"Runaway" by Bon Jovi - February 3rd 80's Quest Song/Band of the Day

My first impressions on seeing this video for the first time in years and years:

• Wow!  Those are some TIGHT lavender pants he's wearing with those hi-top sneakers!!!
• Man, this is one of those cheaply made 80's videos!  Not like the productions Bon Jovi put out nowadays.
• I always felt bad for the keyboard player.  His hair was so naturally curly that he could never have cool heavy metal hair.
• I remember back around 1986/1987 people (men and women!) were deliberately perming their hair and putting in little highlights so that it would look just like Jon Bon Jovi's hair.
• I also dated guys who wore spandex pants back then, and it wasn't a joke at the time.  Come to think of it, I dated a couple guys who wore fringed leather jackets too.  Ewwww!
• This video seems a lot like Stephen King's "Firestarter" to me.

I've had my moments with Bon Jovi.  I liked them in the beginning, then they lost me during their "Western" phase", then they would put out a song that I liked again and draw me in again for awhile.  I come and go with them.  But in the beginning when this song, "Runaway" came out, I really liked it.  This song is a lot faster paced than some of the later stuff they put out.  And....who doesn't love a good rock song about a runaway?  Del Shannon started it, and Bon Jovi, The Partridge Family, and Soul Asylum and so many others just took off with it.

Bon Jovi formed in 1983 in Sayreville, New Jersey.  The band consists of Jon Bongiovi (singer), Richie Sambora (guitarist), David Bryan (keyboards), Tico Torres (drums), and Alec John Such (bass).

Jon Bongiovi began playing guitar and piano at age 13 and formed his first band at age 16 with David Bryan.  He played in local New Jersey clubs with a series of bands.  By 1982 he was out of school and working part-time in a women's shoe store.  His cousin Tony Bongiovi was a co-owner of the famed Power Station recording studios in Manhatten and gave him a job.  Jon Bongiovi had originally recorded the demo for the song "Runaway" using studio musicians.  He submitted the demo to some local homegrown radio programs and it began getting airplay around New York.  Eventually the song broke out in other parts of the country.

In 1984/1985 when the band was out playing they were signed to Mercury Records.  The original idea for the band name was Johnny Electric, but they went with Bon Jovi instead (an alternate spelling of Bongiovi, following the lead of other rock bands like Van Halen who used the band member's last name for the band name.  Famed manager Doc McGhee took them on and in 1984 they recorded their debut album, "Bon Jovi" which contained their first hit song, "Runaway". The song was particularly huge in Japan!  Bon Jovi went on tour as the opening band for the Scorpions in the U.S. and KISS in Europe.

Bon Jovi is such a part of America's consciousness, that I won't go into every detail about the band, but I will note that they have put out 15 albums, and been nominated for numerous Grammy Awards.  The album that really broke them was 1986's "Slippery When Wet" which contained such hits as "You Give Love a Bad Name" (the band's first #1 U.S. Single), "Livin' on a Prayer" which were written by Jon Bogiovi, Richie Sambora and an at the time unknown songwriter named Desmond Childs who was recommened to the band by Paul Stanley of KISS.  Childs still writes with Bon Jovi to this day.  The band is still recording and scoring big hits, and filling concerts stadiums well into the 2000's.  They have a fiercely loyal fan base, and many people from New Jersey are very proud of their success.

Lyrics:

On the street where you live girls talk about their social lives
They're made of lipstick, plastic and paint
A touch of sable in their eyes

All your life all you asked
When is your Daddy gonna talk to you
But we're living in another world
Tryin' to get your message through

No one heard a single word you said
They should have seen it in your eyes
What was going around your head

[Chorus:]
Oh, she's a little runaway
Daddy's girl learned fast
All those things he couldn't say
Ooh, she's a little runaway

A different line every night
Guaranteed to blow your mind
See you out on the streets
Call me for a wild time
So you sit home alone
'Cause there's nothing left that you can do
There's only pictures hung in the shadows
Left there to look at you

You know she likes the lights
At night on the neon Broadway signs
And she don't really mind
Its only love she hoped to find

[Chorus]

No one heard a single word you said
They should have seen it in your eyes
What was going on your head

[Chorus]