That lad at the start: "My ears are literally hurting."

I wonder if he was watching this at the moment he said that:

https://youtu.be/l8O4X0sh91U

Alec looked so bad and out of it as the 1993 tour progressed. I wonder if there were physiological reasons for his demise as well. I know he had a motorcycle accident sometime after the NJ tour, but he looked sick and unhealthy on many occasions in 1993.

I heard somewhere that he was into drugs and alcohol and he only quit them before The Crossroads Tour.

The full interview from '93 that had been around in bits and pieces for probably 10 years. At first Jon's a bit grumpy, but as soon as the interviewer calls him out on that he starts to talk a bit more in-depth about certain things and it gets more interesting.

Great interview! But funny how times can change (again, compared to the changes he's talking about in this interview). "I'm not the life of a party" compared to "Don't cry for me, I'm the life of a party" in GBTM, and the whole talk about "it became a machine, so I had to stop it". I guess I get what he's trying to say and the machine nowadays is different, because he's in charge, but still funny...

Have a nice day 2004
 

Have a nice day in 2004, the song wasn't fully finished here as I know.

-

Jon at home I think.

I've always wondered... does Dave sing the screams in the key change in full voice or are they sing in falsetto? What do y'all think?

You can start by explaining to me what the "key change" is???? and what song?Prayer or Runaway? :cool: Alec was the falsetto guy so if that's what you are hearing, its a good chance it's him.

Listen to that delivery! That's why there was no such thing as a bad Bon Jovi song back then. That's not even the same voice we have today.

Runaway doesn't have a key change, Prayer does. I don't think it was worth sassing DavetheGodofKeys over what was pretty clear.

I wasn't 'sassing'... I really don't know

I'm talking about Prayer. And no it can't be Alec because when the key change happened he was nowhere near his microphone. I know it's David singing those high screams but I don't know if they're falsetto or full voice .

3:00- 3:45 doeesnt sound right not me. I might be hearing it wrong but it sounds pitch corrected.

That wouldn't be entirely surprising considering he was never able to properly to sing the key change and sound good even in 1986.

Autotune didn't exist back in '86.

The vocals are simply layered since he probably only sang the high chorus once in the studio. We've had this before in a different thread here. Some uploads on YT are taken from the Rockstar video game where they were doctored and hence sound artificial.

I know it didn't but I'm not talking specifically about autotune. I heard that there was a way to correct the pitch back then but it was very complicated.

Glad someone else took a notice if that. There is a noticeable "cut" to the "whoa-oh" part, which in itself has such a fast vibrato that it seems sped up. Perhaps they recorded it slower and lower and just increased the speed to match? Would be quite easy to do with a couple of takes...

Where the hell did this uploader find my karaoke performance from? :D

https://youtu.be/SJff5NvkdpM

It almost makes me - on this side of the computer screen - feel bad physically to see Jon shake the mic stand like that, trying to hit the notes. He literally looks (and actually sounds as well) like he's about to die at any moment... and this was back in November 2013, when his vocals were still a bit more consistent and kinda stronger/"punchier" (at some parts anyway) in general than they are now. What kinds of real-life nightmares are we going to see this year, with that whispery thing JBJ has as a voice nowadays? I have no idea, and "for some reason" I don't know if I even want to...

And then, after that disaster, back to good Philly stuff - uh oh, it's 1993 again:

https://youtu.be/W7Au7YnBeek

Again, truly an epic show. I wish that woman "singing" right next to the taper would shut up, though... :D

PS. I'm currently really into the 2006 US shows (for some strange reason I can't make out). I f***ing love the Fresno,...

https://youtu.be/8Y-0_p9wEDI

...Milwaukee...

https://youtu.be/v7Q88cmylFw

...and Tampa gigs:

https://youtu.be/o_tN4kJc8-M

This one is nice too.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=3902s&v=FNukJikMtX0

It sure is - and it would be even better if Jon didn't absolutely murder These Days on the encore... even the Endicott 2017 version of TD was better, and that really says something!

https://youtu.be/TTSS3oWdYdk

At least Jon knows his limits by now and therefor doesn't even bother going for notes that he knows he can't reach anymore. That said, there still are quite a few bum notes in there, but it's still miles better than the Giants '06 version (from a vocal standpoint anyway). However, Jon was much more passionate/energetic/mobile - CONFIDENCE is the word of the day, guys! - on stage back in '06, so from that perspective Giants obviously was far better.

Yeah, he was much more confident in '06. In that same Giants concert, he even had the balls to play the solo in I'd Die For You! Now, I don't know sh*t about guitars, so I can't say if he did it okay, but I think this one should've always been played by Richie because it's a fairly fast solo and not something super easy like WWWU.

What do you think about this version of These Days, Dave?

https://youtu.be/VNtLjw1DKsM

For me, it's by far the best vocal performance Jon has delivered on any song since 2011. I don't know how it was possible, considering the noticeable decline his voice had been on since May '13 already, but for this singular rendition he managed to turn on some kind of a special switch and produce one more vocal performance equal to his '08-'11 standards.

That said, I think his voice died for eternity after it...

It's great for his '13 vocal standards. He doesn't look like he's about to die like in the Always version from November '13 you posted earlier. He hits the " Ain't nobody LEFT BUT US these days ". Overall,maybe just as good as TAALS from Milan '13 even though I still think that Milan '13 is the best concert from the BWC tour.

The nasality he uses is on purpose.
His vocal inconsistency (Slurring words, etc is most likely due to confidence problems onstage.) has improved atleast.
I think Jon's main problem is range honestly. I think another problem other than possibly range is that his voice is more sensitive than before. What I am saying is that his voice is more sensitive to the higher notes than it used to be.

I am sure he uses nasality to make his voice sound brighter when singing. If you listen to interviews of him nowadays he doesn't sound as light/bright as he used to during let's say early 2000's and earlier.
Nowadays a bit gravelly or a bit rough in my opinion.

During Atlanta 2017 he hit a quick A4 on the word "Night" during that acoustic intro of SIBSN.

I have listened to a few live shows from 2000 (I like those shows too).
He could still sound like in 95/96 (Maybe not EXACTLY the same) during the year 2000 (Most likely even in 2001).
Listen to "Tommy used to work" (There are more songs too you can find him singing like 95 in 2000) in beginning of Living on a prayer year 2000 (For example the Nagoya 2000 show. One of the best shows of 2000 I think).
I don't know why he would wanna sound different though (During 2000 and 2001).

2:22 - 2:26

I know this thread isn't about his voice, but still..

Here's my verdict.

I don't think Jon's voice is particularly nasal anymore. He got rid of singing through his nose step by step during the BWC tour (to make a comparison, listen to Nashville or Cleveland from March 2013 first and then Prague, Milan, Bern or London from June/July '13, for example - at the later shows he's much less nasal). Nowadays he seems to have replaced the nasality by singing softly and shortening many of the previously long-held notes to avoid the nasal tone he'd have to use to nail them.

As his chest voice has been more or less shot since 2003 (with the - again, technique-/exhaustion-based - damage progressed on his cords during the second half of the Bounce tour being the main reason for it), the only way he could regain his range around 2007-08 was to go for the high notes with the nasal head voice technique he had been using on-and-off on the low/mid-range notes since 2000 (or, at a more subtle level, since 1997).

However, this technique, while taught by the professional vocal coach Katie Agresta, seemed to be quite exhausting and when Jon himself seemed to realize that his voice couldn't take it anymore (see Always from Cleveland '13 as a proof - he's REALLY struggling with his nasal technique), he decided to change his technique once more... but this time, most likely all by himself.

Around April '13 Jon started trying to bring back his chest voice to get rid of the nasality and make himself sound more pleasant. (Again, this is just my theory, but it seems like it's pretty valid.) Needless to say, it didn't work long-term at all.

He was still sounding quite decent in May and especially June as well as early July '13, but in mid-July his voice was shot to pieces already and Jon, being the workaholic we all know he is, with - once again - a crazy tour schedule, didn't have time to fix what was wrong with his voice early enough, progressing into even more damage (which was largely apparent in September/October '13 already and got totally out of hand in November/December). Also, around July, the stress that had slowly begun to progress basically on the day of Richie's departure, was really starting to take its toll on Jon, and Tico's two surgeries in October made it even worse. In 2014-15 the shit storm around the poor guy just kept worsening due to reasons I'll state later.

So, add to...

1) Jon's (self-taught) bad/unsustainable vocal technique that naturally made his vocal abilities decline rapidly

...the following:

2) stress/confidence issues caused by Richie's departure, Stephanie's overdose, the Buffalo Bills fiasco and the problems with the record label (explains the significant inconsistency Jon displays as a singer nowadays as well as the step-by-step decline of his stage presence and overall convincingness as a performer - this was also the reason for Jon "pretty much giving his guitar the finger" in 2014, as the psychological issues affected his comfortability writing songs for what was to become THINFS around that time)

That's basically it. Jon didn't have the most well-shaped or sustainable vocal technique around there to begin with, and as soon as he tried to change it by himself, it manifested itself largely in a similar way to the Slippery tour where he kept forcing his voice out night after night with no coaching or, therefor, any clue about what kind of singing would work within his vocal capabilities whatsoever.

And nowadays it really seems like Jon doesn't have a clue about how to sing for the most part.

However, the matters were made even worse by the stress and psychological pressure Jon had to suffer through in 2013-15 (which is what he's clearly still recovering from due to all the unfortunate events following each other and therefor again slowing/backing down the recovery started before).

His voice is probably permanently damaged from the BWC tour (due to him basically ruining his voice with his unsustainable technique once more) and will never fully come back. The more gentle tone Jon uses nowadays clearly takes additional pressure off his vocal cords, and I'm almost 100% certain that Jon's been using a vocal coach to develop it during the last 3-4 years, as otherwise he'd most likely still be straining his cords to death by forcing his voice out like he did in '13.

However, as soon as he manages to completely recover from the stress, his stage presence will probably make a full comeback.

At this point, only time will tell. What it will tell is a completely different story, and currently not really worth a deeper discussion.

Here's my final post of the night - the legendary Blaze performance from the '91 Academy Awards:

https://youtu.be/NT-xYdhtubY

Nah, just kidding. I'll really leave you ('til tomorrow) with this:

https://youtu.be/gooaY45jvcM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=3910s&v=fdS7ypX3x7c

Here's a good one. It's a kick-off show for the HAND tour. The guys play 3 songs from the HAND album. Jon hits the " yeah, yeah, yeah" part of KTF before the guitar solo perfectly. They also performed The Radio Saved My Life Tonight.

This is one of my all time favourite TV performances. Jon sounds amazing and it's really great to see Richie giving it his all on that song! Love the bit when Jon and Richie are sharing the mic and Alec looks over at them and smiles!

I was at the Nokia theater show in NYC just before this and it was the same setlist. That was an incredible show too! I always felt that around that time Jon would give it his all during the shorter shows, as he didn't need to have his voice last for almost 3 hours! And they were all the better for it!

Holy sh*t, what a voice he used to have. It's So sad to compare that Blaze Of Glory to today's concerts, Jon can't even sing properly anymore, he mostly shouts and whispers through the set these days.

Yeah - and listen to the quiet, polite applause after that performance :( That was worth of a standing ovation.

It sure was, Kat - it sure was.

I honestly think that version of BOG was one of the best vocal performances Jon has ever given on any song, and although it's "only" an opinion, it can't be too far off the sole truth either... right? :D

One of my absolute favorite post-2k BJ performances overall: Keep The Faith from MSG 2011 (night #3)!

https://youtu.be/xbB-wdJPTQA

The energy and passion bursting from every single second of that rendition is simply astonishing - the whole band is on fire. And I f***ing love the way Jon belts out "Get down on your knees and pray!" right before Richie's solo.

Good times... :(

EDIT: The same show also got pretty much the best post-'96 version of Dry County I've ever heard (alongside Sydney '10 - night #3):

https://youtu.be/FgZNGd4WSO0

Three-night runs (although with a ten-day break between nights #2 and #3 at MSG '11) really seem to do Jon good. Maybe the guys should do three gigs in Montreal this spring instead of just two? Maybe not on back-to-back nights, as Jon's voice probably wouldn't handle it anymore, but I'd gladly take some epic performances like those from the Circle/GH tour again...

Wow, I can't believe I said that. I guess I gotta go to sleep now - I'm clearly hallucinating!

The thing is, in that performance he just makes it look so effortless too!

One of my favourite These Days performances:

There are some flaws, especially Richie makes two quite big mistakes. But it amuses me every time how Jon shouts "C! C!" towards him and then misses the next note himself :D
That being said - the way he delivered the 2nd verse was so passionate and just great!