Rocktober Hair Band Song #13: "Here I Am" by Skid Row

I'll never forget the day I bought Skid Row's eponymous debut album.  While I don't recall the exact date, it was sometime in the summer of 1989.  I was staying with my friend Jeremy for a week or so while my parents were taking a vacation.  In the afternoon, Jeremy and I went to Beautiful Day Records, a skinny record store in downtown LaGrange, where I purchased Skid Row on tape.  Following that, we walked down to All Star Video where, with a forged note from his mother stating that he was allowed to rent R-rated movies, Jeremy rented The Shining.  Neither of us had ever seen it or heard of it.  We just thought Jack Nicholson's face on the cover was creepy, so it must be a good horror movie.

I made it maybe halfway through The Shining before I removed myself from the room.  Too much freaky shit going on in that hotel.  (Side note:  it has since become my favorite horror movie.)  I went upstairs in Jeremy's house, put on my new Skid Row tape, and played some Wizards and Warriors on Nintendo.

The album is excellent, top to bottom.  There isn't a bad song on it.  Of course, you likely know the two Top 10 songs off of the album -- "18 and Life" (#4) and "I Remember You" (#6) -- and you may even know their first single, "Youth Gone Wild," which barely cracked the Billboard Hot 100 (coming in at #99), but received a decent amount of radio and MTV airplay.  The other songs on the album are great, too.  Sebastian Bach's vocals are as powerful as any other hair band lead singer, the guitars (courtesy of Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill) snarl, and the rhythm section of Rachel Bolan -- and his chain that went from his earring to his nose ring -- on bass and Rob Affuso on drums hold things down quite well. 

The album had a grittier feel to it that some of the other albums out at the time in the same genre.  To that point, "Here I Am" is a good example.  It starts out with a badass riff and talks about a girl at a bus stop who is either a hooker or a stuck-up rich chick.  It's open for debate.  I would like to note that today was the first time I read the lyrics to the song, and for the last 28+ years, I have believed the opening line to say "Six foot one and lonely / Just desperate to get it right / Standing at the bus stop / With her alligator bags."  Apparently, she was not just desperate to get it right, but rather "Dressed in spaghetti rags."  Never stop learning, people.