What is "skid row"

place where vagabonds, low-lifes, and out-of-work men gather in a town, 1921, with reference to Seattle, Washington, U.S., a variant of skid road "track of skids along which logs are rolled" (1851); see skid (n.); the sense of which was extended to "part of town inhabited by loggers" (1906), then, by hobos, to "disreputable district" (1915); probably shaded by the notion of "go downhill."

n. 1 An especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by run-down or abandoned buildings, alcoholism and homelessness, and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution. 2 A colloquial designation of a run-down district of Los Angeles.

n. a city district frequented by vagrants and alcoholics and addicts

A skid row or skid road is an impoverished area, typically urban, inhabited by the poor, the homeless, or others considered disreputable or forgotten by society. A skid row may be anything from an impoverished urban district to a red-light district to a gathering area for the homeless. In general skid row areas are inhabited or frequented by individuals marginalized by poverty or through drug addiction. Urban areas considered skid rows often feature cheap taverns, dilapidated buildings, and drug dens as well as other features of urban blight. Used figuratively it may indicate the state of a poor person's life.

The term skid road originally referred to the path along which timber workers skidded logs. Its current sense appears to have originated in the Pacific Northwest. Areas identified by this name include Pioneer Square in Seattle; Old Town Chinatown in Portland, Oregon; Downtown Eastside in Vancouver; Skid Row in Los Angeles; the Tenderloin District of San Francisco; and the Bowery of lower Manhattan.

Skid Row was a Dublin based blues rock band of the late 1960s and early 1970s, fronted by bass guitarist Brendan "Brush" Shiels. It was guitarist Gary Moore's first professional band.

Skid Row is the self-titled debut studio album by American heavy metal band Skid Row, released on January 24, 1989 by Atlantic Records. After being noticed by manager Doc McGhee, Skid Row signed with Atlantic and began recording its debut. The album was recorded in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with producer Michael Wagener, and received favorable reviews upon its release. The band promoted Skid Row mainly as an opening act on worldwide tours by Bon Jovi and Aerosmith in 1988–1990. The album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1995 for shipping five million copies in the United States. It generated three singles: " Youth Gone Wild", " 18 and Life", and " I Remember You", all of which were accompanied by music videos and received heavy rotation on MTV. The album's commercial and critical success made Skid Row a regular feature in rock magazines and brought the group nationwide popularity.

A skid row is a part of a city known for high vagrancy and poor maintenance.

Locations

• Skid Row, Los Angeles
• Skid Row, Seattle, WA.

Skid Row also may refer to:

Bands:

• Skid Row (Irish band), 1960s blues-rock band
• American bands:
  • Skid Row (American band), heavy metal and post-1985
  • Skid Row, 1987 name for Nirvana (band)

Titled works:

• Skid Row, American film a.k.a. Confessions of a Vice Baron
• "Skid Row", song in Little Shop of Horrors (musical)
• Musical albums (by bands named "Skid Row")
  • Skid Row (album), American
  • Skid Row or Skid (album), Irish

Other:

• Copyright-evading network ("warez group") SKiDROW

Skid Row is an American heavy metal band, formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey. The group was commercially successful in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its first two albums Skid Row and Slave to the Grind certified multi-platinum, the latter of which reached number one on the Billboard 200. The band's third album Subhuman Race was also critically acclaimed, but failed to repeat the success of its predecessors. During this period, the band consisted of bassist Rachel Bolan, guitarists Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill, drummer Rob Affuso, and frontman Sebastian Bach. The band sold 20 million albums worldwide by the end of 1996.

After replacing Bach with Johnny Solinger and Auffuso with Phil Varone in 1999, Skid Row released Thickskin and Revolutions per Minute, which garnered mixed to negative reception. In 2015, Skid Row announced the band and Solinger have parted ways. The same day, Bolan and Sabo stated that Tony Harnell, formerly of TNT, was their new vocalist. Eight months later, however, Harnell left the band.