What are your overall thoughts on Bon Jovi?

[Nobodyspecial]

No Shanks, great. With Shanks they are terrible. He needs to go.

[CrankerBait]

They were never my thing, but they had a formula that worked for a long time. To their credit, they seemed to be a fans' band and toured their asses off for many years. Unfortunately for them, Jon can't seem to cut if live anymore, and I think it is safe to say they were never the same band post-Sambora.

[FreddyFender]

Bon Jovi was an image conscious band - Alec had the right look. And he may not have been the most creative guy in the studio, but he could play just fine.

The studio guy looked like he was in Steely Dan. No way he was coming anywhere near the stage in the 80s.

[Jason Jennifer Leigh]

Yeah Richie wasn’t replaced by Phil X, Richie was replaced by Shanks!

Richie shows up to write What About Now and Jon says “I’ve already wrote the album with Shanks” … Jon only has himself to blame and God took his ability to sing, God doesn’t like Jon Bon Jovi.

[JinglesTheChristmasMouse]

Shiny, poppy music.

[Rocker4Real]

Yeah Richie wasn’t replaced by Phil X, Richie was replaced by Shanks!

Richie shows up to write What About Now and Jon says “I’ve already wrote the album with Shanks” … Jon only has himself to blame and God took his ability to sing, God doesn’t like Jon Bon Jovi.

Yeah, Phil has no involvement in production or songwriting like Shanks. That was the obvious reason for Richie leaving. He went from #2 to #3.

[roxxtar5150]

Thoughts on Bon Jovi are pretty much by album/phase:

Self-titled - bland pop with a pretty boy. Nothing that would have been out of place on an album by Scandal or Quarterflash or a million others.
7800 - Little harder edged, but not much. But trying to fit into the scene a bit better. Black N' Blue or Keel level, at best. Quality musicianship, JBJ is the weakest link musically.
Slippery/New Jersey/Blaze of Glory - The kings of 80s hard rock. No harder working band. The blueprint for every other band in that era and genre. Respect.
Keep the Faith - The start of the morph into soccer mom era. Haircuts, serious songs like Dry County. Musically evolved, less fun. Jon starting to lean into the dictator role publicly more than ever before.
Crossroads - end of phase 1. Putting Jon alone on the back of the jewel case starts to crack the 'we're a team, JBJ is just the quarterback' facade. Alec learns that talking shit about JBJ in magazines gets you canned.
These Days - musically, their best. JBJ sounds like he had a LOT of vocal lessons around this time, never a stronger singer than during this period.
Crush/Bounce/HAND - Evolution to bland, corporate pop complete. Almost every lead single from these albums forward is about how the world tries to keep him down, but he's a fighter and he's gonna do it his way and blah blah blah. It's My Life, Everyday, Have a Nice Day, etc. Also, the start of the Shanks era, which is really the downfall of this band.
Lost Highway - oh look, country is popular, and that last song was a hit. Let's do a whole album of it.
Everything since - horrible. How many people do they have in that band now, like 7? No Sambora, no soul. The Shanks-over is complete. JBJ becomes a wine salesman who can't sing.

[Slippery Pete]

I never cared too much originally, although I knew and liked the hits as a kid from Slippery, and I really dug the song Blaze of Glory when it came out, but after seeing them live in 1995 I was really impressed and appreciated them much more.

Thought the "comeback" album Crush was decent and It's My Life was a good single, but then they kept reinventing that song with Everyday and Have a Nice Day. I only wound up liking one or two songs from everything after that and nothing from the last two or three albums.

Their greatest hits are definitely great though and they are forever masters of the big singalong chorus. Deserving Hall of Famers.