Guilty Pleasure, or I’m Going Down in a Blaze of Glory
You ever seen Young Guns II? I’ve seen it, oh, say, a gazillion million googolplex times? (shout out to Catherine) That is only movie I ever saw six times in a theatre. Why? Hmm. Eighth grade. Feast o’ fine men. Gun slinging. Good quotes – yoo hoo, I’ll make you famous; howdy doc, how’re your drawers?; yessir, I do: you can go to hell, hell, hell; it’s an ancient Navajo word—it means stop; and my personal favorite, you only like boys?
I bought the one and only Bon Jovi album I ever have or ever shall own, Blaze Of Glory: Songs Written And Performed By Jon Bon Jovi, Inspired By The Film Young Guns II. And oh, how I listened to that cassette tape. Over and over.
Years later, over the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college, I got a phone call from Lawyer Girl. She had popped in one of my old VHS tapes that I had recorded some movie off TV with, and then got busy doing something else, so the tape played on. Her comment was this:
“I, um… I found the Bon Jovi video.”
Busted. I had forgotten all about that week of watching MTV just to hit the Record button at the exact start of the Blaze of Glory video.
There is no way accurately describe her voice. She may as well have said, I, um, I know you were the fourth gunman on the grassy knoll.
What was I to do? I fessed up. Yeah. I liked it. Yeah. I recorded it. So what. I was thirteen and the Blaze of Glory video featured all the hotties from the movie. Sue me.
Does this make me a Bon Jovi fan? No. It makes me a Young Guns II fan. But I will give Bon Jovi credit for a few things: You Give Love a Bad Name, because without that song, what ever would the guy with the mohawk have sung on karaoke night (who, incidentally, my friend realized was one of the grocery baggers at Trader Joe’s); the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Bon Jovi concert coverage; and finally, the mere fact that they are STILL AROUND!!!! WTF!!! How can they still be going strong after all these years?
As Husband put it, “Even Journey, I can kind of understand. But Bon Jovi? I don’t get it.”
And now, in all its (Blaze of) Glory, the video—please note the excellent emphasis on the power of music from the 4:25 to 4:27 time frame.
