Every huge artist has their "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline

Harsh but fair

whoa oh

Desmond Child's laziest songwriting effort. It's where @cmolanphy's theory comes in: the track's popularity was, in a way, the public's referendum for the success of Slippery When Wet. The public was primed to buy ANYTHING Bon Jovi in 1988, and they bought this hot garbage. https://t.co/MkeNmqrf7R

— Adrien Begrand (@AdrienBegrand) June 9, 2021

That's what you get for falling in love obv.

Actually, I don't really know what makes this more garbage-like than most of SWW.

As far as Bon Jovi goes, this is the only one I don't turn off when it comes on the radio. I find it gloriously stupid.

c'mon now, Living On A Prayer actually rips

i can't believe i put the "g" on Livin'

so embarrassing

I find it gloriously stupid.

It's a terrific fake Slade song (only lacking in that it wasn't titled "Bad Med-A-Sin").

I did my best to promote the thread on Breihan's Twitter feed.

I love the song's fake fake-ending, which is like extra stupid. I love the on the nose lyrics. I love how it sounds a bit like the fake song Jack Black writes in "School of Rock." And I love how the only Bon Jovi songs I can hum are the ones they wrote with Desmond Child, though to be fair there are a bunch of songs they did with Desmond Child that I've never heard or don't recognize. Desmond Child, man. What a weird ass CV that hack has.

FWIW, Child had another hit with Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You" the same year as "Bad Medicine," and that song is even more in the Slade-ish glam-rock mode.

and much better

Man, now I wish Joan Jett had done "Bad Medicine."

Desmond Child should be banned from music with guitars, sitars, theremins, and bongos

a theremin and bongos band would be cool

The Joan Jett song is bad ass. The Bon Jovi song is stoopid.

evergreen

"Dude Looks Like a Lady" was the year before too. Child was really on a roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3XaWdYfmk

Child was really on a roll a troll.

i can't believe i put the "g" on Livin'

so embarrassing

OMG, there is some great stuff here, which makes me think I could listen to Desmond Child tell stories for hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TDydJPb7O0

In which I learn that "Dude Looks Like a Lady" was written about Vince Neil (and also that Desmond Child is gay, which I also didn't know). Here's a crazy clip of Child with Vince Neil and a young Rick Beato working on something shitty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmqzcJrizl8

One reason why "Bad Medicine" seems worse than the Slippery When Wet singles is that those songs could plausibly be seen as having actual subjects, storylines and characters that we could putatively care about, whereas this song is just a contentless celebration of their Bon Joviness (particularly if you're familiar with the video).

I'm surprised this song hasn't been hijacked by the anti-vaxxers yet.

don't give them the idea, 45% of ILX is anti-vax lurkers

The problem is, Bon Jovi WANT their bad medicine.

If “hate myself” had been sung by Bon Jovi you guys would hate on it and point to jett’s “medicine” as the superior tune

counterpoint: nope

I hate the Jovi but can at least point to hooks in his older material. the chorus to Bad Medicine is fuckin' dire, as is the verse, and it sounds like it was written in ten minutes over screwdrivers

It doesn't seem that different from "You Give Love a Bad Name" in terms of content? It's just a less negative take on seduction and obsession but it could even be a prequel.xps

tbh I'm not a huge fan of "I Hate Myself for Loving You" either but i'd take it over Butt Medicine

Or "I Hate Myself..." for that matter
Xp

woulda preferred if Kinison had sang Bad Medicine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKboMhtEKoM

"Your love is like Sam Kin-i-son"

It's like the pu-pu platter of hard rock cameos: Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Ratt, Slash and Steven Adler of Guns N' Roses, Billy Idol, Steve Vai, Dweezil Zappa, Richie Sambora, Jon Bon Jovi and Tommy Lee.

Actually, there are even more hair dorks in that Kinison video. CC from Poison, Sebastian Bach, Rudy Sarzo, supposedly Jonathan Cain from Journey?

and also that Desmond Child is gay, which I also didn't know

it's not like this song doesn't exist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ihtX86JzmA

"She Bangs" is worse than "Bad Medicine."

"She Bangs" is worse than most songs.

and significantly gayer

"you give love a bad name" is a way better conceit/premise than "your love is like bad medicine." i feel like someone started with "love is like oxygen" and started swapping in other words as an exercise in beating writer's block, and the end result is just a bag of cliches. the lyric could maybe sustain an under-three-minutes 50s rock/r&b number but not this kind of arena-scaled hard rock, imo.

What is bad medicine?

Expired?
Not FDA-approved?
Hard drugs?

i think it's like, the generic/competitor's product in commercials for Extra-Strength Tylenol.

it’s when the other person is just like a pill, ‘stead of makin' you better they keep makin' you ill

Yeah, I thought it was a barely-coded reference to pill addiction.

Looks like we need a Desmond Child poll. And "I Hate Myself for Loving You" would top my list.

"Shocker" by Dudes of Wrath would top mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dgbcPl6TxI

Catchy garbage

Looks like he wrote Alice Cooper "Poison" which is the same metaphor as "Bad Medicine" and it's a much better song.

and better than BBD's "Poison."