Not Royalty

Look, it’s not like Jon Bongiovi (as he was formerly spelled) was born with a rock n roll silver spoon in his mouth. A regular New Jersey boy, his father, Jon senior had been in the marines before settling down to civilian life as a barber. Jon junior went to a regular high school. Rock n roll is nothing if not democratic – a little talent and a lot of hard work and ambition can take you a long way.

Starting Young

Fortunately, Jon had all of these attributes. Aged 13, he was already in a school band, Raze, first formed so that it could take part in a local talent contest. He played guitar and piano, and was already writing a few songs.

That carried on throughout his teen years – different bands and collaborations, plenty of gigs opening for better known local acts. But that was as far as it went – by now out of school, he was working as an assistant in a women’s shoe store as his main earner.

Gofer

But then came arguably the one moment of his career that could be put down to connections. Let’s forget the BS rumors about him being loosely related to Frank Sinatra that have swirled around over the years. No, this was quite a bit more mundane.

Jon’s cousin Tony was part owner of a local recording studio in New York called Power Station Studios. He offered Jon a job as an all-round gofer – sweeping the floor, fetching and carrying. But young Jon would have the chance to record some things himself in the studio when nobody else was using it. This he did, recording a few demos backed by studio musicians.

May the Force Be With You

And this had 2 major impacts on his career. First, he got to sing on his first professional release. Legendary disco producer, Meco was in the studio, recording a Christmas-themed Star Wars album. Or a Star Wars themed Christmas album. Yes, really. Anyway, Meco needed a singer for the snazzily titled ‘R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas’, and Jon was in for his first ever recording credit. 

Rock n Roll it ain’t, but Jon gets to appear with R2D2 and C3PO, as well as a kids’ choir in a heartwarming affair.

Breakthrough

Slightly more important, however, was impact #2, which was that Jon recorded a demo of ‘Runaway’, the song that was probably more influential than any other in launching his career. The demos were dutifully sent off to record companies without generating any interest, but that wasn’t the end of it. In 1983, Jon visited a local radio station, WAPP 103.5 The Apple, to sing a few jingles, but whilst he was there, the station persuaded him to agree (reluctantly, it must be said) to include ‘Runaway’ on a compilation album they were putting together to showcase local talent.

Here it is – terrible sound quality and all. It’s the same song as would appear on the ‘Bon Jovi’ debut album a little later, but in the demo, he’d just done it with some local session musicians. These were labelled The All Star Review, and consisted of Tim Pierce (guitar), Roy Bittan (keyboard), Frankie LaRocka (drums), Hugh McDonald (bass), and a couple of backing singers.

The Deal

As you can hear, this is somewhat removed from the stadium hair metal that would be their later trademark. The song got some airplay on radio stations in and around New York, and also led to higher profile gigs, which in turn got him a deal. Jon Bon Jovi signed to Mercury Records, and also to the (in-) famous rock manager Doc McGhee. (McGhee managed many legendary rock acts over the years, such as Motley Crue, Guns N Roses and KISS – hell raisers all round. He was also behind the Moscow Peace Festival, after which a Russian-vodka-addled Ozzy Osbourne tried to do in his wife. So looking after the fresh faced young Jon Bongiovi must have felt like a walk in the park for him).

The Band

Together, they started to put together the well-known original band lineup. An experienced rhythm section (Alec John Such and Tico Torres) and the 3 young guns leading – Jon, Richie Sambora on guitar and school-buddy David Bryan on keyboard. Bryan abandoned medical school to join the project, a decision he probably never lived to regret).

The Name

Then, they just needed a name. One of McGhee’s employees named Pam Maher came up with ‘Bon Jovi’, modelled on other famous rock bands named after their leaders, such as Van Halen. Nobody seems to have been blown away, but the name stuck. (The other leading contender for band name was ‘Jonny Electric’ so at least we all managed to avoid being saddled with that…)

The Songs

And that brings us to those early recordings, starting with debut album ‘Bon Jovi’ in 1984. Like most relatively unknown bands recording a debut, there wasn’t a great deal of time or money to play with. That, and the fact the band had only just got together means there’s not much to write home about as regards the song writing. There’s a whole heap of rock n roll cliches, formulaic stuff. Take this offering, ‘Breakout’ from the B-side, which is such a mass of cliché that it was inexplicably passed over as cheap filler by movie soundtrack editors at the time (as far as I know…).

Mind you, the same could be said for a lot of these songs. Here’s one of the first singles, ‘She Don’t know Me’, which was a rare inclusion not written by the band themselves in those early years. It’s saccharine to the max, and was presumably included only to be released as a single – though it still barely scraped into the top 50 in the US.

All the Bon Jovi-penned songs are better, including the re-recording on ‘Runaway’, this time by the full band.

Bon Jovi in the Raw

So no, it’s not the writing that stands out here, but more the feel of the thing. Here Bon Jovi sound like a young rock band, playing upbeat music but not taking anything for granted. The production has a raw edge compared to later material, which is so much the better. Here’s an experiment – next time you’re in your car on  carefree drive on an open road, stick ‘Runaway’ on the sound system. You’ll be tapping that finger on the steering wheel in a pleasant nostalgic haze – guaranteed.

Not to his taste

It must be said that Jon Bon Jovi himself didn’t care for the album that much. Here he is discussing it in 2007, over 20 years after release.

‘We weren’t a good band. We didn’t become a good band until the third record, but we had a drummer who could keep time, which you should never take for granted. But I did okay for a 22-year-old. I’d only been in a studio for three years total prior to that record and I didn’t know anything about comping a vocal – where you take a word or a line from one track and piece it together. I was thinking, My God, I’m so bad that they have to put my vocals together for me. The engineer was saying, Don’t fret, Jon: even Freddie Mercury and the greats have to comp a vocal.‘

Jon Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi strikes The Hawk as somewhat of a perfectionist / self critic when it comes to his own recordings, and maybe that’s why he prefers the production values and content of later records, But for The Hawk, it’s the other way round. Kerrang! Magazine gave the album a very good review at the time (though the same publication slated an early live show, labelling them as ‘Bon Jerk-Off.’)

Melting Point

What about album #2, ‘Fahrenheit 7800’? (This is supposedly the temperature at which rock melts – geddit?? – so it’s lucky that Americans still use the Fahrenheit scale to measure these things – ‘Celsius 4313’ wouldn’t have had quite the same ring.)

‘Fahrenheit 7800’ is probably The Hawk’s favorite Bon Jovi Album. It has one of the only Bon Jovi songs for which Tico Torres got a writing credit – ‘Secret Dreams’.

Or what about ‘Tokyo Road’ which sees them experimenting with some different writing ideas in the intro, and nods to their world domination ambitions at this still relatively early stage of their careers.

‘Only Lonely’ was one of the singles off the album, but is stratospherically superior to the ‘second’ single from their first album.

Best Vibe

But it’s a kinda similar vibe to the first album. Sure, they weren’t going to rake in Grammy nominations for song writing here, but they’ve cleaned up the production and improved the songs, all without losing that authentic early-days feel.

Not that Jon Bon Jovi was having any of it. Here he is on ‘Fahrenheit 7800’, also in 2007.

‘I always overlook the second album. Always have, always will. We had no time to make it and we didn’t know who we were. We did whatever producer Lance Quinn said. He was a brilliant guitarist and had made records with Talking Heads, so you listened.‘

Jon Bon Jovi

Or, more contemporaneously, saying this after ‘Slippery When Wet’ came out:

‘All of us were going through tough times on a personal level. And the strain told on the music we produced. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Lance Quinn wasn’t the man for us, and that added to the feeling that we were going about it badly. None of us want to live in that mental state ever again. We’ve put the record behind us, and moved on.‘

Jon Bon Jovi

Ouch. I guess you’ve got to be your own worst critic. And Bon Jovi did indeed move on. Next cab off the rank was indeed ‘Slippery When Wet’, which changed everything. No longer the band who could barely scrape together the price of a cup of coffee when they first met in Doc McGhee’s New York office in those days, the would now be the jet setters of hair metal.

All the best bits

But that doesn’t stop fans from looking at the early material favorably. And to show why, here’s probably the best song from that early-Jovi period, ‘In and Out of Love.’ The main single from ‘Fahrenheit 7800’, it showcases the best fusion of Bon Jovi styles. It kicks into gear early, gives a palm-muted main riff, has the seamless integration of the keyboards that you’d expect, and generally kicks ass, as much as any Bon Jovi number before or since. Here it is – as said at the start, it won’t convince any Bon Jovi haters to rethink, but if you still have a soft spot for this kind of 80s groove, it’s hard to beat.