Hey everybody welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the singing
and I'm continuing my series on isolated vocal tracks where I'm doing a vocal analysis,
a singing tutorial, I'm talking about the music, the artist, et cetera. Next up is Jon Bon Jovi, actually
Bon Jovi, "Bad Medicine" is the song and I did a version of this myself so I'm gonna put it in the
description for you guys to check out. See how I did, see if I stacked up to Jon and company
and you know this song's kind of interesting for me because it's got a lot of
different elements to it and I want to tell you what they are I'll give you a little sneak
preview before we get there. The guitar in the verses reminded me a lot of Mark Knopfler
in Dire Straits, playing "Money For Nothing" and if you go and you check out the song
(sounds)
you know (sings) remember that song.
Now I thought too though, Mark Knopfler's version was also inspired by "Jumping Jack Flash".
(sounds) right.
So there's a picking thing in the Rolling Stones in "Jumping Jack Flash" that was similar
to Mark Noffler doing "Money For Nothing" which is similar to Bon Jovi doing you know
the "Bad Medicine". Now there's an old saying and I was just laughing with Gabriella Guncikova
who's staying with me now here with my family here in the studio we're gonna do some awesome
recording stuff but I was just telling her that, that good composers borrow
and great composers steal and we gotta hear a little bit of that with the guitar stuff here.
Not saying that he's doing it I'm just saying right. Anyway let's dive into the vocal first
then we'll add the guitar part stuff, we'll talk about it as we go along. Here we go.
Okay now that is an awesome intro chorus and Jon was notorious for just bam, hitting you with
you know (sings) or (sings) just right up front, giving you
the goods on the chorus and this is no exception okay. Now I want to just play this instrumental
part so you can laugh with me and I can show you what I'm talking about here check it out.
Okay watch.
That thing (sings)
and even the tone of the guitar, even the tone of the guitar is similar to "Money For Nothing".
Go on check me out on this but anyway let's get, we're here to talk about vocals so I'm gonna get
past that and going up to the track, here we go. Mute that, turn the vocals back on, here we go baby.
Now it's so catchy (sings) right he's just like. Sorry I'm like,
I've been doing a lot of these today and having fun with them, but anyway it's
really interesting, he's got that great you know, rhythm. Let me just do it, show you the rhythm you know.
Right. So he's like (sounds),
that's really great quarter note rhythm groove thing that he's doing on the vocals,
which I'm impressed with because it's hard you know, one of the things too that I
love about Jon's writing is he comes up with thematic things like this, like,
like instead of just, instead of, it's also hard to write a really good melodic vocal
so I'm not saying it's not that at all but it's hard to come up with like a theme for
each section of the song. It's almost like each section has its own theme and this theme is (sings),
Now we've heard songs that have done that you know I could tell you what
the influences might be but it doesn't matter because Jon made it his own.
So anyway but so I love that how he thematically takes this on
and each part of the song has its own unique, you know composed vibe to it, it's really awesome.
Cool now the lyric is great, he's always known for a great lyric but something else that I wanted to
point out to you guys is the breath control okay. There is a lot of great and I remember
doing this when I did the song, again check out my version it's, it's in the description
but listen to how little breath he takes in it and how much lyric he's singing,
how heavy he's singing, how many lyrics or how many words are in the verses themselves
before he takes a breath. Pretty hard to do that. Check it out one more time, listen.
Did you see how long those phrases were before he took a breath, geez louise it kind of reminds me of
you know like Linkin Park or something with some of the long phrases that guy does man so
anyway hard stuff to sing from a breath control standpoint so kudos to him on that one.
Now it's kind of funny, back in the day, by the way also can you think about like what it'd be
like to run around on stage and have to sing those lyrics without passing out because you can't take
a breath, because i've been there. Anyway so I remember when the song first came out
and somehow the pr department floated around that Bon Jovi might have AIIDS and so the thing is oh, is
this the end of Bon Jovi. You know it reminds me of you know, there was a funny magazine and
it was called Mad magazine and for you old folks you'll remember this and there was a meme in there
if you want to call it that from way back then, but it was Ringo, Paul, George and John, the Beatles.
Ringo, Paul, George and John played a trick and put us on, dropped hints that Paul was dead as nails
and rocketed their record sales and this was in Mad magazine I don't know why this like
stuck in my brain and I remembered it you know so many years later I think I
read it when I was like nine or eight but anyway it seemed like there was a similar
thing going on here when this went out and it was sort of like
you know, whoever it was, Chrysalis, Warner Brothers, whoever the label was at the time, put a song,
you know played a trick and put us on, dropped hint that John was going to be dead as nails
in order to rocket their record sales. I think that's kind of what happened when they kind of
intimated he might have had AIDS, that's what this song was about, blah blah blah, you better buy his
last record now but get while the getting is good or you may not get to see him on tour next year so
sorry I know that's a little weird side note but I thought I'd add it in there. Anyway alright let's continue.
Did you hear how long that phrase was. Try it. Try this phrase,
try singing this this long, this hard, this much strength at the height or altitude of
the notes that he's singing this in, without taking a breath. Check it out.
Great breath control if you ask me.
Good songwriting man I mean really catchy stuff if this is this catchy without
any instrumentation at all and I could just sit there and sing you that and you're like (sings).
Now I probably would have treated it a little bit different, he's Jon I'm not,
and instead of going (sings) I'd probably went (sings).
Like I probably would have kind of had some phrasing stabs that would
have been a little bit more different for me so but his is just like I said,
it's withstood the test of time right. Anyway so let's continue, here we go.
And those screams have always kind of reminded me of David Lee Roth (screams)
right. Listen to the David Lee Roth scream right here, check it out.
Anyway, he probably wouldn't like to be referred to
as David Lee Roth but it sounds a little like that to me so. Anyway here we go.
Did you hear that line, I need a respirator because I'm running out of breath. I know you're right, check it out
Did you hear how long that sucker was. Listen to this man it's crazy,
and the lyric is great, go back and read the lyric I forget exactly what it is but it's pretty funny it's like.
Okay I'm gonna fast forward because it's all the same until here.
Where do you think he got that. Who's bad, who's bad, Michael Jackson is bad brothers. Anyway who's bad, who's bad, who's that right.
Now if you listen closely, he sounds like he's running out of breath,
he sounds like he's lost his his voice but it's also the shtick of the song. Listen to it,
who's bad, wait a minute I gotta do this again. One more time right, check it out.
Lisbon I've come to join you honey.
Bring it on.
All right I will.
Try to help him out, he asked for help I'm helping him all right, give me a break.
All right basically that's it but I want to go back and I want to check out this with
the track because this this is bad, a bad tune with, with the track so check this out.
That's awesome. All right you guys, thank you for joining me, love Jon, love the songwriting,
love his theatrics. I just love everything, a lot of work went into this stuff, even those
background vocals are huge and always hired a great producer to, to make this
stuff come alive and just set the bar really really high for a lot of this kind of 80s
metal production stuff so. Hopefully you enjoyed this and definitely check out my next video.