“A big one”: Angus Young’s favourite AC/DC song
AC/DC‘s reputation was built on their ability to perform a spectacular live show, which has always been their area of expertise since they were playing dingy clubs in Australia. While the size of the venues has increased, and they are no longer young whippersnappers, their ability to put on electrifying, unforgettable nights remains the same.
Over the last half-century, AC/DC have been pictured alongside the definition of stadium rock in the Oxford Dictionary. Their brand of music is designed to make people rock out, whether they are watching the band perform at Wembley, listening while driving on the motorway, or merely cooking dinner for the family in their kitchen. They have a unique sound that they’ve refused to deviate from, and they continuously deliver precisely what fans want to hear, which is old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll.
Angus Young is now the only original member of AC/DC to be part of their touring band, despite Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams contributing to the recording process. He’s seen the band undergo immense change over the decades, including the heartbreaking loss of bandmates. Still, he’s devoted his life to flying the AC/DC high and knows the group better than anybody else.
While Bon Scott’s death could have brought AC/DC to a tragic end, they recruited Brian Johnson, who revived the group. Typically, bands that lose their original singer become less relevant after their departure. Yet, AC/DC proved to be an anomaly in the rule. Following Johnson’s arrival, they released Back in Black, which has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and made them the biggest band in the world.
Naturally, there is a selection of tracks that mean more to Young than others in their canon, and there are two he believes are the band’s best creations. Yet, surprisingly, none of his picks come from Back In Black, despite it being the most important in the band’s journey. Categorising his selections, Young first answered from a personal perspective and picked the Bon Scott-era track ‘Riff Raff’ because of his contribution to the guitar. However, overall, Young selected 1990’s ‘Thunderstruck’ as AC/DC’s best song. He explained to Vulture: “The guitar work was a challenge but interesting in the way the song rolled out. That’s my guitar answer. But if it’s for a whole song, ‘Thunderstruck’ is a big one.”
Many AC/DC fans would agree with Young’s choice of ‘Thunderstruck’, which is an epitomisation of the band’s hard-rocking sound in one song. Although Young has performed it live countless times over the last 35 years, it remains a challenge for the esteemed guitarist who has “to sit down for an hour and make sure I’ve got my fingers warmed up to take on that track.” He added: “It’s got an unrelenting intricacy. I have to be confident whenever I play it.” However, the sea of pandemonium it creates once Young erupts into ‘Thunderstruck’ makes the extensive warm-up routine worthwhile.
The band’s vocalist Brian Johnson is equally as infatuated with ‘Thunderstruck’, once recalling in a 2020 radio interview, “The one that I knew from the get-go was going to be fabulous was ‘Thunderstruck’. When you’re a singer, and you’re good into singing something… And I just heard that guitar that Angus [Young, guitar] had put on – this was the charge and start! And then, when we all went in together, ‘Oooh-ahh-ahh-aaa-aaaah’, and there was more of that.”
While AC/DC have a litany of hits packed with the riotous energy associated with the rock icons, ‘Thunderstruck’ bottles everything great about the band and distils it into one song. It’s a track that couldn’t have been made by anyone else apart from AC/DC, and Young will never get tired of playing it live to the adoring masses.
