Ball And Chain

Today, a buddy of mine at work was talking about her Social Distortion sticker on the back of her car and it made me think of my bachelor party back in 1992.

My buddies took me to this bar in Scottsdale called Babe's. They had made reservations for a booth in the back for all of us, which is a good thing, because the place was packed. Anyway, we were all having a good time watching the show and all my buddies were taking turns paying the ladies to do lap dances for me. Needless to say, we were getting the lion's share of the business that night. Suddenly, the stage emptied and someone put a lone chair up there. Then, the DJ called my name and a couple of ladies came to where I was sitting to escort me to the stage. The DJ announced that this was my bachelor party and that, since this was my "last night of freedom", they were giving me a special dance. With that, everyone in the place started whooping and hollering and shouting things like "Don't do it, man!" as I made my way up to the stage. All the dancers in the building came up on stage to dance for me, and the song they were dancing to was "Ball and Chain" by Social Distortion. While I thoroughly enjoyed the attention from the fine ladies surrounding me, the thing that I remember the most about that evening was that every single guy in the bar was singing along, with special emphasis on the chorus: "TAKE AWAAAAY, TAKE AWAY, TAKE AWAY THIS BALL AND CHAIN!"

I was laughing so hard, I could barely concentrate on the ladies surrounding me.Now, anytime I hear "Ball and Chain", I always think about that night and get a big ol' shit-eating grin on my face.