Customer Reviews

Power Station Years (1980-1983)

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John Bongiovi's album the Powerstation years lets us in on his music long before the band BONJOVI. The songs in a way are similar to the usuall bonjovi music but these songs also have there scent of individuality of Johns music. My favourite songs on the album include Dont leave me tonight,Hollywood dreams and in johns case these dreams came true with his success in the movie industry. I also liked More than we bargined for and talking in your sleep. This is a must album for those who are fans of Bonjovi or just John.

for the bon jovi fan or just a fan of john's, this cd is a must. it captures all the essential ingredients of a bon jovi cd with the individuality of john's persona. you can tell the pure quality in the music. my favorites were MORE THAN WE BARGAINED FOR and DON'T LEAVE ME TONIGHT. these sum up the cd and justify john's talent pre-bon jovi. a good starter cd for bon jovi fans.

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 owed a demo prior to him releasing this years later. I couldn't get the label I worked for to jump in and sign him based on lack of voice qualities and poor arrangements at that time in the 80's. The only workable song is "open your heart" he could have saved/rearranged it and stuck it into the band he quickly created after Runaway. This is a very raw attempt to break into the industry. It lacked then and even worse now. Good thing he created a band rather than solo, this album/CD solo is NOT worth the investment.