#31 - The Hardest Part Is the Night

Artist: Bon Jovi
Album: 7800 Fahrenheit
Other Versions: None
Era: early 80s "synth rock"

Lyrics
Video

I love Bon Jovi's early stuff, mostly because I have a soft spot in my heart for uber-cheese ("aural Velveeta", as one website describes it). It bothers me that BJ tend to bash their first two albums - I even read one article where David laughed at the idea of playing any of the songs from the early days - although I can kind of see where they come from. I think in their minds, embracing the cheesiness and over-the-top-ness and the synthesizers is going to somehow cheapen the more serious music they've made. I think they're wrong, but oh well.

7800 is the weaker of the first two, but there's some real gems on there. This is one of them (the others being "The Price of Love", "Silent Night", and "Secret Dreams" - I like "Only Lonely" too, but mostly because it has the cheesiest video in the history of time). Right from the opening, where the guitar just crunches in, you know you're in for something good.

The lyrics aren't bad, especially not when compared to some of the other writing on this album and the first one. It shows signs of Jon's desire to be social and important, without going too far down that road and getting ridiculous like "Tokyo Road".

One downside to this is the drumming is very rigid. Maybe this is before they were comfortable enough as a band to let Tico just go bananas and up the level of the whole song the way he does in later songs ("Sleep When I'm Dead"). It sets the tone well, but overall it just kind of feels like the song is trapped within walls or something and there's no room for anything truly spectacular. I've been learning recently (mostly thanks to doing this song a day thing, I'm listening to songs a bit differently) how much drumming really impacts a song. This is a good example of that impact being a negative. It makes everything confined.

This is a really good song to work out to. If you're a gym person, slip it in with other stuff you work out too. The rigid drumming is a negative when you just wanna listen and rock out a bit, but it sets a good steady pace for exercise.

This is cheesy, but cheesy isn't necessarily bad. And as far as cheese goes, there's a lot worse to be found in the Bon Jovi catalogue. Because of its place as a non-single on the second, and probably least-loved cd, it's sadly overlooked and underrated. This would, honestly, fit in well with some of their more recent stuff - if they fix the drumming.

My Rating: 7/10

Edited 3/25/06: Added lyrics and video