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.

[bringbacktherock]

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

This 100%.

[dmbrocker]

Classic Bon Jovi rules - s/t through Crossroads/These Days is an awesome run. Everything after is just okay, though "It's My Life" and "Have a Nice Day" are quite solid.

[LurkingAtWork]

It was always weird to me that their guitar player was so much better at singing than their lead singer. Should've booted Bongiovi and called the band Sambora.

[Indy_Rob]

Alec learns that talking shit about JBJ in magazines gets you canned.

Never heard this angle. Do tell.

[tooth]

One of my longtime friends is a super fan & loves to talk Jovi, so I still listen to all of it. For the most part, I like the records on the whole up to & including HAND. After that yea, there's filler, but it's Jovi & there's a few solid one in there.

[Rocker4Real]

Alec learns that talking shit about JBJ in magazines gets you canned.

Never heard this angle. Do tell.

It's a RIP magazine article that came out. Alec tells all about how Jon would say that his playing "sucks". There are interesting quotes to the effect of, "Jon writes cowboy songs and Richie turns them into Bon Jovi songs."

[Indy_Rob]

Alec learns that talking shit about JBJ in magazines gets you canned.

Never heard this angle. Do tell.

It's a RIP magazine article that came out. Alec tells all about how Jon would say that his playing "sucks". There are interesting quotes to the effect of, "Jon writes cowboy songs and Richie turns them into Bon Jovi songs."

Sounds like no lies were told.

[mrsnikkisixx]

Huge Jovi fan of over 40 years. I’ve seen them 26 times in concert, and I can honestly say I have never been more disappointed in them over the last 12 years. Their output has sucked, and Jon can’t sing for shit anymore. Jon needs to suck it up, and ask Richie to come back for one last hurrah. Write some songs together, and make something that fans can be both proud of and nostalgic for. There’s no reason why they can recapture some of their former glory. It’s still there. Need the right people to bring it out.

[pieceofme]

Huge Jovi fan of over 40 years. I’ve seen them 26 times in concert, and I can honestly say I have never been more disappointed in them over the last 12 years. Their output has sucked, and Jon can’t sing for shit anymore. Jon needs to suck it up, and ask Richie to come back for one last hurrah. Write some songs together, and make something that fans can be both proud of and nostalgic for. There’s no reason why they can recapture some of their former glory. It’s still there. Need the right people to bring it out.

What's Desmond Child up to these days?

[HueyRamone]

For some reason, to me- it seems unseemly for a man to admit he listens to Bon Jovi.

its no different than a guy saying he enjoys flower arranging, looking at Cosmo, Celine Dion, Sex and the City marathons, or "doing brunch".
It's like "OK, nothing wrong with it, but.... huh."

I feel the same way about a man who says he likes Poison. But curiously, not Journey.

[Sleek]

I appreciate them for being the heaviest thing on the basic-assed top 40 radio before the second wave of hair metal really broke.

Have distinct memories of driving trucks on tour through some bumfuck state like Kansas at 3 in the morning, completely isolated with only the radio to listen to and something like Livng On A Prayer or You Give Love a Bad Name and it just seemed so modern and heavy you would feel connected to the world that was out there somewhere beyond the endless grain fields and semis and shit for those 3 minutes...then like, it would go right back to eighties pop rock and you are stuck with bullshit until dawn.

Slippery When Wet sounds dated to me now (too many big snares and bad synths) but it really captured the sound of modern rock in 1986.

That said, I was never a big fan of the band overall. They were just sooooo personality-free.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Bon Douchee were a lot of things, but they were never "heavy". Maybe compared to Poison they were...

[Sleek]

At that point, anything with distorted guitars was the heaviest thing on the radio. I am not comparing it to Sabbath or Metallica, but placing in a specific context.

Here is the context. This is every #1 song in 1986, and what you would have heard on top 40 radio. Bon Jovi is easily the heaviest thing on here:

"Say You, Say Me" Lionel Richie
"That's What Friends Are For"† Dionne and Friends
"How Will I Know" Whitney Houston
"Kyrie" Mr. Mister
"Sara" Starship
"These Dreams" Heart
"Rock Me Amadeus" Falco
"Kiss" Prince and the Revolution
"Addicted to Love" Robert Palmer
"West End Girls" Pet Shop Boys
"Greatest Love of All" Whitney Houston
"Live to Tell" Madonna
"On My Own" Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald
"There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)" Billy Ocean
"Holding Back the Years" Simply Red
"Invisible Touch" Genesis
"Sledgehammer" Peter Gabriel
"Glory of Love" Peter Cetera
"Papa Don't Preach" Madonna
"Higher Love" Steve Winwood
"Venus" Bananarama
"Take My Breath Away" Berlin
"Stuck with You" Huey Lewis and the News
"When I Think of You" Janet Jackson
"True Colors" Cyndi Lauper
"Amanda" Boston
"Human" The Human League
"You Give Love a Bad Name" Bon Jovi
"The Next Time I Fall" Peter Cetera and Amy Grant
"The Way It Is" Bruce Hornsby & the Range
"Walk Like an Egyptian" The Bangles

[Bono Nettencourt]

No it wasn't. It was all triple-tracked vocals. "Addicted To Love" sounded like Ace of Spades by comparison.

[Sleek]

Not hearing the "triple tracked vocals", unless you are talking about the harmony vocals on the choruses...double or triple-tracking usually refers to multiple tracks of a unison vocal tho.

https://youtu.be/T5yRhaTQ-jQ

Strangely enough, Ace of Spades does have double tracked vocals on the "ace of spades" line...

https://youtu.be/D_dHFhbHQDw

[Bono Nettencourt]

Not hearing the "triple tracked vocals"

I guess all those concerts made you deaf...

1st line!