Sunday, June 17, 2007

Social Distortion Live in Germany 1997

Normally I loathe the ubiquitous surveys that pop up in MySpace Bulletins. But today a couple of friends were passing one around which was simply "5 albums that changed your life."
"Now here's a fun game," I thought.
My list (chronologically, by how I heard them) was:

Willie Nelson-- Redheaded Stranger
Social Distortion -- Mommy's Little Monster
Patti Smith-- Horses
Marvin Gaye-- What's Goin' On?
Mulehead-- Rocket Surgery
Doo Rag-- Doin' the Rag
Two Gallants-- The Throes
(Yes, I realize there are seven. I cheat at solitaire, too.)

Punk Rock had been singing my hair as an early teen. But when I saw the classic underground film Another State of Mind in 1986, on late night cable, something inside of me really ignited. Suddenly being a weirdo was no longer something to hide, or to be ashamed of. All that adolescent confusion, frustration, pain, and rage became fuel for expression, instead of some soul crushing psychic shackle. And Mike Ness became my new hero.

So anyway, this survey made me reminisce about all this. And what's more do a little searching online, where I uncovered the above video of a Social D show from 1997. It's about 34 min. long, and 500 mb, so it may take a bit to load. If you sign up for a Veoh account, you can download it.

The video also has a good bit cussin'. So parents you been warned. Of course, if you shelter your kids that much, you probably have a lot more to fear from exposing them to good old fashioned music "from the days when Punk Rock was dangerous."

After all, how you gonna keep 'em down on the farm, when they got green hair?

edit: I removed the embedded video, as it was just taking too dang long to load, and slowing down the whole page. You can still view it here.

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