Pete Townshend’s scathing indictment of AC/DC: “All their albums were the same”
Nothing that The Who ever made was intended to be just a throwaway piece of music. Pete Townshend was always in charge of steering the band in whatever direction they needed to go in, and that usually meant that every track had some sort of intent other than just being a catchy single. Whereas Townshend was looking to paint musical pictures every time he played, he admitted that AC/DC was a bit too ordinary in how they approached their craft.
As far as the Aussie rockers are concerned, why try to fix what was never broken in the first place? Compared to the other hard rock acts that they get lumped in with, AC/DC have practically been a blues outfit for most of their career, albeit one that happens to play at deafeningly loud volumes.
It’s not like The Who hadn’t dabbled in the blues that much, either. Going through every one of their early albums, some of the first hits saw the band operating in a bluesy mould by reimagining R&B songs, and Townshend even found a way to shoehorn in ‘Eyesight to the Blind’ on his first rock opera, Tommy.
That was just to lead the story along, though… the real drama would come afterwards. After Townshend started making more grandiose tracks like ‘A Quick One While He’s Away’, his focus shifted from a catchy single to a broad musical soundscape. He wasn’t put on this Earth to make pop songs…he was there to show the world the complexity that could come from rock music.
For Townshend, what they were doing was miles ahead of what AC/DC could have tried, later recalling to The New York Times, “AC/DC made 50 albums, but all their albums were the same. It wasn’t the way The Who worked. We were an ideas band… We’re not making Coca-Cola, where every can has to taste the same.”
This isn’t some new vision that Townshend had, either. As far back as The Who Sell Out, he was already poking fun at the kind of artists that like to cash in and make the same tracks over again, including throwing in mock commercials in between the main songs to simulate a kind of pirate radio station broadcast.
Then again, AC/DC sticking to their guns throughout their career has made them one of the few bands that never sold out. Even though it might seem easy to repeatedly manufacture the same piece to keep the customer satisfied, that one track might be the greatest rock song ever written, whether it’s under the title ‘Let There Be Rock’, ‘Hells Bells’ or ‘For Those About To Rock’.
Since they have stayed in their lane, they have also never done anything to embarrass themselves, either. Compared to artists like Townshend, who may go for a specific sound and fail spectacularly, AC/DC would never play a ballad, and there was zero chance that Angus Young would ever break out an acoustic guitar for a song. This was rock and roll, and if it bothered you that the band didn’t change, that’s too damn bad.
