#15 - I Believe

Artist: Bon JoviAlbum: Keep the Faith
Other Versions: None
Era: 90s "moody rock"

Lyrics
Video

I've described post-1990 Bon Jovi to people by saying: "Take U2's 'Save the World' thing, especially Bono's God complex, and use it to inseminate Bruce Springsteen. Then he raises the baby with the help of Aerosmith and Poison."

The U2 in there comes from this song, which I usually call 'the Bon Jovi U2' song. I don't know why, I can't even come up with a specific U2 song to compare it to. But this song would not have sounded weird recorded by Bono.

It's the sweeping, epic feel and the uplifting "work together" theme of the song - but this most certainly isn't the only Bon Jovi to use those components, not even the only one to combine them. So I can't explain why, when I hear this song, I'm almost confused that it's not U2 singing it.

"Don't look up to your movie screens / your records or your magazines / look inside and you will see / that you are all you really need". I think that's it. That line just sounds so Bono-esque. A lot of the song does, lyrically. So that must be it - it's not that it's like any U2 song that exists, it's more like "the U2 song they forgot to write, so Bon Jovi picked up the slack".

I'm not trying to say they're ripping off U2, and I'm not saying they're unoriginal. I just can't listen to this song - especially after seeing the video, which is most definitely U2ish - without thinking "where's Bono?"

My Rating: 5/10

Edited 3/25/06: Added lyrics
Edited 3/26/06: Added video