From The Rolling Stones to The Ramones: Five artists Angus Young hates
When considering the lasting legacy of a band like AC/DC, it feels the most necessary to consider all the ways Angus Young has remained the ultimate embodiment of rock’s spirit. After all, this is a band that never felt the need to evolve like many others, instead staying committed to the feverish energy that won over countless fans from the start.
While there are many aspects of AC/DC that went into making them so great, it was undeniably Young’s on-stage showmanship that pushed them to new heights. This kind of confidence can only ever be executed by someone who knows exactly how to warm up and captivate an entire audience, and Young seemed to understand these key essentials from day one, even before they became the explosive rock entity everybody came to know and love.
However, like most legendary rock frontmen, Young also became one of the most outspoken figures, never afraid to say what he thought. Even in the early days, before AC/DC shook every corner of the rock world, Young was a vocal critic in the music scene, especially when it came to how others should or shouldn’t be making music.
Some of these views came from how bands presented them on stage, and if they failed to engage the audience from start to finish, Young regarded them as a failure. Others, on the other hand, seemed too cheap to warrant their huge fanbase, which Young found too distrustful to get behind. Then there was the in-between space, where bands became so focused on genre-blending that they tarnished rock’s reputation.
Five artists Angus Young hates:
Eric Clapton
For the most part, whenever Young dismisses another’s artistry, it’s because he feels they haven’t earned their reputation. That often means criticising artists he believes stole their sound or approach from others and repurposed them as their own, even when nobody else recognises it. For this reason, he regards Eric Clapton as the ultimate embodiment of pretence.
In Young’s view, Clapton earning genius-level or godlike status is entirely undeserved, mainly because he effectively performs things he has “taken” from others without even executing them in a way that seems well done. As he put it: “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.”
On top of this, he also argued that Clapton is fairly weak when it comes to songwriting, claiming that he built his legacy on one good album and a few standout Cream songs.
The Rolling Stones
When The Rolling Stones came along, many rock devotees didn’t know what to make of them. After all, this wasn’t another band like The Beatles; this was a band that sought to reshape the parameters of rock ‘n’ roll by making it sound and feel completely different, which, to some, was too much of a distraction from everything rock should and could be.
For Young, the Stones weren’t just an insult to rock, they represented everything wrong about bands who infiltrated the space and occupied under false pretences. While some commended the Stones’ ability to pull from various genres, others, like Young, saw them as the antithesis of what bands should be. That, and the fact he felt they were appropriating music that wasn’t even theirs.
As he once said: “The Rolling Stones get up and play soul music these days. This is supposed to be rock ‘n’ roll. Leave that to the black people who do it best. If the Stones played what they do best, they’d be a helluva lot better. They’d probably find themselves at ease.”
Deep Purple
“A poor man’s Led Zeppelin.” Harsh words, maybe, but they’re the ones that Angus Young used to describe Deep Purple. He was never a huge fan of their rock sound, believing they tried too hard to overcomplicate things with minimal effect. That hatred didn’t just stay on the pages of interviews, though, as after one show in Australia, the two bands wound up fighting one another.
Deep Purple headlined the festival and took all of their equipment afterwards. This went against what had been agreed beforehand, as Deep Purple had told the band they could borrow their equipment. By clearing the stage, they had essentially cancelled AC/DC’s set, leading to a massive brawl. “I had AC/DC, my road crew, George Young and myself in a major brawl with all of [Deep Purple’s] crew and manager,” recalled Michael Browning, AC/DC’s manager, “A full-on brawl in the middle of the stage.”
The Ramones
Many people called The Ramones one of the most influential bands on the planet; given so much of what they championed ended up becoming a staple of what we now know as a famous punk sound. However, Angus Young wasn’t convinced, as he admitted that he was never really a fan of the band or what they represented.
“The Ramones, I only heard them once; I heard a song, and it did nothing,” he said, “It seemed to me like the first band I was ever in, and I’m sure even that was better – And [that] was when I was 12.” He felt as though the band were all style and no substance.
Pete Townshend
It might be a bit harsh to suggest that Angus Young hated Pete Townshend; however, something about his style eventually grated on the guitarist to the point that he struggled to listen. He felt it was an easy style to copy, and therefore, many people did, eventually making many of The Who’s songs fall into obscurity.
“There are a lot of good guitarists in the world, but you just lose interest,” he said, “It’s like if you saw Pete Townshend when he first started off, it was all bang, bang the hell out of the guitar. But the style he plays is probably the most imitated in the world.”
