“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is a song that has been covered by dozens of artist over the past thirty-eight years. In the Bon Jovi video he gives a brief history of the songs origins and even takes a dig at Axel Rose. But Rose along with the rest of Guns N’ Roses took the song to it’s peak rating of 2 on the U.S. Billboard charts. However, Bon Jovi has never recorded the song for a studio album reserving it for live concerts.
In Bon Jovi’s version of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” the song comes off with a much Softer Intensity, which I feel is a better feel for the song and the message being sung. The softness of the Intensity makes the song less in your face and more emotional. When compared to the Guns N’ Roses version the Pitch is lower causing the Bon Jovi version to seem slower when in reality it’s shorter. The way Bon Jovi sings the song it feels rich with Subtext I make a backstory in my head for the story being told where the man came from what he’s done. When I listen to the GnR version it’s more about the attitude I get from the song the loud instrumentation, and less about the actual Text or Subtext implied in the song. The Bon Jovi version for me creates a mellow Mood and causes me to think about lifes choices and what they may have meant for the character in the song.
The Guns N’ Roses Organization seems a bit more chaotic they take some liberties from the original material adding in a guitar solo. The distortion put on the guitars the loudness that they play the song at all contribute to the seeming chaotic organization. The Rhythm for GnR seems slightly irregular to me. They have a recurring chorus but there are sections that just seem like they don’t match any of the other sections. The two songs apparently can’t even agree on the Source keeping the tempo, at first GnR start to use the guitar (Bon Jovi uses it all the way through) but as you get deeper into the song the drums obviously take over. The closest the two songs ever get is in the Tempo which gets creepy close Axel and Jon sing the song almost word for word though Axel throws in some Ewww’s.
It’s almost as if the Harmony of the two songs are entirely different. As I said above the Mood between the two songs couldn’t really be more diverse and perhaps that’s why they stick out so well. I think it’s obvious in the reading above that I prefer the Bon Jovi version to the Guns N Roses version but I also prefer both of those to the original Bob Dylan song. It’s just my opinion that the Bon Jovi one is a thinking mans song. It makes me want to sit and reflect. While the Guns N’ Roses version is more of a man ready to take some sort of action type of song. GnR gets you pumped up to go out and be active. They’re both great songs but more often than not I pick the Bon Jovi version.
Bonus:
No comments:
Post a Comment