Don’t worry, little sis. It isn’t loaded… yet!
Has February made you shiver? Well, let The Nest deliver some good news on your doorstep. It’s Monday, and that’s the day we take the Chevy to the levee to serve up another delicious slice of that lost music pie we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy’s just a lonely teenage bronkin’… er, mare wearing her pink carnation and a thorny crown (or maybe those are dreadlocks), while the Sponkies are reading a book on Marx…. Harpo Marx! (He supposedly sounds just like Mr. Fox). Monday will never be the day the muzak died…
Last week, avid Dusty Vinyl Archive fan for life Draliman hinted that maybe it’s time for me to feature a metal song. Well, it just so happens I’ve had one on tap for a while, and it seems like the perfect time to dig it out so we can all bang our heads until our brains turn to mush…
How to turn your hair into a deadly weapon…
Skid Row (Not to be confused with the Irish Skid Row full of long haired leprechauns) was a hard rock band formed in New Jersey in the mid 80’s. With a little help from fellow Garden Stater John Bon Jovi, Skid Row was able to record their debut album in 1989 that produced what is probably the band’s most well known song, and definitely their biggest hit. A song which, nevertheless, apparently got lost in the Aqua Net fog of the hair band era…
“18 and Life” hit #4 in 1989, and tells the tragic story of a troubled youth named Ricky, whose wild and crazy life led to him accidentally shooting his teenage friend, earning him an all expenses paid stay in the federal penitentiary for the rest of his natural life…
Hey Ricky! Looks like we’re shower buddies! Wanna pick that soap up for me?
Ricky’s behavioral issues are brought to life in the music video for the song, which shows him getting into a fight with his dad, drinking heavily, returning home to steal a gun, and then all hell breaking loose. At the time of its release, MTV wouldn’t air the video due to the implied gun murder it portrayed. Yet three decades later, it’s fully available for viewing above on my family friendly blog…
Well, someone’s a big fan of Ricky…
“18 and Life” is a great rocker, and one of the few metal songs where you can actually hear and appreciate the great bass line. And lead singer Sebastian Bach does a great job of growling the lyrics… no wait, not THAT Sebastian Bach! He wasn’t much of a rocker…
Well, looks like Amadeus wasn’t the only one who could rock…
If I get out on parole, I’ll have another lost hit for you next Monday…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I loved this song and Sebastian… his hair, wow! he still has the same hairstyle butttttt…welllll
I’m sure all the hair product didn’t help his hair age gracefully…
Great song! I’ve liked all their songs and still do. 🙂
There was a lot of great metal bands around this time that got swept under the rug…
Wasn’t ever into Metal but I appreciate well done music of ALL types. This certainly keeps you AWAKE and has a message as well. Wondering if those jail cell scenes were taken from inside one of the extensive collection of Teaser Tuesday Prisons? I looked for some man eating otters but didn’t see any………
Pam
I’m sure Ricky has had his fill of man eating otters and Big Scrats in his wayward life!
Look at that hair, and I mean Amadeus’s!
Classical composers were the original hair musicians!
Definitely a great rocking song. So bad the song was a harbinger showing how people resolve things these days.
Back then Matt Fallon was prettier than most girls I knew. He had better hair too. Another song of the folly of youth. I bet the guy is a hedge fund manager now. Fun post. Good song, even if it is kind of sad.
Yes, I’ve been watching and reading this blog but for some reason when I’m on the new computer I’m not allowed to like, comment on, or share anything. Ugh. I’m working on it.
It would be hard to imagine the hair metal gods today with bald spots and real haircuts…
I think I might have been in junior high when that came out… Maybe.
Probably, this was my freshman year in high school, and I think I have a year on you…
Good times, back when random body parts you didn’t know you had weren’t screaming at you for shoveling a tiny bit of snow.
Yeah, see, that’s some actual music!
I always have to wonder, though, if any bloke in real life would actually stuff a gun down the front of their trousers, the barrel only centimetres away from their “essential assets”…
Gotta look all gangsta style, or it don’t count. Better if they shoot off those parts that will keep their DNA out of the gene pool…
I loved Skid Row, this song and Sebastian Bach so much in 1989! It’s a shame it rarely gets played anymore. When our local stations play something from this era it’s always Guns N’ Roses and always the same three songs.
Yeah, hair metal has been reduced to GnR (blech), Poison, and occasionally playing “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” This stuff was HUGE back in the 80’s, and I’ll bet a lot of the 40 and 50 somethings nowadays would love to hear this stuff again to let out their inner rage!