Have you ever noticed how much the Mission's "Wasteland" sounds like "Livin' on a prayer"?

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Because wow, it really does. I submit as evidence: highly similar up-and-down basslines during the verses, which are sparse and moody as the narrators set the respective scenes in overdramatic portentous voices. Both express the desire to ESCAPE and be free from their prisons of doubt, uncertainty, and New Jersey (well maybe not both of them). Cue big big big choruses that are not exactly carbon copies of each other, but if you sing "livin on a prayer" over "wasteland" it works pretty well, i'm tellin ya. They both follow the exact same format anyway. Bad hair and worse outfits all around.

Both 1986 - although I think Bon Jovi came first? Anyway, heard "wasteland" last night and I could NOT stop thinking of "loap" - the teenage goth in me was horrified, but the current me was extremely amused.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

Sounds more like "Over the Wall" by the Bunnymen, actually.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

...and the likelihood of Wayne being a fan of Bon Jovi is entirely slim.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

Sounds more like "Over the Wall" by the Bunnymen, actually.

I never noticed that, but you're quite right.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (East, Monday, 13 June 2005 13:36 (twenty years ago)

http://www.collectr.com/ce/images/cpbonjovij.jpg ihttp://themissionuk.com/images/archive/9091/live-wayne05.jpg

Separated at birth?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

I think even by Wayne's own admission, "Wasteland" --- now the band's least favorite song to perform -- is a thinly veiled re-write of "Over the Wall" (and Wayne is originally from Liverpool, like the Bunnymen, and certainly not above the odd bit of musical theft).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

xpost - have you ever noticed how much "over the wall" sounds like "livin on a prayer"?

no, i mean, i don't think they're the same song or anything, but it seems like a pretty strong resemblance to me. and they are kinda similar in overall feel and presentation, though the mission's more pompous and bon jovi's more glitzy. still, hairspray's hairspray no matter who's using it.

and no, i don't think wayne's a bon jovi fan.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

I'll have to listen to "Livin' on a Prayer" again. I think there are a few too many major keys in "Livin'..." than in "Wasteland" (which is all minor, naturally).

I wouldn't be surprised if Jon BJ was aware of the Mish's work (despite the bog standard nature of BJ's user-friendly mall metal, supposedly Jon spent a good deal of time listening to Punk rock and New Wave....to no discernible effect, obviously), but at the time (`86/`87), I sincerely doubt Wayne was listening to a lot of hair metal.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

The intro to "Prayer" always sounds like the intro to "West End Girls". Everytime that Bon Jovi song comes on our dino-rock station, I get all "wow! they're playing the Pet Shop Boys" until I'm proven wrong (again.)

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 16 May 2008 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

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