Appetite for Destruction's influence on New Jersey
 

Edit: Yes, I have missed a P in the title, if a mod is friendly to update it :)

Right...there's a theory I have here and wanted to see what other people thought.
Guns N' Roses arrived right between Slippery and New Jersey. And while many people think that Slippery actually paved the way for Appetite to become the success it became, I also think that Appetite greatly influenced New Jersey. Bon Jovi definitely went in that direction, which made New Jersey the success it became.

First and foremost, it's a much heavier record than Slippery. Be it the opening riffs of Lay Your Hands on Me, the distorted guitars on Wild is the Wind or the grit and heaviness of Homebound Train. Then, New Jersey is the first BJ record where you can hear BLUES influences. Be it I'll Be There For You, Love for Sale or again, Homebound Train which is nothing but a blues song on steroids. Appetite was basically a very heavy blues record mixed with some punk and Bon Jovi took some of that into their sound. Then, there's Jon's vocals which sound a lot rougher than on Slippery. There's moments where they are menacing even...like the "Ha!" in Lay Your Hands on Me. And maybe last is the increased "sexuality" of the lyrics.

Of course, Jersey still had the safe trademarks of Slippery, be it Born to Be My Baby or 99 in the Shade but overall, it moved closer to what Appetite represented. Jon was even wearing a MISFITS patch on his coat.

You might say it was just a natural evolution of the band, which I actually also believe. There's unbelievable songs like Living in Sin or even I'll Be There for You which would be outside the reach of Guns n' Roses. But overall, I don't think New Jersey would have quite become such a monster of a record, without the arrival of those 5 mother****ers from Los Angeles.

Edit 2: And yes, together with Back in Black, these are the two best hard rock records of the 80s, hands down!

Aloha !

I think it didn't. Although Appetite was released in 1987 it had been mostly flying under the radar and it wasn't popular until roughly August 1988 when the singles started to take off. Bon Jovi started recording New Jersey in March 1988, while at that time Appetite wasn't even in the charts anymore. So no, I don't think it influenced New Jersey. At most, the popular heavier songs from Bon Jovi paved the way for the succes of Welcome To The Jungle and Paradise City.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Doubt It, and i hardly see how Slippery When Wet paved the way for AFD. They don't really sound similar at all

I guess you have a point there. Welcome to the Jungle was definitely released in 1987 and you'd assume Bon Jovi would have heard it (and the record as a whole) but it took until 1988 for it to take off, by the time Jovi would have written some if not most of Jersey...

Maybe it's just me listening to the 2 records back to back, but it's the closest Jovi and GnR have sounded to each other.

Zeitgeist. :-)

Don't see it. Only thing Bon Jovi stole from GNR was the November Rain video concept with Bed of Roses.

??????????

What's your question??????????

I guess the question is: Where is the resemblance between November Rain and Bed of Roses.
I can see some to be honest...Richie on the mountain (Jon had done it already though) looking a bit like Slash in the desert. Jon in the desert looking a bit like Slash in the desert :P The bar scenes, Jon playing the piano. But there is no real concept in the Bed of Roses clip whereas November Rain is all philosophical and stuff. So, I guess the similarities are more in terms of imagery.

If there was a video I'd have to pick, it'd be Good Guys Don't always Wear White though. That one just screams Guns N' Roses somehow.

Simon might be right with the 'Zeitgeist' bit. Maybe it was time for a real ROCK infusion into the commercial metal scene around 87-88. Jovi saw it and pressed the 'blues' button. GnR just took it way beyond that.

Bon Jovi don't create their videos. The director does. Wayne Ishman in this instance