ahahahah don't worry rainsong...it's not important ;)

What did JBJ say about The Rising?

I think competition is a good healthy thing

If i recall correctly he said it wasn't a cd he'd be listening to alot, because it was so 9/11 oriented. I have to say I agree with him. While I love the songs on this record, every time I hear them images of 9/11 pop right back into my head. At the time Bruce fans took Jon's comment about it as a public slam against the record, which I don't think it ever was. Jon didn't say it was a bad record or that the songs sucked, I think he just felt it was too closely associated with the horror that was 9/11.

As for the Bruce fan thing, I think the tension and controversy between them is a fan built thing, and has nothing to do with Jon and Bruce themselves. Bruce is a very private person, unless he's out playing he's pretty reclusive alot of the time. Plus he's been known to take forever between records which means there's alot of time when he's out of view.
Jon, and BJ on the other hand work alot more, and Jon is much more public than Bruce, whether it's with the Soul, or Habitat, or making movies etc....

I think they are two very different people who like, admire and respect each other, that who privately probably have a good time together, but have over the years, have figured out the best way to stay friends is to keep it private for the most part. I'm sure when Jon was younger it did bother him to be constantly referred to as the poor mans Springsteen or the wannabe Bruce, but my guess is that these days, they are both comfortable about where they are in life and what they have accomplished, and that any tensions or controversies are in the minds and hearts of fans, not the two of them.

Yeah well, as a longtime New Jersey fan of both, I personally get sick of the Bruce is god bit too. I can only hope that Jon can relax enough about it to laugh all the way to the bank.

Neither of them has much control over the fan base and the fan's shortcomings shouldn't be blamed on the artists.

I should mention that Bruce's new album sounds far more like a Bon Jovi album than any Bon Jovi album sounds like a Bruce album. I have to admit it really surprised me.

Kathleen

Ditto - I hope I can still count on getting blown away by the live shows of both of them. That is what they both do best in my opinion.

Haven't heard the new Bruce album yet but I'm curious now about how it sounds. I have to agree that both bands are at their very best live, overall I enjoy listening to BJ records more though. I have trouble listening to alot of Bruce on records.

I do think The Rising is a very good record, but for me it's a moment in time piece has absolute, very specific memories attached to it. At the time it was a wonderfully done record, but it is attached to that event, and I think for alot of people even now it's hard to hear those songs and not associate it with 9/11.
When it's said BJ played it safe, I don't think safe was the intention, it was more saying to themselves, what songs are we going to be able to play for ten years?? It did end up coming out as a very jumbled record, not one of their best but I do think at the time it was more about not having those songs so associated with 9/11 that they wouldn't be able to play them at some later time. They probablt should have gone ahead and done a straight up memory of 9/11 record, but hindsight is always 20/20 and I see what Jon was trying to do.

I love The Risng, and think it's a great album, but as others have said certain songs ("You're Missing") are too hard for me to listen to sometimes.

As for Bounce, I don't think Jovi were "playing it safe" as much as they were trying to be absract about 9/11, and focus more on the emotions the events brought out. The problem is that you can't mix abstract songs (Love Me Back To Life) and head on songs (Undivided) and expect an album to flow well, which I believe is more of a problem on Bounce than the songs themselves.