100,000,000 Fans Can't Be Wrong Disc 2

Bon Jovi has taken a ton of flak on their last couple of releases. One of the biggest gripes from crazed fans was that their live release contained too many of the safe hits mostly recorded on the ‘Crush’ tour. Why, fans asked, given the mountains of live stuff in the vaults wouldn’t the band release some older recordings of their hits or even better, some of the less known songs that had to be laying around just waiting to be grabbed up by ‘real fans’. Rest assured fans of Bon Jovi, with their latest box set, the rare, unreleased, and alternate versions of your favorites are totally worth the price and the wait.

Disc 2
Disc 2 actually revs things up a bit. The first thing you’ll notice is there’s a couple of songs that didn’t make pre ‘New Jersey’ albums. For people who wanted to hear more ‘hair’ Bon Jovi you are given ‘We Rule The Night’ which is about one of the goofiest songs they’ve ever written and it’s probably best it didn’t make a record. ‘Outlaws of Love’ is another up tempo track that is really pretty solid. In the booklet, Jon claims he doesn’t remember even writing this song. The highlight of disc 2 to me is the Japanese B Side track ‘Starting All Over Again’. Starting with a great riff, the immediacy of the lyrics and vocal are simply awesome. On the DVD, Jon explains that the reason it wasn’t released in the States or ever played live is that the song is simply impossible to sing. You can tell that Jon is really working vocally on it, but he pulls it off like a champ. Other disc 2 highlights (and I’m not a ballad guy) is the enjoyably ‘Every Beat of My Heart’. Richie gets a great tone on his leads on this track, and his backing vocal is as good as any he’s ever done. Disc 2 proves that Bon Jovi’s songwriting is nothing but class. -- johnk5150