Friday, February 25, 2005

La poesía de Jon Bon Jovi

Un analisis detallado de la "poesía" de Bon Jovi...



I would like to welcome you to my first "Bon Jovi Surgery". Here, I hope to untangle some of the skeins of complex meaning built into the poetry of John Bon Jovi, and maybe help others to understand why they inspire the feelings they do. Essentally, I seek to let a little comprehension in to illuminate the strange, primal feelings of religious awe that your minds currently register at the sound of "Living on a Prayer", say.

To begin, I'd like to look at the opening verses of "Bed of Roses". You may think you understand the meaning behind this poem - that John Bon Jovi likes a lady, and is upset about it. This is just a sign of the brilliant, interweaving complexity of Bon Jovi. You can love the poem at that level, and many have, but let's go... inside.


Sitting here wasted and wounded
at this old piano


As we know, John Bon Jovi is the rockingest guitar player in the world. So why is he sitting at a piano? Well, one obvious interpretation is that the piano is the weapon of choice of the serious artist - Elton John, Gary Barlow, Keane... these have all used pianos to express their melancholy and realness. So, Bon Jovi is subtly telling us both that he is sad, and that he is a serious artist. But is there another, deeper meaning? Read on...

Trying hard to capture
the moment this morning I don't know
'Cause a bottle of vodka
is still lodged in my head


The casual reader might think that this means that somebody - possibly that treacherous swine Richie Sambora - has hit John in the head with a vodka bottle with such force that it is now embedded in his skull. This is, of course, one "available reading" of the "text". However, it can also be taken to mean that he drank a bottle of vodka last night, and is still a little hung over. Thus, the bottle of vodka is metaphorically lodged in his head, although actually it is on the draining board, empty. Either of these readings can be given primacy without harming the sense of the poem - it's the doubt in the mind of the reader that creates the frisson.

And some blond gave me nightmares
I think that she's still in my bed
As I dream about movies
they won't make of me when I'm dead


Genius. Bon Jovi, by dreaming about movies they will not make of him when he's dead, reminds us of his fundamentally tripartite nature. Poet, musician, movie actor. So, he muses stoically, he will be remembered not as John Bon Jovi, but potentially only as an American military engineer, for example, if the person who is thinking about him has seen U-571, or perhaps as the vampire hunter Derek Bliss. Do you see? His very skill at placing himself inside the skin of a character will ultimately efface the real John Bon Jovi from memory. It is beautiful and sad.



spyinthehaus: Regular readers of this series of bottle

via metafilter

por ninguna razón hagan busqueda de imagenes en google con bon jovi... el primer resultado me ha quemado la retina...

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