Posted by Emmo on September 10, 2009
I have over 300 CDs in my collection and I was wondering what my favourite is.
It’s hard to pick a favourite out of so many classics. But like the cream some easily rise to the top.
The Wildhearts P.H.U.Q, Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction, Skid Rows self titled debut & Motley Crues Shout At The Devil are up the top. Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven, Pearl Jam’s Ten and Extremes Pornograffiti are more classic albums but at number 1? It’s a very special album.
I stumbled across this album when I was 14 which was 20 years ago. Seems like yesterday.
My number 1 album is an album that had to deliver. The band had released the biggest selling Rock album of all time just two years earlier. By selling 16 million copies the pressure was on. Although they had released two albums prior the one that put them on the map they remained fairly unknown outside of America. Due to the success of their third album they spent two full years on the road touring. Was it a flash in the pan? Was it a fluke? Album number four was give us the answers….
If you haven’t guessed the band was Bon Jovi and the album that was the follow up to the monstrous Slippery When Wet, is New Jersey.
Bon Jovi had hit the big time with SWW and became household names over night. The singles You Give Love A Bad Name, Livin’ On A Prayer and Wanted (Dead or Alive) were never off the airwaves and MTV all over the world.
The two year tour that followed the album release only paused for the recording of New Jersey. The idea was release New Jersey as the SWW tour came to an end and then get straight back out on the road for another two years.
BJ did exactly that and it nearly finished the band. Nearly four years on the road is too much for anyone. They played a ridiculous amount of concerts to a ridiculous amount of people. They even visited some countries three times. But after the final date in Mexico the band went home and didn’t return until late 1992.
New Jersey was released in September 1988 and went straight to number 1 in the US where it stayed for four weeks selling 5 million copies. It also set a new record that’s yet to broken which is 5 top 10 singles from a hard rock album.
New Jersey was also the band’s first album to go to number 1 in the UK where it stayed for two weeks. The album has now sold 16 million copies worldwide. NJ proved SWW was no fluke.
The album itself consists of 12 songs and lasts just short of an hour. Once again Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora drafted in Desmond Child to help with a few songs as he did on SWW.
The album starts with three big stadium rock songs in the form of Lay Your Hands On Me where Jon asks “Are you ready, willing and able?” The party fuelled Bad Medicine and Born To Be My Baby a tale of two lovers financially struggling world but don’t need anything as they have each other “table for two on a TV tray it ain’ fancy babe but that’s ok, our time, our way.”
The album slows down for a second on track for the ballad Living In Sin. A song about two people who want to be together but their parents won’t allow it. The Video caused a stir on MTV and was cut in some states of America.
Blood On Blood follows and it’s a tail of friendship, honour and loyalty between best friends. JBJ takes us back to his youth with his blood brothers Danny & Bobby and tells us of losing their virginity to the same woman, buying drink with fake ID and becoming best friends. The songs best moment is when the music stops and Jon tells us “Now Bobby, he’s an uptown Lawyer, Danny is a Medicine man and me…I’m just the singer in a long haired Rock N’ Roll band… “
The pace starts again with the ferocious Homebound Train which is one of the heaviest songs the band have ever done.
From here on in the album has a cowboy feel to it. Wild Is The Wind, Ride Cowboy Ride and Stick To Your Guns could all have easily been used on the soundtrack to Young Guns. JBJ eventually wrote a whole album for Young Guns II after they wanted to take a few songs from New Jersey.
Wild Is The Wind tells of a man’s struggle to keep his lover happy. “I tried to make you happy, God knows I tried so hard to be…what you wanted me to be..” The song has a great line in “Maybe a better man would live and die for you, baby a better man would never say goodbye to you” and is a real album highlight.
Ride Cowboy Ride sounds like an old vinyl record that’s been stuck under the floorboard, dusted off and stuck on a broken gramophone. Its starts off with a ton of crackling and the singing can hardly be heard.
Its only just over 1 minute long but is a perfect way to proceed the song of the album in Stick To Your Guns which comes crashing in like a bulldozer. “So you want to be a Cowboy? Well you know it’s more than just a ride..” Jon sings before saying “Stick to your guns, ain’t nobody gonna hurt you baby, go for the trigger but only if you have too..”
The album slows down again with the “lighter in the air” ballad I’ll Be There For You and its probably the best ballad the band have done. Yes, even better than Always. Jon apologises to his lover by signing “I wasn’t there when you were happy and I wasn’t there when you down, didn’t mean to miss your birthday baby, I wish I’d seen you blow those candles out..”
99 In The Shade follows and is a feel good song. It mentions the two characters that Bon Jovi have referenced in nearly all their albums. Jon tells us “Somebody tells me even Tommy’s coming down tonight If Gina says it’s alright..”
All good things must come to an end and Love For Sale closes the album. It’s an acoustic live track recorded in a small bar when the band are drunk on tour. Jon drunkenly mumbles the words “Let’s just, let’s just say that the records done Ok?” Before Sambora gives a “Yeeehhoooo Love For Sale..”
It’s not often that an album has 12 songs all of which are shear perfection but somehow Bon Jovi managed it with New Jersey.
Kerrang! reviewed the album in 1988 and said “New Jersey is truly amazing journey from start to finish. Buckle up, set the volume to maximum and enjoy the ride”
I don’t think I could have put it any better.
Track listing:
Lay Your Hands On Me
Bad Medicine
Born To Be My Baby
Living In Sin
Blood On Blood
Homebound Train
Wild Is The Wind
Ride Cowboy Ride
Stick To Your Guns
Ill Be There For You
99 In The Shade
Love For Sale
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