The AC/DC songs Angus Young wouldn’t change a note of: “Don’t trash it”
I’ve never been a big fan of the criticism that AC/DC receive. Yes, some of their songs might sound alike, but if you were that good at playing hard rock, you wouldn’t change either.
It’s not just their die-hard fans who think the band shouldn’t change, either. There are plenty of experimental and genre-pushing musicians who believe that what AC/DC managed to do with their music was deeply exciting, as they took what was a relatively simple sound and showed audiences how good it could be if it was well executed and played with passion.
Frank Zappa, for example, isn’t really an artist you would consider to be an AC/DC fan, and yet he adored them. He found their attitude to music inspiring and liked how passionate they were about every single note they played. “When we first travelled to Australia [in the early 1970s] he tried to sign them,” recalled Dweezil, Frank Zappa’s son.
He continued, “I think he saw what everybody saw: they could play, they had a ton of energy, and they were authentic. It was blues-based, and it had an attitude. The thing about AC/DC is they’ve carved a massive career out of playing one style that’s changed very, very little. That’s what people love – that consistency. They’re rock-solid and they have a great sound.”
Of course, working on and perfecting this sound hasn’t been a walk in the park for AC/DC. Throughout their career, the band have come across a mountain of guitar-shaped hurdles, as the music scene around them has persistently changed, and subsequently, they have received pushback from labels, fans and executives on their “one-dimensional” sound.
When they recorded their album Let There Be Rock, many a rock band were falling short of the mounting popularity of new wave. AC/DC had to grit their teeth and ensure that they stayed loyal to the music they loved, even if everyone around them was telling them to change their style up.
Similarly, the band faced problems when their lead singer, Bon Scott, sadly passed away. One of the biggest contributing factors towards the initial success of AC/DC was Scott’s vocals, as he could sing sweetly, but with an edge that could only ever suit a fucking hard rock band. It was a smooth walkway, but with gravel and small shards of glass paving the side, relatively safe but with hints of danger spread across. When Scott died and the band hired Brian Johnson, they had to work out how they could play their classic riff-infused rock but cater it to a singer with a totally different style.
Regardless of the problems that AC/DC have faced as a band, they have always managed to come out of their predicaments stronger than ever, to the extent that they now have a catalogue of classics which are used as the benchmark for guitar lovers. Out of all of these songs, there are only two where Angus Young is such a fan that he wouldn’t change a single note, and they’re both fan favourites.
“‘Back in Black’. It was a riff that Malcolm played,” said Young, discussing his first favourite. “We had been touring on Highway to Hell, and he put the riff on a cassette and played it for me. It was just on a little acoustic guitar that Mal used to trail around with him. He said, ‘What do you think of that? Is it rubbish? Should I trash it?’ So I said, ‘No, don’t trash it. If you’re gonna trash it, give it to me and I’ll say I wrote it.’”
The other track that Angus Young said he wouldn’t change was ‘Highway To Hell’, and you have to admit, he’s got a point. The first notes of that song are all A chords, nothing special, nothing unique, but the way that they’re played, and the distortion which accompanies them, set up the entire track as being something outside the realm of regular rock.
“We were in Miami and we were flat broke,” Young concluded. “Malcolm and I were playing guitars in a rehearsal studio, and I said, ‘I think I have a good idea for an intro,’ which was the beginning of ‘Highway to Hell’. And he hopped on a drum kit and he banged out the beat for me.”
