As Bon Jovi were about to resume their World Tour in 2001, the band decided to release their first live record. After being dropped as the title for their comeback 2000 album, One Wild Night sounded more than appropriate for what was supposed to capture all the energy, passion and enthusiasm a Bon Jovi live show is known for. With a hit single and record under their belt, the new generation would be exposed to their past hits, while old fans would be given one treat they always had waited for: a live album.
Before One Wild Night came out, they also released the EP "The Love Songs", including Bon Jovi's finest ballads in a deluxe package for Valentine's day and "Tokyo Road - Best of Bon Jovi", a Japanese only greatest hits, released in order to prove to the Japanese fans they could fill 1 album with all rockers, no ballads and hence surpass their 90s stigma of Soft Rockers.
With the goal set, there was a discussion about the format of how the album should come out. Jon imposed to the record company it should be affordable, to which the record label agreed only if it were 1 single disk. The deal was set and so Obie O'Brian, the band's long friend and engineer, was given the task to dive into the band's archives and come up with recordings worth of Bon Jovi's live reputation. Truth to be told, it was no easy task since the band had forged its legacy upon 18 years of memorable shows. The idea of a live album had been on the table for at least 2 times, in 1990 and 1996, so the archives were filled with countless versions of almost every song the band had ever performed. Add the fact that the band had always brought cover songs, as well as acoustic and re-arranged versions of their own material to their tous, and it's easy to guess the track list for this album was no less than a big head ache that wouldn't be able to please to all of Bon Jovi's fans or even be fair to represent the band's live legacy.
On May, 28th 2001 "One Wild Night: Live 1985 - 2001" hits the stores.
The track list includes inevitable hits such as "It's my life", "Livin'on a Prayer", "You give Love a Bad Name", "Wanted Dead or Alive", "Keep the Faith" and "Bad Medicine", but surprises most fans and critics for having no ballads. In stead, it includes album tracks that please most hardcore fans such as the epic "Something to Believe in", the fan favourite "Someday I'll be Saturday Night", Jon's personal favourite "Just Older" or 90's single "Something for the Pain". The album also includes "Runaway" and "In and Out of Love" recorded in Tokyo 1985, which surprisingly end up being the only recordings from the 80s. There are also 2 cover songs, "Rockin' in the free world" and a duet with Bolb Geldof, "I Don't like Mondays". Finally, a remixed studio version of "One Wild Night" wraps up the album, becoming its promotional single.
Although having a reasonable response among occasional fans much due to the sound quality of the recordings and musical diversity, hard core fans are mostly disappointed with it, since they aren't able to feel the Bon Jovi experience while listening to it. The reasons for such a downside are mostly concerned with the fact that the mixing didn''t merge the songs, splitting tracks and creating a sense of rushed copy and paste production. On the other hand, the song sequence is very artificial and for those who had witnessed Bon Jovi shows and were used to a very cohesive sequence of songs, the album couldn't take them back to the pleasant memories. Finally, the fact that half of the tracks had already been released as B-Sides or Video recordings, ended up creating the sensation not of the Bon Jovi live record, but more of a rushed live compilation, assembled for occasional and new fans, that was prematurely released only to achieve commercial goals and no long term perspective to represent the band live legacy.
The album had its momentum and served the intent to introduce 80s and 90s hits to the 2000 generation who had heard Bon Jovi for the first time with "It's my Life". Its singles, "One Wild Night 2001" and "Wanted Dead or Alive", allowed the band to have some airplay, helping to sell out most of their summer stadium shows. However, most fans will definitely prefer a good quality bootleg, over the only official live full length the band released. It is with no surprise that Bon Jovi fans are still waiting for a definitive live album that can bring them back to the 2 hour plus show where all the problems seemed to vanish and entertainment and art were hands in hands in the best experience a human being can have with his/her clothes on. 6/10
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