Hair Metal Bands: Living On A Prayer with Girls,Girls,Girls who want Nothing But A Good Time

[ctlady]

I hope this isn't redundant of the 80's page, but this is more focused on those awesome head-banging bands the 80's gave birth to.  Really been nostaglic on this lately.

Let's face it - these guys owned more makeup than your eccentric aunt, sported sky-high perms, wore skin-tight spandex, sequined scarves and lace gloves, yet could walk into a bar, kick your ass and steal your girlfriend/wife.

I always found Poison to be the pretties and best made-up - especially on the cover of Look What The Cat Dragged In.  CC DeVille's guitar playing was roaring wicked (I've always a thing more for guitar/bass guys than lead singers - Richie Sambora, Gary Richrath, Neal Schon, Rick Savage, Nikki Sixx, Slash....)

Memories, anyone?  Concerts?  Backstage?  Groupie stories??

Edited August 11, 2021 by ctlady
wrong word

[Danny Franks]

I came here looking for a subject like this, as I just heard Livin' On a Prayer on the radio. Not a remarkable thing, obviously, because it's a song that is as ubiquitous as any 80s hair-metal anthem. But, for some reason, this time it sent me on a nostalgia trip back to my discovery of Bon Jovi in the 90s.

The upshot is this - Those were four back-to-back killer albums, released between 1986 and 1995 - Slippery When Wet, New Jersey, Keep the Faith and These Days are all absolutely packed with great songs that make me feel like a teenager again. So many seriously good fist-pumping anthems, and just as many great angst-ridden, regretful ballads.

If anyone is only familiar with the big singles, I really recommend checking out album tracks like Wild in the Streets, Blood on Blood, I Want You, Something to Believe In and Hearts Breaking Even. I don't care how uncool they might be considered today, their music hits all the right spots for me.

 

[WendyCR72]

3 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

I Want You

Yeah, this was a great later ballad by Bon Jovi. Shocked it wasn't a hit. I remember when they first came on the scene in 1984 (!). I was 11/12. "Runaway" kicked it all off. Their second album, 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit, had some good songs, too.

I recommend "Only Lonely" and "Silent Night" (no, not the Christmas song!) off that album.

To think Bon Jovi, as benign as they are now, once had the video for "Living In Sin" banned for a time on MTV!

[Bastet]

33 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

To think Bon Jovi, as benign as they are now, once had the video for "Living In Sin" banned for a time on MTV!

I loved that song as a high school kid, and, truth be told, I just re-watched the video and enjoyed every second of it once again.  I love the juxtaposition of the "kids" having a healthy sexual relationship while the parents have separate twin beds within the same room (separate bedrooms, fine - people snore, toss & turn, etc. and sex and sleeping are two very different activities with very different needs - but the twin beds in the same room read as people who think sex is for procreation, so when that's done it's done, and anything else is "dirty").

I love even more the message at the end, that if the parents had just gotten over themselves and acknowledged sex is a part of life - rather than pretending it magically would have been fine if all other circumstances were the same but the "kids" had stupidly signed on the dotted line for marriage but, because they're dating instead, it's a horror and they must be forbidden from ever seeing each other - no one would have run off together.  Way to screw up your daughter's life far more than you thought she was doing by, gasp, fucking her age-appropriate boyfriend.

Goodness.  I didn't even go through this myself, yet I'm somehow still fired up about it.  Go ahead, Bon Jovi.

[ctlady]

16 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

Blood on Blood,

Yes!  I dug this song on New Jersey (which, IMO, was so much more tighter and mature than SWW)  Jon just didn't write songs, he told stories in them

12 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Living In Sin

Same feeling about this one

My intro into hair metal was probably one of the very first videos MTV played and that was Def Leppard's Bringing On The Heartbreak  The video of that live performance (along with High N Dry and Let It Go) rocked so freakin' hard.  They had so much energy on stage.  Another trip down memory lane video was Motley Crue's Wild Side because......Tommy Lee + rotating drum kit = mind blown at the time

[Danny Franks]

1 hour ago, ctlady said:

Yes!  I dug this song on New Jersey (which, IMO, was so much more tighter and mature than SWW)  Jon just didn't write songs, he told stories in them

That's very true. So many of his songs are about characters down on their luck, getting over love and loss and, even in the songs where he's the protagonist, he's telling a story that has a clear narrative. He's similar to Bruce Springsteen in that respect, both of them with songs full of Tommys and Marys and Ginas and Terrys who have interesting stories that need to be told.

I'm not sure that was particularly common in the hair metal bands of the 80s. Most of them seemed to be very focused on themselves and the songs reflected that, but Bon Jovi often had bigger things on their minds.

[Tachi Rocinante]

There were many musicians and singers in the 80s metal scene that were really talented, but it got lost in the silly lyrics and the "look".

Bands like Queensryche (from Seattle) were able to shed the look after a time and get noted for their intelligent lyrics. These two songs are a part of the best Unplugged performances you'll ever see:

 

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]