It has fun being young and even more fun being a young punk in ’82; we could go to any ghetto and fit right in! It should be understood that back in the day in Los Angeles, African Americans were cool with punks because we both got our heads kicked in by the same downpresssor: the LAPD! In the true spirit of DIY, back then promoters booked shows wherever they could, and lots of times that meant gigs were in the straight hood of South Central. Deeper than that, I remember the first show I went to was at a black lodge/biker bar, where Sin 34, Caustic Cause, Channel 3 and Social Distortion all played, the latter being the subject of this post. This OC band had that “we are the shit” factor about them, I guess nowadays you would call it swagger. Just like Rock n Roll, Punk can trace some of it’s musical roots to the blues, but with the Cali bands you also get the surf beat. On their debut album, Mommy’s Little Monster, Social Distortion showed the world they could write rad songs that were dark and gritty, but dipped in Americana/pop. Mike Ness was great at writing stories with his lyrics; if you listen to this album closely, it’s almost a time capsule of what weirdos faced back then. This band knew how to use melody as a weapon to make sure that their songs would stick in your head. On a personal level, I think all of the kids in the scene could relate to the lyrics of “Mommy’s Little Monster.” Today CVLT Nation would like to celebrate Social Distortion with a video essay from their golden era of the early 80’s. So after the jump, go into another state of mind and peep our world!
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