It's My Life/Crush
 

I was listening to Destination Anywhere today and wondering how the same man could write amazing lyrics like "Staring at your Window", "Every Word Was a Piece of My Heat", "It's Just Me" and a couple of years later write some of the bilge on Crush (e.g. "Save the World").

I think most people would agree that Bon Jovi's most grown up albums are KTF and TD so what possessed them to go writing crap like STW, Open All Night, TYFLM, AALY, Complicated?

And I was thinking of a quote from some DJ on the Jon Bon Jovi biography from the Biography Channel. He basically said that nobody thought BJ could be a commercial force after a five year break and within the industry they were thought of as dead.

So do people thing that Bon Jovi's only way of survival in 2000 was writing a song like It's My Life (and the rest of Crush) and abandoning the growth demonstrated on SITT, KTF, TD, DA? Could Bon Jovi have released a "Midnight in Chelsea" (tremendous song I must say), "Hey God" or "Lie to Me" as their comeback single and had a future in the industry?

Was it Jon's (and I say Jon because he's stated it in public) desire to be popular or was it the only way the band thought they could stay in the game?

The answer to your question rely on so many more factors that a simple pop song. You have to take into consideration what was popular when IML was released, and what wasn't. I don't think we'll ever really know what could have been. And it's not like Jon wrote the song alone.

Once again, I will say, I ADORE Save The World. LOVE IT!! I don't know that Jon and Richie sit down and say, "let's write a serious song" or "let's write a simple pop diddy". I just don't think it's that mechanical for them. I think it's a combination of life experiences, external references, etc.

deb

wasn't save the world written FOR armagedon at first ? it stinks the armagedon cheesy message for me one guy who saves the world giving his life .. i loved that movie it's was sooooo TOO MUCH

I don't know about the depth in the songs before and after crush (ME I loved the 90's the most then the 80's next , the 2000's are IMO even with HAND included the worst period lyricaly not musically but lyrically yes )

for me yes I think that Jon may have thought that to sell in the 2000 years they had to be 'trendy' so came crush and some terrible lyrics with them .... but I loved the impact of It's my life though .. it was such a strong come back song

for STW I don't know if it is a song about life experience but me I know I cannot save the world

imo the quality of the lyrics does not dictate if a song will be a hit or not.

it's my life and Everyday basically have the same lyrical content, one was a hit, one was not.

for me personally i do not dislike a song if the lyrics aren't the greatest. Lyrics just need to fit the music. if lyrics are indepth then that's great, an added bonus. I really do not see a problem with any of the lyrics on Crush.

You do have a point, but I think if you take These Days and DA out of the picture, even Keep the faith has some below-par/light-poppy lyrics and the like on there, whilst also having classics like Dry County and Bed Of Roses.

Sure Crush, Bounce etc have some shockers on there, but the likes of Just Older, The Distance, Right side of Wrong, Last Man Standing, Novacaine etc all have good lyrics.

Yes, they do have that updated post-2000 sound and yes you could argue that Jon/The Band adopted this to stay relevant, but it could also have just been a natural progression for them to take in a changing business.
But I am sure, that if their comeback single had been something like Born to be my baby, then obviously they would have not had the success that they still do have - a real reason why Bon Jovi are still on top of the business and selling stadiums out and Def leppard et al are not. [For the record I love Def Leppard]

Once you get over the obligatory 1st single of the post-2000 albums, and the odd other few standard album tracks, I still find some very decent material on these albums - lyrically and musically.

Saying all that though of course, nothing touches These Days still.


andi

I think Bon Jovi are trying to appeal to the mainstream too much. I think they should just write what comes naturally to them rather than catchy bullshit that they think the younger generation will like. It seems the best songs just don't make the albums these days and that's sad. I don't know about you guys but I'm looking forward to the day when they decide to take a break again and we can get quality releases from Jon and Richie.

Not true at all. I mean, somewhat true, but the lyrics can DEFINITELY help to make it an even bigger hit! Do you think The Final Countdown would get airplay ever new year's eve if it wasn't about "the final countdown" at all? Or White Christman if it was about something different? IML also was used for tons of sports events - again, the lyrical content DEFINITELY helped! People also have to be able to relate - at least in pop music (another aproach is going by attitude, which sold lots of grunge and sleaze-rock-records). Everyday had a worse melody and the lyrical content was recycled, so it's natural that it wasn't a big hit. But IML definitely wouldn't have been the hit it was if the lyrics would've been like the ones of Hey God or Prostitute.

I think what has to be taken into consideration is the fact that Jon and Richie, and most songwriters in general don't want to keep writing the same songs. For example, they finish These Days, they start writing again, they won't want to make an album that is exactly the same. They want to develop as songwriters, and they will look to modern influences, what's in the chart, what's popular, and they will experiment, some songs will have great lyrics, some a bit shoddy. It's a good thing, as much as I love These Days, I wouldn't want their next five albums to be These Days Part 2-6. The downside to that being it's gonna be hard for the next album to match one of such a high standard.

That's fair enough but, personally, I found a bit of growth in every album up to These Days and even with Destination Anywhere (I personally thought SITT was far better than US). And then we get shite like TYFLM and STW and other (in my opinion) rubbish. I don't see a lot of growth over the last 3 albums and to be honest I think they have regressed hugely with some of the stuff they have put out.

In saying that there is stuff on Crush, Bounce and HAND that I like and HAND, for me, is one of their better albums.

In saying that, my original point was that they may have had no other option but to go the IML/commercial route.