Playing Old Songs
 

I recently had a member here send me a ton of CD's of Jovi songs, and I have listened to a few of them so far.
One CD had a lot of older songs on it, performed live. The songs from the first and second albums. Listening to those songs, compared with the 'newer' songs, like the songs from Crush and Bounce etc, these older songs sound so much better.

It's a shock to hear how much Jon's voice has changed. He sounds like his singing with his fingers pinching his nose - whats with the nasal sound?

Those old songs sound bloody brilliant live - so why don't they even attempt to sing them again? Roulette sounds frigging fantastic! And I was amazed to hear them sing 'Silent Night' - one of my fave songs from 7800.

I wish they'd try to do some of the very old songs again, they sound great, and obviously, Jon's voice is different now, but he could at least try - many of their old songs are favourites.

They totally dropped the 7800 and Bon Jovi (minus Runaway) not because Jon can't sing them, but just simply because they don't like them and not many people know them too well.

Well, it isn't exactly the bands fault that people don't know the older songs, it's the 'fans' fault. Those songs sound brilliant live, I know them, I sing along to them, I'd love to hear them, but you mean they don't play them because the casual fans have never heard of them?

They tried singing from first and 2nd Album at Hawaii Shows early this year and didn't get a good response from crowd except from few die hards so probably
dropped them

Yes it is. They're not playing them, that's why people like you don't know them. I've been complaining about that since 2000.

And they won't play them because Jon can't sing them anymore.

Ice

Jon can still pull off a few of them live. Shot through the heart sounded great. Only Lonely sounded good in Europe after they played it a few times. He rounded like a wounded cat on Roulette and the first performances of only lonely though......

I really think Jon needs to re-listen to the album versions of his songs to familiarize himself on how the songs should be sung.

For Example:
A) Bad Name (which is in another thread) is hands down an amazing studio/album version. Just raw vocals and emotions. But the live version.. I can't even stomach it anymore. Jon sounds nasally. He doesn't hit certain notes. It's off pace. There is no raw energy. etc etc etc.

B) IMO, and I'm no vocalist by any means. But I would think it's easier for him to sing the song the way it is on the album. It just seams easier to sing with a Rasp than to try and sing like Freddy Mercury.

And not to start another topic on Jons voice but he CAN still sing. He proves it with Hallelujah. The problem is his range is no longer there and he just has a different sounding voice now. You can even hear it when he talks that his voice is different. But if you give him a song in his range, he can definitely belt it out. aka Hallelujah

^^Im pretty sure that Jon's voice is pretty severely damaged now, for whatever reason- overstrain in the early years or smoking in the 90s..... I don't know...

You can tell he is very very careful with his voice now, whereas in the early 90s he could just let himself go and try different things and scream etc

He is still able to sing well on many songs using good technique though; clearly he has learned a bit in the last few years about how to make the best of what he has. But sadly he no longer has a pleasant sounding tone, it's extremely thin and nasal, plus the way he delivers the lyrics is slurred.

I couldn't agree more.

But it does sux. He almost sounds lazy when he sings today. Like he just rolled out of bed, got dragged into work, someone handed him some lyrics and said, sing this. No emotion, Slurred Lyrics, No more of that scream (I'll be there for you - I didn't mean to miss your b-day baby, ......... blow candles out ....(Scream).

And I believe that the vocals are the key to a great song. To be able to show range and sing with emotion makes a song believable and great.

Perfect Example: I was listening to Jon's version of "Levon" the other day and it actually amazed me. Here is an example of where he took an ok Elton song and sang the hell out of it. I remember hearing that song on the radio back in the 90's and was like WOW. Not even knowing the original at that time. And Jon was able to do that with any song back then. Boys Are Back In Town, All the snippets played in Access All Areas...... Just Amazing......

He probably could sing a song like that today in the studio but then he couldn't perform it live. That's why on Lost Highway we did do every song live and with The Circle, he didn't.

But all in all, I believe the vocals are hurting the songs and keeping them from the huge hit we all want.