Customer Reviews

Jon Bongiovi: The Power Station Years 1980-1983

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Before becoming a platinum-selling megastar, Jon Bon Jovi was just plain old John Bongiovi, a janitor at his uncle's recording studio The Power Station. While working at the studio (and before forming the band Bon Jovi), he recorded several songs that have been collected on this album.

There are at least half a dozen different versions of this material, released by as many different (but always small) record labels. I have to assume that the songs were never intended for release, otherwise Jon Bon Jovi himself would have issued the album, and you know that would have been a decent seller for a major label. The various releases contain anywhere from 10 to 20 songs. If you're going to track this album down, you might as well try for the one with the most songs.

As to the actual music collected here, it's not bad at all, though it falls well short of what we heard on the debut Bon Jovi album. These songs take a more straightforward pop approach than the (relatively) hard rocking Bon Jovi material. It's almost like Bon Jovi was doing his best Springsteen impression, which oddly enough is pretty close to Bon Jovi's current sound. It makes you wonder just how much of Bon Jovi's early (and massively successful) hard rock sound came from people like Richie Sambora, Aldo Nova, and Desmond Child.

The Power Station Years (or the Best of John Bongiovi, or whatever it may be called) is an interesting bit of Bon Jovi history, and one that all serious Bon Jovi fans should check out. You probably won't find yourself reaching for this disc very often, but it's always interesting to see an artist's humble beginnings, and even more so for a star of Jon Bon Jovi's status.

i,just think jon is very awesome