AC/DC CLEAN UP IN READER'S POLL
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The legendary AC/DC cleaned up outright in two major categories including Best Australian Band and Best Album (for Back in Black). In the Best Riff category, they also finished 2nd to England's Deep Purple, making Back in Black Best Australian Riff of all time. If that wasn't enough, Angus Young finished as 4th Best Guitarist overall, making him the number one Australian guitarist as voted by our readers. To celebrate, longtime AC/DC fan Murray Englehart looks back at the classic "Back in Black" album. One of the most bittersweet ironies in rock n' roll's history is that AC/DC's biggest selling album, Back In Black stands as a memorial to fallen singer, Bon Scott who was recently voted the number one frontman of all time by the readers of the UK's Classic Rock magazine. At least he played drums on some of the very rough early ideas for the album, a role he sought when he first came into contact with band in 1974. Back In Black almost didn't happen at all. When Scott died suddenly on 19 February 1980, the band who were poised to heavily capitalise on the success of the Highway To Hell album with their next studio effort were immobilised. The question wasn't so much one of would they but more importantly, could they continue. Rhythm guitarist, Malcolm Young, the band's unheralded leader typically made the first move. A few days after Scott's death he called his younger brother, Angus and asked if he wanted to get together and work on some ideas. Angus quickly agreed. The decision about the band's future was made. Any hesitation to the contrary was little more than the effects of shock. Calling time on the band they had devoted themselves to would have been a slap in the face to the very character they had instilled in the band. More importantly, pulling the plug they felt would have been grossly disrespectful to the memory of the flame-throwing life of Scott. Angus put it best in Juke magazine in September 1980. "Bon would have kicked us all up the arse if we'd split 'cos he wasn't there anymore." Next up was the painful task of auditioning to find a replacement for Scott. The lucky applicant was former singer with Geordie, Brian Johnson, an earthy soul with a wicked sense of humour and a voice like a hurricane. He was couldn't miss. "We wanted someone who could do what Bon did and was a real character." Angus told Juke. "but we didn't want someone who was just a perfect imitation of him. There were a lot of guys who came along doing that. In the end, we had a few people in mind, but when Brian came along it was obvious he was just the right one." On 8 April 1980, Johnson was officially announced as the band's new singer and after a whirlwind few weeks of rehearsal, it was off to Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas to make what would go on to be one of the biggest selling albums in history.
From the solemn tolling of the album's opener, Hell's Bells to the closer, Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, Back In Black is and remains as supreme a statement of granite hard sonics as Led Zeppelin's symbolically named fourth effort. Back In Black was a statement, a declaration, not just a new album. It redefined how a hard rock recording could and should sound thanks in no small part to producer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange and his football terrace style of working a song and a chorus. While the album's dark cover and general aura of mourning confirmed at least in the minds of some that AC/DC really were a heavy metal act afterall in fact they were just a brutally loud version of the Stones' swagger with Angus peeling off searing supercharged Chuck Berry riffs. The title track of course is a riff in a class all its own. From drummer, Phil Rudd's casual yet utterly deadly hi hat count in, it's a strolling thunder chord progression delivered by the nearly but deliberately not quite mirror image guitars of Malcolm and Angus. The impact and influence of Back in Black as a body of work has been enormous over the past two decades; Kurt Cobain learned to play guitar to its thunder while the Beastie Boys found its cannon like drum rhythms simply irresistible. The songs are also used to test the acoustics of country music recording studios in Nashville and even Motorhead, the loudest band on the planet for the past thirty years, use it to test out the capabilities of their PA systems. That AC/DC are still very much a going concern almost 25 years after they made the album no-one thought they could speaks volumes. The band's seemingly ever increasing appeal is routed in several things. One, the on stage antics of the world's oldest schoolboy, Angus Young. Two, the very much larger than life, barn burning legend of Bon Scott. Three, the fact that so many of their songs remain THE Saturday night anthems that are unlikely to stop resonating until such time as Saturday nights no longer pop at the end of each and every week. But there's another factor to their continued appeal. Like The Stones, The Who and to a lesser extent, The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC are a study in dogged survival, an epic movie of tragedy and triumphs which has had the balls and backbone (and in AC/DC's case, the massive amp backline) to not only persevere but succeed on their strict terms. It's the stuff all true legends are made of. That status was evident in October with the official naming of AC/DC Lane in Melbourne. It was the second such sign posting in the world after a street was tagged in their honour in Spain several years ago. Of course it only took some wag a few hours to insert the band's signatory lightning bolt on the Melbourne city sign but the fact the sign is there is proof of a folklore factor that far outstrips such things as album sales and chart positions. That the band were alleged considered for a spot at the closing ceremony at the Sydney Olympics was further proof of their acceptance by and infiltration of mainstream culture. When statues of Michael Jackson were being used as part of the campaign for his Hisstory album, a group of academics in Melbourne suggested that if anyone was worthy of such iconic status it should be Angus Young. While the idea didn't eventuate, the concept was later mirrored on the cover of the Stiff Upper Lip album and subsequent stage show. Across the globe, children have been named after band members and it's said that the names of the original lineup of the band are etched in the gravestone of The Door's Jim Morrison by fans determined to have the last word on who's number one. Not that they needed to panic. AC/DC aren't about to hang up their rock n' roll shoes. At the time of writing they were at work on a new album. Not that Malcolm and Angus are ever not at work on new material. The tiny pair are constantly on the prowl in search of that next killer riff. But then that's what they do and no-one would or should expect anything less because, to toy with the words of the great gonzo writer, Hunter S. Thompson, they are afterall professionals. Murray Engleheart |
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