When We Were Beautiful

Album: The Circle (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the second single to be taken from American Rock band Bon Jovi's eleventh studio album, The Circle.
  • This song was originally written as a new track for a greatest hits compilation that Bon Jovi intended to release. Jon Bon Jovi told The Daily Mail October 23, 2009 that the plan was to release a career-spanning retrospective, which would allow the group to recuperate after a tiring trek around the world. He could write a few new tracks for the hits compilation while catching up with domestic matters. "I was determined to take it easy for a while," said Jon. "And you could have etched those words on my forehead. The plan was to go home and work towards putting out the Best Of record." However as often happens with such plans, circumstances changed leading to a rethink and a new focus. Jon explained: "Well, I went home and began writing. I came up with a few boy-girl tunes and a rehab song, but, to be honest, it wasn't going very well. Then, in the space of two months, the world changed. Lehman Brothers crashed, the sub-prime loan scandal broke and America sent George Bush packing and elected a black President. Suddenly, there was subject matter flinging itself at me. I wrote a song called 'When We Were Beautiful,' but it didn't feel right for a hits album. It felt like the first bookend of a new record. So I got the band together and we began working. We were on a roll, and I quickly realized we needed to make a new album. Holding on to new songs is never right. If you have a body of work, you have to go with it. So we kept writing and came up with 24 songs. Nine months down the line, we wrote 'We Weren't Born To Follow,' about working people picking themselves up by their bootstraps in hard times. That was the second bookend, and it gave us an album."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Laura Nyro

Laura NyroSongwriting Legends

Laura Nyro talks about her complex, emotionally rich songwriting and how she supports women's culture through her art.

Barney Hoskyns Explores The Forgotten History Of Woodstock, New York

Barney Hoskyns Explores The Forgotten History Of Woodstock, New YorkSong Writing

Our chat with Barney Hoskyns, who covers the wild years of Woodstock - the town, not the festival - in his book Small Town Talk.

Def Leppard Quiz

Def Leppard QuizMusic Quiz

Can you name Def Leppard's only #1 hit in America? Get rocked with this adrenalized quiz.

Women Who Rock

Women Who RockSong Writing

Evelyn McDonnell, editor of the book Women Who Rock, on why the Supremes are just as important as Bob Dylan.

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up Musicians

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up MusiciansSong Writing

Eddie (played by Johnny Depp in the video) found fame fleeting, but Chuck Berry's made-up musician fared better.

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard

Joe Elliott of Def LeppardSongwriter Interviews

The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.