Livin' On A Prayer
 

Hello,

has somebody informations of the song "livin' on a prayer" (for example: the [social] situation in the USA/ N.J. in 1986, about the stylistic figures, of the message/ statement...and so on...)?

I asks for this because I want to present this song in the subject English.

Greetings,
John J. Dunbar

Jon said something about the song at the VMA’s from ’89. I tried to type what he said, but unfortunately my English is not very well so there are two pieces missing. I can ask my sister tomorrow to listen to the video. She is better in English then I am. (Or maybe some-one else knows more about what he said and about the song).
But I think you can get the message from this anyway.

Anyway, this is what Jon said about the song:

“(Unintelligible) think we’re gonna rule the universe. What happened one day, as we grew up, got out of High school. One of them actually got a scholarship to go play baseball. And me, I was in a bar playing, writing songs. We’ve got a phone call one day. There’s this girlfriend she says she’s pregnant. Now we’ve got to hang up those (unintelligible), he had to retire of baseball play and all these years later, I guess all he has left is that dream. This is like a long distant dedication. The names have been changed to protect the innocents. This is for everyone who has ever felt like Tommy and Gina”.


Good luck with it I hope you can use it!

there was a music expert talking about the song in a magazine about the top 1000 songs ever (it was #500 or 600 or something) and he said theres some sound effect that has a psychological effect, its to do with the contrast between the verses and chorus, i think.
its also being lyrically ripped off by pop-punk artists to this day.
its allegedly based vaguely on a true story but they had to change names and details: stuff like he wasnt called tommy in real life, and he didnt work on the docks - he worked on the new jersey turnpike. but i think there really was a union strike at that time (not sure, gotta check).
and the characters appear in a couple more jovi songs later on; "99 in the shade" (1988) and "its my life" (2000). there was a rumour they were gonna do one last song about them this year or last year but it never materialised.