“Can’t be any other”: Brian Johnson on the definitive Rolling Stones song
AC/DC figured out a long time ago that you can’t go wrong with the bare essentials of rock and roll. Even though most acts of their calibre have years where they try to mix things up and take things in different directions, the Young brothers knew that there was no point in trying to reinvent themselves if they got it so right the first time. But while their influences seemed to begin and end with people like Elvis Presley and Little Richard, Brian Johnson knew that there was something magical about The Rolling Stones’ greatest tunes.
For all of their by-the-numbers approaches to music, the Australian rockers always had space to grow with their sound. Making straight-ahead rock and roll doesn’t mean they stopped listening to newer artists, and Angus Young had always talked about being thrown for a loop after listening to Jimi Hendrix for the first time, whose psychedelic aesthetic wasn’t in line with songs like ‘TNT’ or ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’.
But even in their prime, The Stones always wore their rock and roll chops on their sleeves. They had grown up idolising all of the biggest names in blues, but even when they started going into the world of baroque music or dipped their toes into psych-rock, there was always a riff from Keith Richards there to remind everyone that this was the same band that made ‘Satisfaction’ come alive.
Despite being one of the greatest riff writers of all time, though, both AC/DC and The Rolling Stones knew that it was rhythm that mattered more than anything else. There was always a swing to every one of their greatest tunes, and as far as Malcolm Young was concerned, if it didn’t have a pocket, there wasn’t a point in continuing on with the tune. And across The Stones’ discography, you can’t really find a better groove than ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’.
Though parts of the track were written on piano, this is a riff that’s made for guitar, with Richards never tiring of playing the lick. While it can be a bit difficult to parse out what Mick Jagger is saying half the time, it doesn’t really matter when the rest of the band lock in and get to the point where the music seems to be flowing through their veins.
Johnson may have been a massive Stones fan, but he knew there was no contest when it came to which of their riffs was the best, saying, “Had to be (‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’), can’t be any other. There is something about certain songs. There is no reason why picked this song, except that riff was so infectious. I’ll never forget that, (the song) made me go out and buy a pair of maracas.”
And even if AC/DC tried to run away from the punk label when they hit it big, this is one of the first precursors to the genre that The Stones ever made. Outside of the raw riff, the tone of the guitar sounds like it’s completely broken, actually being played on an acoustic and then run through a distorted guitar amp, so it sounded like it was about to fall apart in Keef’s hands whenever it was played.
Every punk may have taken the same template for their songs from The Stones and AC/DC when they started hashing things out, but that was never how they saw it. This was simply rock and roll with some more attitude, and when the music is this infectious, it’s hard not to get sucked into the groove from the first time Richards strums his guitar,
