The two epic AC/DC riffs that Angus Young still struggles with: “Never been able to do it”
As my old man said after his car with 279,000 miles on the clock failed its MOT for the fourth year running: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s a formula that AC/DC have always lived by.
Angus Young has a similar joke about the band: “I’m sick to death of people saying we’ve made 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we’ve made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.” Since he first cracked that line, they’ve added a further five studio albums to the roster.
However, Angus’ own wryness aside, the joke masks a welter of invention within the tried and trusted formula that the daft Aussies have perfected. They played to their strengths, and when Malcolm Young sadly passed away, his particular strengths were made perfectly apparent to his younger brother, who was now tasked with taking over all the riff duty.
One that he has never been able to perfect in the interim years is ‘Back in Black’. The rocker is all too happy to admit that he just can’t bend the notes with quite the same spirit, saying, “In fact, I was never able to do it exactly the way he had it on that tape. To my ears, I still don’t play the thing right!”
He’s been playing it for years, too, and in the biggest arenas in the world, which is a testament to the idiosyncrasies that all their songs contain. Truly difficult playing sometimes comes from minimalism, because it gives you nothing to hide behind. Minimalism and ferocious energy is another beast altogether.
But while he might not be able to inject ‘Back in Black’ with the blundrbuss feel of his brother, there’s another lick that practically gives him the same spooks as a teppanyaki chef in training every time the egg trick comes around. Perhaps the most complex riff in the band’s entire catalogue, ‘Thunderstruck’, is lightning quick and graced with uncharacteristic finesse. Getting it right while duck-walking in a school uniform under blazing hot lights has proven unforgiving for poor old Angus.
With the guitarist explaining, “When we perform it live, I have to sit down for an hour and make sure I’ve got my fingers warmed up to take on that track. It’s got an unrelenting intricacy. I have to be confident whenever I play it”. While the scale is basic, the blitzing nature of getting the hammer-ons correct is a feat that requires rare discipline.
Yet, it’s also a marker of his outlook, and the boldness of the band, that despite the difficulty, they’ve saddled up and served up the searing classic for their drunken audience a whopping 767 times, and ‘Back in Black’ barely makes them blink, having rattled it off 1322 times now. Give ‘em what they want and who cares if it’s perfect – half the pissed up philistines won’t even remember in the morning, as rock ‘n’ roll should be.
