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Rock Reviews: Over the Top

For all I know, Ann Powers is correct down to the last punctuation mark in her New York Times article Keeping the July Fourth Spirit Rolling, a review of a recent Bon Jovi concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. I’ve never been to a Bon Jovi concert, although I think I’ve seen one or two of his concerts broadcast on TV, and I haven’t been to a concert a Giants Stadium since Bruce Springsteen’s 1987 Tunnel of Love Tour. Still, let’s post a few quotes and consider them:

  • “This was music from a town called Hope, or New Hope at least, which is almost in New Jersey, given Bon Jovi’s allegiance to the heartland within dreaming distance of the Empire State Building, a model of which formed the centerpiece of its stage set.”

    Here we have a reference to Bill Clinton, who hails from Hope, Arkansas, and used a similar reference in his first presidential campaign. New Hope is in Pennsylvania, although just across the river from the Jersey border. Dreaming distance? Oh, what a romantic turn of phrase, as if native New Jerseyans (such as your weblogger himself) can only lust after this golden city but never find it for themselves.

  • “Romantic pain was lightened by a frolicsome beat and amusing lyrics, as in the raucous “Bad Medicine,” and life crises were clad in Western garb and made epic, as in the soaring “Blaze of Glory” and the solemnly grand “Wanted Dead or Alive.”

    Romantic pain, frolicsome beat, amusing lyrics, life crises clad in Western garb and made epic… Oh my god, can I just throw up on your copy of the newspaper? Is Jon Bon Jovi the distant love child of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Louis L’Amour?

  • “Bed of Roses” shared a soaring climax with “Blaze of Glory,” while the recent hit, “It’s My Life,” was not only a lyrical sequel to 1986’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” but also echoed the earlier song in its verse-chorus structure.”

    By shared a soaring climax and lyrical sequel, is the author implying the Jon is fresh out of ideas? And what’s with “echoed the earlier song in its verse-chorus structure?” Essentially every rock song written since before the blues and country morphed into Elvis, Buddy, and Bill Haley has used the verse-chorus structure. Some of the more imaginative musicians even throw in a bridge.

    One has to wonder if <a href="http://search.nytimes.com/plweb-cgi/fastweb?view=site&TemplateName=hitlist_MPoff.tmpl&dbname=unify&sorting=BYFIELD:-skey_pdate&numresults=10&operator=AND&simplesearch.x=10&simplesearch.y=10&query1=thedbs%3Dpast30days%26section%3DALL%26fields%3DALL%26thequery%3Dann%2520ADJ%2520powers&query2=sorting%3DBYFIELD:-skey_pdate&starthit=0&query8=from%20the%20past%2030%20days&query7=ann%20powers&query=(ann%20ADJ%20powers)%20AND%20(20010703Ms. Powers, as the Times’ own formal style would refer to her, has tongue firmly planted in cheek for this little doozy.