Wanted Dead or Alive!

Wanted Dead or Alive is one of Bon Jovi's most iconic songs ever written, especially as it is for "all the cowboys out there". The opening chords are stunning and the lyrics aint half bad either!

This song was written for the 1986 album Slippery When Wet by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. Jon was quoted at one of Bon Jovi's gigs that this song was written in Richie's mother's basement at their home. Jon laughed when recalling this memory and thanked Richie's Mum for not doing the laundry that day. I think all of the Jovi fans worldwide should thank Richie's Mum for that! It was Bon Jovi's third single and it did exceedingly well, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Charts.

Jon himself said that this song was inspired by Bob Seger's song Turn the Page.

Jon believed that the lifestyle of rockers was similar to that of outlaws in the Wild West, and this song pays homage to that. After hearing Turn the Page, Jon convinced Richie that they had to write a song like this, and so, the following year, Wanted Dead or Alive was born!

This song has been performed in almost every setlist, normally as the second last or last song in the encore. It leaves the crowd with an unexplainable buzz that remains with them long after the gig has concluded.

Bon Jovi, with a lot of their hits, have opted to do acoustic versions which sometimes do work, but sometimes really do fail and do not live up to the original. Wanted Dead or Alive is one of those songs that they decided to do acoustically for their This Left Feels Right CD/DVD. Have a listen, let me know what you think. Is it as good as the original? Should it have been left alone? Is it better?

I remember my first time hearing Bon Jovi sing this song live. It was at Twickenham Stadium, London on June 27th 2008 and it was the last song of the night. The screens behind the band were illuminated with what looked like a sunrise, the dawn of a new day, ironically for what was the final song of the night. I remember feeling quite sad listening to this because it was my first time seeing Bon Jovi live and it was also a realisation that they weren't going to sing my all-time favourite song, Bed of Roses (those that know me know i'm pleading with the band through their online official pages to perform this in Dublin exactly 5 weeks from today). However, being a part of a 43,000 strong crowd singing along to one of Bon Jovi's classics was so memorable. It was truly amazing. The crowd sang the whole first verse and chorus which resulted in an electric atmosphere. Jon and Richie then took over and completely blew me away.

This iconic song has been used in many Hollywood films and television series and I can imagine that many Jovi fans get a little bit excited when one of Jovi's greatest hits is played without our fore knowledge. Some examples are Supernatural, American Dad, Wedding Crashers, Wild Hogs, NCIS, The Vampire Diaries, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. The song has also been covered many times in reality shows such as American Idol and Nashville Star.

Speaking of covers, some very brave people have jumped at opportunities to cover this song and make it their own. I will say some of the covers are good and sound very similar to Bon Jovi's style but goodness me, there are some really shockingly bad covers... There are 2 covers that I'm going to include here. One is a very country style one which works and is quite good (obviously not as good as Bon Jovi ;) )

The other cover which i'm going to include is by a band called Northern Kings. It is quite a hard rock,verging on metal cover which, in my opinion, is utterly dreadful. I have never heard of this band nor do I know any of their other songs, but I believe they should not have tried covering this classic. It just doesn't work. Opinions?

So, Wanted Dead or Alive. Almost 25 years old, and it's still one of Bon Jovi's greatest ever songs. The crowd still loves it and each time Jon sings "I've seen a million faces....", he most definitely rocks them all.

Til next time folks, have a nice day ;)


Sources: Wikipedia, Google Images, Youtube.