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Perun said:
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How dare the US for not having bullet trains. Not that I could take one anyways, Wiz would buy all the tickets.
 
Perun said:
Tommy is having a hard time because the evil trade union is depriving him of the fruits of his honest labour. Gina works her arse off so Tommy can make his dream come true anyway. Does Gina have a six-string? No. She has a man, though. So her dreams don't matter, as long as Tommy can hold her and say it's alright. And what's between them and nothing? A prayer (I know it's an idiom, but it can still be read this way). It's between the lines, but ultimately they rely on God's favour that everything will turn out alright in the end, that Tommy can make his guitar speak again and live up to the service Gina gives him in her love. If you fall through the cracks, it's your fault and your responsibility to get back (as long as you have a little faith in God), the system doesn't need changing.

But damn, it's a great tune.
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Great tune for sure.. I’m not sure if you’re right about the conservative propaganda bit thought.
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Perun said:
If you fall through the cracks, it's your fault and your responsibility to get back (as long as you have a little faith in God), the system doesn't need changing.
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From my understanding this is the "American Dream" in a nutshell (but any of our Stateside friends on here, please feel free to correct me if I've got the wrong end of the stick here). I always thought Tommy and Gina were pretty much two-dimensional stereotypes though, and the collective powers of Jon, Ritchie et al were unable to make me care much what happened to either of them.

Notwithstanding this it is, as you say, a great tune.
 
I think you’re reading waaaay too much into the lyrics. The song is a semi-autobiographical recount of a period from Desmond Child’s youth, and it’s just a vignette that many people can relate to about being poor and down on your luck as a young adult, but finding love, leaning on each other, and holding out hope for the future.
 
I dunno, the way the union strike is explicitly mentioned at the start of the song does seem like a marker of attention indicating that there's a deeper political message to the song. Especially if we consider the very conservative mid-eighties zeitgeist that Mosh pointed out, in which unions in particular were subject to demonisation.
 
Shortly after Reagan went into office there was a pretty large union strike from federal workers which resulted in the workers being told to return to work or be banned from federal work. The threat worked and the whole thing really weakened the power of unions.
 
Along with what Jer said, I think the "union" word was thrown in there just to make the song more relatable to the average joe.
 
I grew up with Jon Bon Jovi, because my sister used to have him on every wall of her room for years (preferably with long hair). I like him, have defended his band several times over the years, he’s a good guy and used to be a very good singer too. But his voice was terrible recently. Not just a bit out of shape, but really, really terrible. And Richie’s playing seems to be equally bad nowadays.
 
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