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Your reaction to listening Prayer for the first time

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Old 02-28-2023, 02:42 PM
efpg0708 efpg0708 is offline
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Default Your reaction to listening Prayer for the first time

I discovered Bon Jovi through Destination Anywhere. My brother would listen to the cassete over and over during a trip that we took in 1999. For some months, I thought that Bon Jovi was limited to Midnight in Chelsea. As a kid, I wasn’t too interested in music. Later that year I started to look for some more material from Bon Jovi. Not only I found out that Bon Jovi was a band, but also that the familiar “oooooooo we’re halfway there” that I had listened on the radio a couple of times was their hit. Once I listened to it again, I couldn’t stop. On the first month I must have listened to it more than 20 times a day. I thought it was the greatest song ever. I would show it to my friends only for them to say: “what world do you live in? That’s Bon Jovi, how come you didn’t know that?”

Of course I grew a little bit tired of listening to it after all those years. But I still think that it is one of the greatest songs ever written.

Cheers

Eduardo


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Old 03-01-2023, 02:02 AM
bonboy25 bonboy25 is offline
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Livin' On a Prayer is what started my Fandom for the band. I was probably around 12, 2008, and my mums partner was listening to crossroad album on they way to a Christmas works do. I'd never heard a song so uplifting and that made you want to scream along. Then You Give Love a Bad Name. That blew me away equally. Fond times.
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Old 03-03-2023, 03:01 PM
RonJovi RonJovi is offline
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I was 7 when it was released so I was very aware of it because it was such a huge hit. And I really liked the song, who doesn't? I remember "Faith" coming out and thinking it was a good song but much less catchy than Prayer.

I only really started getting into music in 1994. I was very aware of Bon Jovi and they had so many great songs at that point. Even then, Prayer was the jewel in the crown.

But it was Always, Saturday Night and the These Days album that made Bon Jovi "my band".
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Old 03-04-2023, 11:19 PM
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Having been a devoted Bon Jovi fan for basically my whole life, it’s a bit embarrassing to admit Prayer wasn’t such a big deal for me to begin with, back in the mid 80’s.

I became a fan by the time Slippery had just been released and the album’s music videos were on a heavy rotation on the MTV. The first Bon Jovi song I ever heard was Bad Name and subsequently, for decades, it’s been the greatest and biggest rock song of all time for me. After having heard just this one song, back in January 1987, my friends told me that the band has this one song that is even better than Bad Name. So after a few days I got to hear Prayer as well and I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I thought it was a bit boring and I felt it sort of lacked the energy and the melodic power Bad Name had. I didn’t understand at all the praise the song was getting. Since those days, I’ve heard the song at least a few thousand times and witnessed it live tour after tour, yet it’s never even been in my Bon Jovi all time top 25. I was amazed that one of their weakest songs had become their biggest hit, a song that even those who despise Bon Jovi clearly seemed to respect.

As I’ve gotten older, as years and decades have passed, it has all changed for me.

I’ve grown to love Prayer and respect it like no other song. It took me decades to understand it’s real power. It just may be the greatest song ever written. And to think of it, guys in their 20’s wrote it! How on earth were they able to understand life so well at such an early age? I mean, nothing can be more uplifting. The song is so full of hope. No matter how many times I listen to it, it gets me every time and leaves me speechless. And it ages like the finest wine, JB is right about that. Prayer never feels outdated.

I still get sentimental by it and I am not ashamed of that at all. The line in the second verse, ‘baby it’s okay, someday’ gives me the chills every time. A few years ago, I even got the song tattooed on my shoulder.

JB said that writing songs that mark memories and touch people’s lives is the closest thing one can get to immortality. I have no argue about that.


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