Don't Drag Me Down by Social Distortion

Album: White Light, White Heat, White Trash (1996)

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Social Distortion lead singer Mike Ness explained: "This is a song about ignorance and racism and the astounding fact that it still exists. This song is also about the government cover-ups and lies. When I hear the truth about our forefathers, I'm ashamed. They don't mention in school that our forefathers exterminated a whole Native American race. I experience discrimination all the time. I know what it's like to be discriminated against - being seated in the back of a restaurant because of my tattoos. It's cruel but people still judge you by the way that you look and I am reminded daily that commercial and mainstream ideals are quite different from my own."
This song appears on the live album Social Distortion - Live At The Roxy.

Comments: 8

Timoteo from UsAlways sounded like Mike was inspired by uk subs and their song riot. Sounds so similar and the fact uk subs has a song “drag me down”

Has Mike ever mentioned this?
Ted from Lincoln,ne, NeThe thing that I don't get is that Liberalism is essentially Statism, where Conservatism is representative. So this begs the question...Why are Punk and Anarchist types liberals? Liberalism is in no way associated with freedom.
Jim from Long Beach, CaJohn from Bloomington, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself.You got to be a Rupublican red-neck!..Open your eyes it is 2009, your views are outdated..
Meghan from Haight-ashbury, CaPeople, people, people. Enjoy the music. When you're as rich and talented as Social Distortion feel free to make comments...
Jordan from Boston, Ma John, Bloomington, IN, where do i even start? You are everything that continues to be wrong with this country. Your spelling and grammar are laughable, your views are small minded, and you'r throughly uneducated in U.S. history.Yes there are still many indians left, in fact there are over a billion but guess what, many of them live in India. Native Americans( North and South)have been exterminated.When's the last time you saw a native american village (a real one not a reserve)? The Europeans that came to the Americas enslaved, killed, stole from,and spread diseases(unintentionally and intentionally) that the isolated native american immune system had no chance of fighting. The European arrival in the Americas marked the sharp decline of a noble people and an eficient and civil society.Just because on society has "more advanced" technology, does that mean that they have the right to stamp out an entire group of people? The precedent set by "our founding fathers" has continued to influence modern american culture and politics. By the way not every americans founding fathers were those imperalists that arrived in the 17th century.
Tony from Newtown, PaIn fact, the Colonial governments gave blankets from Smallpox victims to Native Americans in the New York and Ohio in the eighteenth century, and blankets from Tuberculosis victims to the Plains Indians in the nineteenth.
Dan from Trenton, NjIn case you haven't realized, the disease was brought on by the Europeans. And if you would pick up a histroy book you would see that on numerous occasions the government tried to get rid of the Native Americans. Thats the whole reason buffalo were on the brink of extinction since they were the main source of food and clothing for Native Americans. Social Distortion is a punk band. Punk as in liberal anti-establishment kind of guys. Just because someone is liberal does NOT mean they are a nut job.
John from Bloomington, InAlthough I love Social D and "story of my Life" is one of my favorite songs, seeing the above quote by Mike Ness made me just loose a lot of trust in his ability to reason. Why do most artists have to be liberal nut job?? Yes, America's treatment of he Indians was pathetic, but we did not exterminate the Native American race. (To my knowledge, we still have Indians) Besides, disease and not Europeans caused 90% of all Native American deaths. Hey Mike, if it wasn't for our forefathers, you wouldn't even be here!

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