Friday, January 20, 2017

Living with the Ghost & Reunion music videos + more #THINFS

In my previous post, I speculated about what was going to happen with the remaining music videos for Bon Jovi's This House Is Not For Sale album. Today I got my answer.

The last two videos: "Living with the Ghost" and "Reunion" were both released on TIDAL today. Watch them below.

UPDATE 27/1/17: All these videos have now been released on the BonJoviVEVO YouTube channel. Links below.*

Living with the Ghost:


*You can now also watch "Living with the Ghost" on YouTube:




"Living with the Ghost" is the song that's probably more about Richie Sambora than anything else on the album, but interestingly (though perhaps unsurprisingly) they went in a completely different direction for the video, choosing instead to highlight the social issues in Camden, New Jersey with a haunting black and white video.

Reunion:


*You can now watch "Reunion" on YouTube too:



The "Reunion" video was also shot in Camden, but shines a light on the positive steps being taken there.

"Spiritual Warfare" is both videos put together. (*It's also on YouTube now.)

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed with "Living with the Ghost". I didn't expect them to make it patently obvious that it's about Richie, and I'm fine with Jon showing his socially conscious side. It just feels too forced in "Living with the Ghost" -- fans know what the song is about, and the video doesn't seem to fit at all. Of course, it's not the first time they've done something like this... "Superman Tonight" was discussed in early interviews as being a boy-girl song, but the video was very different.

There's also a short documentary on Camden streaming on TIDAL, which just happens to be called This House Is Not For Sale.

The tour of the same name kicks off very soon. In a recent Facebook Live Q&A, Jon said that every show on the upcoming tour would be recorded and released. I'm assuming it'll be audio only, much like what Bruce Springsteen and others have been doing. I hope Jon's got a vocal coach on retainer because I'd be deaf if I didn't hear that he's been struggling for a few years... but the Lost Highway Tour proved he could get back to sounding great with a little guidance.

P.S. I know a great vocal coach if he needs one. ;)

Friday, January 6, 2017

God Bless This Mess music video #THINFS

Bon Jovi's music video for "God Bless This Mess" is now streaming on TIDAL. The video features the band playing in an alley, interspersed with newspaper headlines about their sometimes tumultuous history. I could've done without the random snippets of lyrics flashing on the screen, but I think the overall "unpolished" look of the video was deliberate.

Watch "God Bless This Mess" on TIDAL:



We now have 9 of the 10 videos that were promised from the BonJovi-TIDAL partnership:

  1. Knockout
  2. Labor of Love
  3. Come On Up to Our House
  4. Scars on This Guitar
  5. The Devil's in the Temple
  6. Roller Coaster
  7. Born Again Tomorrow
  8. New Year's Day
  9. God Bless This Mess
The video for title track "This House Is Not For Sale" had already been released earlier. That leaves "Living With the Ghost" and "Reunion" as the two songs that don't have a video yet. One of those will come out on TIDAL, and then YouTube a week or two later. But it would be strange to leave only one song on the album without a video, so perhaps the last one will be out in time for the start of the tour.

UPDATE 8/1/17: SJ Magazine just ran a story about Jon and the JBJ Soul Foundation's philanthropic work in Camden, New Jersey. There's also a bit about the upcoming videos:
As the work on housing and homelessness pushes on, Bon Jovi continues to bring attention to the city. Two music videos for his new album, “This House is Not for Sale,” were shot in Camden. (The videos will be available to stream to Tidal members this month.)
“With the release of our new album, we decided to solicit several directors to do videos for every song on the album,” says Bon Jovi. “Casey Stein, our director, was assigned two songs: ‘Living with the Ghost,’ and ‘Reunion,’ which I wrote for my recent convocation speech at Rutgers. I explained to Casey and his producer that I was given an honorary doctorate by Rutgers, and I wanted to do something special with my speech – so I wrote the class a song.”
“When they told me the high school had the name Camden written on the bleachers, they pitched me that we could relate the song not only to the graduating class of Rutgers, but also to the journey of Camden and bringing back their people to the Reunion…that conversation won me over and led to our collaboration.”
Bon Jovi filmed his performance for the Reunion video at Camden High School last fall on a day students had off.
UPDATE 13/1/17: "God Bless This Mess" is now on YouTube. Watch it below or on the BonJoviVEVO channel.