Bon Jovi pays tribute to the resiliency of New Yorkers locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic in the soaring video for “Do What You Can,” which was released on Tuesday morning (Aug. 25).
The anthem — which is about just doing the damn thing, despite the circumstances — opens with scenes of empty streets and a stalled out city as Jon Bon Jovi walks through an abandoned Times Square in a black face mask while singing about shut down borders and shuttered schools.
“Small towns are rollin’ up their sidewalks One less paycheck comin’ through/ I know you’re feelin’ kinda nervous/ We’re all a little bit confused/ Nothing’s the same, this ain’t a game/ We gotta make it through,” he sings over images of empty subway cars and baseball stadiums and workers providing meals to those in need.
The scenes in the poignant visual will be familiar to anyone who has been forced to re-think daily life since the nation shut down in mid-March: socially distanced visits with grandma through a window, drive-through graduations and birthdays, home schooling, endless sanitizing and masks everywhere you look.
“Do What You Can” will appear on the upcoming Bon Jovi album 2020, due out on Oct. 2. Jon Bon Jovi knows all about the dangers of the novel coronavirus, which struck both his 18-year-old song Jacob, and well as two Bon Jovi bandmates, keyboardist David Bryan and percussionist Everett Bradley.
Check out the “Do What You Can” video below.