[Beavoid]

(Repost)

Music for me growing up was almost entirely classical in nature. In sixth grade I began listening to mainstream rock and was immediately blessed with Always, the first song I had ever heard from Bon Jovi. It was the song I used to show my parents that rock could be kick ass and intellectually intense as well. It worked. I immediately purchased Crossroads, their latest. The other songs on the album to me, at that time, were irrellivant. But once, as I was playing it while I went to bed, heard the entire CD, and Bed of Roses rung in my ear. At the time, there was no question, Always was better...but I knew Bed of Roses had something...I knew eventually it would overtake me...but I didn't know why or how.

As I grew up and grew older, Bed of Roses became the montra and confessional of my own soul as well. It was more true and real than any other rock song I had ever heard and every time I listened to it, a new, deeper understanding of myself became evident. It allows (if you choose it to) for one to elevate one's own mind to understand itself. And then it hit me, the reason why Roses is the higher of the two: Bed of Roses is something that Always never was, and can never be; it is confessional and realization of not simple love, but a final, heart-wrenching understanding and acceptance that brings you to your knees in deference...in deference of what it truly means to be alive--to live and breath life, for those moments which stop you dead in your tracks--that make you scream and soar or weep or climb or claw...but always 'french-kiss the morning.'

Though the lyrics are well defined, they are never bland or simple. Jon is not simply talking to a lover or his love (as he is in Always), but also his one true calling--the acceptance of one's own destiny; his one, true, innate gift. A gift which fights its way from childhood to be set free. And though it may appear to be beaten back by gaudy "mistresses,"--though you may be "wasted and wounded" by the trivial or uselessness, that "old piano," that one destiny, is "all that [you] need." And even though it is painful, you must take the good with the bad or you cannot understand. Cherish the Bed of Nails for it is only with these nails that you can pierce any adolescent paradigms and truly realize the beauty of the Bed of Roses--the light, the future. And now, to "want to be just as close as the holy ghost is" to your morals and truths and passion that makes you who you will one day become. Never deny these things......And that is where Always does not necessarily fail, but rather cannot compete.

It simply was not meant to.

Bed of Roses is a confessional. For Jon, I assume, it was the literary maniphestation of his own realization that music and love and truth are what his music is about, and that the glitz and hair is only a simple eye catcher. I assume this because of the point this was written in Bon Jovi's career, in the early nineties, when simple hair metal was "dead."

Maybe he is telling us here, how he--how they survived as brothers, how the music itself survived, while he watched others waste away in the rain. That is the most true and beautiful thing any artist can do. Survive.

Don't misunderstand me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Always, it is still amazing and romantic, but on a much more grounded level, while Roses will shine in unobstructed, unrivaled, brilliancy....always

OR...maybe I was just listening to this song the first time I was in love...you'll never know heh heh

Braden

Oh yeah, and I could be wrong

[Heavenly]

WOW!!!!

[Heavenly]

erm - Sorry, I'm not Yvonne, but I was fascinated....

[Yvonne]

Well thank you to that insight of Bed Of Roses.

BOR is one of my fave songs and as most people around like BOR and Always i thought i'd put it to a poll!

Bed of roses for me will always rein supreme against most songs by BJ.

[Ride Cowboy Ride]

All those big words (where is my dictionary) I think Bon Jovi songs mean what people want them to mean, BOR may have 2 completely different meanings to 2 different listeners. For me Bed of Roses simply epitimises guilt and confusion.

I also think Bed of Roses is more of a deeper soul searching song than Always, but I like them both. But if I had to choose one, it would be Bed of Roses.

[buff8888]

Nicely Put, i wish Bon Jovi Could get a copy of that....
Maybe now their love songs can be elevated once again, like they were in the past...