Ten Reasons Why the Big Lebowski was Wrong to Hate the Eagles  
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McGee on music: Why Bon Jovi are mythic New Jersey artists
Alongside Bruce Springsteen and The Sopranos, Bon Jovi form a pop-culture trilogy that has emerged from the Garden State

Guardian.co.uk

John Bon Jovi deserves recognition for his abilities as a world-class songwriter.  

I feel Bon Jovi have received a bad rap from people with who believe themselves to have rather superior musical tastes. Last month, I was hanging out with my friend Jerry Jaffe, an all-round legend in the music industry who was head of Creation Records in the US, managed the Jesus and Mary Chain and Saint Etienne, and signed iconic bands like Motörhead and the Jam. Whenever I introduce Jaffe to friends by listing his achievements, he always adds, "Yes, but I also signed Bon Jovi – harass me now". But, you know, signing Bon Jovi isn't that bad.

Bon Jovi. I guarantee that once you've heard these words, you suddenly have one of their songs in your head: Have a Nice Day, Livin' On a Prayer and You Give Love a Bad Name. Their name also makes me think of New Jersey.

Bon Jovi form part of a mythic pop-culture trilogy that has emerged from New Jersey. Alongside Bruce Springsteen and David Chase (creator of The Sopranos), they form an almost perfect triptych representing the inner workings of New Jersey's Italian American experience. What about Frank Sinatra? Born in Hoboken, Sinatra seems to represent the ideal of escape, whereas Chase, Bon Jovi and Springsteen have continually looked back to New Jersey for inspiration. Without these artists, New Jersey would certainly have been painted in different colours for the world, if thought of at all. These singers have helped give the state its own identity to such a degree that it often feels like an additional character in their narratives.

David Chase's Sopranos has had enormous pop-culture ramifications, influencing the way people view New Jersey. The opening credits make it immediately clear that the landscape is integral to the story. A Jersey native and only child of Italian immigrants, The Sopranos is based on both Chase's psychology and knowledge of Newark, transposed on to a specific criminal environment. Chase illustrates the daily lives of people living within New Jersey's mafia culture – whether it be the nature of violence, emotional brutality, and working-class men made good through mafia connections. Through violence, Chase explores significant ideas about redemption.

Funnily enough, Chase employed Springsteen's guitarist Little Stevie, aka Steve Van Zandt, as gangster Silvio Dante. Springsteen, of course, is well known for his interpretations of New Jersey life in song. Significantly, he also explores redemption in his songs, which are a tribute to the working class. His reincarnation as a stadium-rock Woody Guthrie expertly captures the tragedies of lives gone wrong and the compelling struggle for hope and salvation.

Bon Jovi entered the arena with the 1986 hit Livin' On a Prayer from the album Slippery When Wet. This classic song shares a similar backdrop to Springsteen's Born in the USA, both anthems offering hope during a time of economic struggle and recession. Bon Jovi sing about two working-class characters, Gina and Tommy, who struggle to make ends meet but decide that "it doesn't matter if we make it or not/we've got love and that's a lot". Bon Jovi have returned repeatedly to these fictional characters, following their lives in the songs 99 in the Shade, Fear, Lie to Me, It's My Life and Novocaine.

You may scoff, but even Springsteen recognises Bon Jovi's talent. They often share a stage and the vibe is very much about working-class Jersey Boys done good. I truly believe Jon Bon Jovi deserves critical recognition for his abilities as a world-class songwriter, but instead people focus on the
poppy hair-metal genre in which he previously worked. Bon Jovi are easily one of the three creators who have made New Jersey a place of inspiration, creation and expression for those seeking universal salvation and hope.

There must be someone somewhere sticking up for Steely Dan.

Ten Thousand Motels wrote on Jul 29^th, 2009 at 9:48am:



Oh fuck off (not you, TTM - the writer). The connection is utterly pointless. Two have great talent. One is a talentless hack.. I grew up in East Belfast.  It doesnt mean I can play football like George Best or write and sing like Van Morrison.

Ten Thousand Motels wrote on Jul 29^th, 2009 at 9:48am:




Try and stop me!

Ten Thousand Motels wrote on Jul 29^th, 2009 at 9:48am:


more to do, i think, with the fact that Bruce likes the guy personally and is too much of a decent bloke to tell him to fuck off every time he gatecrashes.

Saint Sway wrote on Jul 29^th, 2009 at 10:49am:


are you defending TTM?

speakin of the devil...............



SAN ANTONIO – A Texas mother accused of decapitating her 3-week-old son screams "I didn't mean to do it. He told me to!" while her sister pleads for an ambulance to bring help in a desperate four-minute 911 call released Wednesday.

Otty Sanchez, who police say told them the devil made her kill and mutilate her only child, cries "I love him" and says she's stabbed herself in the heart and stomach while her sister tries calming down the 33-year-old mother.

At one point during the frantic call, Priscilla Garcia tries reassuring her sister that she is alive. "Otty, this time I told you to come to me," Garcia says.

"I tried, but you told me that you died," Sanchez responds.

"I'm not dead, Otty," Garcia says. "I'm standing right here talking to you."

Sanchez, 33, is charged with capital murder in the slaying of Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez, who authorities found decapitated and grossly mutilated in a bedroom of her sister's house early Sunday. Police say Sanchez chewed off three of her infant's toes and ate parts of the brain. She used a knife and two swords in the attack, according to police.

Garcia tells the dispatcher that her sister has stabbed her child and that blood is all over the bed.

"She's gone crazy last night. She was hearing voices," Garcia says. "She kept bringing me the baby. And finally she calmed down and I took her back the baby. And now I just woke up to hear screaming."

She continues, "The baby is dead. The baby's dead. Please, somebody come."

During the call, the dispatcher instructs Garcia not to touch the baby or anything in the area. The call ends with the dispatcher saying help is on the way.

Sanchez, who had been hospitalized after the killing, was being held on $1 million bond at the Bexar County jail. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether she had an attorney.

Scott W. Buchholz, the infant's father, said Sanchez suffered from postpartum depression and that she told him she was schizophrenic a week before the slaying. Buchholz, who said he also is schizophrenic, said he wants her to receive the death penalty.

A family member has said Sanchez had been undergoing psychiatric treatment and that a hospital called looking for her several months ago. Gloria Sanchez, the mother's aunt, said her niece had been "in and out of a psychiatric ward."

In May 2008, Otty Sanchez's mother, Manuela Sanchez, called police after her daughter didn't return from a trip to Austin, saying she was concerned about her daughter's safety. Manuela Sanchez told police she suspected her daughter was into drugs and specifically told police she wasn't suffering from any mental issues.

Buchholz last saw Sanchez and his son the day before the killing. He said Sanchez had moved in with her parents a week earlier, leaving him July 20 after being briefly hospitalized for depression but released that same day.

Sanchez brought "Baby Scotty" over to see his father the day before the slaying, and Buchholz said she became irate when he asked for copies of the birth certificate and other documents, then left in a huff with the baby.

Priscilla Garcia called 911 before 5 a.m. the next morning. Police say the killing took place in a bedroom and that no one else was injured