Category Archives: Classic Songs to Be Discovered

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Bon Jovi – We Got It Going On – Another classic song waiting to be discovered.

We Got It Going On

The best song on the 2007 album Lost Highway is We Got It Going On.  This song was written Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and country music hit songwriters, Kenny Alphin and John Rich.   It was produced by guitarist turned country music producer Dan Huff instead of John Shanks.  Dan is also the go to guy for country musicians if they want hit songs.

Is there anybody out there looking for a party? Yeah!!
Shake your money maker, baby smoke it if you got it.
We just wanna have some fun if you don’t wanna kiss this
Everybody raise your hands come on I need a witness.

The first thing you hear is the swampy delta blues intro riff with the drums building.  It’s sleazy and sexual.  This is another song written purely for the concert experience.  It’s got that famous talk box that Sambora first used to optimal effect in Livin On A Prayer.   Come to the show, have a party, be a witness to the spectacle.  Kiss did a similar concept with Psycho Circus which i covered in my review of their show.  If you don’t want to kiss someone’s backside, get down to the show and have some fun.   I dig the reference to Shake Your Money Maker.  It reminds me of Black Crowes.  I am sure that wasn’t Jovi’s intention.    

I had mixed feelings when I heard the Lost Highway album.  As a hard core fan, I more or less purchase the albums without sampling.  The output from the 80’s and Keep The Faith keep me locked in and I really appreciated the box set 100,000,000 Fans Cant Be Wrong.  On the first run through, We Got It Going On stood out. 

This is my view on this whole Lost Highway saga, Who Says You Cant Go Home from Have A Nice Day worked as a smash single because there wasn’t an intention there that the song would earn millions in sales.  It was a sleeper hit single.  So Jon being the business man that he is, decided to make a whole album of country inspired rock.  This is where there is an intention to profit from the sleeper hit Who Says You Can’t Go Home.   When intention gets involved, the music comes across as clichéd and forced.  We Got It Going On, is the sleeper on this album.  It is country rock blues with a pop twinge at its best. 

We Got It Goin’ On
We’ll be banging and singing just like the rolling stones
We’re gonna shake up your sole, we’re gonna rattle your bones
‘Cause We Got It Goin’ On.
Ah ha ha. Ah ha ha. Yeah Yeah. Ah ha.

It’s a nice touch paying homage to the Rolling Stones.  I have been to concerts where I have walked out, all sore and stiff from the sound hitting the body.  I never got that from a Jovi concert, however I can relate to the lyric.  What is a concert song without the sing a long Ah ha ha?  Again this reminds me of Kiss’s Hide Your Heart.  The bit that comes in after the chorus.

You got a ticket to kick it, I wanna hear you scream now.
‘Cause tonight you got the right to let your hair down.
Everybody’s getting down, we’re getting down to business
Insane, freak train, you don’t wanna miss this.

They did a similar style song in One Wild Night from the Crush album.  It’s all about letting your hair down and leaving your worries and suburban life at the door.

Nikki Sixx sums it up with the lyrics from Primal Scream.
Primal scream & shout, Let that mother out
You just gotta say “hey”
Primal scream & shout, Oooh tear it out
You just gotta say

This is another song that deserves more rounds on a Jovi set list.  I saw that it ended up on the live at Madison Square Garden DVD and it worked well as a live song. 

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Brokenpromisedland – A classic Bon Jovi song waiting to be discovered

Brokenpromisedland

The best song on the 2009 album The Circle is Brokenpromisedland.  This song was written by Bon Jovi, Sambora, John Shanks and Desmond Child.  Actually John Shanks also had a co-write with Bon Jovi and Sambora for This Is Love, This is Life. 

Angels falling from the sky
Imagine that imagine that
Nobody getting out of here alive
No turning back no turning back
Who’s going to bail out all our shattered dreams
And scrape some truth off of these city streets
No time for praying get up off your knees

The GFC left a lot of people shattered and broken.  As an artist, there was plenty of subject matter there for songs.  What was done by the corrupt powers that be, has been done.  We the people need to scrape ourselves back off the floor and start again.

Most of the songs on The Circle album sounded forced to me, except for this song.  It was the only one that felt natural.  The other songs could have been hits if they were sung by a band that lived through the GFC from the other side of the tracks.  Songs like Work for The Working Man and We Weren’t Born To Follow are good songs but it didn’t sound right coming from Jon Bon Jovi, who charges a really high premium to be a JBJBackstage member, who charges really high prices on meet and greets and section A concert tickets and does anyone remember that whole debacle with Skid Row back in the late eighties.   This is the one where Skid Row signed with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora back when the Skid’s were just starting out.  Essentially, Bon Jovi and Sambora ended up owning Skid Row’s publishing rights.  This was no biggie at the time of the contract being signed, but then when the Skid Row album went five times platinum, it was.  Sambora eventually gave his share of the deal back to Skid Row but Bon Jovi, didn’t.

Basically if mp3’s and Napster didn’t change the way music is consumed, Bon Jovi wouldn’t have done these large scale world tours ever again.  During a 10 year period between 1994 and 2004, Bon Jovi didn’t even do a proper tour of Australia at all.  Australian Bon Jovi fans are one of the largest and most loyal fan bases the band has and they ignored Australia during this period, playing special one off shows for certain festivals and just in one state.  It’s like playing one show in New York and expecting LA people to attend it.

They were content on the income coming in from record / CD sales, publishing and radio royalties.  Well that income has dried up and they need to earn their money the old fashion way, which means they have to hit the road.  Anyway I digress.    Back to Brokenpromisedland.

No one bailed us out during this period.  The working man got nothing except pain.  A whole lotta pain.

There’s hope I know
Out on that lonely road
Cause home is where you are and where I am
Breathe in breathe out
There’s only now
And all I got I’m holding in my hands
We’re breaking out of brokenpromisedland

We live, we work, we get paid, we have large houses on a poor man’s wage.  When all that goes to hell, all that we have left is what we hold in our hands.  It could be our kids, a suitcase, a loved one or some memories of what we could salvage.  It becomes our most cherished possession.

Let’s close our eyes and just disappear
Slip through the cracks no looking back
We’ll get a million miles away from here
And let the past just fade to black
So what you learn to live with your regrets
No need to fear what hasn’t happened yet
Life will get you but you can’t forget

Australia wasn’t that bad during the GFC.  Our banks remained stable and our jobs remained.  But what it did do was make us realise that we need to change.  We needed to re-evaluate what is important to us.  If we couldn’t afford the large house, down size it.  It’s okay to do so.  It made us realise that we are not beholden to people’s judgements.  We needed to do what we needed to do and what benefited us so that we don’t end up on our arse.

How many nights between 2008 and 2009 I just wished I was at any other place except the place I was at.  I always wanted to live my life with no ‘what if’s’ however a lot of what if’s came into my life during this period.  It is not something I regret, I have learned to live with the choices I made based on the information I had at that time.

Every time I hear Brokenpromisedland, all those emotions from 2008 to 2009 come back to me and I smile.  I made it through to the other side and I can still smile.  During that time I had a wife, a 4 year old, a 3 year old and a shell of a home.  I still have my wife, my 4 year old is now turning 8, my 3 year old is now turning 7, my 1 year old will be turning 2 and the shell of a home is my family home.  I broke out of the broken promised land and made my own promised land, so far removed from what the establishments want.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Bon Jovi – This Is Love, This Is Life – A classic song waiting to be discovered

This Is Love, This is Life

When I mention Bon Jovi to someone these are the answers I get back from people?

  1. They haven’t written anything good since New Jersey.
  2. They don’t care about their fans at all, it’s all about money.
  3. They don’t even know who their fans are anymore.
  4. Fake and a bunch of posers.
  5. The best band ever.
  6. They wrote the soundtrack of the eighties.

They are one of those bands that polarise people.  Guys hate to admit that they like them.

The first point is interesting.  To me Bon Jovi have written a lot of good songs since New Jersey and this is the reason for this post.

I already covered That’s The Water Made Me from What About Now in a previous post.

The next song I want to get out there is from their 2010 Greatest Hits Album.  The problem with this song is that it is on Disc 2 of the Ultimate Edition and it is the second last song.   For those who don’t know, say hello to THIS IS LOVE, THIS IS LIFE.

YouTube – This Is Love, This Is Life

These days what’s left of me ain’t no Prince Charming
And my Cinderella feels like she stayed at the dance too long
We ain’t got much but what we got is all that matters
We’re pickin’ up the pieces, tryin’ to put ‘em back where they belong

It’s nothing original, and you can say that is another Livin On A Prayer, but that is what works for this song.  Coming out post GFC, this is the song they should have had on Circle.  This is the one that mattered.  A lot of people didn’t have much left post GFC.  Many people where picking up the pieces again and trying to rebuild their lives.   Everybody was affected by the GFC.  It also has a talk box like Living On A Prayer and It’s My Life.  Maybe that is why they decided to bury the song in a Greatest Hits Ultimate Edition.  Lucky for them I was a fan and I found it.  Now I want to bring it to the masses.  I checked my IPod, and this song has been played by my family 4203 times since October 2010.  Do the math on that one?  It’s in constant rotation at my place.

Ohh, it’s gonna be alright
This is love, this is life
When times get tough we’re still worth the fight
This is love, this is life
The road here’s paved with the broken hearted
We gotta finish what we started
Ohhh, better hold on tight
This is love, this is life

The chords in the chorus are the same as Living On A Prayer and It’s My Life, just in a different key.  This is what people wanted to hear post GFC.  This is what they wanted their heroes in music to tell them.  It’s going to be alright.  We will tough it out.  We will keep the fight alive and we will rebuild what we started.

These days it seems like there’s three sides to every story
There’s yours, mine, lately there’s the cold hard truth
Who cares who’s wrong or right when we turn out the lights?
We’ll find forgiveness when we’re in each other’s arms tonight
It ain’t pretty but somehow we always make it through

The world was going through a dark period and people where turning on each other.  We had all become consumed with money and possessions.  I can’t even recall how many arguments my wife and I had over money.  Plus we were building a house during the GFC and even though we had stable and secure jobs with great incomes the banks where tightening their belts, which meant more credit cards and personal loans were taken out to get the project finished.   How ridiculous was that?  The banks wouldn’t fund me a home loan, but they had no troubles giving me credit cards and personal loans.  What a corrupt system?  It wasn’t pretty but we made it through.

I read somewhere that the bonus tracks on the Greatest Hits album where written during The Circle writing session.  Jon Bon Jovi has a history of making incorrect songs selections for albums, and this is another one.  This song should have been the leadoff single from The Circle.  Let’s show Bon Jovi that this song still matters and bring it to the masses.   They only played it once live.  It needs to be a staple of the set list.  It is a Bon Jovi classic waiting to be discovered.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Seperate Ways (Worlds Apart) = Message of Love

This is one of my favourite  Journey song.  They even cloned the chorus and called this new song Message of Love (that was co-written with hit maestro John Bettis) on the 1996 reunion album Trial By Fire.  It was probably the reason why the album went platinum.

This song came back into my life, because I used the Journey version to put my little guy to bed.  He has now moved on to Coheed and Cambria and Stone Sour for sleeping music, which also works well with me.

And then I just kept on hearing this song covered by other bands on hard rock / metal releases, most recently Asking Alexandria and the metal band DeverauX.

It’s the whole package at the start that hooks you, the keyboard intro, with the heavy guitar and drum patterns underneath it.  And then you have the six syllable staccato chorus melody.  Even Message of Love is identical.

Someday love will find you  = Baby can you hear me (from Message of Love)
Break those chains that bind you = Can you hear me callin’ (from Message of Love)
One night will remind you =  Baby can you hear my (from Message of Love)
How we touched  and went our separate ways = Message of Love (from Message of Love)

If he ever hurts you = Baby can you hear me (from Message of Love)
True love won’t desert you = Can you hear me callin’ (from Message of Love)
You know I still love you =  Baby can you hear my (from Message of Love)
Though we touched  and went our separate ways = Message of Love (from Message of Love)

Check em out and enjoy.

Seperate Ways – You Tube

Message of Love – You Tube

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Be Somebody

Be Somebody

What a song.  I didn’t hear this song until a few weeks ago (Jan 2013) and the album it was on ‘The End Is Where We Begin’ was released on April 17, 2012.

That is how it is these days.  It’s an information overload society we live in.  The beauty of the internet is that nothing goes away.  This song deserves more attention.   I came across this song from a download I hadn’t listened to, and after I heard the whole album, I purchased it on Amazon.  It was that good; I wanted to have it in my collection.

“We all wanna be somebody; we just need a taste of who we are
We all wanna be somebody, we’re willing to go but not that far”

Aint that the truth.  We all want to be someday, but we are not willing to take it all the way.  That is the majority of people these days.   Even in my case, I wanted to make a living from music, but I also wanted to have a house, a family, a car and to have all of those, I needed a steady income.  So I became a slave.  Doing the grind.  My first job I was paid $160 a week and $100 went on petrol getting there and back, as it was 75 minutes drive from where I lived.

You can’t say that Thousand Foot Krutch wasn’t willing to take it all the way.  I did a search on them and the Wikipedia page shows that the band has been going since 1997 and prior to that the singer Trevor McNevan was in another band from 1995.  During that period 6 albums have been released from TFK and 4 from his side project FM Static.   Remember the golden rule, content is king.  Keep pumping it out, keep the fans satiated.

All up that is 17 years of work put in to BE SOMEBODY.

I wonder why bands are classed as Christian Rock bands or Christian metal bands.  Music is music, rock is rock, metal is metal.  The themes in the lyrics are irrelevant to me.  When I first heard the song, my initial view is that the lyrics where about music and how important music is to him, then I thought it was about someone that is very important.  I did come across an article in where Trevor states it’s about the Holy Spirit and how it speaks to him and how he feels about it.

“When I can only see the floor, you made my window a door
So when they say they don’t believe, I hope that they see you and me”

You know the feeling when your head is down, nothing seems to be going right and you just need that someone, a song, a friend, a lover, a parent to show you a different door that you can open.   I remember growing up and relating to We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock from Twisted Sister.  It was the music that opened doors for me.  They told me what I needed to know in a way no one else could.

“After all the lights go down, I’m just the words you are the sound
A strange type of chemistry, how you’ve become a part of me”

Yep, let the music play as we go to sleep.   Let it take you to the imagined place in your mind. That is the chemistry going on between the ears.   And then the chorus kicks in…

“We all wanna be somebody; we just need a taste of who we are
We all wanna be somebody, we’re willing to go but not that far”

How far are we willing to go to achieve our dreams, our passions, and our desires?  Do we go into things head first and with no plan b or do we go into it with a strategy and a fall back?   How many hours are we prepared to put into our art?  I could have done things differently, I could have made different choices, however one thing I didn’t do is go all the way.  I became safe in getting the fortnightly wage, I became scared to change, just in case I lost the possessions I had.  I became another link in the chain and I forget what I was.  I need to get that taste back.

“And we’re all see through, just like glass
And we can shatter just as fast
That light’s been burned out for a while; I still see it every time I pass
It was lost in the coldness of my mind, behind a box of reasons why”

There it is.  Our mortality.  We can hide behind names; make up, clothes and hairstyles.  We can build something that takes forever.  All it takes is one second to see it all disappear.  We need to be great every day, bullshit doesn’t cut it.  Be see through, it’s okay.

Musically the song is pretty easy, moving from C to Em in the verses and C to D to Em to G in the Chorus.

I did some Googling on TFK and saw that their latest album was done via Kickstarter and released through Tunecore.   The band took control of their career again, after 8 years on a label.

Apart from Be Somebody the album has a lot of good songs, like Fly on a Wall, War of Change, Light up the Sky, The End Is Where We Begin, Courtesy Call and Let the Sparks Fly.

Give the song a listen, it deserves your attention.  Don’t let the Christian moniker dissuade you from experiencing it.

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