#16 - Wanted Dead or Alive

Artist: Bon Jovi
Albums: Slippery When Wet, Crossroad, One Wild Night (live), This Left Feels Right (remix)
Other Versions: Live w/ Jennifer Nettles (CMT Crossroads performance), Unplugged (VMA 1989 performance)
Era: Late '80s, the "hair metal" period

Lyrics
Lyrics (TLFR)
Video
Pop-Up Video

IT'S ALL THE SAME
ON'Y THE NAMES HAVE CHAYANGED
EV'RY DAY
SEEMS WE'RE WASTING AWAYAYAY

Other people run for cover when I'm listening to this song. This is my favorite of the big hits, the songs that are synonymous with Bon Jovi. I love the instrumentation, I love the lyrics, I love it when Richie shouts "I STILL DIE YI YI", I just plain freaking love everything about this song.

Jon's got a cowboy fetish. And I like it, because cheesy-cliche as the cowboy songs are, they're good without exception. No one does cheesy-cliche better than Bon Jovi, and no hair metal singer ever did "cowboy" quite like Bon Jovi. I'm not surprised they went to Nashville to work on this album - that fascination with the whole cowboy thing had to rear its head at some point.

Unlike most of the Bon Jovi songs I really love, there's no intangible "it" thing here. I know why I like it - it's a good song in pretty much every way. Lyrically it's beautiful, it manages to be thoughtful and serious without being overly "emo"/whiny. Instrumentally it's excellent - the music draws you in, doesn't overshadow the vocals, but it's intense, it adds so much life to what Jon is saying (and that's really necessary - I bet a good majority of BJ fans haven't done the whole "touring internationally to the point of burnout while dealing with whatever bullshitness is intrinsic to the music business" thing).

And vocally...for the love of God. It's just gorgeous. Jon's voice has so much power, even without him yelling it, you can just feel him pouring everything into those vocals. And Richie's backing is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Richie and Jon have very different voices but there's similarities to the "style"(for lack of a better word) to them that makes them blend very well. This song isn't about the blending, though, it builds on the differences. Jon's voice is so raw and Richie's is so smooth and they're both so emotional and it just works so well. This is probably the only BJ song I would willingly listen to a capella for more than just the sake of trying to hear every BJ song ever.

Wanted deserves to be Livin' on a Prayer - deserves to be that song that everyone knows, the song that when you say "Bon Jovi" you might as well just be saying the name of the song.

My Rating: 10/10

Edited 3/25/06: Added lyrics and video