AC/DC: Classic or Dud

A legit scare in this case.

I was annoyed today that not many people were acknowledging George's death, especially with regards to his influence on AC/DC. He was greatly responsible for the raw sound of the band's pre-Highway to Hell output, and Let There Be Rock has one of the gnarliest, aggressive guitar tones ever recorded. Here's a great story about the recording that album via wiki:

In a 1991 interview with Guitar World, Angus recalled, "The song "Let There Be Rock" was unusual for me. I remember my brother, George, saying in the studio, 'C'mon Ang, let's get something different here'...I had great deal of fun on that whole album. On the last track, I remember the amp blowing up at the end. I said, 'Hey, the speakers are going!' You could see it in the studio, there was all this smoke and sparks, and the valves were glowing. He kept yelling at me, 'Keep playing, keep playing!'"

I didn't know Vanda and Young were Flash and the Pan until the day George passed. It's funny because I've had the song "Down Among the Dead Men" going through my head, it's a great little 60s "death ditty" pop tune disguised as new wave.

Flash and The Pan are completely classic for "walking in the rain" and "California"

RIP Malcolm Young

aw fuck rip

what a shitty couple of weeks for angus

I was about to say, how miserable to lose two brothers like that.

But man...Malcolm's rhythm work, you almost just want to stare and point at it in awe. It's that good.

There used to be a YouTube video of Malcolm's isolated guitar track from "Let There Be Rock" - it was breathtaking in its metronomic precision and force. Made Michael Rother sound like some kind of jam-band hippie by comparison.

Yeah, krautrock comparisons really are the ones to make. Anything that values utter focus.

RIP.

Still amazes me just how spectacularly the wheels came off AC/DC after all those years, and so quickly.

RIP. Never heard a rhythm guitarist that could match him. And lest we forget, within the band, he was known as "The Riffmaker", being the point of origin of so many of their greatest songs.

unperson and Ned OTM, a huge part of what converted me to AC/DC was the precise energy and leanness of the rhythm section. RIP.

Wow. There are ample interviews with Angus describing Malcolm as the better of the guitarists. It's also Malcolm who imposed (in the best way) the band's open chord minimalism. I love his rhythm playing on "Thunderstruck" so much. RIP.

\m/ RIP \m/

good interview with Angus re Malcolm from a year or so ago

https://www.guitarworld.com/.amp/artists/let-there-be-rock-acdcs-angus-young-rhythm-playing-malcolm-young

so sad to lose Malcolm

shaping that sound so precisely, right out of the gate and then making it so unassailable for so long <3

absolute legend

There used to be a YouTube video of Malcolm's isolated guitar track from "Let There Be Rock"

Here, credited to Angus.

If you read the nerdy comments, people are pretty sure that's Angus's rhythm part.

This is from a few years ago, but it's still kind of freshly sad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6_rpuuvxpc

Dunno if this has been posted upthread since it’s a few years old but great interview with their first lead singer Dave Evans here:
https://2fast2die.com/2013/10/shot-down-in-flames-original-acdc-singer-recalls-early-days-with-future-rock-gods/

Includes this A+ photo from ‘74 featuring Malc in amazing knee high boots & satin jumpsuit <3

https://2fast2die.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/acdc-ealry-bw.jpg

i mean... everything in this photo is amazing

I had no idea Cliff had retired! So no Malcolm, no Brian, no Cliff, no Phil. That leaves Angus to sole AC/DC anchor, which ... I dunno.

yeah seems sadly rudderless

i mean i like Angus but

Even if Mal was still there, you can't expect now to be 1977 or 1987 for that matter. Hard to know if Angus will continue, but I kind of hope he still keeps playing music in some form. Whatever happens from now on really can't change what has already gone down.

I'd just hope peace to the Young family for losing two members so close together, that is not easy however it goes.

There is a funny thing in one of the ABC/BBC documentaries about AC/DC where their mom figures there is no way the two brothers will be able to play together for long without killing each other. It was a surprise to the family that they were able to make it work together in the same band since they fought like cats and dogs as kids.

yeah there’s stories in the Dave Evans interview abt Angus’ temper & him & Malc punching on a fair bit

This is fucking monumental:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuUTtVGO10Y

Seems like the new album is essentially Angus getting the most long-standing members in to put songs on top of demos that Angus and Malcolm recorded in 2003; so a final album with Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams, Brian Johnson, Stevie Young, Angus Young, and Malcolm rhythm guitar on every track. If Angus does a farewell tour with none of those players except Stevie, plus Axl or rotating allstars as singer, good luck to him.

(one hopes that "final" and "farewell" are the crucial modifiers. this band have been characterised by forward momentum in the face of appalling challenges, but closure would probably be appropriate for fans and Angus by then.)

I still think the best would be to tour with just backing tracks and make the stadiums shriek along collectively in tribute.

haha yeah, would work

maybe some cool live footage on big screens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpEVsDN84Hc

So good

ass and roll ain’t no Mona Lisa !!

otm

Last year on the 40th anniversary of Highway to Hell, I was commissioned to do a special piece about bit for Invisible Oranges to commemorate the occasion. This is the direction I took it

I was only ten years old when Highway to Hell came out. Though this still puts me several decades older than most Invisible Oranges readership (and, um, editors), it means we all shared discovery of the album and the original AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott long after its release 40 years ago.

My 17-year-old son Matthew is among the latest to get into AC/DC. He heard the band initially through pop culture -- their songs are still trotted out for Hollywood blockbuster soundtracks, the radio plays a dozen or so songs on the regular, Jack Black emulated Angus Young’s riffs and schoolboy fashion sense in School of Rock, and women still gyrate to the band for fun and profit. (Not that Matthew knows anything about that! Though he did say “Girls Got Rhythm” was his jam which I think shows pretty good parenting, even more so than not showing him that video.)

Between asking him to do his chores, I asked him how it was that he was enjoying Highway to Hell at the same age when I was doing so when kids are supposed to hate their parents’ music and vice-versa.

“No matter what a lot of people say, I think of AC/DC as the definition of rock-'n'-roll,” he said as prideful tears welled up in his dad’s eyes. “They may on paper sound generic, but try finding a band that sounds anything like them. It’s just rock in its essence. This is some of the most faithful stuff I’ve seen. Truthfully it hasn’t aged. It won’t die, it doesn’t really change, and it fits with every generation.”

We're also posers.

http://townsquare.media/site/846/files/2019/07/brian-acdc-e1564134231486.jpg?w=630&h=840&q=75

http://townsquare.media/site/846/files/2019/07/highway-to-hell-2.jpg?w=630&h=472&q=75

I don't think I read that piece at the time, but it's good, and you're absolutely right that they do a lot of different things on H2H; "Touch Too Much" and "Get It Hot" are very much pointing the way toward the New Wave AOR of the early 80s, "Beating Around the Bush" is pretty much exactly what Ted Nugent was doing on his late 70s/early 80s albums like Weekend Warriors and Scream Dream, and "Night Prowler" is maybe the slowest blues they ever recorded; it's almost biker doom. AC/DC always had more ideas than they were given credit for, and most of them were good ones.

Heard the new song. It’s sorta nuts that Brian sounds exactly the same as ever. I thought his voice was shot and that’s why he’d retired?

His *ears* were shot. Maybe literally, by canons every night.

Late-period AC/DC - S&D btw

really enjoying power up so far

Thank you for the reminder, now I know what I'm listening to when I make dinner tonight.

i had no idea this was out!

and lol the entire departed band came back (other than the obvious one that can't)?

He's not on it, but all of the songs are Angus/Malcolm co-writes, so he's there in spirit.

it's cool that they have stevie young to take malcolm's place, doesn't feel like an artificial thing

Late-period AC/DC - S&D btw

Very fun record! More consistent than Rock or Bust, more concise than (the otherwise great) Black Ice. It's all about Rudd's grooves for me.

PWR UP is hot! i will always be a bon girl, but brian's voice has aged so well... he sounds better here than on back in black to me.

the first song is dope but it reminds me of that awful Christian praise song we used to sing "ROMANS! 16! 19! SAYS!"

Brian's voice still has quite a bit of bite to it

Did you guys pay for this album or what

ripped it out of Angus Young's hands