“Machine Gun Blues” by Social Distortion

"Machine Gun Blues" came roaring out in 2010 as the first single from Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, Social Distortion's seventh album, out on Epitaph. Mike Ness runs the whole show: he produced it, sings it, plays electric guitar next to Jonny "2 Bags" Wickersham, wrote the words and co-wrote the music with Wickersham, and co-mixed it with Duane Baron. Josh Freese sits in on drums and percussion, Brent Harding holds down the bass, and Danny McGough's Hammond and piano add a smoky, gangster-movie glow to a punk-rock shuffle that swings like a getaway car taking a corner too fast.

It found a second life on screen, too: Sons of Anarchy used it in its fourth season, and WWE turned it into the soundtrack for the feud between The Miz and Randy Orton heading into the 2011 Royal Rumble.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.