AC/DC

AC/DC 's rowdy image, giant riffs and macho lyrics about sex, drinking and damnation have helped make them one of the top hard-rock bands in history. When they first emerged from Australia in the Seventies, the primal simplicity of their songs and riffs fell on deaf ears of more prog-attuned American rock fans; inA fact, they were initially marketed as a punk band. But that started to change by decade’s end. And thanks in large part to duck-walking, knickers-clad guitar showman Angus Young, who became as famous for mooning audiences as for his gritty blues-based lead guitar, the group has remained one of the world’s most dependable concert draws. AC/DC’s albums consistently go platinum, despite never having produced a Top Twenty single in the U.S.

The guitar-playing brothers Angus and Malcolm Young moved with their family from Scotland to Sydney in 1963. After forming the first version of AC/DC in 1973, they added bawdy growler Bon Scott a year later, followed by the boogiefied rhythm section of drummer Philip Rudd and bassist Mark Evans. Their first four albums were produced by ex-Easybeats Harry Vanda and George Young, Malcolm and Angus' older brother. The group had gained a solid reputation among raucous hordes in their homeland early on, but not until 1979, with the platinum Highway to Hell (Number 17, 1979), did they become a presence on the American charts.

In February 1980, not long after AC/DC's American breakthrough, Bon Scott died from choking on his own vomit after an all-night drinking binge. Two months later he was replaced by comparably gruff ex-Geordie vocalist Brian Johnson, and less than four months after that, Back in Black began a yearlong run on the U.S. chart, peaking at Number Four (1980). Spurred by the never-say-die title track and the hard-swinging double-entendre “You Shook Me All Night Long,” both of which ultimately proved standard source material for acts ranging from country to hip-hip, the album has sold more than 22 million copies to date, making it the fifth best-selling album in U.S. history.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, a 1981 reissue of a 1976 Australian LP, went to Number Three in the U.S., followed by For Those About to Rock, We Salute You, the group's first U.S. Number One LP, in late 1981. The less spectacular showings of the gold albums Flick of the Switch (Number 15, 1983) and Fly on the Wall (Number 32, 1985) gave way to the multiplatinum Who Made Who (the soundtrack to Maximum Overdrive) and The Razors Edge (Number Two, 1990). The latter contains the group's closest thing to a hit chart single, "Moneytalks" (Number 23, 1991). (The ubiquity of a number of AC/DC songs, especially those from Back in Black, is merely history catching up; this may well be rock’s ultimate long-tail band.)

In January 1991, three fans were crushed to death at an AC/DC show in Salt Lake City, Utah. In late 1992, the group paid the families of the three deceased teenagers an undisclosed sum, following an out-of-court settlement. Other parties to the settlement included the convention center, the concert's promoter and the company in charge of security.

AC/DC laid low until 1995, when the Rick Rubin-produced Ballbreaker (which also marked the return of drummer Phil Rudd) entered the charts at Number Four. The bulk of the five-CD box set Bonfire, released in 1997, was made up of live tracks recorded in 1977 and 1979, as well as of a remastered version of Back in Black. It marked the first time AC/DC had released material featuring Bon Scott since the singer's death.

With older brother George Young back on board as producer, Stiff Upper Lip (Number Seven, 2000) confirmed AC/DC's status as one of the most enduringly popular hard-rock bands on the planet. Wisely sticking to its time-tested formula of no-frills riffing, the band followed the record's release with extensive touring, during which Angus Young wore, as always, a schoolboy uniform. (That outfit has become such a part of rock legend that it was included in Rock Style, an exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which opened in 1999.)

In 2008, AC/DC returned with Black Ice, on which their signature stomp was stubbornly unaltered. It was their first album since 1981 to hit Number One in the United States; it debuted at the top of the charts in 28 other counties as well. In its first week in the U.S., sold exclusively through Wal-Mart, it moved 784,000 units. It was followed in late 2009 by the retrospective box set Backtracks, the deluxe edition of which comprised three CDs, two DVDs, and one LP of studio and live rarities. That year, the Recording Industry Association of America declared AC/DC the ninth-best selling artist in the U.S. ever. Boxscores, meanwhile, ranked the band’s 2009 live tour behind only U2, Madonna, and Bruce Spingsteen in terms of gross and attendance. More than three and a half decades into the band’s career, AC/DC showed no sign of letting up.

AC/DC

Album Guide

High Voltage (Atco, 1976)      

Let There Be Rock (Atco, 1977)      

Powerage (Atco, 1978)       

If You Want Blood, You’ve Got It (Atco, 1978)          

Highway to Hell (Atco, 1979)          

Back in Black (Atco, 1980)       

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Atco, 1981)        

For Those About to Rock, We Salute You (Atco, 1981)      

Flick of the Switch (Atco, 1983)      

Fly on the Wall (Atco, 1985)         

Who Made Who (Atco, 1986)      

Blow Up Your Video (Atco, 1988)       

The Razor’s Edge (Atco, 1990)      

AC/DC Live (Epic, 1992)        

Ballbreaker (EastWest, 1995)      

Stiff Upper Lip (EastWest, 2000)        

Black Ice (Columbia, 2008)        

Backtracks (Sony Legacy, 2009)

AC/DC rose to fame during the second half of the Seventies, but this Australian band’s biggest and baddest album will always be 1980’s Back in Black, which forged the archetype for Eighties metal. Perhaps AC/DC’s most crucial innovation is the way their lyrics make plain the boys’ locker-room conception of sexuality that had previously bubbled just under the surface of most heavy-duty rock. Shamelessly sexist panderers or refreshingly frank entertainers? AC/DC fits both descriptions, but none of it would matter if guitarist Angus Young wasn’t such a gargantuan riffmonger, backed by a Godzilla-like rhythm section to boot. Learn to laugh with or at lead singer Brian Johnson’s shrieking depictions of those hormonal surges, and AC/DC’s thundering musical charge will sweep you up like a riptide.

Original lead singer Bon Scott pioneered the raunchy, high-pitched style that Johnson later perfected; he died shortly after AC/DC’s belated American breakthrough, Highway to Hell. Produced by pop-metal maven Robert “Mutt” Lange, Hell sharpens the band’s impact by refining some of its rougher edges. “You Shook Me All Night Long,” from Back in Black, the Lange-produced platinum followup, epitomizes AC/DC’s streamlined attack: a ringing, near-melodic chorus is welded to a granite-shattering beat. “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution,” insists the climactic final cut, but overall Back in Black proves that noise pollution, when properly deployed, can qualify as great rock & roll.

Predictably, AC/DC hasn’t changed a whit since then. Angus Young still stalks the stage in a schoolboy’s uniform, tossing off riffs and abbreviated solos while his brother Malcolm strokes a propulsive rhythm guitar and Brian Johnson shakes the roof. For Those About to Rock almost measures up to the heft of Back in Black, but successive albums quickly become rote. AC/DC’s macho posturing is unspeakably dull when it’s not supported by killer hooks. (Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap compiles the best of Bon Scott–era AC/DC; the title cut is a trashy, irresistible revenge fantasy.) A quickie soundtrack album, Who Made Who works as an effective introduction to the group: Previous triumphs (“You Shook Me All Night Long”) contrast with reclaimed later efforts (“Sink the Pink,” from Fly on the Wall) and a completely out-of-character Seventies blooze number called “Ride On.” Of course, AC/DC returns to business as usual with Blow Up Your Video, where even the hottest riffs (“Heatseeker”) don’t seem to detonate with the same gratifying crunch. But after girding its loins for a few years, AC/DC confidently stalked back into the metal arena with The Razor’s Edge—loud and proud.

The rest of the Nineties was a victory lap for the band, rereleasing much of its back catalogue and touring behind albums that were just a shadow of their powerful predecessors. A serviceable 1992 live album, AC/DC Live, culled from the tour following The Razor’s Edge, acted as a reminder of their onstage fury. After a three-year break the band returned to the studio for the Rick Rubin–helmed Ballbreaker. Perhaps using Rubin, whose work with bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers had made him the de facto hard-rock producer of the day, was a stab at relevance. Motivations aside, Ballbreaker has a spark that the band had been missing on most of its late-era work, with tracks such as “Hard as a Rock” sitting comfortably next to any other behemoth in its arsenal. The band returned in 2000 with Stiff Upper Lip, a somewhat tired collection, lacking the energy of Ballbreaker and smelling suspiciously like an excuse to rake in more arena ticket money. Guess what? None of the tens of thousands of fans who packed those concert halls cared one whit.

AC/DC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, and in 2008 the band released Black Ice, on which their signature stomp was stubbornly unaltered. Though it was overlong, Ice was still the band’s most consistent album since The Razor’s Edge. In October of 2008, AC/DC scored their first ever Rolling Stone cover, and the following year they released the two-CD, one-DVD box set Backtracks, which included live cuts, rarities, and music videos and came housed in a working amplifier – a clue that this was for serious fans. Because the band has staunchly resisted best-of compilations, there is no AC/DC greatest hits collection – unless you count Back in Back, which is all the AC/DC a casual fan needs.