. . .
Album: Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
Year: 1992
. . .
The second album that Social Distortion made for Epic records, Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, came out in 1992, two years after Social Distortion, a pace that doesn’t seem so bad now, but was still considered somewhat slow. However, it had the misfortune to come out just at the time where we were all going through our collective Nirvana freakout, and to me at least, what seemed fresh about Social Distortion in 1990 seemed a bit stale in 1992.
This confused me: I’d really liked Social Distortion, and Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell was essentially the same album, but it didn’t grab me the same way the previous record did. It’s always possible that was why, of course.
Which means that it took me a very long time to realize just how great the big single from that record — “Bad Luck” — well and truly was. And by a very long time, I mean “30 fucking years.” But here we are. “Bad Luck” is about someone who has, well, you know . . .
Some people like to gamble,
But you, you always lose.
Some people like to rock ‘n’ roll,
You’re always singin’ the blues
You gotta nasty disposition,
No one really knows the reason why,
You gotta bad, bad reputation,
Gonna hang your head down and cryYou got bad, bad luck
Bad, bad luck
You got bad, bad luck
Bad, bad luck
Built on classic chord changes, a solid beat, and reliably crunchy guitars, “Bad Luck” is also catchy as all hell, with one of those singalong choruses that stays in your head long after the song is over. As always, there are plenty of Ness guitar solos, harmony vocals from bassist John Maurer and the whole thing just sounds fucking great. A ribeye steak with a baked potato of a song.
And I should point out that while I dismissed it at the time, “Bad Luck”, making it to #2 on the alt music or modern rock or whatever the fuck it was called charts, and helped make Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell chart at #76 on the Billboard Album charts on its way to eventually going gold. So, clearly, I was wrong.
“Bad Luck” Official Music Video
“Bad Luck” Live
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