#88 - Breakout

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

Lyrics

DEE doo DEE doo DEE doo DEE doo boom chik a DEE doo DEE doo DEE doo

whoa oh whoa oh oh oh oh-oh whoa oh oh-oh-whoaaaa

The cool thing about this intro is you know exactly what you're in for. This might be the cheesiest song ever, with its overly melodramatic lyrics, intense-but-synthy keyboards, and way too many whoa-oh-ohs, and the intro sets you right up for that. If the DEE doo doesn't alert you, there's the whoa oh ohs right in the beginning. It's a public service announcement, Bon Jovi style. "Warning: Song Contains 500 Times the Legal Dosage of Cheese"

These lyrics are just....jeezly. "You held my heart for ransom baby set me free"? "Your lies can't hide what I see"? "You're too hot to handle with kid gloves"? Seriously. I mean...honestly. So so overblown, so melodramatic. Half of me wants to love it, half of me wants to cringe. Usually I compromise and sing along, so at least someone's cringing.

My personal "Breakout" guilty pleasure: The second verse. It's got those serious, intense, whoa oh ohs, the uber dramatic lyrics, but dammit I like it.

I like the part at about 2:45 that's just whoa oh whoa oh oh ohhh and drumming, and then the DEE doo comes back in. More overblown dramatic cheesiness, but it's GOOD overblown dramatic cheesiness. The drumming in the whole song is (as usual) good. I want Tico to really fuck up a song sometime just for confirmation he isn't perfect. I know he's done it, I want to see it.

First time I heard this song I fell over laughing at the chorus. It was the "BREAKOUT!" call-and-response that did it. It still makes me giggle a little. Call-and-response is instant cheese, adding it to a song that is already the cheesiest thing ever laid to tape is GENIUS.

My Rating: 6/10

Because tomorrow night when I'm writing this I feel like dealing with a chorus I like to belt the shit out of:

• Bells of Freedom
• Wildflower