Hey everybody welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the singing.
I am continuing my series on taking these phenomenal isolated vocal tracks and I'm just
having a blast with these things. I'm like I can't believe I get to do this, seriously I'm
like pinching myself and next up is Bon Jovi "Blaze Of Glory", actually it's Jon Bon Jovi
right movie soundtrack stuff and so "Blaze Of Glory" to me is kind of like maybe part two of
"Wanted Dead Or Alive" a little bit and I hear a lot of Sambora influence in this though I'm not sure
if he participated in the songwriting or not. You guys can help me with that in the comment section
let me know, but anyway I want to dive into this because just a well-crafted song. The dude is a
great songwriter and I'm really sorry he's having vocal trouble, now it would have been great if
he'd taken care of his voice over these years because the guy is just a really phenomenally
talented dude. So I want to just dive right in. Now I said "Wanted Dead Or Alive" part two and
you're going to hear it but I want to pay special attention to when you hear a movie soundtrack song,
you have to understand, I've done a lot of them and you have to understand that, oh,
before I forget, if you guys wouldn't mind, please like, subscribe to my channel that'd be really cool.
Coming up on a million subs I want to hit that million mark, however many years that is. Anyway
and I also have a singing course, the course called How to Sing Better Than Anyone Else.
You can find it right here KenTamplinVocalAademy.com you know I have a singing forum over there blah
blah blah blah you can find a great singing forum, 25,000 singers, out of the way. Okay, got that done
I just want to let you guys know that every time I do a video that you can actually learn how to sing
like some of this stuff with Jon so when you're doing a movie soundtrack song, it's kind of
weird because you're contracted, sometimes you get to see the scenes sometimes you don't, sometimes
you're just asked to write a theme, sometimes you know whatever it is right. In this case that's kind
of what it is and you get told what the movie's about, you kind of get the you know you get to read
some of the script or whatever and then you're asking hey can you give us a representation of
that so really great composition that's why composers get paid the big money is, coming up
with something that fits the movie and of course you know you've got Young Guns right the movies,
movie, you've got the theme of Outlaw so of course they wanted Jon Bon Jovi he was hot at the time
of course and coming off you know "Wanted Dead Or Alive" they probably heard that and went wow he could
just, I know he could write something really cool for the movie and he did. So if you think about
the characters in the movie if you've ever seen it and you go through the song you're like wow
he really nailed the whole idea of it. So iIm not only going to talk about the singing but I want to
have a special emphasis on the lyrics and just you know drawing, painting the picture of what he had
to work with in order to you know project that on the canvas of the of the movie that's going
on in his mind. So here we go. Check it out.
Okay so
(sings)
right. Okay by the way I did a version of this.
If you guys want to scrutinize it, see how I did it's in the description, you guys can go click on
the description look at it. I did a version, tell me how I did okay. I would sing it with a little
more soul and a little more blues so if Bad Company were to have done a (sings)
right. I could see Paul Rodgers could have written a song like this also and done a really great job
because they already had that you know outlaw kind of motif going back in Bad Company, "Shooting Star",
all those different songs but anyway so but the lyric is really cool. Listen to it again. Check it out.
So I wake up in the morning
where I laid my weary head, I got an old coat for a pillow and the earth was last night's bed.
What a great lyric. I mean I'm just not hearing lyrics written that quality in today's music
right. So anyway let's continue, here we go.
So I'm a you know
I don't know where (sings)
something devils something you know candle in the wind but anyway so it's got this total
cool outlaw vibe right which I think is just awesome. Next line here we go. Check it out.
How cool
is that (sings) by the way, I think I sang it a little bluesier so I think,
I think my version was kind of (sings)
right. So I've got a little
bit more of like Coverdale meets Paul Rodgers in my version. I coulda gone (sings)
right. So Jon is a lot straighter on the sound than I would be
but he really, so mine might be distracting and not tell the story as cool if I was just
as an artist trying to replicate this because I'd want to like have some swag of what I like about
singers rather than singing solely for the song like he's done but I love the the comedy in it and
the way he's writing. So when you say you're born, when you say you're born, what is it hold on
Yeah when you're brought into this world they say you're born with sin,
at least they gave me something I didn't have to steal or have to win. What a great line that is in
other words you know okay so I've got, I've got the judgment of this on me, I'm born with sin right but
at least it's not something that I, I inherited it and it's not something I had to do on my own which
was also sin. At least I didn't have to steal, sin or have to win implying like a poker game or something right.
I thought that was kind of cool. Again great songwriting.
Now personally when I hear a lot of the over dramatization of all that (sings)
like to me that's a little melodramatic to add all that air. It works in
the track. Let's go back and take a listen to it in the track. It's cool in the track because the
track is so epic. So let me bring the track in. Hold on here we go.
So if you take out the track and
you listen to it with just the vocal alone, there's a lot more of that melodramatization. Now it's true
when you're recording, whether it's energy or whether it's emotion, it's really, really, really
hard to capture that, so oftentimes as singers in a recording environment we over do something so by
the time it sits in the track, it kind of settles in and then it mellows it out to where it's not
so frenetic or so overdone. This is true for energy too sometimes you think you really gave it your
all and it's kind of schmidt you know and it doesn't have really quite the energy you thought
so we kind of overdo some of the energy and overdo some of the phrasings, overdo certain things
in order that by the time all the tracks in and it settles in, it's just enough for the track so I'm
pretty sure that's kind of probably what happened he might have even done a couple versions listening
to it going you know it's just not enough, it's just not enough, I gotta, I gotta get more emotion in
this, more passion in it and then you can kind of hear that play out. So let's listen to it one more time
with a view towards that.
Hear all the air.
Here's the track.
See what I mean.
You know (sings). See if it was me I would like (sings) you know I would like
ah I would have dug in a little bit more but Jon has his (sings) going on
so it's a little different than me I bring a lot more weight up into the sound. A lot of Richie
Sambora influenced as far as I'm concerned in the chorus you can, it's just like I said (sings)
right. Can't you hear that just in the choruses it's
going by you. Check it out. Here we go.
Good lyric, good melody.
Cool (sings) like you can kind of hear it kind of be pitchy which is cool but it's kind of the
nature of that right, but it's also interesting too, I never drew first but I drew first blood
like some good lyrics there guys, give this guy some credit man, he's a great songwriter.
I've heard some people talking smack because he's having some vocal trouble right now.
That's a bummer man I'd like to hear more, more from Jon with mature at,
the maturity he has now coming back, leaning back for everything he's learned and you know if he was,
it, let me say this another way. In today's musical climate,
it's a bummer because there's not a lot of true artistry going on, there's some where everyone's
trying to sound like everybody else or everyone's auto-tuning this or doing that or they want to,
every, all the music sounds the same, comes from the same box, it's got the same samples, same producers
and so we've really lost a lot in the art of diversity as far as artistry is concerned and
so he had just his own very unique signature sound which was phenomenal and I'm just not seeing a
lot of new artists come out with that you know the, all the computer driven stuff and the dance driven
stuff and the pop stuff, sounds all the same. You know either you're really concerned about a vocal run, auto
tuning something or having some hyper sexualized thing in order to sensationalize something to
sell it rather than being a true artist okay. Let's continue here we go.
Wasn't that a great lyric. I, I think I'm as, as infatuated, though it's a great song and
great melodies and everything but I'm, I'm, I'm as intrigued with the words
that are going by personally, as I am the music right.
I'm caught up in the story.
I never heard that (sings) never knew that was in there did you. Anyway all right, I want to move this forward because
there's a really long instrumental break. Here we go.
Now it's interesting too
Jon has a lot of biblical, Judeo-Christian, biblical references in his music it's, it's pretty
fascinating you know "Livin' On A Prayer" and you know, you know "Lay Your Hands On Me", there's a lot
of songs that he has "Wanted" where he refers a lot to biblical stuff and this one you know I
pray my soul, lord my soul to keep that's actually not biblical but it's a, it's a, you know
it's kind of Metallica writing "Enter Sandman" no, but it's a nursery rhymey kind of thing you say
to your kids when you know, when they're growing up in their bed so but, but he does, he uses a
lot of spiritual references but I think that, so he probably has a really rooted spiritual background.
I've heard him talk a little bit about it as a Christian and I think that's interesting that
it permeates through in, in his music which is great so you pray lord my soul to keep but
before I die then I put six foot deep this is his one request. Here we go.
Now you could probably practically see the scene right. He's setting him up for like a a showdown
right. You can, you kind of set his up and he knows he's gonna die and he's, he's gonna man up to it.
It's funny there's an Iron Maiden song (sings)
right. It's got that if you're gonna die die with your boots on kind of kind of thing and
he might have even been inspired by that because I well, i was. Anyway, let's continue. Here we go.
Here we go. Shot down in a blaze of glory.
See and even, even in these sections like he doesn't just repeat the chorus
and do it a bunch of times the same way, like he goes the extra mile to take us a
different place in his music. So he'll, even if the chorus has a repeated you know,
melodically speaking you know as far as the chords are similar going by,
he just adds some more cheese to it to kind of flavor it up and take it yet to another level.
I love that (sings) right.
It's kind of little some Glenn Hughes in there (sings) right. There's some Paul Rodgers meets David
Coverdale. Anyway gang like I said I'm having a really good time doing this. I'm really just
trying to show you all these really interesting, intriguing things because I think a lot of
times you know we can get lazy in our songwriting we think ah that's good enough or, or we don't really
you know spend a lot of quality time and it takes a long time to write a great song and you have to
have a really good command of good lyrics and you know how you get your lyrics and whatnot.
I remember, I've seen a lot of guys on the road and they'll be on the road for a long time
and they'll see like a street sign, I kid you not. It'll say you know this way to blah blah blah
and they'll just go that's great and they'll write it down or they'll say,
you know last exit before paying the toll and you're like oh that's kind of the toll road but
you never thought like really the last exit before paying the toll and they'll write this stuff down
and then later it ends up in their song like hey I know where you got that I was on the bus with you
you know it's kind of cool and I don't mean Kurt Cobain talking about you know my libido, my
you know, isn't it neato,
eating my fritos with cheetos. I'm not talking about those kind of lyrics, those kind of road
lyrics.Ii'm talking about this kind of road lyrics so. Anyway hope you enjoyed
that sorry I wasn't trying to bash on you Kurt God rest your soul but I am when it comes
to the actual lyrical content of songwriting compared to stuff like this. So shoot me if you
want. I'll go down on a blaze of glory (sings). All right definitely check out my next video gang.