In my previous post, I talked about how COVID-19 had touched the Bon Jovi camp through David Bryan's diagnosis. Of course, the pandemic has affected many, many things -- one of which is the Invictus Games, which were due to begin in May 2020. (They've now been postponed until 2021.)
But back in February, before we knew what was coming, Jon Bon Jovi and Invictus Games founder Prince Harry got together for a special recording of "Unbroken" with the Invictus Games Choir:
The resulting song was released in late March. Watch the official "Unbroken" video:
"Unbroken" originally dropped in November 2019, with proceeds from the first version going to the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation. The track will also be on the upcoming Bon Jovi 2020 album, which is due for release in May.
Bon Jovi has released the official music video for "Limitless", the lead single from Bon Jovi 2020. You can watch it below:
When the audio came out, I mentioned that the verses and choruses seemed totally unrelated. I stand by that, but it does make a little more sense in the context of the video.
The band shots feature plenty of typical Jon gestures. The rest of the band doesn't have much to do (Would've been nice to get a Phil X solo in this song) but I guess this is confirmation that John Shanks and Everett Bradley are in for the long haul.
I saw that Sunday morning, with [the] Dayton [shooting] and what had happened, and I just started strumming on the guitar, and it came and it came rather quickly over the course of maybe two days. I kept tweaking it, and I knew I had something. I was so proud of what I had but, I didn’t have a song title. I sat there and I said, “What the hell is the name of this song?” And I said, “It doesn’t really have a proper chorus,” and I was thinking of Neil Young’s “Ohio,” and telling a story. And I said, Okay well (singing) “Four dead in Ohio,” and then you go, “I guess that’s the name of this song.” And then, when you really sit with that song, there is no second verse. (singing) “Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah” ... that might be a great hook, but it’s not a verse. And when I wrote this, I was playing it for a bunch of people, Shanks was one of them. And I said, “I don’t know why Neil, who’s so poetic and prolific, didn’t write a second verse and instead went for that.” And Shanks was like, “That’s a great hook.” I go, “Well, this song isn’t about hooks, it’s about telling this story.” And then I still had no title. That’s when I put the last line repeating what the first line did, and I said, “There’s the title, ‘Lower The Flag,’” because that’s exactly what the whole thing is about.
Even that bridge was just so different for me, (singing), “If there’s something we can talk about, let’s talk about it.” And the rhythm of that melody was something that I’d written, I got it, I did it and went in the studio with it. I had everything completely finished, and I went in with (bassist) Hughie (McDonald) and [drummer] Tico [Torres], me and Shanks. And I was playing guitar, and I’m playing the guitar on the record, and Tico starts playing, and we said, “[the drum] is not helping, it’s hindering the progress of the song.” We said, this isn’t a drum song, this isn’t what this should be. And so he flew all the way to California and didn’t play on it, because we knew what we had lyrically and just wanted to tell the story
The article mentions that Jon did a lot of writing on his own, and we've already heard that "Unbroken" sounds like solo Jon, but I do hope the album sounds like a band record. But I guess most of all I hope it's good. 😉
Here's Jon performing "Unbroken" at the Rockefeller Center. He was joined on stage by men and women who have served in the military:
We first heard a snippet of the new Bon Jovi song "Unbroken" in the trailer for To Be Of Service. Well, the whole song is now out, with proceeds from downloads going to the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation.
Jon announced the release on Instagram, where he also mentioned that the Bon Jovi 2020 album will be out in Spring (so presumably Autumn in the southern hemisphere).
Not sure how I feel about this one at the moment. It was written for a documentary about war veterans with PTSD who have been helped by service dogs, and I guess it works for that purpose. But it's very literal and feels a bit clunky, unlike other songs Jon has written for films.
Having said all that, the song is benefiting a good cause and it might grow on me.
To Be Of Service will premiere in New York City on November 1, 2019.
The "Unbroken" lyrics appear to be:
God of mercy, God of light Save your children from this life Hear these words, this humble plea For I have seen the suffering And with this prayer I'm hoping That we can be unbroken
Hopefully someone can let me know if this is wrong. 😜
What do you think of the song (or at least what we've now heard of it)?
