Brian Johnson on his favourite AC/DC songs
Very few bands are as quintessentially representative of heavy rock and roll as AC/DC. The Australian group formed in 1973 with Dave Evans front and centre. By 1974, Evans was displaced by Bon Scott, whose bold quaking vocals would see the band through from their 1975 debut, High Voltage, to the highly acclaimed Highway to Hell in 1979.
Sadly, Highway to Hell would be Scott’s final album with AC/DC before his death from acute alcohol poisoning in Dulwich, London, in February 1980. As seen with T. Rex, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and countless others, bands often find it difficult to carry on past the death of integral members. When bands do decide to push on with a key member missing, it will often result in a decline in fan support, creativity and morale.
In the case of AC/DC, however, after initial hesitation, they decided to continue without Scott in the spring of 1980 after bringing in Brian Johnson as a replacement, someone Scott would have approved of.
“I remember the first time I had ever heard Brian’s name was from Bon,” guitarist Angus Young recalled in an interview with BraveWords. “Bon had mentioned that he had been in England once touring with a band and he had mentioned that Brian had been in a band called Geordie and Bon had said ‘Brian Johnson, he was a great rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard.’ And that was Bon’s big idol, Little Richard. I think when he saw Brian at that time, to Bon, it was ‘Well, he’s a guy that knows what rock and roll is all about.’ He mentioned that to us in Australia. I suppose when we decided to continue, Brian was the first name that Malcolm and myself came up with, so we said we should see if we can find him.”
With the recruitment of Johnson, AC/DC somehow managed to maintain the momentum of Highway to Hell when releasing their blockbusting seventh album, Back in Black, in 1980. Johnson managed to maintain the live presence of Scott and brought the band to new heights of success over the early 1980s.
Back in November 2020, Johnson was interviewed on a British radio show and was asked to discuss some of his milestone songs with AC/DC. Discussing his debut with the band, Back in Black, Johnson picked out the lead single, ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, as a personal favourite.
“The one I remember more than anything was one of the first songs we did,” Johnson said of the 1980 hit. “I remember I’m sitting in the little cubicle. Malcolm came down and said, ‘Right, Brian, this is a rough backing track of this song. We want to call it ‘You Shook Me All Night Long.’
“Then I thought, ‘What?’ I was a little bit worried. So the next day I’m getting ready and I went up to Mutt Lange [Producer] and he said, ‘OK, let’s see what you got.’ I just sang it. It was just so natural, the words that were written down.”
“I remember Malcolm coming up, and he looked at me and looked at Angus and Mutt, he said, ‘I don’t know what to say. That could be one of the best rock ‘n’ roll records ever heard in a while!’ So I felt really good about that.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Johnson picked out ‘Thunderstruck’, the lead single from 1990’s The Razors Edge, as another fond moment.
“One that I knew, from the get-go, was going to be fabulous was ‘Thunderstruck’, Johnson continued. “I just heard that guitar that Angus had put on, this was the charge and start. When all went together, the ‘aaaahhh, aaaaaahh…’ Then they let me loose ‘I was caught in the middle…’ Then of course, when you all that’s done, you got a ‘thunder!’ It had everything!”
Finally, bringing the AC/DC history up to date, Johnson discussed one of the band’s more recent songs that holds a poignantly sentimental feeling. In 2014, founding rhythm guitarist, Malcolm Young, announced that he would be retiring from the band due to worsening health issues. He sadly passed away from advanced dementia in 2017.
‘Through The Mists Of Time’, which appeared on AC/DC’s latest album, Power Up, was written as a tribute and farewell to both Malcolm Young and Bon Scott. The album came as a surprise to some fans, given that Johnson had voiced concerns over his hearing damage from too many years of hard rocking.
“Well, it was a wonderful thing,” he said of Power Up. “After what happened, I really thought I would never be able to get on stage with a band again with my hearing loss. Thankfully, technology came to my rescue. About a year later, Angus had been keeping his eyes on this and checking in and see how is it and all of that. About a year and a half later, Angus just said, ‘You fancy doing a new album? I’m gonna ask Cliff [Williams] and Phil [Rudd].’
“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s the old boys. The real band.’ And Cliff, who retired, just said, ‘If it’s the old band, I can’t miss it. I have to be part of it.’ So Phil got over all the bad stuff he was going through. He was fit and healthy.”
“There we were all of a sudden in 2018, we found ourselves in Vancouver in the studio. The electricity in that room, I can only tell you. It was something I never experienced before.”
“Because Malcolm had passed, we realised very early on that this was going to be a tribute to Malcolm Young. You could feel that he’s he was there. The songs that Angus brought with him were songs that he and Malcolm had done about 2007-2006. They weren’t completed, but the riffs were there, the chorus, verse ideas.”
Listen to AC/DC’s reflective 2020 track ‘Through The Mists Of Time’ below.
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