Social Distortion - demos
Someone out there has to know the real deal on this. Perusing Soulseek I came across what is purported to be Social Distortion’s first demo tape from 1979. Now, if this were really from 1979 then it would most likely include the original lineup of Mike Ness with Rikk Agnew on guitar, Frank Agnew on bass, and Casey Royer on drums. I can’t find any evidence that this lineup actually recorded anything before the Agnews and Royer split to form the Adolescents. I suspect these tracks are actually from 1980 or 1982 or so, as “Lude Boy” and “Telling Them” sound like the same versions as those that appeared on the comp Hell Comes To Your House. I’m pretty sure the remainder were cleaned up for official release as Mainliner: Wreckage From the Past. The versions here appear to be nth generation dubs complete with tape hiss and volume issues. Take them for what their worth:
Social Distortion “1979″ Demo
Social Distortion - All The Answers.mp3
Social Distortion - Lude Boy.mp3
Social Distortion - Mainliner.mp3
Social Distortion - Moral Threat.mp3
Social Distortion - Orange County Jail.mp3
Social Distortion - Playpen.mp3
Social Distortion - Telling Them.mp3
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Without even listening to to the songs I can tell you that they are from later then 1979. Mike Ness didn’t start singing and writing for Social Distortion until very late 79 or early 80.The very tall about 6′8′’Tom Corvin was the singer before Mike until about 1980 Mike just played guitar. Trivia Dave White bite off part of Mike Ness’ ear.
Lude Boy and Telling them are definitly the smae tracks as on Hell Comes To Your House. However, I do not think the rest were the tracks cleaned up for Mainliner. For example Orange County Jail is a very different track then the Mainliner release Justice For All. I do not in anyway believe these are 1979 recordings. My opinion is that they are 1980-81 demo recordings done around the same time as the original Mainliner recordings. It is known that the different version of Telling Them from Hell Comes To Your House was a demo recording. I believe the rest of these to be the same.
I think the earliest demo is the first version of 1945 played on the radio by Rodney, around 1980. It was different than the posh boy version released on ROTR vol 2 and diff than the 45 version released after that. These tunes you posted are not all of the early SD demos floating around.
A real treat would be: studio versions (if they exist) of “Tearing Down the Stars and Stripes,” “Social Distortion” and a few others they used to play live around ‘81-’82! I ‘ve got a real crappy live recording of those tunes from Godzilla’s (dumpy gig site in the San Fernando Valley on Vineland Ave.). Good times those were!
Totally unrelated, but Jim is correct and Mr. Corvin is now a reporter for one of my local television stations……and he is one tall motherfucker.
I’ve had these tracks on tape for years, and they were labelled as being 1980 demos.
Godzilla’s was fun while it lasted,(not long) I think it closed like 6 months after the Cuckoo’s nest in costa mesa closed. Some good Social D. gigs in both places.
Fred… what other early demos are available?
They have a pretty good list of what’s avaible here:
http://www.sxdx.com/discog/boots.html
don’t forget about Kerry “carrot”Faye on drums, and Dennis Dannell on bass with SD when they were a trio.
These are the ‘Early Demos: 1980, 1982′
i have early s.d. rehearsal with rikk singing/guitar and mike guitar/singing, casey on drums, dennis on bass. it’s
crap quality, but authentic as i was manning the cassette
deck on the couch while shooting rubber bands at casey.
probably 79. frank had just quit and mike still had his full ear. trivia mike’s brother troy can play circles around his brother. look aup band devil’s junction. great
guitar
a real score would be the 1984 2nd lp demos mike ness played in my car on the way to get some food before a show in phx. i remember a standout track being a cover of “will you still love me tomarrow?”
anyone?