Customer Reviews

100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Made in USA in 2004, Serial# B0003543-00, Playing Time 224:03

I must admit from the very beginning that I'm not an un-conditional BON JOVI fan... There are songs I found extremely interesting (for example, "Raise Your Hands"), while others have a soporific effect (for example, "Wanted Dead Or Alive"). So I wouldn't say BON JOVI is the "best band in the world" (I actually find those types of remarks nauseating...)

I'm also not particularly fond of box sets, especially since fans (and/or myself) have the bulk of the material anyway! One must typically spend some hard-earned dollars for 2 or 3 "leftover" tracks of average interest/quality.

Lo and behold, this BON JOVI boxset is the HOLY GRAIL of boxsets; I take back everything I ever said about box sets: this one is THE exception to the rule!!! Putting aside the fact that the DVD is quite original and interesting (and about an hour long!), ALMOST every track here is previously unreleased. Unpolished demos, you say? NOT! Many (and I mean most) are of album production quality, and VERY enjoyable.

Though I was worried at first (I knew this was NOT a 'greatest hits' type boxset), I thought the material would be weak (my subconscious was hearing someone scraping the bottom of a barrel...)

To anyone looking for a Christmas present to a BON JOVI fan, this is IT.

This set will hopefully "raise the bar" to any other band thinking about releasing a boxset; this one is NOT intended to simply cash-in on previously released stuff: it's almost 4 hours of full compositions, like buying 4 new albums!!!

A MUST BUY.

JBJ himself has repeatedly claimed he wouldn't make a good A&R man, as "Livin' on a Prayer" almost didn't make Slippery. But 9 times out of 10, his conservative "playing it safe" attitude HAS backfired when it has come to picking the tracks for the official albums. A prime example is the pair of tracks "Bitter Wine" and "All I Want Is Everything" that didn't make the U.S. release of "These Days", but yet were arguably the best songs from those sessions!!!

Just dive into this box and discover the REAL Bon Jovi. I've always considered myself one of their greatest fans, long before the idea of rummaging through the song vault was in the works. So don't get me wrong, almost all of their album material IS strong. But the band has long been too preoccupied with generating a "hit," and finally, for those of us who knew they had it in them all along, their true talents shine through like never before. Better musicianship. More emotion. Less formulaec (usually, as "The Radio Saved My Life Tonight" is another example of Richie's continued struggle with underplaying). For anyone who has ever "lost" the faith with this band, it has been a long time, but do them a favor and give them another shot - raise your glass to the core talents of each member and celebrate, throughout this multi-disc masterpiece, the release that we always knew they had in them. Good quality rock music. Amen.

Apparently "Fruit Loop", the first reviewer of this product, knows nothing about this box set and has definitely not listened to it. This is not a "best-of" set. Your old favorites are not there. In fact, none of the songs "Fruit Loop" listed are even on the box set (other than a rare demo version of Living on a Prayer included as a hidden track)! Why review something you do not know about?

Anyway, this box set contains 50 rare and unreleased songs. 38 of them have never been available anywhere before. The other 12 are rare b-sides or bonus tracks from other countries. The songs are from the 80's all the way through today. I think this is a great concept for a box set, rather than just giving the fans material that they already own. Leave it to Bon Jovi to be innovative and give the fans what they want.

To the other reviewers out there, please do not review products that you haven't taken the time to find out about, much less have actually seen or heard.

Bon Jovi. The mear mention of the name brings on thoughts of catchy pop rock and big hair. Those were the days. But in all reality, Bon Jovi's "Days" have yet to end.

Since entering the major leagues of music in 1984, Bon Jovi (the band...not JUST the man) have actually in truth only released 9 studio albums. They have other releases though that include Live albums, Greatest Hit Compilations as well as solo efforts (Jon, Richie, and David all have solo efforts) and such projects as "This left Just Feels Right". But the albums in and of themselves do not tell the full "Bon Jovi" story.

So marking the official announcement that they have sold 100,000,000 records...which by my standards means a LOT of records, Bon Jovi has released a loaded down box set entitled "100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong". The set spans 5 total discs. 4 Music CD's and 1 DVD that is over an hour in length.

The music included on the CD's is not the hits that put Bon Jovi where they are today. No. There are over 40 never before released tracks as well as 10 rarities included on this set. Apparantly this isn't even all of their unheard stuff as they even selected these songs carefully. Bon Jovi has a vault that would rival that of Tupac as far as unreleased stuff goes. The set spans Bon Jovi's entire career. The songs were not cut from the albums due to the fact that they are not good songs. They were all cut for alot of reasons. Either they are similar to another song in style OR they just didn't fit with the overall flow of the album. Alot of songs on this set really make you wonder why they were cut.

Disc one includes such songs as "Why Aren't You Dead" which would have gave "Bad Medicine" a run for it's money. Disc one also includes the original version of "Someday I'll be Saturday Night" which blows the song they actually released out of the water in my opinion.

Moving onto Disc 2 you get the power ballads "Maybe Someday" and "Every Beat of my Heart". Trust me...this is Bon Jovi...there are many more Power Ballads over the 4 Discs. Good stuff.

Disc Three includes the highly sought after "Edge of a Broken Heart" which was a song cut from the "Slippery When Wet" album. Lots of fans have wanted this song for years. It was included in a movie called "Disorderlies" (staring 80's rappers The Fat Boys...hehe. I actually love this movie) years ago and was never released. Bon Jovi goes on record on the DVD and says he has no idea why he cut the song and apologizes. He also admits that he wanted to cut "Living on a Prayer" from the album

Disc 4 contains two versions of a song "Love Ain't Nothing but a Four Letter Word" and both versions are very different. The set really gives you a good glimpse into a thorough song writing process. You get to see how different concepts on different songs really come into play.

The DVD is really awesome. It has interviews with the band where they explain some of the songs on the album as well as what period the songs come from as well as why they left the songs off each album. It also included some very neat footage of Bon Jovi behind the scenes over the years. Interesting note from the DVD: Jon Bon Jovi is speaking of the album "Slippery When Wet" and the album title itself. He speaks of what the original plan for the title was and it really shocked me. He was looking for something that was really different and catchy and nearly ripped off the name of a little known band (at the time..lol) he had saw playing one night at a bar. The band....Guns N Roses. So "Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet" was ALMOST called "Bon Jovi: Guns N Roses" Interesting.

FINAL ANALYSIS: I don't think I would recommend this set to anyone who isn't a fan of Bon Jovi. You pretty much HAVE to be one to appreciate this set. If you are a fan...please...get it. You will be anything BUT disappointed. It's excellent. No bones about it. You pretty much get what you missed on the previous albums. Side note...new Bon Jovi album coming in 05. They talk about it on the DVD that comes with this set. I heard them perform a new song from it called "Have a Nice Day" and we have alot to look forward to. Great song.

LETTER GRADE: A+

First of all, I'd give this 100 stars if Amazon would let me. I can't express how much I love this box set.

I had high hopes when I heard about this box set. I was worried that this would just contain a bunch of "reject songs" with no substance. Boy, was I wrong.

Whenever I buy a CD, I make myself listen to it 3 times before forming any hard opinions. Most people won't "love" any song the very first time you hear it. It usual takes a few listens which is why I live by my 3-play rule. I'm halfway through my 3rd listening right now, and I really can't find anything negative to write. I may not love every song on this box set, but there are some really, really great ones. Even my less favorite songs aren't really that bad. This set is a unique and interesting journey that includes tunes from the genesis of the band to the present.

Instead of naming my favorite songs, all I can do is highly recommend this set for any Bon Jovi fan. I'm sure everyone will have his/her own favorites. With all of this new (to the public, at least) material, there is something on this set forr everyone.

Todd K

P.S. Richie Sambora is a guitar GOD!!

This box set is any real Bon Jovi fan's dream come true! It drives home just how talented these guys really are. Is every song on the set a winner? No, but a lot of them could easily have been included on any CD, and in fact, I would have liked to have seen some of these songs rather than some of the ones they DID put on the CD's. ("Fear" from Keep the Faith and "I Got the Girl" from Crush come to mind...)

I absolutely LOVE the first CD...I think I've listened to it almost continuously for two weeks straight. I love "The Radio Saved My Life Tonight", "Miss Fourth of July", "Open All Night" (one that I liked better than the song of the same name on Bounce) and I can't stress how much I adore "Last Man Standing". That could well become one of my favorite songs of all time.

Some various favorites from the other 3 discs include "The Fire Inside", "Crazy Love", "Real Life", "Lonely at the Top" and I think Tico singing on "Only in My Dreams" is just awesome.

I like the little bits of studio talk in between some of the tracks, especially the bit with Richie and Jon teasing Tico before his song. In fact, after one song (can't remember which one at the moment) Jon announces to the world that he has to go pee!

The fourth disc to me seems to be the weakest, with none of those songs particularly standing out to me, not even "Always" which has never been one of my absolute favorites. If I have any other complaints, it's the way the booklet was packaged with the set...mine is already tearing up!

As for the person who wondered about the marking of the CD's with the dice...well, they DID! CD 1 is showing 1, CD 2 is showing 2, CD 3 is showing 3, etc.

I also very much enjoyed the DVD showing some of what they were thinking when they decided to not include these on the albums, although I thought it was cheesy that some of the footage from their special "thank-you's" was included in the main part of the DVD...why do we need to see the same thing twice?

Overall, this is one of the best collections of music from one band that I've ever seen, wonderfully showing their growth and ability as musicians. And it was a birthday present so I got it for free!!

Well, all I can say is that some of the songs on this set are bettet than some album tracks. Then there are some songs that have a twin that made a record. Why Arn't You Dead, might as well be the same as I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. Still a very good song. The demo version of Always might be better than the album version, same goes for Someday I'll Be Saturday Night. This version has a much darker message that the Crossroad's version. All in all this might be the best boxed set out on the market this year. I mean you can buy the Beatles new set with nothing new, or can buy this one and get new songs for your hard earned money...

Top 5 Songs
1) Nobody's Hero
2) These Arms Are Open All Night
3) Last Chance Train
4) Kidnap An Angel
5) Lonley At The Top

Oh and Disc 4 Track 13 has a nice little suprise... The Demo version of Livin' On A Prayer...

What an incredible box set... In the beginning I was worried that it would just contain demos, outtakes and what nots of already known and famous songs. But this is not the case. Most of the songs are never heard, never published and many times I had to stop myself and ask - WHY NOT???

Songs like "Garageland", "Miss 4th of July", "Open all night" or "Staring all over again" or "Last man Standing" (to name but a few of those fun, song-packed four CDs) are all more than album worthy.

The 5th disk is a DVD, which is very fun and interesting to watch- Jon and Co talk about the different songs and it definitely helps to round out this wonderful box set.

100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong - sooo true - and again, no fault w/ this set either.

Bon Jovi have outdone themselves. THANK YOU GUYS!

I bought this box set because Bon Jovi has had some pretty good songs over the years that have been catchy.

I could have beat myself for not looking at the track listing, as I just assumed this would be a giant "Best Of" collection. In fact, Id only heard of about 3 songs on the whole 4 disks (YIKES)!!!
I was going to go ahead and re-sell it, as this is a lot of money to have tied up in something Im not truly interested in, but I figured since I would lose money on it anyway, that I would give it a listen first.

Im very delighted that I decided to do that.

The set is packaged very nicely, and includes a very nice large colored booklet that has very in-depth entries explaining why these songs were written, chosen for the box set, and why the box set has been released.
There are fan testimonials plastered throughout, and it is closed with personal, hand written messages from the band.

Musical highlights include the totally rockin' "Taking it Back", interesting demos of songs we know well (such as "Always"), some most excellent soundtrack material such as "Good Guys Dont Always Wear White", tracks featuring vocal performances by the guitarist, keyboard player, and drummer, a song written to Kurt Cobain's daughter after his death, and many, MANY other standouts.

One song that I believe is a lyrical GEM, quite possible one of the best rock songs ever written (lyrically) was "Last Man Standing". Writtin about the late Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, this song reflects on the direction the music industry is going. It compares the manufactured stars of today who lip synch to pre-recoded music and sounds to the old school artists who are/were singers, songwriters, and musicians.

"Come see those real-life caloused fingers wrapped around those guitar strings, kiss the lips where hurt has lingered, it breaks your heart to hear him sing, his songs were more than music, they were pictures from his soul....."

This is very much like a "Greatest Hits you've never heard" of Bon Jovi....4 disks worth!!! There are love ballads better than the ones Im used to hearing on the radio, and songs that ROCK as hard as Ive ever heard this band rock.

Possibly the biggest thing I gained was respect for the band. After watching the (almost hour long) DVD that is included, and reading the fan testimonials, I can really see how these guys strive to be great artists.

All in all, Im still digesting how cool this is, Im a HUGE fan of rock music, and its like being introduced to this awesome rock band, that has suddenly decided to give us its best work from the last 20 years, all in one shot.

If you're a fan of good rock and roll, give this a listen.

"A+"

B-sides and demos are great because you actually get to hear unpolished work from artists. This box is full of potential top 40 hits from a band that's had more than a few. Although it's obvious why a few of these songs didn't make the final cut, quite a few definitely should have. The music in this box is amazing and very different from that "voice box" bon jovi that we hear on the radio. A lot more of a John Mellencamp vibe happening in the music. One disappointment was "starting all over again".... I heard a different, much better version of this song years ago - the one in this box must have been the very first take.

All in all - I give this collection a full set of stars. If you're NOT a fan - you might be after listening to some of these songs - if you ARE a fan - than you'll be pleased with what really amounts to 4 new bon jovi CDs.