[JulietColleen]

I'm just curious, what are all of your interpretations of all the songs off of destination anywhere?? this is my all time favorite cd, and have trouble figuring out what these songs are about, so if you guys could help me out, that'd be great! thanks

KTF,
Juliet

[Becky]

Most of this is from what Jon has said about the songs.

Queen of New Orleans is a fictional story inspired by Jon's trip to the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Anyone who's been to NO can tell you it's a crazy city.

Janie Don't Take Your Love to Town was inspired by Jon and Dorothea having a rare big fight. They were in Amsterdam and he wanted to take her to a nice dinner and the restaurant people put them on the roof, thinking they were doing them a favor, but it was really hot and miserable. They got into a fight and went to bed angry. He couldn't sleep and said she was probably pretending to be asleep, so he went in the bathroom and wrote the song as an apology. He joked that "sitting in the bathroom by the sink" sounded better than "stitting on the toilet with a guitar." LOL

Midnight in Chelsea was inspired by Jon's time in Wadsworth, London, while filming the Leading Man. He had a sense of freedom because he was just a performer. He wasn't in charge of a multi-million dollar cooperation and he was excited about his acting and being in a new city and spending time there with his wife and kids.

Staring At Your Window was also written in London. It started off as a song called "All in the Name of Love" and evolved from that. He hasn't spoken much about his inspiration for the song. To me, it sounds like another very personal song for him, from talking about the fans perceptions of him to even his wife's perceptions of him. Maybe it's about looking for a change but not wanting to give up what you've got.

Ugly was written with Eric Bazillion whose wife was pregnant at the time and feeling ugly. Jon said that a woman is at her most beautiful when she's pregnant and they wrote the song with that idea and made it more generalized.

Every Word Was a Piece of My Heart is a song for the fans. He said he started feeling like an oldies act on that last tour in 1996 because he knew exactly when he was loosing the crowd and pulling out a song like Prayer or Always would get them back. He had to grow up in public and every song he wrote has been a piece of his heart that he's given to the public, whether they laughed at it or loved it. It was what he had to offer and what he had to say at the time.

It's Just Me is a very Jon and Dorothea song. It's very personal to them, right down to the Bukowski poems that they enjoy.

Learning How to Fall is a personal story for Jon because of the ups and downs of the music business and life in general.

Destination Anywhere was written in London and is about how Jon felt like life could take him anywhere he wanted to go. It's also inspired by TLM to an extent (taking Elena and running.)

Naked is not about phyisally getting naked, but emotionally getting naked and bearing yourself to another person.

Little City is written from the Adam's perspective in the movie Little City (Josh Charle's character, the taxi driver). It's about the movie.

August 7, 4:15 was inspired by the murder of Jon's manager's daughter. The story is pretty much exactly as it is in the song. They still have not found her killer.

Cold Hard Heart was written while on the set of TLM. Jon hasn't spoken too much abou the inspiration for this song. Sounds to me like maybe his wife was being a witch. LOL

I Talk To Jesus was also written in London. Jon said he could picture some guy with an Alfafa hairdo and pocket protectors trying to weezel his way into the castle. It also harkens back to a story Jon told long ago about a fan who came to his house and told him that Jesus had sent him to give Jon a message and Jon said he was stupid enough to let the man into his house because it didn't occur to him that the guy may have been out to hurt him.

Becky

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Becky

Janie Don't Take Your Love to Town was inspired by Jon and Dorothea having a rare big fight. They were in Amsterdam and he wanted to take her to a nice dinner and the restaurant people put them on the roof, thinking they were doing them a favor, but it was really hot and miserable. They got into a fight and went to bed angry. He couldn't sleep and said she was probably pretending to be asleep, so he went in the bathroom and wrote the song as an apology. He joked that "sitting in the bathroom by the sink" sounded better than "stitting on the toilet with a guitar." LOL

LOL - I know its cruel, but they should fight more often - we get some great songs out of it: Bed of Roses, Janie, Misunderstood etc..

Only Joking - we also get some great ones when they're together.

Mike

[JulietColleen]

thanks so much becky!!

-Juliet

[Becky]

Originally Posted by Mike

LOL - I know its cruel, but they should fight more often - we get some great songs out of it: Bed of Roses, Janie, Misunderstood etc..

Only Joking - we also get some great ones when they're together.

Mike

Yeah, "Misunderstood" is another one of those Jon's-in-the-doghouse songs and it's one of my favorites from Bounce. I want to listen to that one over and over again. Did you hear the quote he gave about how when he got back from doing Ally McBeal even the dog was giving him dirty looks? LOL Boom... Misunderstood.

Becky

[Rune]

Originally Posted by Mike

LOL - I know its cruel, but they should fight more often - we get some great songs out of it: Bed of Roses, Janie, Misunderstood etc..

Only Joking - we also get some great ones when they're together.

Mike

Thanks becky.

[Chelsea Girl]

Becky you know just about everything. Thanks very much your posts are always really interesting.

[Santa_Fe]

I just rediscovered DA 2 months ago, or so. At first I dismissed it. Probably because that was not what I expected from him. It's a brilliant record. Simply outstanding. Very high-quality.

Jon got so much to say. He seems like so tortured a soul sometimes. It seems to me that today he is stifled by/in Bon Jovi. He should do more solo work. Or expand BJ somehow. And they tried to do that with Crush and Bounce.

[Santa_Fe]

Becky,

thank you for the songs interpretations.

Staring At Your Window was also written in London. It started off as a song called "All in the Name of Love" and evolved from that. He hasn't spoken much about his inspiration for the song.

I find this interesting. He was so verbose about all the songs except this one. See my post about this song.