When New Jersey was only known for being the musical homeland of Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi, five young long-haired guys decided to take advantage of the good times for hard rock, they cupped their hair and went all out. Skid Row took it by storm with this first album and not only because the moment was especially propitious for their way of doing rock, they had great songs, a lot of youthful appeal and a singer who liked both the young girls with his sex appeal and dazzled the hardcore fans with his portentous voice.
But let's not give all the credit to the great Sebastian Bach, because although no one like him could sing those impossible tones, nothing would be of his virtue without the support of powerful songs. That's where bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave “The Snake” Sabo came into play, signers of this and most of the songs on the album. Sharp riffs and powerful melodies that would make them world-famous.
As in their plea for youthful rebellion, the well-known “Youth Gone Wild”, in “18 & Life” the band addressed the theme of nonconformity and adolescent incomprehension through Ricky, the protagonist of the lyrics, a kid who got ahead through hard work, but who ended up succumbing to the hard obstacles of life. Some could even see Sebastián himself reflected in the lyrics, because besides being a charismatic and energetic frontman, he occasionally made some naughty things that caused him problems and raised controversy about the band.
The main guitar arpeggio made one think at first of a delicate mid-tempo, but with Bach's shout it took on a superhuman force and an intensity that many pieces that unload a thousand distorted notes per minute would like. “18 & Life” and the ballad “I Remember You” were the two tracks on the album that entered the top 40 and pushed it to quadruple platinum status.
Due to their image according to the time and the touches to the contemptuously called pop-metal of some minor songs of the album, many dared to include them in the bag of the fashionable “hair-bands” to which they had two telediarios left to be buried by the grunge. But Skid Row made up for it by hardening their sound to the limit and debuting directly at number one in the American charts with their next album, the brutal “Slave To The Grind”, quite an achievement for an album and a metal band.
After their covers EP and another album, the again hard but less brilliant “Subhuman Race”, the tensions with the blond vocalist increased until the breakup, leaving Skid Rock in the “dry dock” until their recent return with singer Johnny Solinger, whom the fans will have to get used to listen to singing this “18 & Life” while they hope that someday the asperities with Seb will be smoothed out. Stranger things have been seen...
Thank you for reading my people and a thousand blessings. See you in a new post with more editions of legendary rock songs.
