New remaster Bon Jovi 6 January 1989 Osaka 2nd night 🏟️ New Jersey Syndicate Tour 🎛️🎶🎧-> https://youtu.be/5MTusTXujYg?si=inm0aCI21HTXkxh2

Gina brings home what?

👩🏼‍💻 longread+sinterklaas rhyme 6 december 2023

. A 5th December present! This new remaster was uploaded by hAnD90 on 5 December 2023. A night  celebrated in Germany as Sankt Nikolaus and we in the Netherlands call it Sinterklaas or “boxing night” (pakjesavond), because many families celebrate this with presents. The presents are accompanied by a rhyme, opened with a date (usually 5 December) and then “Madrid”, after the city where Sinterklaas is living. The tradition is much older than to celebrate Christmas (Santa Claus) with presents which, in the Netherlands at least, only started one or two decades ago. Bon Jovi | 2nd Night at Osaka-jō Hall | Osaka 1989 The Sinterklaas YouTube upload comes with an extensive description box, written by hAnD90 himself, so if you REALLY want to know what went on in Osaka; What the setlist was and how it compares to others of the era; Which songs were unique, what was remarkable, and exactly how good it was? Then you can read the description box to the video. Which will not disappoint; hAnD90 can analyse a Bon Jovi concert the way others can analyse soccer at the World Cup. And without a team feeding them facts on auto-cue but with his own notes. These uploads are called a reMASTER for a reason! So I, almost as illiterate in Bon Jovi as in sports, will keep it brief (well figuratively, this is a longread!) and focus on the thing I do understand;

The energy, dripping off this debauchery of a show!

You know, in 2023 there are these videos about how to become “THAT girl”? And it would be tempting to say this is THAT show! Or the related; “IT girl”? Then this show was IT! Except- no it isn’t. Because contrary to the modern day Its and Thats, this show is a 20th century relic, which just like (in my opinion) everything else that was “That” or “It” in 1989, came with something we don’t see much anymore; Spontaneity. Sharpness. Boldness. Recklessness. Things were rough. Things were dirty. Things were messing with your head, and above all; Things were very, very unpredictable. And Osaka 1989? Oh it was all of those things, Baby. And that’s just me understanding half of what’s going on there, so let alone if you would actually understand every twist and turn of Jon Bon Jovi’s tongue. (I feel there’s still so much to UNPACK, in Bad Medicine!) .

Lay Your Hands On Me/ Pink Flamingos/ Let It Rock

. The show opens with the New Jersey tour classic “Lay Your Hands On Me”, the song that also opens the 1989 namesake album, and was just DESIGNED to get us in a state of anticipation! Perhaps, just maybe, only topped by 1986’s Slippery When Wet opener Let It Rock, thanks largely to the uncredited, unnamed (for a long time) arrangement that opened the album before Let It Rock even began; The instrumental Pink Flamingos written by keyboard player David Bryan. I have a music book for Slippery When Wet and Pink Flamingos is not even there! That’s how obscure it was in the 80s and, to be honest, I never made an attempt to play anything from the book once I realized its most exciting piece was missing. The intro Pink Flamingos is an integral part to the deeply sexual nature of the song Let it Rock. It is like Sex on Keys and I credit Let it Rock for giving me  a sense of what sex was and what it is to look out for EXACTLY; At a time when I was still a virgin, and none of my peers would have been able to give me something even close. Knowing all this, it must come as absolutely no surprise that BOTH New Jersey’s opener  “Lay Your Hands On Me”, as well as Slippery When Wet’s opener Let It Rock WITH an even extended version of David Bryan’s keyboard intro Pink Flamingos, were staples, on the New Jersey Syndicate Tour setlist. I am sure hAnD90’s notes could tell us, if there were any of the 230-ish shows that did not have both of these songs, but take it from me that Bon Jovi knew exactly how potent these songs were. These songs were on the setlist by design, and not because they had been such big singles that they could not be skipped, because they had not. In Osaka Lay Your Hands On Me opens the show, and Pink Flamingos/Let It Rock, starts at about a third of the concert.

Runaway/ Get Ready/ Tokyo Road

Oh the first two albums! If you want to know the difference between a casual Bon Jovi fan, and a diehard, it is their heartbeat when they hear songs from Bon Jovi’s first two albums, being played live. And I’m not talking about the 21st century cleaned-up version of Runaway either; One of the least-inspired live songs that they should have dropped for no other reason than that it has been sucking the soul right out of them. No I’m talking about Runaway, sung like they meant it with two electric guitars, strong backing vocals and improvisation in the high registers! I’m talking about Get Ready, the song where they started experimenting with musical interplay, improvisation and interaction with the crowd, as early as 1984. They would perfect this routine in the 90s version of Bad Medicine, but in 1989 they were still tooling around with their crowd-playing capabilities playing their oldie Get Ready in Osaka, as if not a day had passed since 1984, the first time they played Japan. Another oldie bound-to-Japanese soil; Tokyo Road! Tokyo Road (1985) was written about the life-changing experience of being in Japan in 1984, where Bon Jovi hit the jackpot as the nation was just going through their “Give us all the ROCK YOU’VE GOT” phase, and rockbands were treated like absolute GODS. As an hommage to the Japanese fans, who have been their strongest supporters from day one, Tokyo Road would remain a staple for Japan concerts, long after it had disappeared from regular setlists. Osaka 1989 was no exception! Played as the closer of the show, at a moment where you no longer expect it- a concert on this long and straining tour typically lasted 90 minutes ; Starting at 1 hour 34 minutes, Tokyo Road closes the show. The recording lasts 1 h 40 minutes, but many many minutes in between were cut! In reality, the show covered beginning to end at least 1 hour 50 minutes. Tokyo Road did not have to be played, but giving it their all of course they were not going to leave this fanservice on the table! .

Homebound Train/Livin’ in sin/ Blood on Blood

. Oh dear baby Jesus, mother of God, or was it sheer sorcery or just that enchanting harmonica play, that made Bon Jovi so otherworldly captivating,  in 1989? I have no idea, but I do know that these three songs, played together in one relatively short concert; It is what made the mark, my friends…… Three songs rich in storytelling, all dragged out until twice the length of their album versions, and there’s just something happening here that (I’m gonna say it) (some of you won’t like it) (gonna do it anyway) It was something 90s Bon Jovi lost. There was a darkness Bon Jovi possessed (probably literally) that is probably linked to being on a long excruciating tour that confirms the old adage that from great pain comes great art. A stage from which you either grow over it and become the professionals Bon Jovi became in the 90s, OR you quit, which sure looked like it was gonna be the case early 90s; Or you die. Which thankfully did not happen. But listen and soak up Bon Jovi’s late 80s heartfelt pain, suffering, nostalgia, and despair. And know Bon Jovi had not just given it their all, making it to where they were now; They were borderline breaking point and still no one could have stopped them.  

wild in the streets / I’d die for you

. Two Slippery When Wet Songs, neither one of them singles or at least not their biggies, of which Wild In The Streets would survive the cull and serve as a regular of being one of the first three songs, pretty much the same as in Osaka. Although both upbeat and fast-paced, Wild In The Streets is very much a party song, and I’d Die For You is a more intense guitar song. I’d Die For You is played in the second encore in Osaka; The second to last song, right before Tokyo Road. .

Livin’on a prayer/ ride cowboy ride/ wanted dead or alive

. This is where 80s Bon Jovi is showing themselves in all their glory! I kind of gave it away in the title, but improvisation, although present throughout this whole show, is rampant in Livin’ on a Prayer as well as Ride Cowboy Ride; And Wanted Dead or Alive, also becomes more alive played in tandem after the acoustic Ride Cowboy Ride, a New Jersey album “filler” that hardly ever gets played. From what I remember, Ride Cowboy Ride surfaced as a fan-favorite, at a listening of dozens of Bon Jovi demos that were considered for the New Jersey album. And it was based on that preference it ended up on the album, but it stayed in a rough version, deliberately sounding like an old vinyl record. But in Osaka, Ride Cowboy Ride really gets to shine, and serves as a wonderful intro to Wanted Dead or Alive. Livin’on a Prayer closes the main set, and it opens with an acapella chorus, sung by Jon and then by the crowd, who know it word by word. As we hear the ominous music opening the track, begin, Jon introduces the song saying: “This is for Tommie and Gina. They’ll probably go to prison somewhere. On prostitution charges.” Okay, I have NO IDEA, what that means! But it definitely sounds like something you in itself risk going to prison for in the 21st century.

🎶Once upon a time, on a Friday night🎶

Nice touch! And yes, it was indeed a Friday.

🎶Gina works the diner all day🎶 🎶Working for her man she brings home her * .. * for love🎶

Scraps? Spreads? What is Gina bringing home? Is this in any way related to the prostitution charges? I have no idea.

You give love a bad name

. Something that would also become part of the Bon Jovi-setlist recipe, is to greet the crowd after the third song. “How many of you folks came to see us here last night?” Jon asks. Quickly followed by: “How many of you folks this is your first Bon Jovi concert?” And then, with well-acted disappointment in his voice:

Where the hell have you been for the last 5 years? You give love….

And without finishing the sentence the opening lyrics of Bon Jovi’s 1986 breakthrough hit are shouted from ten thousand Japanese fans and one Jon Bon Jovi:

🎶Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame🎶 🎶Baby, you give love, a bad name🎶

Madrid, 6 December 2023 Once upon a time, decades long ago, Bon Jovi gave a stunning, provoking hardrock show Taking risks and bringing it, they hit it where they could For better or for worse; Jonny was not good Yet 34 years later, and 11 months to the date Osaka 89, would still fascinate The value of this story, is not to be of shock But to learn that fortune, favors those who rock. the Sint This was the Sinterklaas rhyme to accompany the present of hAnD90’s remaster of Bon Jovi, Osaka 6 January 1989 Bon Jovi Osaka, 6 January 1989 has been added to my playlist: New in Bon Jovi concerts before 1997 And to the playlist: “Part II: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 6 Dec-9 June (before 1997) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScbVI_oPZcf77OtrO_935JD” at 6 January.