Bon Jovi was one of the first metal bands I was listening to, but I was also one of their fans who didn’t turn my back on them after their extensive change of sound in the 90’s. Good or bad, in the beginning of the 90’s the entire “hair metal” scene entirely collapsed. Bon Jovi was probably the only band from that scene that survived, and that was because they changed their sound entirely. The Keep the Faith (1992) and These Days (1995) albums were clearly influenced by the emerging grunge scene.
Then came the 00’s, and there was time for something new. The first single from the Crush (2000) album, It’s my life, is co-written by Max Martin. Crush is, while not being a bad album, not my favourite from their catalogue. But on this album my all time favourite song from them was being presented, namely Mystery train. This is a great example of the fact that “a great song is a great song”, as it is definitely not the kind of song I’m usually listening to. It has a kind of psychedelic sound and is more The Beatles than hair metal, but it is an amazing song!
But, here’s a full confession, I didn’t fully understand the lyrics at the time (and they were not printed in the booklet), so I made my own interpretation of them. To me they signified the story of a restless life where you wouldn’t know what would happen next. I thought of my life as a “mystery train” as I had no idea whatsoever where I would be living, or be doing, in a few year’s time. However, when writing this post I actually looked up the lyrics online and read them, and realized they actually depict a complicated love story; the lyrics in the pre-chorus goes I know everything about her but don’t know her at all, and it sums up the story of the lyrics really well. And, here’s the interesting philosophical question: Am I right or wrong …? This is an interesting topic that I sure will get back to in another post. In 2000 I still had no idea just what a ride the mystery train would take me on. It sure would be a longer and more complicated ride than I expected, and that ride isn’t over yet.
A funny personal memory regarding this song is when I, while doing a radio show during my studies of sound production, were to present my six (!) favourite songs and comment on them, decided to present every song I played with their musical key, like: “This song is in F sharp minor” when playing The final countdown by Europe. But this song I didn’t know what key it was in, and back then you couldn’t just google things like that. My friend Jesper, who had a nearly absolute pitch, listened to it and said “It’s D major, for sure”. I was hesitant, it didn’t feel like D major to me, but took his word for it. Many years later I got the chance to check it out, and the key was definitely D major. Well done, Jesper!
Johan Lindbäck 