Aloha !
When Crush was released this track, together with She's A Mystery, were the most hated Bon Jovi songs ever in the career of the band. I can still remember how everyone was slagging off these 2 songs, and how no one understood how they could've made a Bon Jovi record. To make it even worse, when Jon was asked what song he looked most forward to playing live on the Crush Tour, his response was Mystery Train. It was dropped pretty fast too, as it worked just as well as a song from These Days does in the US.
Here's a performance of the band doing it in Gothenburg on the Crush Tour:
That was the time when the band did an average tour, but look at the guitar Richie uses. It's a Fender and not some WishyWashy guitar from Japan made by FisherPrice. The overall sound isn't that bad, Richie's doing some slide work, and it sounds like a proper song instead of all that overproduced Complicated shit.
Now I have to confess that back then I liked Mystery Train. In fact I still do. I'm not madly in love with it, have never been on a Mystery Train (ooh the lyrics were never about me!) but I've never hated it either. I have always thought it was a good song with good lyrics, and if it would've been somewhere on Destination Anywhere or maybe even These Days not as many people would've mind as much as they did when it appeared on Crush. It just doesn't belong on Crush but sounds like a Jon song, a bit like Breathe doesn't sound like a Bon Jovi song either.
It's also another song from Crush that's ripped from another song by another band. This time it's Soul Asylum's Runaway train, a song that is far, far better in my opinion. Whenever the video for that song passes by on TV it still gets me. I'm not even sure if many of you know what the song is about, which is why I'm posting the link of the video too:
Anyway, back to Bon Jovi. What is your opinion about this song? Does the current generation of Bon Jovi fans rate it higher than the die hards did 8 years ago or is it still a song no one cares for? I promised Thierry (who's in love with this one) I'd make a banner for it if the band play Hey God in Gelsenkirchen and if we're going to Frankfurt. Would it result in a massive "throw beer in Thierry and Seb's neck" fest in the Gold Circle or would people appreciate my kind gesture? Jon still loves it, played it completely unexpected in Canada last year and it would be played right away in Frankfurt too if we'd put our banners up.
Jovitalk has changed a lot. Songs that were considered absolutely wank 8 years ago now get a much higher rating, so I'm curious as to what the results will be for this one. So, what's your opinion? Mine's a yay.
Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan
05-10-2008, 11:13 PM
The verdict: Mystery Train
