One of the saddest songs ever, one of the saddest by Social Distortion. I dont know if it's a story telling song or about someone from Mike Ness' past...
I love how it takes a personal turn at some parts of the song. It shows Johnny from the point of view of an outsider, and then a reminder from the speaker: "But Johnny wasnt crazy, he was just an angry/lonely/frightened boy..."
And then at the end, it turns into a spoken narrative about Johnny and how he affected the speaker's life, how maybe the speaker wishes they'd remained close and maybe he coulda helped Johnny had he not been pushed away.
The meaning is pretty self-explanitory, but I love the point-of-view shifts that occur during the course of the song. I think this might be the definitive early Social Distortion song.
One of the saddest songs ever, one of the saddest by Social Distortion. I dont know if it's a story telling song or about someone from Mike Ness' past... I love how it takes a personal turn at some parts of the song. It shows Johnny from the point of view of an outsider, and then a reminder from the speaker: "But Johnny wasnt crazy, he was just an angry/lonely/frightened boy..." And then at the end, it turns into a spoken narrative about Johnny and how he affected the speaker's life, how maybe the speaker wishes they'd remained close and maybe he coulda helped Johnny had he not been pushed away. The meaning is pretty self-explanitory, but I love the point-of-view shifts that occur during the course of the song. I think this might be the definitive early Social Distortion song.