magenta321's Full Review: Forty Seasons: The Best of Skid Row by Skid Row
I've been a lot of things in life. Right now, I am a student teacher. I had a stint as a sandwich artist five years ago. Oh, and as a middle schooler, I was a professional headbanger. Ok, well, I didn't get paid for it. However, metal was my life.
It started out so innocently. A Motley Crue album here, a Poison album there. Soon, I had categorized my cds by genre. No, not rock, pop, and metal. Poser, Death, Thrash and Speed. Yes. There were all those categories of metal.
And at first, these categories didn't matter in my mind. I liked what I liked. Oh, but eleven year olds are so pliable! Soon, I hated to admit I liked Skid Row.
What drew me into Skid Row (or Skidz, as we called them) was the song Eighteen and a Life. It got a lot of airplay on MTV, especially the Headbanger's Ball. It was about a kid who was going to spend his life in jail after killing a friend. Wow, that's not you're average rock and roll song!
Not only did Skid Row have great hits, such as Eighteen and a Life, Youth Gone Wild, and I Remember You, but their lead singer was beautiful. Yes, these were the days of long hair and eye liner, but there is still something sexy about Sebastian Bach! His whole persona just screams sex! Believe me, I saw him on Broadway this summer, and almost ten years after his rock career began, he looked as hot as ever.
That was also Skid Row's downfall, I believe. All the young ladies loved Skid Row. Soon, their lead singer got more attention than their music, and they became as "respectable" as New Kids On The Block. Skid Row stopped getting the respect they deserved from most fans, including myself.
This album puts together all of their hits, plus some songs that could have possibly become hits in their time. The big hits from their debut album, Skid Row, including Eighteen and a Life, Youth Gone Wild, and I Remember You are all there. There are also songs from their second album, Slave to the Grind. Slave didn't get nearly the amount of attention that their debut got. I am not sure they deserved to be shunned as they were.
The best songs, in my mind will always be the ones which carry the most nostalgia for me. I Remember You, of course, is my favorite. I played that song over many a crush in my middle school days. It's a sweet song which starts off very slowly. In true power ballad style, it builds to a dramatic climax musically. The words are pretty, and the song leaves you with that puppy dog feeling.
Youth Gone Wild is another of the nostalgic songs for me. It sums up the teenage rebellion stage of my life that started in middle school. The words are the type any good teen would appreciate:
"Since I was born they couldn't hold me down, another misfit kid, another burned-out town. I never played by the rules and I never really cared. My nasty reputation takes me everywhere!"
As you can see, this song became an anthem for myself and many of my friends. It gave us strength to try to achieve that "cool" attitude we wanted people to think we had.
Those are the songs which made Skid Row big. Anyone who was young in the late 1980s and early 1990s will remember those songs. When I play it in my car, anyone who hears it instantly is brought back to being a teen again, as they reminisce with me. Oh, the hair, the stretch jeans, tight rolling, blue eyeliner, scrunch socks...
There are other good songs on the album. I really like Quicksand Jesus, which is off of their second album. I didn't like it back when I was a kid. Now it is a sad song, which I like to listen to when things aren't going easily. It's about keeping faith when you are being tested -- or at least, that's the message I take from it.
I also really like Beat Yourself Blind. This song has a very aggressive and angry sound. It's recorded live in Great Britian. I love the interlude where Bach yells at the crowd "What the ****, I'm screaming my *** off up here! You're not too cool to rock 'n roll, I'll tell you that!" It's Bach at his best. It's that in your face, I don't care attitude that makes him and his music so wonderful at times.
Last but not least, I must mention my favorite song on the album. It's actually one I wasn't familiar with until I bought this cd. It's called Breakin' Down. Yes, it's a ballad, but I am old enough and cool enough to listen to ballads again, ok? It's the perfect relationship song. It deals with that whole issue of trusting someone so much that you are not afraid to reveal yourself true them. It's also about giving the other person the love and the strength to deal with things. I really love this song. I cry just about every time I listen to it.
Overall, I think this is a great album, but only if you liked Skid Row back in the day. For anyone whom this music is not a bit of nostalgia, I would say don't waste your money. It's not that the album isn't good -- it's just that it is a music of a time and a feeling. If you weren't a part of that time and feeling, I don't think you will get into it now.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.