Song: “I Remember You”

I’m cheating, just a little, because this song isn’t on my iPod right now. It was playing as I drove home from work last night around 10:30.

First of all, this album came out in 1989, which is the year I moved to Houston, which was the most difficult move I had in all the school-changing, friend-shifting, puberty-starting times. Oh, did every song sing right to me. Every lyric was written for me to cry about.

The song has been stuck in my head since last night, not just because it’s one of the only songs I know that gets away with rhyming “kiss” with “kiss.” This video, with Sebastian Bach sitting on a milk crate or whatever, singing with nothing but one hand holding back his streams of blonde hair, was one I’d watch standing up. I’d be walking into the other room, and it would start and I’d just stand still.

My mom hated Sebastian Bach, because I think she saw her good little girl staring at a clearly Bad Boy and it made her nervous. She went so overboard with all of the reasons he was the wrong person to be attracted to that she started talking herself into liking him. The one that was reaching the most was, “He’s too attractive. How could you like someone prettier than you?” Uh, yeah, Mom. Sucks to stare at something pretty all day. Thanks for the advice.

This isn’t the best Skid Row song for singing. That’s “18 and Life,” which is the most fun if you can keep yourself from laughing during the chorus. But this one reminds me of how many terrible hair band ballads we used to sit through, sing along with, pretending that they were just as beautiful and lyrically poetic as real music. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” anyone?

Exception to the rule: Guns ‘N Roses. “Patience.” There is none finer. And I think it came out at the same time as this one, and rightfully kicked its ass.

But “I Remember You,” with all its horrible guitar solos and throaty wails, is the song that’s been stuck in my head for about twelve hours now, and the only way to get it out was to talk about it, and then get it replaced with… well, “Patience.”