90's KTF and TD perspective
 

Recently I read rolling stone's review for Crush and it starts out "the 90's were not good to Bon Jovi." And recently I saw the Larry King interview, and it was apparent that King was under the impression that Bon Jovi have had nothing but smooth sailing since they broke big, but Jon had to correct him and tell him that the band have had their ups and downs. I was pretty sure he was referring to the These Days era. These two points as well as the idea that the songs from These Days are hardly played live, made me wonder what Jon and the band think about that era. I mean with grunge at it's all time high then, I cannot recall a time when Jovi where farther away from what was mainstream and hip. Has anyone heard any comments from the band about this or have any interesting insight?

In Polish TV when someone describe Bon Jovi they said that they were huge in 80s in 90 their have breake and their back with huge hit in 2000. I listen it very often.

I think that in next some years they will says "Bon Jovi back with huge hit in 2000 and some years later they started play even Country music which make they get their first Grammy and back on the top in USA".

90 was good for us (we like songs) but ciritics weren't too happy, BJ played often on areas not stadiums, there was onlly few popular songs and, selling weren't as good as in 80s.

Jon has (very) often referred to how Europe "keep the secret alive" during the ninties until their big return to the US scene in 2000 with It's My Life. It would be exaggerating it to say that they weren't successful during the ninties but These Days and Destination Anywhere went virtually unnoticed in the US. In contrast, during that time Bon Jovi were the biggest band in the world outside the US.

First thing I think we all have to remember is that Jon does not exactly have the best judgement when it comes to understanding what his best songs are. I mean, this is the same bloke that did not want Prayer on SWW and left EOFBH off of it. While at every concert he plays, he somehow seems to fit in Captain Crash and WSYCGH.

However, at the same time I think he decides a lot on what the US market likes, hence we hear WSYCGH every damn concert while Hey God/STBI/Dry County etc. never get played.

So in all I think the band really base what their fans want, on what the US market likes. So in turn they judge the These Days era as a bad one. :confused:

Yeah that's a good post and I think you're right about the US market and what Jon's priorities are. He does seem to lean heavily towards the American mainstream when it comes to writing/performing these days. It's a crying shame that most of the 90s era doesn't get played live. KTF closely followed by These Days are my two favourate Bon Jovi records. For me that was the time when Bon Jovi matured as a band and made their best music. Destination Anywhere, though a little different was also a fantastic album from Jon and that is also an album that doesn't get as much credit as it deserves.

I think when people think of Jovi's 'bad' era, its the mid-late 90s rather than the whole 80s. Even non Jovi fans know of Bed Of Roses, and some even Keep The Faith and In These Arms. Then there is Always which was a bigger hit than Roses. Plus KTF was the first album after the massive New Jersey Tour which im sure helped with the popularity of the album.

These Days had no huge hit. TAALS didnt do bad on the charts but the other released songs had no major impact on the charts (in the US). Plus it was the last album for 5 years and the first after Alecs departure. Then youve got the whole grunge thing booming at the time of its release (VOMIT!). I think these are the reasons why it had no huge impact.

Only Jovi fans know how awesome it really is.

"We just found out that These Days just knocked Michael Jackson off the #1 spot..."

Bon Jovi also had their biggest worldwide hit in the 90s. American market does not equal world market, although I get the feeling Jon doesn't necessarily understand or acknowledge that.:rolleyes:

Sometimes when reading reviews, I really can't help but feel that the reviewer is in a completely different universe to what I am, or at least listening to a completely different CD, which just happens to have the same title and song titles.

Although I accept the US / Europe divide, I don't really think you can call the 90s a failure for the band looking at it from any viewpoint. I doubt there are many bands that started in the first half of the 80s that continued to receive as much worldwide commercial success through the 90s as Bon Jovi (just about the only one that springs to mind is Metallica, and U2 if you count them as an 80s band) ... Def Leppard weren't, Iron Maiden weren't, Motley Crue weren't. I'd be hard pressed to see how Bon Jovi could possibly have been any bigger in the 90s. I guess it has to hurt, being shunned in your homeland, but I think that the band are a bit too hard on These Days.

One last thing, why does everyone keep referring to 1995 when TD was released as "the height of grunge"? The height of grunge was 1991 - 1992, it had pretty much given way to modern rock by that point

The "grunge movement" is far more relevant to KTF than to TD, but I guess there were a bunch of so-called "post-grunge" bands that came through in the mid to late 90s. And of course boy bands and girl groups but that's another story.;)

Bon Jovi went from the trendy Hair band which was at the top of MTV... to the uncool band which didn't have teens around them anymore.