Umusic.ca-25.01.2006
BON JOVI
HAVE A NICE DAY
The first question that might occur to you when you hear the propulsive blast of
power chords, drum beats and sneering vocals that opens the title track of the
new Bon Jovi album is, This song is called 'Have a Nice Day'?" It sounds awfully
raw for such a smiley-face title.
That discordant effect, of course, is intentional. That title was the first and,
ultimately, the last one I'd come to," Jon Bon Jovi says. There's obviously a
sense of irony when you say it. You can say it one way and you can take it
another way." The song sets the tone for the entire album twelve songs about
rising above adversity and staking your claim to a fair share of what the world
has to offer. In other words, twelve songs centered on a theme that, in the
course of a stellar career, Bon Jovi has made its own. Have a Nice Day" itself
is a defiant response to the disappointment the singer felt after the 2004
presidential election. He had campaigned for Democratic nominee John Kerry. But
in true Bon Jovi fashion, the song rises into a chorus that counsels renewed
conviction in the face of setbacks, optimism against opposition, standing your
moral ground regardless of the consequences: "I ain't gonna do what I don't want
to/I'm gonna live my life...When the world gets in my face, I say/Have a nice
day!"
For guitarist Richie Sambora, the rough-edged sound of tracks like "Have a Nice
Day," "Last Man Standing" and "I Am" is a celebration of another recent societal
development: The resurgence of full-on rock & roll. "This album continues the
evolution of Bon Jovi, obviously," he says, "but I had it in my head to make a
big-sounding rock & roll record. I wanted to capture the essence of this band,
almost like in a live setting, because that's our forte. That's where I was
trying to put it. I wanted to be aggressive, really. I felt that was available
to us now."
To help achieve the band's goals in the studio, Bon Jovi called in producer John
Shanks, who won a Grammy for "Producer of the Year" in 2004. "He deserves that
award, he's brilliant," Bon Jovi says. "We co-wrote songs together and we
recorded them on the spot with a drum machine him and Richie wailing on guitars,
no drummer, no bass player, and I would sing the vocal. I'd never made a record
like that before. What an experience nothing was sacred!" Keyboardist David
Bryan and drummer Tico Torres, along with bassist Hugh McDonald, eventually
recorded their parts, and in a matter of months, Bon Jovi regarded the album as
done.
But then he changed his mind. The songwriting had come so easily that, just as
he was about to turn the album in to his label at the end of last year, the
singer began to worry that maybe it came too quick. "I felt like I was
cheating," he recalls. "There were four songs that felt 'crafted' and shame on
me if at this point in my career I ever craft a song." Consequently, he wrote
four new songs from the gut "Novocaine," "Last Cigarette," "Story of My Life"
and "Wildflower" and tweaked the lyrics on some of the others. "Bells of
Freedom," for example, started out as a "he/she kind of a thing," Bon Jovi says.
"I hated it. I knew there was something more in that chorus."
The song now echoes Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" in its title and insists
that "the sun still shines on one who believes." It is now exactly what he
wanted it to be. "I hope that people are going to like that song," he says.
"It's not meant to be a pop hit single, it's not meant to be a video. It's meant
to be something that, when I play it live, the sweat is going to be legit."
Dylan, as it turns out, was also the inspiration for the hero of the blistering
anthem, "Last Man Standing" -- a carnival attraction who represents the last
link to a vision of rock & roll meant not merely to entertain people, but to
change their lives. "Here's the last man standing/Come see, hear, feel the real
thing," Bon Jovi sings.
"When Johnny Cash died, I picked up my guitar and got the idea that Bob Dylan
was the last man standing, the last of the real gods," Bon Jovi says. "It was
for Dylan, Cash, Lennon, Elvis that's what I was thinking."
Have a Nice Day, then, is a classic Bon Jovi album an immediately satisfying
collection of songs by a band that has weathered more than two decades of trends
and lived to tell the tale and thrive. "We've always stayed true to who we were,
and didn't jump on anyone else's bandwagon," he says. " "It wasn't a conscious
attempt to do anything, except to avoid whatever doesn't ring true and chasing
anyone else's idea of success."
Richie Sambora agrees, "When Jon and I sit down to write, it inevitably sounds
like us," he says. "You can't get away from that. All we had to do is be
ourselves -- and step on the gas pedal as far as the sound was concerned."
Then he defines the Bon Jovi ethic. "Look, we have to go out there and play
these songs every night after twenty years, he says, "People sometimes ask me,
'You ever get tired of it?' I say, 'No.' That's because being in a rock & roll
band is about the connection between a band, a song and an audience. And as long
as you stay present in that moment where the connection is made, it's magic