I was just watching Jon Bon Jovi do a completely un-ironic unplugged "lounge" version of "You give love a bad name"...
truly surreal
It's not even a parody by "Me first and the gimme gimmes" or something (who I highly recommend by the way), it's actually JBJ doing his own music as lounge..
He's deliberately doing it as a tribute to Frank Sinatra (Jersey boys 4 life I guess)
Ummm...
Ok, now he's redeeming himself by following it up with "It's my life" as a country ballad;
which, perhaps unsurprisingly, works really well. John has been doing country shows on a regular basis for the last couple years.
... and then he ruins it by mangling Leonard Cohens amazing "Hallelujah".
Now, for those of you who don't know; when JBJ really wants to, instead of just breathing funny, he can actually sing; pretty damn well actually. The guy has been doing this for almost 30 years now (which is a scary thought in and of itself), he knows a bit about doing it. The problem is, most of the time he "stylizes" everything he's doing, and it doesn't show through.
Listen to the unplugged version of "Blaze of Glory" from about 15 years ago, and you'll see what I mean. The vocal power he shows there is just plain great.
...Or for that matter, any version of "BLaze of GLory". To my mind, it's the best thing he's ever done...
At the end of Hallelujah, he starts singing it straight, and the emotion and strength there is amazing; but for the rest of the song he breathe/growls it, with that stupid diphthong thing he does (thats where you "curl" or "bend" the shapes of sounds up, down, and around with the shape of your mouth while you're singing).
Just sing it straight John, you've got the chops for it...
Honestly, he does the breathe/singing for a reason; the (now early middle aged) women who are his primary fan base love it, because it makes them feel like he's sexin'em up... but seriously dude, you're 45 years old, you've been married to the same woman for 18 years (which is almost a miracle in Rock and Roll), you can sing it straight now, you aren't trying to compete in the tight leather pants market anymore.
