LISTEN/MUSIC: Social Distortion's Lost Album

When Social Distortion's fifth studio album White Light, White Heat, White Trash was released in September of 1996, critics and fans alike hailed it as a return to the SoCal band's punk rock roots.

The band's previous two albums, 1992's Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell and 1990's self titled release, explored the band's interests in country, roots, and 50's rock & roll. White Light was a record influenced more by The Dead Boys than Johnny Cash. 

Two years prior in 1994, Mike Ness entered a New York City recording studio and laid demos for what would eventually become White Light. These demos however were far different from the final release version of the album. Some songs would end up on White Light, some would see release on Mike Ness' 1999 solo record Cheating At Solitaire, while many of the songs recorded during those NYC sessions would remain officially unreleased. When eleven of the tracks were leaked nearly ten years after their original recording, fans caught a rare glimpse into Mike Ness life circa 1994 and his writing process for Social Distortion.

"Love Me Tonight" features Ness as a closed off world worn outsider pleading for love but warning to any who may answer of the darkness he carries inside. With themes similar to White Light's lyrically stronger "Through These Eyes," it was left off the final album.

"Crown Of Thorns" would find it's way onto the final release in a slightly more fleshed out version but the lyrically weak "Like You Never Done Before" would not. "Lost and Found" a fantastic acoustic charged dark country slow burner could be interpreted as the seedling for "Winners and Losers" from 2004's Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll. Next, apparently taking a page from Dee Dee Ramone's book, "Got Nothin Comin" features Ness punk-rapping over a hip hop beat and female soul backup vocals. It's most likely intent nothing more than a studio experiment. "Do It Again" could have easily served as a b-side, it's not great but it's certainly not a bad song.

A highlight of Ness' first solo record, "Dope Fiend Blues" addressed Ness' years of drug addiction more directly than ever before. This starkly haunting acoustic demo, stripped of the final version's tough guy machismo, showcases the gutwrenchingly honest lyrics - it's all pain and shame here.

Social Distortion - Dope Fiend Blues.

"I'm In Love With My Car" would also find release on the first solo album with different lyrics, a slightly altered arrangement and increased production, while "Don't Drag Me Down" would become both an album and live performance favorite.

Which leaves two songs from the session, both of which remain unreleased.  "Can't Hide" contains some of the most personally revealing lyrics about Ness' childhood years and family situation fans have ever seen from the writer:

... Jesus, god, are you there?
I get the feeling, you don`t care.
There`s a pain deep inside, I can run, but you know I can`t hide

... You need a license to drive, but nothing to raise a child
And your alcoholism and fear run deep in my blood
And the welfare lines are always longer at the first of the month

The "album's" closer returns to a lyrical theme found throughout many of the 1994 demos, a plea for love. "Don't Keep Me Hangin On" is a direct indicator of the songwriting style Ness would adopt for the next Social Distortion album, released nearly 8 years later. 2004's Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll would reveal a much happier Ness in the newly found comforts of a loving and stable family. In 1994, all that was far on the horizon for Mike Ness. But in "Don't Keep Me Hanging On," he was already dreaming of it.

Social Distortion - Don't Keep Me Hangin On

 

FULL DOWNLOAD: Social Distortion - Lost Tracks: The 1994 NYC Demos

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