Jon Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead Or Alive

First performance: 31/01/1998


Coverinfo

Bruce performed the song only once:

Together with Jon Bon Jovi during the "Come Together" concert
 
1998-01-31 Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ

The "Come Together: Jon Bon Jovi & Friends" benefit concert was organized by the Long Branch Police Department, The Asbury Park Press, and FPI Concerts, along with Jon Bon Jovi. The concert was to honor slain Long Branch police officer Sgt. Patrick King and raise money for the Sgt. Patrick King Memorial Fund to provide for his family. King, 45-year-old father of two young boys, was fatally shot on 20 Nov 1997 by a fugitive who had vowed to kill himself and a police officer rather than be captured and returned to jail. Twenty musicians with ties to the Jersey shore music scene answered Jon Bon Jovi's call, including Bruce Springsteen and several members of the then-disbanded E Street Band (Clarence Clemons, Danni Frederici, Patti Scialfa, Steven Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg), Southside Johnny, Bobby Bandiera, and Richie Sambora among others. Actor Danny DeVito was the event's MC. Tickets, which were priced at $125, went on sale on 17 Jan 1998 noon and sold out in just eight minutes. The concert that was organized in short order raised more than $112,000 for King's widow and his two sons. This was a near-reunion of the fabled E Street Band and Springsteen's first full-length electric gig following the acoustic The Ghost Of Tom Joad Solo Acoustic Tour. Springsteen spent much (or possibly all) of the night onstage, singing or playing guitar only. Soundboard recording for the complete concert is available among collectors. The 31 Jan 1998 show at Count Basie Theatre was commercially released in Europe. Since 2005 some enterprising record labels in Europe (mostly in the UK) have been releasing Bruce Springsteen radio and TV broadcasts (and some soundboard recordings) from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Though these releases are not authorized by Bruce Springsteen or his record company, they are lawful due to a legal loophole in Europe. 
 
 
 
setlist : 
 
THIS TIME IT'S FOR REAL (with Southside Johnny, Jon Bon Jovi, and Steven Van Zandt) / BAD MEDICINE (Southside Johnny and Jon Bon Jovi) / UNTIL THE GOOD IS GONE (Steven Van Zandt) / BROKE DOWN PIECE OF MAN (Southside Johnny and Jon Bon Jovi) / HARD TIMES COME EASY (Richie Sambora) / LOVES GLORY (Patti Scialfa) / THERE GOES MY BABY (Southside Johnny) / THIS TIME BABY'S GONE FOR GOOD (with Southside Johnny and Steven Van Zandt) / YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME (with Jon Bon Jovi) / ALL I NEEDED WAS YOU (Southside Johnny and Steven Van Zandt) / SOMEDAY I'LL BE SATURDAY NIGHT (Jon Bon Jovi and Southside Johnny) / BLOOD ON BLOOD (Jon Bon Jovi) / I'VE BEEN WORKING TOO HARD - LITTLE QUEENIE (Southside Johnny and Jon Bon Jovi) / I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME (with Southside Johnny, Jon Bon Jovi, and Steven Van Zandt) / IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME (with Southside Johnny and Steven Van Zandt) / WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE (with Jon Bon Jovi) / FOREVER (Steven Van Zandt) / LIVIN' ON A PRAYER (Jon Bon Jovi) / I PLAYED THE FOOL (Southside Johnny and Jon Bon Jovi) / KEEP THE FAITH (Jon Bon Jovi) / ROCKIN' ALL OVER THE WORLD (with all performers) / TREAT HER RIGHT (with all performers) /  
 

Songinfo

"Wanted Dead or Alive" is a song by Bon Jovi. It is from their 1986 album Slippery When Wet. The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and was released in 1987 as the album's third single.
During a February 20, 2008 encore performance in Detroit, Jon Bon Jovi told the crowd about running into Bob Seger at a Pistons game.  During an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Jon said he got the inspiration for the song early one morning when he could not sleep while riding in a tour bus. The "lifestyle of every rock band" was similar to that of outlaws in that each was, "a young band of thieves, riding into town, stealing the money, the girls, and the booze before the sun came up." Jon Bon Jovi said during a concert in Detroit, Michigan, on February 20, 2008, that the song "absolutely positively was influenced by [Bob] Seger's 'Turn the Page. 'Bon Jovi performed "Turn the Page" during a concert in Toronto, Ontario on July 21, 2010. Afterward, Jon told the audience he remembered listening to this song in 1985 while traveling on a tour bus in the midwest and telling Richie Sambora, "We got to write a song like this." The following year the duo composed "Wanted Dead or Alive".
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

All appearances with Springsteen
 
  
 
2024-02-02 Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

2012-12-12 Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
The Concert For Sandy Relief 
 
2012-11-02 Rockefeller Center, GE Building, Studio 6A, New York City, NY 
2008-12-22 Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ 
2008-04-13 American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX 
2006-12-12 Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ 
2003-12-07 Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ 
2003-04-30 Stone Pony (The), Asbury Park, NJ 
2003-04-29 Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ 
2000-10-21 Hedgerow Farm, Middletown, NJ
 
1999-12-04 Diasco Residence, Colts Neck, NJ
Doug Flutie Autism Foundation Benefit
 
1999-08-12 Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ
1999-04-28 Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon, France 
1998-10-11 Springsteen Residence, Colts Neck, NJ 
 
1998-01-31 Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ 
Come Together Benefit
 
1997-03-08 Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ 
1995-04-12 Carnegie Hall, New York City, NY 
1994-07-16 Stone Pony (The), Asbury Park, NJ 
1993-04-03 Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, Germany 
1992-12-27 Stone Pony (The), Asbury Park, NJ 
 

Lyrics

It's all the same, only the names will change
Every day, it seems we're wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
I drive all night just to get back home

I'm a cowboy
On a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

Sometimes I sleep, sometimes it's not for days
And the people I meet always go their separate ways
Sometimes you tell the day by the bottle that you drink
And times when you're alone, all you do is think

I'm a cowboy
On a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted (wanted) dead or alive
Wanted (wanted) dead or alive

Oh, and I'll ride

Oh

Ooh, I'm a cowboy
On a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted (wanted) dead or alive

And I'll walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back
I play for keeps, 'cause I might not make it back
I've been everywhere (yeah), still I'm standing tall
I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all

Because I'm a cowboy
On a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted (wanted) dead or alive

Because I'm a cowboy
I got the night on my side
And I'm wanted (wanted) dead or alive
(And I'll ride) (and I'll ride) dead or alive
(I still try) (I still try) dead or alive
Dead or alive
Dead or alive
Dead or alive
Dead or alive