Sale, and Lower the Flag were never touched on pre Destination Anywhere.

Lower the Flag? American Reckoning?

Honestly, just sounds more like you stopped paying attention to the lyrics after 1997...

Without wanting to be a dick, this is demonstrably false lol

Nope. No bias here folks. The band stopped evolving when rockingguy82 stopped caring.

This reminds of this thread:
https://drycounty.com/jovitalk/bon-j...e-quit-t70710/

Where have you been through the last 2 decades? hahaha

Lower The Flag, American Reckoning, Do What You Can, Blood In The Water, Story Of Love, This House Is Not For Sale/Come On Up To Our House, Living With The Ghost, I Will Drive You Home... that just to mention the last two records.

This board has no sense it all.

This could go down as one of the stupidest threads on JT.

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Partly true, it's common knowledge that 30% of the songs post 2000s are "I'm gonna live my life" to varying degrees. But ofcourse he's a fine enough songwriter to squeeze in 10% great & 30% decent material every time. The remaining have been stinkers.
*these are extremely accurately deduced percentages, please don't question them.

It's kinda refreshing to see the whole pessimist nostalgia angle being called out. For all the shit you could give Jon (who isn't the sole lyricist in BJ anyway), Bounce with its overtly political lines as well as 2020 (same) were unheard of from Jon in 1997.

And Just Older, and to an even greater extent, God Bless This Mess, showed a lot of realness and mortality in the JBJ universe. Certainly no song from the 90s talked about his voice being shot!

"I can't sing a love song like the way it's meant to be, well I guess I'm not that good anymore."

But other than that, yeah. Nostalgia is a dangerous drug. I certainly fear how I might idolize the things happening today in 15-20 years from now, because when I see people online doing that (usually in music, but also other forms of entertainment I follow like sports, films, etc.), it looks pathetic.

I don't think Jon changed much as a lyricist over the years. He always had some great catchy lyrics and some absolute cringy ones. The topics change, but not the quality. Difference is, he just that he had a much better instrument (his voice) to deliver the passion in those lines.

I don't know if I 100 percent agree. His writing style took a massive change after his two most lyrically-personal albums failed in the US. There isn't really anything as...I guess dumb is the right word, lyrically as It's My Life on either of those two albums. He's always been a cliche-ridden guy but 2000 onwards it became more touch the sky, fly, never die, never give up. To an extent, yeah, the band has always been that but it was never as obvious. You're right though, when his voice was at it's peak the passion was there and you believed it. In These Arms isn't a great song lyrically but he belts it out like it is.

You're talking about These Days and Destination Anywhere?
Well, I do love both albums and lyrics but not all that glitters is gold.

"These days, the stars ain't out of reach
These days, there ain't a ladder on the streets"

"I can't write a love song the way I feel today
I can't sing no song of hope, I've got nothing to say"

"Hey God, tell me what the hell is goin' on
It seems like all the good shit's gone
It keeps on gettin' harder hangin' on"

Of course those were better than what the rock fan was used to. But still those lyrics are far away from being the new Dylan or Bruce.
I think Bon Jovi's success always was about the performance. Like you said, In These Arms has cheesy lyrics as well, but Jon performs it like it's a masterpiece. But the more his voice declined, the less he could do new songs justice performance-wise. And that's why we're sitting here for decades saying "that new song xy is terrible but just imagine the 80s/90s Jon singing it - it would've been a hit!".

Well sure but this was never about Jon being Dylan or Bruce, it's about Jon regressing as a songwriter in an attempt to sell more records. I agree, it's a healthy combination of when the lyrics were bad at least him and the band sold it and if the lyrics were great they were unstoppable.