Slippery When Wet Demos
 

I have recently listened quite a bit on the Slippery outtakes, as there are loads to listen to from SWW and NJ in terms of demos and outtakes.
I'm just a little curious if there is any hundred percent confirmed facts where they are from.

The Basement Tapes

These ones are obviously Jon and Richie demos from the basement probably somwhere between January-March 1986.

Pre-production Demos

It's a full band recording but considering in what early stage Prayer is in here, it has to be from the Century Productions-sessions done in the spring of 1986, when the band prepared and recorded material to send Bruce Fairbairn.

Studio Demos

Then we have the studio demos, at least that's what they are called on Youtube. Are these just from a later stage during the demo process in New Jersey, or ar these actual early stage demos from Vancouver.

Considering they didn't spend that much time in Vancouver it suprises me if they recorded demos there as well. Bon Jovi wasn't that big of a act back then, so why waste money on recordingin a professional studio with a producer and engineer?

My guess is that

1 - Basement Demos are Jon and Richie raw demos done somewhere between January-March 1986
2 - Pre-production Demos done at Century Productions in Sayreville in early spring 1986
3 - Studio Demos done at Century Productions as well but at a later stage. This is the one I'm most unsure about. Could be from Vancouver, but seems odd if that was the case.

Anyone that knows for sure, or anyone that has any guesses?

I can't tell where they had leaked from, but all these recordings stem from demo processes still done in New Jersey. Overall 11 tapes became available and to the best of my knowledge these "Sessions from the Vault" are all from the New York/New Jersey area (including the pre-BJ rehearsals and Richie's Stranger In This Town demo sessions).

"11 tapes became available" is that the amount of CDs on "sessions from the vault"? Is this bootleg box set still available somewhere and does it have factory pressed CDs?

BUT 1st album, SWW and New Jersey demos were widely available in tape trading circles as early as 1993. I remember contacting a trader back then and he sent me a list with all these demos + tracklists.

I don't think they are around as pressed releases, though I wouldn't bet on that. Some Japanese bootleg factory might've pressed them since they release just about every bootleg shit.

Dunno if it's available in CD form somewhere, but I have it in 320 kbit/s MP3. If interested, PM me...

Thanks, got them all and some of them on pressed bootleg cds, just looking for more pressed ones.... ;)

I've been thinking this sometimes:

After hearing all these scrapped New Jersey & Slippery demo tracks....how many of them acutally equals to those released on the records? I honestly feel they managed to pick the very best songs for official releases....

I think NJ is pretty much perfect, I wouldn't change anything on there.

I think Slippery would benefit from both Borderline and Edge Of A Broken Heart, although style wise, maybe Edge was too poppy to fit on to Slippery comfortably?

I'd happily live without Without Love. I love the acoustic version of Never Say Goodbye, but the album version doesn't do it for me...

As far as the Demos go, although I do enjoy a lot of them, especially the NJ ones, I don't think that they should have made the album at the expense of other songs. The Slippery ones are mostly pretty weak.

I LOVE "Edge Of A Broken Heart". Had already been a fan for 5 years when I first heard it in 1991. Was blown away how good the track really is!!

That's an interesting track. I personally enjoy it almost as much as the singles, but its got "hit" written all over it...meaning its a tailormade mid-tempo hit song. Maybe over-written...if there's such a term?! But it was never a single and maybe a bit boring for some...

Same! Although there might be some which would've benefit from proper studio recording & production and they could've been at least quality-wise the same as "99 In The Shade" (which for me is almost a filler, but its done so well it fits the album....but all the live versions I've heard are boring....)

http://bonjovimuseum.com/main/index1.html

Choose compact discs - bootlegs N-Z
Look down the list alphabetically for Sessions from the Vault. There is a complete listing there.