Thinkin’ Bowie’s Just a Knife: Skid Row Slave to the Grind

 

 David Bierk

… 'a surprising and welcome jolt to the system', with Skid Row 'proving their mettle, their self-worth, their guts' on songs taking the listener 'to dark unsettling places where reflection collides with worry'. Popoff, Martin (August 1, 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. 

Released June 11, 1991, Skid Row’s second album, Slave to the Grind, surprised many at its complexity. The first metal album to debut at number 1 on Billboard Top 200 for weekly sales, Slave to the Grind demonstrated that Skid Row was more than just an angry metal band pumping out rock anthems and power ballads.

Many of us awaited the grand moment on Headbanger’s Ball when we would finally see (and hear) the first single, Monkey Business, before the album was even released. It was faster, louder, and harder than any song we’d heard on their self-titled debut. Forward two months and the album was released along with it's second single, Slave to the Grind. 

Having weathered his storm of controversies in the late 1980’s, Sebastian Bach seem ready to move on and also move away from the hair band label they had achieved – Slave to the Grind was a centimeter away from speed metal at times, and harkened back to his influences of the 1970’s. Many praised Dave "the Snake" Sabo and Rachel Bolan with the lyrics being stronger than Youth Gone Wild or I Remember You, but of course others didn't see the same and panned the lyrics. 

Success of albums such as Slave to the Grind ushered in in seemingly the beginning of the end of the metal grind of sorts. While the 1980's saw Skid Row open for Bon Jovi, they headlined with Pantera and Soundgarden in the 1990's as their openers. The biggest tour of the summer of 1991 was most definitely Guns N Roses Use Your Illusions Tour, which Skid Row joined. 1992 and beyond seems to usher in grunge and a slow adieu to bands like Skid Row. 

Skid Row with Sebastian as lead vocalist, would have five more years and two more albums together. The popularity they saw from their humble jersey roots that skyrocketed them to the Moscow Music Peace Festival with the other 80's hair bands would never be regained - as least in masses. The fans are still there and still loyal. 

Slave to the Grind - Track listing

Highlights, the MTV video tracks Monkey Business and Slave to the Grind are likely the most known. Even though they went heavier, some "ballads" still made it and they are powerful with Bas's iconic high notes: Quicksand Jesus, In a Darkened Room, and Wasted Time are worth your listen. Finally, for the runners out there, Riot Act, Living on a Chain Gang, and Psycho Love are great for your playlist. 

Monkey Business

Slave to the Grind

The Threat

Quicksand Jesus

Psycho Love

Get the F*ck Out

Living on a Chain Gang

Creepshow

In a Darkened Room

Riot Act

Mudkicker

Wasted Time

 

The Place Where Pies Go To Die: Your Tutorial To Entering The World Of Twin Peaks

 

Photo PMCarlson 2018 Snoqualmie Falls

Diane, 11:30 AM, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks, five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line. I’ve never seen so many trees in my life. Pilot Episode: Northwest Passage Aired April 8, 1990

Many have recently started to expressed interest in binge watching Twin Peaks. Those of us who watched it back in the 90's and then had to wait 25 years to see Season 3, can offer some advice, give you no answers, suggest preparatory guidance on how to experience it in full via a chronology of seasons, films, and books. There are 48 episodes that will enchant you, haunt you, confuse you, and leave you with many more questions than answers. 

Full disclosure: Twin Peaks is not an easy watch. The movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is brutal. Everyone experiences it differently based on life experience. Some may see the quirks, others may be triggered by events on the show. David Lynch and Mark Frost created a masterpiece enjoyed by many and understood by few. 

You first hear the music of maestro Angelo Badalamenti and you're pulled in and you don't quite yet understand why. You see a quant Pacific Northwest town and meet some of the characters you will grow to love and loathe: Pete and Catherine Martell, Josie Packard, Sheriff Truman, Lucy and Andy, and Doctor Hayward. And then you meet Laura Palmer. 

Photo PMCarlson

You are set off on a strange, sad, twisted, sardonic, and dream-like journey filled with witty, strong, quirky, and terrifyingly memorable characters in a setting that is equally as quirky, strange, and terrifying. The mission of Season 1: find out who killed Laura Palmer.

There are puzzles, symbols, strange mottos, disturbing realizations, secret societies and clubs, and yet, in Seasons 1 and 2, you never "meet" Laura Palmer, save for a short video of Laura and Donna in earlier times. Not until Fire Walk with Me do you see Laura alive. However, Laura remains the central premise from the pilot episode through to the last scene of episode 48. But it is also more than just Laura, of course. It's about small towns, secrets, victims, and circumstance. 

So what makes Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks and why is there such a cult following? At the time of it's release, it was like absolutely nothing else on TV. Many of its viewers who fell victim to it's intrigue were in their teens who could identify with the younger characters. It was a naughty show filled with guilty pleasures and felt forbidden. For those who obsessed, David Lynch and Mark Frost provided further insight with the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and the film, Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me, filling in some storylines and history of Laura herself. The most controversial thing about the show was never the violence ... it was the fact that Lynch and Frost were making a victim heard and seen and how the true crime is those who do nothing to stop the violence when they know its happening. 

You wanna know who killed Laura Palmer? You did! We all did. ~ Bobby Brooks

The tag line for the show in every promo was Who killed Laura Palmer? However, when you start to delve into Twin Peaks, you'll find there are many more questions that you'll have. Now welcome to the world of David Lynch where answers are not easily given, if ever at all. Season 2 is vastly different in style and feel. And Season 3 will just create havoc within your heart and psyche.  (You can read my reaction to Season 3 here). There are other plots and curiosities of course besides Laura that drove the three seasons, all unique, some heartwarming, and others that will leave you questioning your perception of reality.

I'll see you again in 25 years ~ Laura Palmer

You're experience versus mine? I don't know what you're personal Twin Peaks experience will be. My experience was what David Lynch and Mark Frost had in mind ... I waited 25 years. (When you get through Season 2, this will make sense). I felt like I was part of the story all along, like our collective waiting and maturing experience was a part of the script for Season 3. Keep in mind again, these aren't what you're used to in regards to television episodes. They aren't packaged up and tied with a bow. You have to do the work and at least try to make sense of what's going on. Really, Twin Peaks is about the experience and the journey. It's a show that, when it ends, you will have varying reactions and / or realizations. You may be satisfied, you may hate it. BUT if you make it to the end of Season 3,  please read the companion books after the credits roll. You will have many of those burning questions answered and also gain historical insight into the town and its people...but at this point in the story, do you?

Resources

To help supplement your experience in the best way possible, I would offer up the following chronological advice and additional resources for your Twin Peaks viewing.

1. Watch Season 1 and 2
2. Read the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer
3. Watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
4. Optional step: Wait 25 years
5. Watch Season 3
   
6. Read The Secret History of Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier

Books

• Laura's Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks 
• The Essential Wrapped In Plastic: Pathways to Twin Peaks 

Music from Twin Peaks

• Soundtrack from Twin Peaks 
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
• Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series

Web resources

• Welcome to Twin Peaks     https://welcometotwinpeaks.com/
• 25YL https://25yearslatersite.com/category/twin-peaks/