AC/DC and the return of the ‘satanic panic’
Rock and roll has not always been known as the most sophisticated genre of music to listen to. Compared to the sounds of Perry Como and Bing Crosby of yesteryear, hearing someone like Chuck Berry or Little Richard for the first time must have sounded like spending an entire song screaming for no reason. Even though the whole premise started as music to piss your parents off, there comes a moment when those same parents begin to think that your favourite bands are evil, and AC/DC were prime candidates when they hit it big.
Since they made their name when heavy metal was just beginning to come into existence, many of the Australian legends’ songs were prime candidates for concerned adults who didn’t want their kids listening to suck filth. Although most took it with a grain of salt throughout the 1970s, the 1980s are where the band’s detractors began going to war against what they were hearing.
In the age of the satanic panic, many were pointing their fingers at music as the reason why their children and any young person would do despicable things. They do drugs? It’s because of the music. They grow their hair long? It’s because of the music. They forgot to finish their peas once at dinner? Chalk that one up to the music, too.
While the whole thing sounds ridiculous in those terms, it wasn’t until the 1980s that real crimes started to get connected with the music. As news outlets began to shine spotlights on satanism, a story came about regarding AC/DC being the prime suspect behind the killings. Even though the killer in question admitted to murdering one of his friends in the woods, everyone was paying more attention to the AC/DC T-shirt he was wearing when he was turned in.
Since satanic panic aficionados latched onto any lead that they could, it was easy to point the finger at AC/DC since most of their songs had a bad attitude behind them along with devilish imagery, like Angus Young having horns jutting out of his hat on the album cover to 1979’s Highway to Hell. There was even an urban legend as to where the lettering came from, with many believing that it was an acronym for ‘Anti-Christ/Devil’s Children’.
That wasn’t even the last time that AC/DC found themselves in trouble with the law. After Richard Ramirez was found guilty of murdering multiple people, many were concerned about the AC/DC hat that he had left at the crime scene. Quickly branding him ‘The Night Stalker’, the public thought that AC/DC mesmerised him to kill these people, thinking that he took inspiration from the song ‘Night Prowler’.
In truth, none of these theories held any water. When talking about how the band created their name, Malcolm Young had explained years ago that he got the acronym from his sister’s sewing machine, which she used to make Angus’s trademark schoolboy uniform. The ‘Night Prowler’ claim was also a complete farce, with frontman Bon Scott singing about slipping into the room of a groupie and getting into…ahem…hijinx. So if that song inspired people to act on its intentions, the worst they were probably going to get is some kind of venereal disease.
Although AC/DC were never convicted of anything, that was only the tip of the iceberg for many satanic panic followers. It was suggested that every single piece of heavy metal music had to do with Satan and encouraging children to harm themselves. Later, appearing before the US Senate, many of the biggest names in hard rock would eventually be placed on ‘The Filthy 15’. It indicated a list of songs that were deemed too vulgar for mass consumption, with AC/DC making the list for ‘Let Me Put My Love Into You’.
Even though parents probably thought that they were doing some good in trying to shelter their children from such horrid music that would corrupt their minds, there was no way that they were going to kill the appeal of hard rock. No matter how much you might try to shield your kids from anything potentially hazardous, the minute that you put a censor on an AC/DC record, the more kids are going to want to see what it is.
