Bon Jovi 1986 Vs Bon Jovi 2010, Livin' on a Prayer, Live

Jon Bon Jovi is rarely seen singing the chorus of Living on a Prayer. It's fairly commonly acknowledged that he hammered his voice in the 80s doing huge 200 appearance tours. Here's a clip of Bon Jovi singing Living on a Prayer live on The Tube in 1986, complete with Jon singing the chorus, mixed up with Bon Jovi's 2010 appearance on the X Factor.

The difference is pretty clear. I love Bon Jovi, 80s commercial rock was awesome! And he's kicked plenty of ass since - It's My Life is one of my favorite tracks. But omg, I normally sit on the fence when I do these li'l descriptions, but the '86 performance makes the 2010 version look gutless.

It's a shame, but hey, what rocker hasn't smashed their voice up? lol! Alice Cooper did the same thing. Cracking the high notes off your vocal range in a blaze of touring glory has got to be the best way for a rocker to treat multi million dollar vocal chords!

The volume needs turning up on this one, I'm afraid. Everyone who uploaded the X Factor performance used the same dodgy clip - with awful sound quality. I had to turn the 1986 clips down to match. I think I lowered them too far, but you still see the effect. So, yeah, I'm sure I can blame other people for the quietness of this one, :P

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jon bon jovi
• x factor
• live final
• week 4
• Livin' on a prayer
• glam commercial rock
• Simon cowell
• UK
• Richie Sambora
• music
• 80s
• 1986
• Slippery When Wet
• The Tube
• rock
• band
• 2011

[GoodGuitarSolos]

@drakipovic Haha, good joke. You are clearly a fangirl/-boy who will call anything made by Jon Bon Jovi "the best album ever". The Circle was repetive, weak and bland, maybe one of Bon Jovi's weakest albums. They are still fantastic live but their albums are A LOT worse.

Don't get me wrong, I love the band but it is a fact that their older material is much more diverse, features better lyrics and instrumentations. Jon's voice was also much more powerful, nowadays it has diminished a lot.

[GoodGuitarSolos]

Jon has sadly lost much of his voice. Keep the Faith had his most impressive vocal performances, and he managed to keep his fantastic voice in good shape, until he suddenly went downhill. (Bon Jovi's music went downhill too, The Circle pales compared to masterpieces like Keep the Faith or These Days.)

[Greatmagic]

Can anyone give an example of another musician who:

1) toured & performed live as much as he has

2) is still making music

3) is still selling out stadiums through massive tours?

He's not 20 anymore, it's only natural that his voice has changed. But unlike many others, he's still rocking out there. Besides, the performance chosen from 2010 for this comparison is from a tv show where he sure as hell didn't show an effort. Also, it's good to see that he learned how to protect & control his voice.

[kaixuruha]

all bon jovi song's got sooo high notes... its expected that his vocal cord will be affected. still, he delivered his song nicely and he's still amazing! ^^ how i wished i was born much earlier! ehe..

[liverpoolfc65123]

@kevgonzal85 you want to see the difference go lisen to blaze of glory live 1990 at the golden globe or homebound train when he could do it exactly like the album now richie has to sing it or blood on blood live to now etc then you will see a huge difference

[kevgonzal85]

I actually didn't hear all that many differences. You can see that Jon has aged and his voice sounds more mature and when you look at the video you can see the difference in time. I give Bon Jovi a lot of respect not many artists have a career this long and still have people talking about them!!!! GOOD JOB GUYS!!! I STILL LOVE YOUR MUSIC AND WILL STILL BUY YOUR CD's!!!!

[MasterTomas02]

haha...funny :)...

[Onafee1849]

it's normal that his voice gets deeper with age and that he doesn't wanna try to hit these high notes...and now his voice is under his controle ;D But ordinary rocknroll isn't under controll (; But Jon still has it!!!(:

[markvaliente]

the diference is clear...

[GoodGuitarSolos]

@LordLiamo92 I'm not naive. I can agree that age DOES bring forward some diminished range but Jon's voice has clearly gone downhill not just because of aging but general habits too. He is still OK singer but his voice isn't the same it used to be. During the early 90's his singing abilities were godly: belting out "Santa Fe" with incredible power was devastating. Nowadays his tone isn't as rich as it used to be and his voice in general is really thin and nasal.

[yourgasm]

@GoodGuitarSolos Agreed

[thatdragonfreak]

I LOOOOOOOVE 80s BON JOVI!!!!