Raise Those Lighters

It's Throwback Thursday - so let's go into the music time machine - back to the 1980s. A time when long haired rockers decided to show their sensitive side. So raise those lighters and let’s get to the power ballads. It's my Power Ballads mixtape.

A very brief history - The hard rock power ballad broke into the mainstream of American consciousness in 1976 as FM radio gave a new lease of life to earlier songs such as Badfinger's "Without You", Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and Aerosmith's "Dream On". American rock band Styx has been credited with releasing the first true power ballad, the song "Lady", in 1973. The songs became a staple of hard rock performers who wanted to gain more radio airplay and satisfy their female audience members with a slower, more emotional love song.

So where do we start? Well, for me, we start with one of the strongest entries, “I Remember You” by Skid Row. It hits on all of what a power ballad should be: love, heartache, a distorted guitar solo and some heavy drumming. Don’t forget the strum of the acoustic guitar. In a 2007 interview, vocalist Sebastian Bach commented that “I Remember You” was the number-one prom song in the United States of America in the year 1990.

There are others familiar to many of us - “Heaven” by Warrant, “More Than Words” by Extreme and of course “Love Bites” by Def Leppard - which contains some of the worst (or best depending on your taste) lyrics in any power ballad:

“I don't want to touch you too much baby”

“'Cause making love to you might drive me crazy”

Such is the life of a hair metal artist.

As you browse through this mixtape playlist, please note that songs like “When The Children Cry” by White Lion didn’t make the cut. I’m sorry, but for my money, power ballads are about lost love, drinking to forget and poor lyrics, not the impact of war on the next generation.

Here is the mixtape - Enjoy it - wear some acid-wash jeans and maybe by the time the last song fades out, your hair has grown back out again to acceptable length. Did I miss your favorite power ballad? Tell me in the comments what it is and I’ll add it to the list.