In March 1983, Bon Jovi called David Bryan, who had quit the band that they had founded together in high school in order to study medicine. While in college, he realized that he wanted to pursue music full-time, and was accepted to Juilliard School instead. When Jon called his friend and said that he was putting together a band, and that a record deal looked likely, Bryan followed Bon Jovi's lead and gave up his studies.
Bryan in turn called bassist Alec John Such and an experienced drummer named Tico Torres, both formerly of the band Phantom's Opera. Tapped to play lead guitar for a short tour supporting "Runaway" was Bon Jovi's friend and neighbour, Dave “The Snake” Sabo though he never officially joined the band. He and Jon promised each other that whoever made it first, would help out the other. Sabo later went on to form the group Skid Row. Instead Jon saw and was impressed with hometown guitarist Richie Sambora who was recommended by Such and Torres. And so the group came together, were signed to Mercury Records, and went in to the studio to write and record their debut album.
The album opens with “Runaway”, the song Jon had written some four years earlier and had been the reason that he had gotten his name out on the radio, and forged the way for the band to come into being. The version here is the one originally recorded in 1982 with only Jon himself from the now formed band actually playing. That seems to be an oversight, but there must have been a reason for this. “Roulette” can be considered the true start to the album, the one where Bon Jovi the band actually begins. It has the choruses backing vocals, and Richie Sambora’s guitar making its presence felt for the first time. Sure, it has the commercial attitude in there as well but it is a more solidly hard rock core to the track than the opener, whose key synth riff was its major musical base. This is followed by the god awful soft rock ballad “She Don’t Know Me” and is a big a disappointment as you would expect. I mean, it’s not even written by the band, it comes from Mark Avsec, and is the only song in the band’s catalogue that doesn’t have one of the band members as a writer. This is the song of a band who is looking for commercial airplay, not writing an album to give its new fan base an anthem to grab a hold of. Horrid, junky rubbish. A skip song if ever there was one.
“Shot Through the Heart” is the next song, and yes, there’s that keyboard riff again, almost the same one note for note that was used for the opening of “Runaway”. It follows a similar life span, though for me at least Richie’s solo saves the song. Then comes “Love Lies”. And ‘oh dear’ is very much the vogue saying here. It starts off just as you would expect, with the solo keyboard and Jon telling us his sad love story over the top. And it doesn’t get any better. Honestly, where’s that bloody skip button? This is another of that era’s radio click bait songs to draw in that small section of music listeners that they wanted. The end of the song is a relief. Oohhhh, there’s that keyboard synth start again in “Breakout”. You sometimes forget how important and overused this instrument was in 1983 and 1984, and it is very clear on listening to this album again. I’m only now remembering how little I have actually listened to this album, and the reasons why that is the case.
“Burning for Love” is next. The song titles are a dead giveaway for how this debut album is progressing really. This is stock standard for the album, following the same lines and lyrical content that has come before it. “Come Back” is, on the other hand, one of the better songs here, mostly for the tempo being in the right range, the vocals and lyrics in singalong mode and a little of that Sambora magic, but mostly the synth being the dominant ruler of the song again where more guitar would have been a better angle. “Get Ready” might just be the best song on the album. Faster paced, good beat, good vocals. The same downside exists with too much keys and not enough guitar, but at least the album concludes on the front foot.
Most of us in my age bracket had heard the single “Runaway” sometime around this time, as well as the main single from the follow up album. As to knowing this album existed, most of us, myself very much included, had no idea of its existence until the band’s third album came along and changed the world forever. It was the explosion of “Slippery When Wet” that eventually led to the question, “Wow, I wonder if Bon Jovi has any other albums?”, and then, at some time, the exploration of the answer to that question.
For me, I found both this album and “7800 Degrees Fahrenheit” at the same time, and had both recorded either side of a C90 cassette that occasionally got a listen. However, as I am sure most listeners would have worked out for themselves by now, the lack of love for just about everything done on this album pretty much always led me back to that aforementioned third studio album rather than messing around trying to find something laudable on this debut album. It really is a punish for the most part, unless you are a massive fan of this kind of song writing. Yes, it is tied to the music of its era, and it does merge into the music of that time – but it is missing some big pieces of what eventually turned the band into a super power. This is an album that is lifted by the vocals of Jon Bon Jovi, that are unarguably in fine fettle at this point of his career. They aren’t tested in their range like they are on future albums, but they still ring out fine. Richie Sambora on guitar shows glimpses of what he can do and when he does he lifts the songs that it occurs on. But there is not enough of it though, with the keys and synth being relied upon heavily to interact the songs, as was the way for the hair metal bands who utilised this instrument in their music. The development of Jon’s vocals, the greater influence of the bass and drums, and the arrival of Sambora’s guitar dominating songs, is what this first album lacks that makes their later albums great.
While I can say that having listened to this album a dozen times or more over the last couple of weeks it is what I would class as ‘listenable’, I rediscovered just why I don’t revisit this album very often, if at all. While I am of the opinion that it is probably more interesting than most of the recent releases of the band, you are best to ignore this if you want to listen to a Bon Jovi album and gain enjoyment from it.
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