Bon Jovi's #1! (and other random bits)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families, and if you were brave enough to engage in Black Friday battle, I hope you were successful. Now begins my favorite time of year! (But also the absolute busiest...sigh)

In case you hadn't heard, our boys made the #1 spot on VH1's Top 20 video countdown this week with 'We Weren't Born To Follow'!! YEAH! That just shows the incredible weight we fans have, because it wasn't a particularly creative video. ;) (Just sayin'!)

Anyhoo, I know I promised a review for The Circle this past week, and I PROMISE I'm going to have it soon...once I get two minutes to myself. I swear, being in college is quite literally the most insane thing I've ever done. I can't even remember a time in my life when I've been busier - and I know it's just going to get worse!

So as a little breather for all of us (because holiday time means I'm not the only one running around like a chicken with its head cut off!), here's one of my favorite YT vids of the guys. It's sure to bring a smile to your face:

(Oh, and if you missed my last post about Richie's Sirius Pulse DJ segment, and you want the Circle tracks with his commentary, just lemme know. ;))

WWBTF Music Video!

It's up at http://www.bonjovi.com/

I. LOVE. IT. It's sooo Bon Jovi - pureblood rockstars meets real life and good music. OMG I love this band so incredibly much, I can't believe it.

This definitely brought a smile to my face and - as corny as this is - tears to my eyes. :)

ENJOY!

Richie's solo in WWBTF -- fixed.

(Thanks for the heads up on this, Hath!)

Apparently the band - or at least Richie - DOES listen to us. Once in awhile.

I'm sure you've noticed - or at least heard others talking about - the lackluster solo in 'We Weren't Born To Follow', right? Jon screams "guitar!" and then Richie seems to timidly approach the spotlight and flick the strings in a short, simple, overly safe little pattern. And fans are left going...uh...wait just a minute!

Well, Mr. Sambora spoke with MusicRadar about the solo and its response. Here's what he had to say:

"When I recorded the solo to that song, I played a very melodic, kind of Beatles-esque break. That was the mood I was in. As soon as the song got leaked to radio, people went crazy, sending e-mails and Twittering and everything: 'We love the song, but what's with that solo? We want a rippin', burnin' Richie Sambora solo.

"So I said to Jon, 'Hey, do you want me to change it? We got time. And John was like, 'Sure. Go lay down another solo and we'll drop it in the song on the album.' So that's what I did - I cut it yesterday, in fact. It's a monster."

But does the guitarist mind having fans, in effect, 'produce' part of a song? "Nah!" he says, with a laugh. "When I played sessions, it was all about serving the song. Sometimes you have to test things out and see what works. I'm totally cool about the whole thing. And I guarantee that when people hear the new solo, they'll be stoked. Ask and you shall receive."

I am VERY happy to hear this -- I have said since the first time I heard the song that it was severely lacking in Richie talent. It's a fantastic anthem, but damn it, throw in some rippin' guitar and it's naturally 10x better.

I'm going to hold you to that guarantee, though, Rich - I better be 'stoked'!! ;)

MLB Season Premieres with JOVI on Oct. 7th

**EDIT: VIDEO INCLUDED**

Don't know who's seen this, but it's my duty as a Jovi fan to pass it on. ;)

It looks like Bon Jovi's new song 'We Weren't Born To Follow' will be the theme for this Major League Baseball season. The promo commercial will air on TBS starting October 7, 2009.

Guess them baseball players love their town AND encourage individuality. LOL

2009 TBS MLB Open- Bon Jovi from Turner Sports on Vimeo.

I'm working on ripping the video to my skydrive, but I'm sure someone else will beat me to it -- and I would love if they share! :)

(One thing I do want to know about the video though, is...where's the rest of the band????)

Another cover...?

I found this floating around out there in cyberspace...the apparent single cover art for 'We Weren't Born To Follow'. All this speculation is revving up my impatience and anxiety about tenfold, so boys, if you're reading...hurry up, will ya?!

LOL

New single artwork + Richie's take on the album...

Backstage just posted the artwork for the 'Follow' single - vedy interesting, I must say. It's got that retro, back-in-action feel to it - and while I love that type of pose Jon and Richie get into onstage a lot, where's the rest of the band?!



Also, Queenie just posted a segment from an interview Richie did with Rolling Stone, which I also found interesting. I love how he describes the new album as "fresh reinvention", and he says himself that they went back to their roots. He also says it might not be called The Circle, after all...but then he also said they were still mixing the album, which makes the interview sound like it was written awhile ago.

So who knows. Enjoy anyway.

From Rolling Stone:

Bon Jovi’s last album, 2007’s Lost Highway, saw the longtime Jersey tunesmiths veer off into Nashville territory. And while the album was a sizable hit with their fanbase, on the group’s forthcoming album, guitarist Richie Sambora promises a return to the group’s roots. “It’s back to rock & roll for us, man,” Sambora tells Rolling Stone. “Jon and I had a wonderful time making it. Very proud of it — just getting down to mixing it right now. We hit a very prolific period in our songwriting.” Sambora reveals the band was considering churning out a greatest-hits album, but reports, “We started having so much fun making this record, that we decided we would do a studio album first. It sounds fresh — I think we reinvented ourselves again.”

The album will be out in November, and RS can report the title currently floating around cyberspace is not correct. While he couldn’t reveal the actual album name, Sambora did muse on the band’s evolution since going a bit country on their last LP: “I think what happened is the fact that we made the kind of Nashville-influenced record, and it created this vacuum now for a big rock record from us. There’s a continued evolution… it doesn’t sound like any other previous record. Everybody that we’ve been playing it for has been real turned on by it, and we’re certainly happy with how it turned out.”

Rest easy longtime fans, Sambora promises that the disc is unmistakably Bon Jovi. “There’s going to be some big choruses on there. It sounds like Bon Jovi, but it sounds fresh. We experimented with a lot of new sounds and had a really good time working with [producer] John Shanks, who is also a really good guitar player, so he and I did a lot of ‘weaseling’ with the guitar sounds. There are a lot of really good guitar sounds and new kind atmospheres on the new Bon Jovi record, that I think makes it really modern. I think people are going to dig it, man. And it rocks hard.”

And will Bon Jovi be hitting the road in support of studio album number 11? “Next year. 2010, probably spring time we’ll get going. And we’re going to go for a long time. It’s going to be a big one.”

WWBTF Lyrics...

I couldn't find any publicly released lyrics online yet, so I wrote them out myself. I cannot for the life of me figure out that one word in the opening lyric, though, does anyone know it?!

EDIT: Someone suggested "the man who mines for miracles". Does that sound right?

And of course, if I made a mistake ( very likely), feel free to correct me.

Enjoy!

We Weren't Born To Follow

This one goes out to the man who mines for miracles

This one goes out to the ones in need

This one goes out to the sinner and the cynical

This ain't about no apology

This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry

This road was paved by the winds of change

Walking beside the guilty and the innocent

How will you raise your hand when they call your name?

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow

Come on and get up off your knees

When life is a bitter pill to swallow

You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

And that your saints and sinners bleed

We weren't born to follow

You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

This one's about anyone who does it differently

This one's about the one who cusses and spits

This ain't about our livin' in a fantasy

This ain't about givin' up or givin' in

Yeah, yeah, yeah

We weren't born to follow

Come on and get up off your knees

When life is a bitter pill to swallow

You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

And that your saints and sinners bleed

We weren't born to follow

You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

(guitar solo)

We weren't born to follow

Come on and get up off your knees

When life is a bitter pill to swallow

You gotta hold on to what you believe

Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

And that your saints and sinners bleed

We weren't born to follow

You gotta stand up for what you believe

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

Let me hear you say yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah

We weren't born to follow - oh yeah

We weren't born to follow - oh yeah

And so it begins!! "We Weren't Born To Follow" hits airwaves...

...and sends my poor bank account into a panicked hyperventilation because it is so poorly lacking tour funds.

The rumors have flown all week, and Obie O'Brien finally "confirmed" a few days ago that Bon Jovi's 11th studio album - The Circle - is due out November 10th. Tour dates are to follow in the next two weeks apparently, and the new single, "We Weren't Born To Follow" has already surfaced in American radio waves.

Guess who hasn't confirmed one iota of this, though? And guess who, once again, has been royally screwed out of $50? Yeah. Don't even ask me my thoughts on the whole FC thing. My response won't be pretty.

However, a ton of Backstagers tuned into an Arizona radio station earlier this afternoon to hear the new single, and even though I missed it, my wonderful Jovi friends had my back.

THANK YOU to the ever-lovely Rike for sending this beauty along my way -- I am sharing it all with you and fulfilling my part in this Jovi "circle". (Sorry, I had to...)



I personally LOVE it. It's a fantastic concert song, it negates all my fears about another country flavored album (though I really did like Lost Highway in its own way) and on top of it, brings back our good ol' BON JOVI. New Jersey style. Someone said it reminded them of "Born To Be My Baby" - and GOD I love that. I feel like I'm breathing in fresh air - a good, solid, LOUD rock album is just what we want and need, and by Jovi, I think we've got it!!

What do YOU think?!