n. Slang
A squalid district inhabited chiefly by derelicts and vagrants.
[Alteration of SKID ROAD (from the fact that it once referred to a downtown area frequented by loggers).]
skid row
| Dictionary: skid row |
(rō)
n. Slang
A squalid district inhabited chiefly by derelicts and vagrants.
n. Slang
A squalid district inhabited chiefly by derelicts and vagrants.
| Idioms: skid row |
A squalid district inhabited by derelicts and vagrants; also, a life of impoverished dissipation. For example, That part of town is our skid row, or His drinking was getting so bad we thought he was headed for skid row. This expression originated in the lumber industry, where it signified a road or track made of logs laid crosswise over which logs were slid. Around 1900 the name
Skid Road was used for the part of a town frequented by loggers, which had many bars and brothels, and by the 1930s the variant
skid row, with its current meaning, came into use.
| Word Origin: skid row |
Origin: 1931
A 1931 dictionary of American Tramp and Underworld Slang gives the earliest evidence for skid row, which is defined as "the district where workers congregate when in town or away from their job." From that it is easy to derive the modern meaning of "a squalid district inhabited chiefly by derelicts and vagrants," in the words of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition. But there was a long road leading up to it.
Originally, in fact, it was a road, not a row. The first skid road was exactly what it says: "a road made of logs known as skids." Such roads were built in the Pacific Northwest in the late nineteenth century to bring timber to market. The skids were laid across the road every five or six feet so that timber could be hauled by horses to a river or other shipping point without getting stuck in the mud. To reduce friction as the timber was hauled, workers would grease the skids. Someone whose life was slipping downhill was said to be on the skids.
Before long, therefore, skid road also became a designation for the parts of towns where lumbermen congregated, streets known not for their elegance but for their cheapness and rough life. And since these lumbermen were mostly single and nomadic, and often enough out of work, their skid road was the place for all sorts of down-and-outs. The earliest so-called skid road was apparently Yesler Way in Seattle.
At the turn of the twentieth century, skid road was still localized in the Northwest. But as the century progressed, tramps (1664) and Hoboes (1847) took it throughout the country. Removed from any association with lumbering, the road of skid road was reinterpreted as row, the usual designation for a stretch of residences and businesses. Thus the derelict sections of cities like Chicago and New York became known as skid rows. Through an attempt to make better sense of the phrase, it had become a road to nowhere.
| US History Encyclopedia: Skid Row |
Skid Row refers to the area of a city with a concentration of cheap hotels, pawnshops, secondhand stores, and missions that cater to the transient. Skid rows first emerged in America after the Civil War, when an influx of unskilled European immigrants and a series of financial depressions created a large pool of migratory workers. The term itself originated in Seattle, where Henry Yesler's logging company used oxen to haul timber across pole "skids" to its waterfront mill. The saloons, brothels, and cheap lodging houses used by itinerant foresters, miners, and railroaders clustered along this original "Skid Road." In the twentieth century, skid rows gradually lost their role as clearing houses for unskilled laborers and came to be populated by alcoholics, drug addicts, and the mentally disabled.
Bibliography
Allsop, Kenneth. Hard Travellin': The Hobo and His History. New York: New American Library, 1967.
Bahr, Howard M. Skid Row: An Introduction to Disaffiliation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.
| Wikipedia: Skid Row (Irish band) |
For the U.S. hard rock band, see Skid Row (U.S. band).
| Skid Row | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Dublin, Ireland |
| Genre(s) | blues-rock |
| Years active | 1967-1972 |
| Label(s) | CBS |
| Website | brushshiels.com |
| Members | |
| Brendan "Brush" Shiels (v/b) Gary Moore (g) Noel "Nollaig" Bridgeman (dr) Bernard "Bernie" Cheevers (g) Paul Chapman (g) Phil Lynott (v) Robbie Brennan |
|
Skid Row was a Dublin blues-rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s fronted by Brendan "Brush" Shiels (born 1952 in Dublin, Ireland). It was guitarist Gary Moore's first professional band.
Contents |
History
The band was formed in 1967, comprising Brendan 'Brush' Shiels on bass guitar, Noel 'Nollaig' Bridgeman (currently with Van Morrison) on drums (born 1947, in Dublin), Bernard 'Bernie' Cheevers on lead guitar (born 1949, in Dublin), and Phil Lynott on vocals for a short period (although the liner notes to the 1990 Skid Row CD from Castle Communications state that Cheevers played drums and had temporarily replaced original drummer Bridgeman). Cheevers was replaced by the 16-year-old Gary Moore in 1969, and the band recorded a single, "New Places, Old Faces" / "Misdemeanour Dream Felicity", for the Irish 'Song Records' label (the only released recording of Lynott with Skid Row). Later that year Shiels dropped Lynott from the line-up, converting Skid Row to a power trio by making Sheils the lead vocalist.[1] By way of compensation, he taught Lynott to play bass, and Lynott went on to international fame as founder, bassist and vocalist for Thin Lizzy.[2] The band recorded a second single for 'Song', "Saturday Morning Man" / "Mervyn Aldridge". These two singles, plus three tracks from a BBC recording, were issued on the 'Hux' label as Live and on Song in April 2006. At the end of 2006 a number of Skid Row demo tapes featuring Phil Lynott were discovered. These were his earliest recordings (from 1968) and had been presumed lost for decades.[3]
Skid Row played support to some of the rock groups of the 1960s, including Fleetwood Mac. Moore was influenced by the Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, who was in turn impressed by Moore's guitar playing and introduced him to the Columbia/CBS record company. A third single, "Sandie’s Gone (Part 1)" / "Sandie’s Gone (Part 2)", was released on the band's new label in April 1970, and a number of sessions and concerts were also recorded for the BBC during this period. The band released its first album Skid, in October 1970. A second LP, entitled 34 Hours - so called because it took them a mere 34 hours to record it - was released in early 1971, preceded by the single "Night Of The Warm Witch" / "Mr. De-Luxe". Skid Row performed on the legendary German TV music show Beat Club on 18 March 1971. A third album was recorded in the Autumn of 1971 but Moore left the band in December 1971 just before a planned US tour. He was temporarily replaced by Eric Bell (from Thin Lizzy) for some live appearances before Paul Chapman (later of UFO) became the bands full-time guitarist. Chapman overdubbed Moore's guitar tracks on the unreleased album but neither version was made public for almost twenty years. As the band faltered, Chapman left in July 1972. Moore later played with Thin Lizzy after Bell's departure.
Skid Row returned to Ireland and went through numerous members, including guitarist Ed Deane, drummer John Wilson (ex-Taste, ex-Them) and singer Eamonn Gibney (ex-Alyce). The Shiels/Deane/Wilson line-up released the single "Dublin City Angels" / "Slow Down" (in 1971 according to Deane's website, but this seems too early).[4] A 1975 line-up of Shiels, Bridgeman, Jimi Slevin (lead guitar/vocals, ex-Alyce) and Timmy Creedon (second drummer/vocals) recorded the Skid Row single "The Spanish Lady" / "Elvira".[5] The 1976 double-disc live album of Rock n' Roll standards Alive And Kickin featured Shiels, Bridgeman, Jody Pollard (guitar, ex-Elmer Fudd), Dave Gaynor, John Brady (bass) and Ian Anderson. The band later evolved into 'Brush' for a time.
Skid Row had little commercial success outside Ireland and the UK, although Skid reached #30 on the UK Albums Chart.[6] More of their recorded material was released between 1990 and 2006.
In 1987 Moore sold the name Skid Row to the American heavy metal band for $35,000. Sebastian Bach: "When (Skid Row) got signed to Atlantic, Gary Moore heard about it and said we could have the name for $35,000 U.S. dollars. 'We have to pay Gary Moore 35 grand to use the name,' and so we, as a band, did buy the name from Gary Moore. We were all glad to do it because it is a great name for a band. I remember saying, 'Wow, that's a lot of $, but we gotta do it!'"[7] Shiels has said that he has always been unhappy at the group 'stealing their name', and said of manager Doc Magee, "he could be Doc Marten for all I know...but he's going to get a kick up the arse."[2] He still occasionally performs as Brush Shiels' Skid Row, as recently as February 2005. Bridgeman went on to perform studio work with Clannad and The Waterboys.
Brush Shiels returned to his Skid Row legacy once more releasing Skid Row Revisited, an album of new material, through his website in June 2009. He also thanked the other Skid Row "for the generosity of spirit in acknowledging the contribution of the original Skid Row" by using the name. [8]
Discography
- Skid (CBS, 1970)
- 34 Hours (CBS, 1971)
- Alive and Kicking - 1976 live album of well known covers (RRL, 1976)
- Skid Row (a.k.a. 'Dublin Gas Comy.') - CBS demos recorded early 1970 (CBS, 1990)
- Skid Row (a.k.a. 'Gary Moore/Brush Shiels/Noel Bridgeman') - Gary Moore version of the unreleased third album recorded late 1971 (Castle, 1990)
- Live And On Song - Both sides of Skid Row's first two singles on Song label recorded 1969, plus BBC 'In Concert' recording from 1971 (Hux, 2006)
References
- ^ A Brief History of Skid Row on the Brush Shiels - Skid Row website
- ^ a b Brush Shiels Tripod page
- ^ Fans' joy as Lynott demos unearthed
- ^ Ed Deane discography
- ^ Jimi Slevin website (including audio samples of his single with Skid Row)
- ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 505. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ Sebastian Bach on the BlabberMouth.Net website
- ^ Brush Shiels on MySpace Music
External links
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Word Origin. America in So Many Words, by David K.Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Skid Row (Irish band)". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Metal Hammer Video Magazine, Vol. 5 (Music Film)
- Rob Affuso (Rock Artist)
- Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?: Jake and the Fatman (TV Episode) (1987 Drama TV Episode)
- Skid Row: No Frills (1993 Film)
- skid road
- Larroquette, John (Quotes By)
- Confessions of a Broken Man (1966 Album by Porter Wagoner & The Wagonmasters)
- skid (Idiom)
- Kiefer Sutherland: Saturday Night Live (TV Episode) (1991 Comedy TV Episode)
- Bums (1993 Mystery Film)
- Emanon (1986 Fantasy Film)
- Hard 'N' Heavy, Vol. 16 (1992 Music Film)
- Rockthology Presents: Hard 'N' Heavy, Vol. 6 (2002 Music Film)
- Harold Smith (Country Artist, '60s)
