#60 - These Open Arms

Artist: Bon Jovi
Album: Have A Nice Day (Bonus Track)
Other Versions: None
Era: Current "power pop rock"

Lyrics

Disclaimer: This song makes me weepy on the best days. I'll be listening to it about five times in a row, and this has most decidedly not been the best day, so if my typing goes all wonky that's why.

The intro to this is terrible. It didn't make me excited, it made me go "uh-oh, boring alert". Yeah this is a ballad, but the intro is just too slow, too mellow. There's nothing there. To be honest, I don't love the instrumentation in this for the most part. I like the piano, but I don't like the guitar at all. It's too something.

Lyrically this is gorgeous. Really, really gorgeous. Go read the lyrics, even if you don't usually click that link at the top. I'm not going to go through them all here, but I really mean that - go right now and read them. And if you don't think "well I know people in my life like that" but "well Hell, I want someone like that" then you can totally come sit in my boat. We have down comforters and chocolate.

My favorite line is "Did you make a damn of difference in somebody else's life" because I always react with "well I'd like to think I do" and then I start pondering and sometimes it's nice to think about things like that.

I like the way this manages to be "I'm your friend and I love you" and at the same time "you really need to take a look at your life" song. You're great, and I love you, but I know you need to figure yourself out a little first, and that's ok. I'm here while you get confused and messed up, and I'm totally going to hug you when things really get bad so you know that there's still some good out there for you.

You know what this makes me think of, really? I like to think this one was inspired by David's divorce too, and it's all Jon being "dude I am so your friend when you need me". Thinking of it like that makes me happy, so I don't really care if it's true or not. If Jon ever comes out in an interview with what this song is really about, I'll stop thinking that then. But doesn't that just kind of make you all warm and fuzzy, a "I love you, man, even if your life sucks right now" kind of sweet smushy ballad. Maybe it's just me.

I love, love, love Jon's voice in this one. He sounds sad, almost pained. This is someone watching someone else get all confused and depressed and down on life and wanting to help them and all he can say is "well, uh, I'm here, and I'll be/do whatever you need." It's hard to be in that position with someone, and I think Jon's voice really captures that "I am watching you suffer and goddammit I want to help because you're making me hurt too because I love you."

This is a gorgeous, hearrbreakingly loving song. It makes me want to curl up with a nice fuzzy blanket and maybe a stuffed animal and a mug of tea and call up one of my friends and tell them I love them and they rock and I want them to never hurt.

My Rating: 8/10

No vote this time, I know what I'm doing tomorrow and I am zero levels of flexible this time.

Also: I spent a significant amount of time on YouTube last night looking up Bon Jovi videos. At some point in the next several days, I'm going to go back through and add a video link to any entries about songs with videos on YouTube, and when I'm done I'll post a full list of what I've added videos to.