Ok Folk’s! Remember that time Bon Jovi was a dangerous catchy hard rocking act back in time say from 1984-1992?
Yeah, I do before Jon Bon Jovi changed a once serious rock live band into some cheesy Vegas act with a bunch of musicians that no one cares about!
I will always give Jon credit as when I caught that Jersey Tour back in 1989 with pal Tbone in tow Bon Jovi meant business as a live show! So good than over time the wheels came off and I don’t fuckin care for anything that he does now! Sure his business is booming on the live circuit playing to 50,000 without Richie Sambora is impressive, to say the least, but his albums or the clips I have watched on Youtube are ….!
Anyhoo,
In 1987 when Jon was selling millions of albums out came this Double EP on vinyl up to a few months ago, I had never even known it existed!
Pretty cool as its a Gatefold! Upon further inspection here are the songs from this killer EP below!
Record One has, of course, Livin On A Prayer which we all have heard but the cool thing is there is Borderline which didn’t make the cut and was left off the Slippery When Wet release.
Borderline I had never heard up til I picked this up. It’s an ok track as it’s awash in a mountain of keyboards. The chorus is good, but I can see why it was left off the original release.
Put it this way. Slippery had 10 tracks on the album! Borderline would be the 11th best track on Slippery.
Record Two has what I would consider the best track from the 7800 Fahrenheit album that being In And Out of Love.
Then the cool stuff which is 3 live tracks from the self-titled Jovi debut recorded in Japan back in 1985 in which you hear these guys becoming a serious live act!
This is an excellent addition to the collection and was a well put together set pushing the huge mega-selling Livin on a Prayer single at the time!
deKe's Vinyl Reviews & More... 
We got some very different formats of BJ records back in those days over in the UK. I remember paying top dollar for a US import to get Borderline and that iconic sleeve. My school buddy Hugh had a promo Greatest Hits album which went up to the New Jersey era.
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That’s cool! At least Jovi made the selling feature of these singles worth it. I mean this one, for instance, a double album for a single is impressive, to say the least. Then again they were selling boatloads of records back in 86-90!
Thanks for sharing some more info on that time period of Jovi.
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This is cool. I don’t think I have any of those B-Sides. Hope they do a Slippery box like they did with New Jersey.
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I wish when they did the reissues they would include some more live stuff from that era. I’m sure they got hundreds of shows recorded that hopefully didn’t go up in smoke in that Universal fire!
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I have never seen this one. This is sweet. Some great bonus tracks as well. I will have to keep an eye out for one of these.
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Yeah, I was pretty psyched to score it, John!
I had to take it out of the plastic cover to see what was on it as the back cover had nothing in print!
Slick package…
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I’ve never seen a (or heard of) a double EP before. That’s definitely a nice item to have even if all the tunes aren’t essential.
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First two paragraphs – Lol’d
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Haha. Thanks, Buddy!
Working on reviewing the 4 KISS solo albums from the ’70s! Watch for them in August!
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Sweet. Will do!
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Like J – that’s the first double EP I’ve seen
And from the looks/sounds of it, it’s a good one to have as the first double EP in the collection!
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I had no idea when I picked it up the time as I thought the gatefold was a cool idea for an EP than later on, it was like ‘Wait a minute” there’s two EP’s in here!
Having said that I still haven’t spun Living on a Prayer. I dunno Geoff kinda heard that tune a few times over the last 32 years you know! haha
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I’m pleased to report the high school kids know living on a prayer – I’ll often play it when we do fractions (1/2 way there) and they tend to sing along!
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You’re awesome as a Teacher! I remember my Grade 11 English teacher was horrified that AC/DC wrote a tune called ‘Sink The Pink!’ haha
We spent half the class debating the merits of the song!
That was a good day at highschool! Now I’m talking back in 1985 ! hahah
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I would have enjoyed that discussion – maybe as a participant though, rather than attempting to lead it!
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Hahaha!
Let’s go Back To The Future Marty McFly style
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We just watched BTTF with the girls this week, great to introduce them to Marty & Doc!
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In air conditioning I presume?
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Most definitely!
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I’d buy this if I saw it. Because they’re so bad now, I forget just how good they once were.
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Well said, Sir!
I may just steal that line if I ever review any Jovi again!
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Hate Bon Jovi, but still liked your write-up ;-p
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Fair enough Jeff!
They ended for me back in 92 after Jon wanted to become Springsteen/Mellencamp kinda guy wanting to be taken seriously!
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Cool write up Deke and nice score.
The band and their management knew how to exploit the market once they broke thru. You wait until I do my Jovi record vault and you’ll see how I was exploited.
Because in Australia we got the UK single and EP releases as well as the US single and EP releases and they all they had different B sides which made me fork out dollars.
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Thanks!
Man I look forward to your Jovi stuff!
Bring it on!
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