Rock: Skid Row – Slave To The Grind
Slave To The Grind was the second single off Skid Row’s second album of the same name.
Why am I telling you this? Well, given the absence of decent music recently, I’ve delved into my old albums and have been listening to the Slave To The Grind album non-stop. I thought we might slip a few 80’s/90’s rock tunes into the blog to see how y’all readers like it.
At about the point this song and album were released, Skid Row had had a massive falling out with Jon Bon Jovi and Ritchie Sambora over an exceptionally harsh publishing deal where Skid Row signed their royalties away to the Bon Jovi moguls. In return, they did get a lot of exposure, to the point where they got a couple of spots on Bon Jovi’s New Jersey: The Videos release.
While their first album was an excellent hair metal album, Slave To The Grind had a lot more anger and energy to it. Personally, I think it spilled out in a big way on this track. It and Monkey Business are outstanding songs, and I remember screaming myself hoarse trying to sing along to these tunes!
It’s easy to forget how popular Skid Row were back in the day – this album went straight to #1 in America upon release. They followed it up touring the world with some of the biggest names in metal at the time.
For me, Slave To The Grind (the song) is probably the high point of Skid Row’s career, and it shows an extremely focused band playing with a lot of passion and intensity. Enjoy, and please share your memories of the era below…
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Yeah!!! This was stuck in my CD player during the 90’s. It’s a shame that they never did another album as good as this. Quicksand Jesus was another good cut.
Check out Airtime – Liberty manifesto which is actually Rick Emmett from Triumph’s latest stuff. I love it.
They really didn’t make a better album – it’s a shame, because the other members of Skid Row really stabbed Sebastian in the back when they reformed with a new singer. They guy had a lot of energy back in the day, and they owed a lot of their success to his personality!
If you can still get your hands on it, check out their B-Sides Ourselves EP – it had a brilliant cover of Little Wing and a couple of other awesome tracks.