Young Guns II recording period

Much much much worse.

Atlantic City to me is pretty much perfect the way it is. The "rocked up" live versions in particular never worked for me either.

Also, re-listening to Billy Falcon's 1991 (?) record that Jon was involved with... it kinda dawned on me, the roots of JBJ being fascinated with "making a statement" songs might very well trace back as far as to that album. However, even "the quintessential songwriter" Billy Falcon only has stuff like "he's got no power windows, but he has the power of love" in his notebook and... man that record is no Nebraska.

Similar performance and arrangements even (not one guy doing it all on 4 tracks, but you know), but man do the lyrics not carry their weight

I find the Pretty Blue World album - as well as the follow up album, Letters From A Paper Ship - extremely moving. Songs like Heaven's Highest Hill and Oh Boy, in particular.

It's all *almost* there. I am aware of the backstory to Heaven's Highest Hill and feel bad for not liking the song more, but it all sounds like it's in dire need of some editing/production. "Married in the Morning" is my favorite on the album by far, and I can help but assume that it is because the more muscular music means the rather "huh?" lyric has to do less heavy lifting.

But... something like Superman Tonight is the same exact lyrical style as that album, but the song is more pompous and less intimate in terms of arrangement, so it doesn't matter as much. But lately I think JBJ felt he should go for the more introspective side, too.

The deteriorating voice probably had something to do with it too, but he always seemed to like Billy's writing (it's not like the guy was an industry proven hit writing machine like Desmond Child was, Jon brought him in because he liked his writing IMO). Maybe JBJ really likes what he's writing, too, and wouldn't have, say, Unbroken any other way.

I feel like song lyrics and subject matter rank low on what makes a song great. There are definitely workarounds and exceptions but the majority of greatness comes from Melody, Hooks, and Powerful Vocals (range, key change, passion, production).

Jon took mediocre songs like Levon and How Long Has This Been Going On and transformed them into a next level just based on his vocal delivery.

I agree with you; Jon has created some excellent covers of very basic song structures. For instance, "Levon" could have been amazing with a guitar solo instead of just arrangements. However, in songs like "Santa Fe," which are wonderful, the guitar takes a backseat compared to the other instruments (although both "Santa Fe" and "DAMOAL" have their own style of guitar solos). Now, I would like someone with musical editing expertise to enhance "HLHTBGO" at some point. It's one of my favorite covers, but I feel that the entire instrumentation sounds too weak, although that could have been the original intention.

Billy Falcon's almost complete discography is available on YouTube. The guy knows how to write really deep lyrics. I remember during the pandemic when he used to do live sessions on Facebook. On one occasion, he took some time to delve deeper into the songs he had written with Jon over the years. I think "Just Older" was particularly significant because it started from an unfinished lyric he had written, and Jon added his touch to it. Someone asked if he had the original version saved, but he made it clear that he didn't collect such things.

On another note, I acknowledge that Falcon is a man of faith, and he expresses it in many of his songs. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but personally, he writes quite well. While he may not be a hitmaker on the scale of Desmond, Falcon definitely has his magical touch when it comes to writing.

Also with Desmond Child, yeah, that guy was responsible for a crazy number of hits for various artists from the late 70's (I Was Made For Loving You) until the late 80's. But after that, I don't recall there having been much. Once the glam/hair metal era ended, he surely co-wrote a number of tracks, also with Bon Jovi, but especially in the later years, they've all rather been stuff you'd forget about. I think TAALS may have been the last "bigger" one he had a hand in. So he's definitely living off a reputation that's older than I am

Livin' La Vida Loca was huge though. His last genuine big ass hit.

Desmond being mostly remembered for his hair metal stuff is funny, because I think he actually likes emphasis on rhythm and dance-y music stuff more.

You're right, I forgot about that one. But even that's like 25 years old if I'm not mistaken.
It's funny because the same somewhat goes for Jon. He doesn't want to be remembered for his hair metal stuff, yet that was the big time most people associate him with in the first place.