Angus Young on his five favourite musicians of all time
When talking about the root of great rock and roll, it doesn’t get any more cut-and-dry than AC/DC. Although the band may get criticised for sounding like they repeat the same song continually, the inherent groove they have accumulated over the years has helped pioneer the sounds of hard rock, with nearly every great band to come after making their version of an AC/DC lick. While Angus Young could claim his status as a guitar legend, he owes so much to the performers who came before him.
While Young plays with the same ferocity as artists like Jimmy Page or Joe Perry from the same era, his taste in music goes back much further than his contemporaries. When working on his first power chords, Young learned the same licks that Chuck Berry used to help pioneer rock and roll on tracks like ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ and ‘Johnny B Goode’.
Discussing Berry’s influence, Young felt that Berry was one of the ultimate examples of the first guitar hero, telling BBC, “Chuck Berry was probably one of the great guitar people for rock and roll. He combined a lot of elements — he combined blues, a bit of jazz and his own unique style. He melded all these kinds of different genres of music, but he seemed to bring it together and bring it out, and it [came] out in that rock and roll style.”
While Young would eventually commandeer Berry’s signature duckwalk whenever he got up onstage, his approach to being a wild man at every AC/DC also came from artists like Little Richard. Known for wearing pancake makeup whenever he took the stage, Little Richard embodied having no inhibitions in music, creating amazing musical pieces out of just three chords.
The same applies to Jerry Lee Lewis, who would whip audiences into a frenzy when singing tracks like ‘Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On’. Outside of the golden age of rock and roll, though, Young considered Jimi Hendrix one of the finest guitarists alive, saying, “I was just so impressed with it. When along came Hendrix, you kind of went, ‘Woah! This is another level on guitar.’ So I was very much a fan of that”.
Like Hendrix before him, Young knew that the most incredible music of all time was descended from the blues, citing Muddy Waters as one of his favourite musicians. When discussing the famous bluesman’s influence, Young appreciated that Waters took things in a different direction, singing songs about the optimistic side of life rather than the depressing tone of most blues music.
Although Young has developed his voice on the guitar, it’s easy to see how each of his influences has rubbed off on him. While AC/DC are indebted to old-school rock and roll, the guitarist’s ability to ignite a guitar riff has been an attempt to combine Berry, Hendrix and Waters under one roof to create rock and roll bliss. It might not be the hardest thing in the world, but playing what Young plays with the same type of bluesy soul is almost impossible to perfect.
Angus Young’s favourite musicians:
- Chuck Berry
- Little Richard
- Jerry Lee Lewis
- Jimi Hendrix
- Muddy Waters
