BON JOVI

BON JOVI
(VERTIGO VERL 14, RELEASED APRIL 1984)
First albums are always strange beasts. They're not the product of а concerted period of time spent writing material, but rather compilation albums representing the end of an era. The band in question record material they lived and worked with for а considerable time on the road, as they await the much sought-after deal. Thus, any act is in the unique position of having been able to really get to know intimately the set of songs for their debut effort. It's а luxury they probably don't appreciate at the time - being anxious just to get that elusive record deal and get on with the job of becoming stars - but certainly crave later on in their career, when the pressure is really on to deliver, and many acts are forced to write, rehearse and record an album in the shortest possible time.

For Jon Bon Jovi and his young band, signing a deal with Mercury Records in the US finally meant a chance to make dreams become reality, to put flesh on the bare bones of their songs. Having warded off a strong challenge from Atlantic Records, Mercury were anxious to put these tyros straight into the studio and get them belting out numbers at full force. And on this occasion, there was no question as to who would produce the pro­ject. Jon's cousin, Tony Bongiovi, was a very close ally of the young singer and he put Jon to work in his New York studio The Power Station, where Jon had already met several rock luminaries, including Mick Jagger, while he was employed to carry out all manner of menial tasks, For Jon this was valuable learn­ing experience, a chance to watch while some of the biggest artists in the world made music which sold millions, He also had the opportunity to use studio 'dead time' (the early hours of the morning when the studios were unoccupied) to work on demos with a whole host of musicians, honing his craft and developing those skills crucial to any suc­cessful musician.

Thus, with this sort of background, it was inevitable that Jon would go straight into the Power Station, with Bongiovi producing his first album, assisted by Lance Quinn. However, even by this stage, the relationship between the cousins was starting to fall apart. Jon resented the way in which Tony was trying to manipulate his career. Tony felt that Jon, having used him to further his ambitions, was being ungrateful. The result? A fraught relation­ship between two strong-willed personalities.

Strangely enough, despite the much-publi­cised rift between Jon and Tony, the debut 'Bon Jovi' album shows little sign of tension. In fact, when it was first released in April, 1984, it was hailed by most rock aficionados as some­thing of a breath of fresh air, bringing to the Hard Rock genre a new dimension of enthusi­asm and melodic sensibility. From the perspec­tive of a decade on, it is difficult to understand precisely why this album should have generat­ed such great reviews at the time, and cata­pulted Bon Jovi on their lengthy journey towards the icons they have become today.

The album sounds dated, and decidedly leaden in style and content. Few of the tracks stand up to modem scrutiny. And the fledgling relationship between Jon and Richie Sambora was at best a little stilted, at worst positively counter-productive. Tony Bongiovi's produc­tion is to blame for much of this. His determi­nation to stick to a tried and trusted formula might have ensured that some songs ­'Runaway' for instance - had a radio-friendly aura, but overall it stifled the compact. struc­tured, credible outlook of the band. No won­der he never worked again with this lot!