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Skid Row - B-Side Ourselves Audio CD

A fair review of the Skid Row "B-Side Ourselves" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Skid Row reviews here, or go back to the Skid Row tabs.

Skid Row Band: Skid Row
Title: B-Side Ourselves
Rating:
Release Date: 1992-09-22
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Psycho Therapy 2: C'Mon And Love Me 3: Delivering the Goods [Live] 4: What You're Doing [Live] 5: Little Wing

Fun tunes and clever marketing - four stars for what it is.
Slap a few outtakes together with a current single and pass it off as some sort of limited 'tour edition'. In the shiny CD age Ep's are often just silly marketing tools. Well Skid Row say bollocks to that! Sort of.

With just five tunes on offer this covers EP doesn't get stale part way through like perhaps a full length would of. We get the band burning through Psycho Therapy for that all important punk cred, KISS to show that the Skids also love a big dumb good time like the rest of us and Delivering the Goods for metal cred. A Hendrix song also helps for a bit of early heritage link. So the band do try to cover all the bases and sort of is the serious reason for the band putting this out.

The fun reasons for this to be put out? Well why not? The infectious love these guys have for their musicaly heros is obvious and makes this curio something fans should pick up if possible - its ridiculously cheap after all. Sure you know it won't change your life but Skid Row never wanted it to. So grab this when you can - you know you want to cos we all need our guilty pleasures.

And no, I'm not gonna offer a serious critical viewpoint of their delivery of the tunes because that's not the point here.


Fun Covers EP
Here's what you get:

1. I'm a sucker for a good cover song, and in 1992 Skid Row served up an EP full of them. Psycho Therapy (the Ramones) - Nothing's more fun than a Ramones cover. Bach & the boys take on this punk rock classic and seem to enjoy themselves in the process.
2. C'Mon and Love Me (KISS) - I'll give them credit for not picking an obvious KISS song, and they deliver a faithful cover version.
3. Delivering the Goods (Judas Priest) - This live track features a guest appearance by Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford. Bach ends the song proclaiming his love for Halford, which you have to find slightly ironic given Rob's (at the time) closet homosexuality and Bach's homophobic "AIDS kills f--s dead" t-shirt controversy. The song still rocks though, and is worth the price of the CD just to hear these two screamers perform together.
4. What You're Doing (Rush) - Again, I give them credit for picking a song that you wouldn't expect. This one comes from way back on Rush's debut album.
5. Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix) - It's not easy to cover a legend, but the band does a good job here both musically and vocally.

B-Sides Ourselves is a fun EP, and even though it's less than 19 minutes long, it's still worth the relatively low price to hear Skid Row pay tribute to some of their influences.


Good Classics!


Anyway, the best part of the album is when Rob Halford comes on stage while they're performing "Delivering the Goods", and at the end of the song, Sebastian Bach yells "I LOVE THIS GUY!!!" And this was BEFORE Rob Halford came out of the closet, so it actually sounds funny if you think about it. I bought this album in 1995/96, right when I was collecting older hard rock/metal albums, so when I bought this, I recognized 3 or 4 of the songs on it - definitely the Rush, Hendrix and Judas Priest song, I may have recognized the Kiss song. Anyway, this is a good album, especially if you are a die-hard fan of Skid Row.


Skid Row - 'B-Sides Ourselves' (Atlantic) Five-track EP
'B-Sides. . ' has just five songs and runs twenty minutes. I don't usually go for EP's,but I've always liked this one. It features Skid Row playing five of their personal favorite covers. The track that I enjoyed the most was Rush's "What You're Doing" from the Canadian trio's debut lp. When I saw Skid Row play live awhile back,I remember them performing The Ramone's "Psycho Therapy" with bassist Rachel Bolan on lead vocals. Something I didn't at all expect to see here,was with their cover of the Judas Priest tune "Delivering The Goods",that Rob Halford was trading off vocals with Sebastian Bach. The two remaining cuts are Kiss's "C'mon And Love Me" and Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing". Very nice,indeed.


Delivering the Goods!
Finally, I broke down and bought it. I saw this several times in the store but had no idea what to make of it. I shouldn't have waited so long. it's a good thing to hear bands do the classics without ruining them. When I say that, I don't mean Britney Spears trying to rock out to a Rolling Stones song. That is what you call ruining a song by an annoying singer whose only appeal is T&A, and that doesn't stand for talent and ability.

While it is too short and there is a song on there I'm not crazy about (Psycho Therapy), I like the rest a lot. Especially KISS' C'mon and Love Me and a live version of Judas Priest's Delivering the Goods with Mr. Rob Halford in attendance. Plus, any Hendrix cover is cool.

I wouldn't pay $20 for it but if you see it for under $10, pick it up. It's worth it.

Stay strong,
James.


You can see a complete list of all Skid Row discography, or go back to the Skid Row tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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