My theory on Jons Voice Problems
 

I thought I would start a new thread to clearly explain part of the technical reasons, which could quite possibly be why his voice is different now.

Firstly his voice on the crush record was drastically different to anything before. I'm not gonna say it was bad but it wasn't as powerful i nthe upper registers and he was resorting to singing deeper notes to get body and warmth in the tone of the voice.

Th tour that followed crush as someone said..should not have been recorded the vocal performance was not really that good.

Now with the OWN tour his voice was much better, he had had tour years almost of being back in the game after five years of quitting almost cold turkey. You see BJ did take five years off almost and in that time I'm betting Jon didn#'t sing any of the classics very much.

This brings me to my point. What would happen if richie didn't pick up the guitar very much for five years, or never refreshed the solo's to some of the older songs they hadn't played in a while. He'd be rusty thats what.

Now I believe that after These Days, Jons focus shifted an awful lot, and keeping his voice was the last thing he was worrying about. He did a solo album (with very nice but different volcas on) got into whole load of acting, had more kids, smoking again...and to top it al off not a lot of practise.

The singing voice is a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT, and like any other musical instrument it has to be trained, and the singer has to practise to keep it at the level they are on. I believe that Jon didn't really do much in those years to keep his voice at the level it was, In fact he did things to seriously worsen it, as well as getting older.

The history of Jons voice (for me) goes like this:

Early years: very immature finding out how to do it.

SWW + NJ: staples some of the sounds he will use for ever much stronger

KTF: The 2nd best vocals on his albums

THESE DAYS: Quite simply the most amazing rock vocals ever I think. Im talking about the high notes, but the power and quality of the high notes. It is astounding, and I still cant believe how he did it. Listen to These Days (single) and at the end his voice is up in the stratoshphere but retains body. Likewise with My Guitar... That starts deep and gravely and then for the final chorus god he lets rip.

THe whole album is just fantasic vocals, but the BEST SONG IS "Something TO Believe In" That song has the most amazing sustinaed, singing, growling, emotion, power, tone. The last chorus where he sings "Somethhhhiiiiinnnnnnggggaaagghh dont beliieevve in" He is almost screaming into the mic but in such a musical and powerful way it can bring me to tears!

The tour that followed (Again as someone said above) was the best live tour they ever did. I'm so so glad it was captured. He was on such a role off of that album, the tour was just amaznig. ALWAYS live from london..i thnk is the best rock ballad performance ever, the additional lyrics and screaming at the end are phenomenal.

Now I dont think that Jon will ever be able to do what he did on These Days again, or SWW for that matter. Because people voices do change as they get older somewhat. But I think that it is because he is seriously out of practise and focus.

The vocals on bounce I have to say are not as good as they thought they were gonna be with 2 years of touring under his belt again and it doesn't make sense. THere are some magic moments...but really they are only on par with crush. Perhaps this is something to do with the production of BJ being totally different these days

What was very intersting though, is the SBE gig had some clear moments where his tone of his voice was very similar to the old days, something i hadn't heard for a long time. Yeah there were some really off bits..but I think when he hit it....he hit it just like he used to.

Hopefullly he still has some stuff left in him, and he can pull out better perfomance live over the next few years and definately on the next studio album.

You can tell he definately has changed, as the keys of the songs they write in are really differnt. Something like thankyou for loving me would have been written in E major 10 years ago.

He voice isn't bad now, but it used to be a lot lot better.

track7

amen :D

I think you said it correctly. After the TD tour he did his own thing, not much of the BJ stuff, started smoking (verry bad...). He was a bit rusty at the beginning of the crush tour, and yes the own tour was much better.(vocaly)

But after seeing the webcast (sb) i have to say his voice is perfect. No he can't get the high notes in loap, but he.. aren't they a bit extra high for a guy :D

The webcast showed to me Jon can still sing verry well, and quite easely.
Sometimes the live performances are a bit lower (in key) but i think every band is doing that (??)

I'm not listening to this bull. Jon said it wasn't different, just that he used different styles. Plus, I've seen him live, and I've seen what notes he can hit. He kinda' sucked on the Slippery tour.

If you think Jon didn't sing Bon Jovi songs very much between These Days and Crush, it's obvious you don't have recordings of the acoustic shows or concerts he did in those years. He started smoking in 1994 and never quit until 2000 and that quiting didn't last too long. Your theories don't hold water. You should educate yourelf more on what was actually being said, done, and sung if you're going to make blanket statements because you really make yourself look bad commenting on things that have no basis in fact.

Becky

Interesting theory. I do think aging and smoking have something to do with the fact that Jon's hurting his voice a bit. Smoking is bad for your vocals, this is just a fact.

Jon's studio voice is always better than his live voice, this is just the nature of the beast, you use the best take.

I am convinced that Jon alters his singing style simply because he can't be straining his voice just like he used to in SWW or NJ days. The new style is not better or worse, it's just different and is probably good to save his vocal cords.

I think it's fair to say Jon didn't sing Bon Jovi songs half as much during those years. He did a handful of shows in 98, and even fewer in 99. Even in 97 when he properly toured DA only half the set (at most) were BJ songs.

I think there was not even one gig in 1999 (correct me if I'm wrong). The only recording I have is a Springsteen concert where Jon songs on "Hungry Heart".

[quote="Nige
I think it's fair to say Jon didn't sing Bon Jovi songs half as much during those years. He did a handful of shows in 98, and even fewer in 99. Even in 97 when he properly toured DA only half the set (at most) were BJ songs.[/quote]

But do you think he just stopped singing because he wasn't touring? He was constantly writing songs and recorded enough to put out an album in 1998! He continued writing in 1999, even while on movie set. While writing and recording, he's singing. He's a professional singer. He doesn't need a fan to point out to him that he needs to practice. :roll: Just because we don't have tour dates and recordings doesn't mean he wasn't using his voice. If someone is going to theorize, they should use a little common sense along with the facts.

Becky

His voice is not as bad as people can sometimes make out, particularly when in the same breath some say stuff like Bono's voice is as strong as ever.

Now, I think Bono still sounds fine, a fraction weaker perhaps, but still sounds good to me. The same goes for Jon, yet a lot of the music that Bon Jovi write now, the style of it makes him sing a little differently to what he did in the old days.

This topic is so bloody old though, cos I don't think anyone here is gonna pike out of going to a show because they think Jon's voice is weak!

I know he still be singing during those years but I'm fairly sure he won't be singing old BJ songs. I know he recorded a lot of demos but I doubt he recorded them with the same intensity (can't think of a better word) as he will during shows or during the actual album recording sessions.

Becky- I didn't mean to get into an argument with you. I was just pointing out that he didn't really sing many Jovi songs during those years. Sorry :(