Slow down, smartypants. It’s probably not what you think. Highway to Hell and Back in Black? Nope.
The pure, rambunctious peak of AC/DC took place with Let There Be Rock and Powerage.
Highway to Hell and Back in Black are indisputable classics, but they are refined, cleaner and more palatable, the edges shaved off ever so slightly. While every AC/DC album is at least good-to-great, AC/DC would never again match the rock/metal/punk hybrid perfection of Let There Be Rock and Powerage.
AC/DC formed in Sydney, Australia in 1973, and eventually worked to release High Voltage in 1975 and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap in 1976 (although Dirty Deeds wouldn’t get released in the U.S. until 1981). Those records are dynamite rock and roll, but the songwriting is a bit hit-and-miss, and they stuck to a groovier, Chuck Berry-influenced style of guitar rock.
By 1977, after years of touring, AC/DC had become a full-grown force of nature, and released the fuzz gun monstrosity Let There Be Rock.
Mick Wall goes in-depth on the state of the band and the recording of the album on Loudersound.com.
The only way the band knew how to record back then was simply to play as if they were doing a gig. “If Angus was recording a solo, he would be climbing all over the amps and rolling around the floor,” says Graham Bidstrup. “That was part of what made George and Harry (Young) good producers – they could actually get the band fired up to be so excited about what they were doing that Angus would crawl around on the floor.”
Recorded during a two week stint in January 1977, it was the first AC/DC album with guitars and amps fully cranked, loud and upfront in the mix. For the first and only time, the guitar tone was actually fuzzy and grungey, almost like they were using a fuzz pedal. Most other AC/DC albums have a smoother distorted tone you get from a Marshall amp, but on Let There Be Rock, the amps sound like they are on the verge of melting down.
Or maybe they did, as Mick Wall writes:
Angus later recalled seeing smoke “pouring out of the fucking amp”, at the end of the ‘Let There Be Rock’ take. “George is fucking screaming: ‘Don’t stop!’” The amp held out until the end of the song, when “it melted”. It was simply one of those albums, Angus concluded, “where it was all cooking”.
“Go Down” begins the album with a simple riff (even by AC/DC standards) but transitions into a nice call-and-response section with Angus Young’s guitar and Bon Scott’s squeals playing off each other. “Dog Eat Dog” is an average song, and probably would’ve been better on the second side.
But then, with the long title track (over six minutes, an eternity in AC/DC time), the album explodes into orbit, with band playing a faster than usual tempo and Bon Scott spinning a mythological tale about the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll. Angus gets his first chance to truly rip on the solos. The first solo is somewhat restrained, building up slowly to a furious conclusion, and the second main solo wouldn’t sound out of place on surf guitar classic. And with the final outro solo, Angus is ripping off bluesy notes, one after another, the band wailing along behind him.
It’s a monumental performance, only topped by the final song of the album.
Here’s a live version of “Let There Be Rock” from 1978:
“Bad Boy Boogie” closes side one with a crunchy riff where Bon Scott has a blast telling his own fantasized life story. You can just see his smirk through the rock ‘n’ roll carnage.
“I said up, they said down
They said straight, I said round
They said lost, I said found
I said breathe, they said drown!“
Okay….after that fierce ending of side one, you need a breather. “Problem Child” kicks off side two, duplicating an average song from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.
But then you are back into the tear-the-roof off section as side 2 barrels forward to its ripping conclusion.
“Overdose” starts with an odd, out-of-tune arpeggio, sounding like the band is just waking up from a drunken stupor. And then, like an adrenaline shot to the heart, they start tearing into a grinding three-chord riff, driven by a menacing groove of rock perfection.
“Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be” is the catchy album tune that each AC/DC album usually contains.
The album closes with the second masterpiece on the album, “Whole Lotta Rosie.” What guitar player hasn’t learned this epic riff? And what guitar player doesn’t begin to idly play it during every guitar playing session?
The solos are death-defying. Angus rips it up in the first solo, and then moves into a call-and-response with the band, and continues to shred from there. Around the 4:00 mark, he goes off again, and you just imagine him bouncing off the walls, notes flying from his smoking guitar. An all-time classic closer.
Powerage was unleashed not long after in 1978. It’s the perfect next step toward their breakout albums Highway to Hell and Back in Black. It’s a slightly-more-refined version of Let There Be Rock, but it retains that album’s on-the-edge ferocity, something that would be tamed on subsequent records.
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation” and “Down Payment Blues” kick it off, with Bon spinning another tale of a down-on-his-luck bloke just trying to make it in this world in the latter:
“Feeling like a paper cup
Floating down a storm drain
Got myself a sailing boat
But I can’t afford a drop of rain
I’ve got holes in my shoes
And I’m way overdue
Down payment blues”
“Gimme a Bullet” is next, a song that I’ve long thought could be a hit in the right hands. You make this into a country-ish tune, and that hook will get ya. But even as it is, it’s a great album track. The band really could come up with some hooks.
And then “Riff Raff” puts them back squarely into tear-your-face-off territory. An up-tempo rocker, the main riff is a bunch of notes all crammed into a short sequence, but the Young brothers articulate each note so it never sounds muddy. During the solo, Angus continues the tempo with a searing lead, some of his fastest soloing ever committed to tape.
Here’s a live version of “Riff Raff” as a show opener:
“Sin City” kicks off side 2, an album cut that seemed to gain new life on classic rock stations. A catchy mid-tempo rocker with a nice crowd-pleasing riff.
Then you have one of the strangest, but still compelling, songs in the AC/DC canon. “What’s Next to the Moon” begins with an arpeggiated guitar part and Phil Rudd rides the toms instead of the basic kick-and-snare beat. Bon throws in references to Superman, Lois Lane and Casey Jones.
This song proves the band knows how to build a song, as the chorus moves into a double-time beat, and by the end, the song sounds more traditional.
After the mid-tempo blues of “Gone Shootin'”, the band closes the album with two rocking masterpieces.
“Up to My Neck in You” is a full-speed ahead rocker that seems simple on the surface, but just cooks. Bon again comes up with a clever turn of a phrase. Powerage may contain the best lyrics of his career.
Baby you were too good, too good to be true
What you done no one else could do
Now I’m up
“Kicked in the Teeth” ratchets it up one more step, with a furious riff and Bon lamenting about his “two-faced woman.”
Highway to Hell and Back in Black are justifiable rock classics. The songs on those albums are catchy and more consistent. But for my money, I come back to Let There Be Rock and Powerage more often, always captivated by that fly by the seat of your pants recklessness these albums reflect.
