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From the Vault...
01/19/2020
#1708 |
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info
Social Distortion
"Social Distortion"
© Epic Records
Year of Release: 1990
Rating:
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track listing
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So Far Away
Let It Be Me
Story Of My Life
Sick Boys
Ring Of Fire
Ball And Chain
fsIt Coulda Been Me
She's A Knockout
A Place In My Heart
Drug Train
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Social Distortion related sites:
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Social Distortion
"Social Distortion"
Social Distortion's third album of their career, the self-titled Social Distortion -- defines Punk meeting Rock. More on the Punk side,
this album definitely should attract much attention. It's Punk Rock. It's Rock. It's Rock and Roll, with the Punk edge. Imagine The Stray Cats
on a more rougher Punk/Rock edge. Or the harder punk rock style of Green Day. Social Distortion is compared to The Clash, The Sex Pistols
(just a little), The Cramps. This is an album of pure Punk meeting Rock, or vice versa.
This album's highlight track, is the cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring Of Fire." In fact, with the Punk meets Country, or as some called it
"cowpunk," pretty much this whole album could be Country tunes, transferred into Country turns into the Punk Rock style. (If not Country, then its
probably Rockabilly.) With the exception of the first two tracks (which sounds more like Punk than that of Rock), the rest of the album has more of
Rock, yet its meeting the fate of Punk.
As mentioned, the firset two tracks sounds more like Punk -- "So Far Away" has more of the edge of The Sex Pistols (which was a band that
Social Distortion was inspired by). Likewise, "Let It Be Me" is more like Punk, than that of Rock. Yet these two songs easily fits the rest of
the album. With the cover version of "Ring Of Fire," "Story Of My Life" has that same atmosphere. It would be interesting to hear well known
Rock and Country songs, giving them the Punk conversion. Another great example of this, which would easily be bonded together with Social Distortion's
"Ring Of Fire" cover, would be The Clash's version of the Bobby Fuller Four classic, "I Fought The Law."
As for the remaining tracks, they are all highly recorded well. Converting the Punk Rock style into Rock (or even Country/ROckabilly), the sound
creates a great "Punk Meets Rock." They all have their own Rock edged style. It's almo to mention, that what makes this "Punk Meets Rock" class, is
the lead vocalist - Mile Ness. His Punk singing style can be compared to the Sex Pistols, with its roughness. It makes every track on Social
Distortion worthwhile. His singing makes the album, matching the roughness of his singing style to the rough=styled Rock/Punk mix.
The self-titled Social Disttortion became the band's first major label album. It was reviewed by critics better than their previous two
releases, and is often credited as the band's best known work. The album was also known for being one of the best rock albums of 1990, the year of
its release. The album is said to "split the difference between rockbilly and Ramones-style punk."
Whether you call it Rock, Punk Rock, Cowpunk, or Rockabilly Punk, Social Distortion is an album worth listening to. Merging Rock with Punk,
it also has a somewhat nostalgic style. Is it Rock and Roll, or Punk? It's still a great album, whatever musical style you want to call it.
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