Album: None
Other Versions: Traditional English ballad (melody), recorded by The Animals, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, several others
Era: N/A
Traditional Lyrics (with some backstory)
Lyrics (The Animals Version, closer to what BJ play)
A friend of mine sent me a link to this song way back in October or November, and I fell in love right away. I don't know that it's my favorite Bon Jovi cover, but it is right up there.
Jon's voice here is just amazing. He has so much passion, so much love for this song. As the story goes, this was the first song he learned (damned if I can remember where I read that, though) on guitar, so I'm sure it holds a special place for him. That love, that specialness (not a word, don't care) really come across. I've never seen him perform it, but I have a very clear picture in my head of him clutching the mic stand, eyes closed, that look on his face he gets when he's really feeling the song, just singing his heart out. This isn't a loud song, but the passion he feels is incredibly intense.
The guitar in the beginning is amazing. I want it to be Richie playing it just because that boy needs to earn some more points with me and this is the way to do it. It's so mellow, but there's feeling there, and that feeling ties in with the passion in Jon's voice and it works perfectly. The first verse is so quiet and subdued.
And then that organ and piano and the drums come in and still Jon's voice is strong enough to keep the focus. I can't gush enough about the way he sings this. It's just so incredible. And I love, love, love the piano in this. You're not paying attention to it and then it does the high-to-low steps thing right before Jon starts singing and it accents it perfectly. The organ solo adds so, so much. It's frigging gorgeous.
The drumming builds. The whole song builds up to the conclusion, but it's the drumming that's most noticeably doing so. Just cymbals, up to a quiet, steady beat, then louder and harder, still steady. And it ends with just drum. It works really well, it adds continuity to this as a composition. I love it when you can look at what's going on instrumentally in one part and see how it makes the entire song work better.
My Rating: 10/10
Random for tomorrow. Waltzing Matilda and Suspicious Minds stay on the list because it could have gone either way today. More than two people need to vote (or those two people need to vote for the same thing, haha)!
- Waltzing Matilda
- Novocaine
- Suspicious Minds
- Hook Me Up
Slated for editing:
Last Cigarette
I Believe
Sleep When I'm Dead
7 comments:
Novocaine
Waltzing Matilda.
waltzing matilda plz.
Hey that's cool, I didn't know House Of The Rising Sun was the first song he learned. That was me saying I'd just learnt it on my guitar (yes, i sometimes forget to put my name in) and it's the first one for me aswell.
I was gonna vote HOOK ME UP, but there's no point, so I say NOVOCAINE.
BTW, back when you did the entry for THE ANSWER, you said you might do a normal entry for it some other time, so if that counts as rewording...
ooh, good point about The Answer
I'll put it on the list
I'm pretty sure the version they released was from the time they performed it at the Count Basie Theatre, for one of their Christmas benefit thingies, which I guess doesn't make it definite, but pretty likely that Richie is on guitar. I hate it when I find something and can't tell if it's just Jon, the whole band, or just Jon & Richie, or even Jon, Richie & David.
Staying to Suspicious Minds.
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