Skid Row’s ‘Revolutions Per Minute’ to be Re-Released May 30

Written By Mike Greenblatt
Skid Row Revolutions Per Minute

German label Ear Music has re-mastered and will re-release Revolutions Per Minute, the fifth album from Skid Row (originally from Toms River in Ocean County) on May 30. The band was in a state of flux in 2006 when Dave Sabo, Scotti Hill and Rachel Bolan went into the studio with new drummer Dave Gara and, for his second album with the band after 2003’s Thick Skin, singer Johnny Solinger [1965-2021]. It would prove to be their last album for 16 years. They even had brought back the man who produced their most classic of albums. (Michael Wagener hadn’t worked with them since 1991’s Slave To the Grind, 15 years earlier.)

By anyone’s estimation, it was a gamble. They went down to Nashville for the sessions, choosing “Strength,” by Welsh band The Alarm, to cover. Stretching stylistically to broaden their premise, they strayed into punk, country and goth. Critics hated it. Still, it wears well after so many years. Starting strong with “Disease” and “Another Dick In The System,” its pleasures are more varied, adventurous, experimental even. Yet they retain their hard-rock balls on “Shut Up Baby I Love You,” “White Trash,” “Love Is Dead” and “You Lie.” Singer Solinger is righteously in service to each song, capturing the original rebel yell of Sebastian Bach in a somewhat slanted soulful style. Seems crazy but the intervening years has made this one sound much better.

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Mike Greenblatt

MIKE GREENBLATT has been writing for Goldmine magazine and New Jersey's Aquarian Weekly for more than 35 years. His writing subjects fill the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He's interviewed Joe Cocker, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. He was 18 when he attended Woodstock in 1969.

In addition to writing about music, Greenblatt has worked on publicity campaigns for The Animals, Pat Benatar, Johnny Winter, Tommy James and Richard Branson, among others. He is currently the editor of The Jersey Sound.

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