The most overrated guitarist in classic rock history, according to Angus Young
Within a couple of notes, you can identify an Angus Young riff.
There are only a few artists in history who have achieved that same status of instant recognition. Perhaps those riffs might be samey, and it might be true that they’re not all that intricate, but to stand out in a flash from the millions of people who have picked up a guitar before you and offer up a zap of originality that connects in a heartbeat is a feat like no other.
This achievement has rendered AC/DC a timeless addition that adds colour and buzz to our dismal daily lives. They proudly make music 17-year-olds, by their own unpretentious admission, but even when you’re well north of that mark, they joyously connect you back to those halcyon days quicker than seeing your first kiss in a supermarket.
“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,” the Aussie guitarist once joked. But the obvious defence is that each of them sounds exactly like AC/DC and nobody else. These records were also perfectly fit for purpose, bringing something new to music, and they made them one of the few bands in history genuinely suited to stadia.
“We’re a rock group. We’re noisy, rowdy, sensational and weird,” Angus said. His problem with others arises when they are banal, weird in ways that aren’t acceptable, and ripping off the same old blues from bygone times, once performed by far better heroes. For him, Eric Clapton sits firmly in this camp and has been dining out on drab praise for far too long.
The former Cream star is a three-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, he’s been lauded as one of the greatest in history, and there was a time when “Clapton is God” was spraypainted all over London. However, it is hard to ignore Young’s own critique. “Clapton just sticks licks together that he has taken from other people – like BB King and the other old blues players -and puts them together in some mish-mashed fashion,” he argues.
This mishmash pertains to vaguely rockifying and popifying the 12-bars of the blues. But undoubtedly, there is no great soaring advancement on the building blocks from whence he draws his inspiration. Which, therefore, begs the question: Does he really have the feel, soul and sincerity of the searing Howlin’ Wolf? Young would argue that he certainly doesn’t.
Furthermore, he’d argue that his songwriting itself leaves a lot to be desired. His Guitar World diatribe continues: “The only great album he ever made was the Blues Breaker album he did with John Mayall and maybe a couple of good songs he did with Cream. The guy more or less built his reputation on that. I never saw what the big fuss was about Clapton to begin with.”
He’s not alone in this, either. While most folks looking at his recent discography might agree that all inspiration appears to have left him, there are even peers who found him plodding in his pomp.
“They go, well, ‘Eric Clapton is God’. I go, ‘well, Clapton, actually, he might’ve ended up being a better R&B singer’,” Rik Emmett recently commented. “His guitar playing is a fairly narrow kind of a palette, if you think of those three guys that came out of the Yardbirds, [Jeff] Beck, Clapton, [Jimmy] Page. Eric was the narrowest of them all.”
Emmett’s view of Clapton is pertinent because it is almost the antithesis of the praise afforded to Angus Young. The AC/DC man might be narrow and restricted in his skill set, but somehow, he harnessed a fresh sound with the humble tools at hand, as fresh as the exploits of the Yardbirds duo he actually grew up listening to. While Clapton twiddled the same “Albert King lick” for years.
As Tracii Guns quipped, “You’re gonna put Clapton with Jeff Beck? In what reality?” So, while Angus Young might freely admit that the ‘Layla’ singer could outmatch him in certain areas, when it comes to flair and invention that connects, their rankings are inverted, and maybe that’s what matters more than what bloody grade you are?
