‘Meanstreak’: The song Malcolm Young thought was too funky for AC/DC fans
There’s no real reason to argue with the formula AC/DC have perfected over the years. The whole point behind most fo their music was to create the kind of rock and roll that could get any party moving in a matter of seconds, and when the fans keep coming to hear Angus Young play like an absolute madman onstage, it’s not like there’s any reason to fix what isn’t broken. But for all of the great moments in their catalogue, there were always a few tunes that stood out as too different from their usual standards.
Granted, they still had their limits, too. There was no way that they were going to slip up and create a ballad or turn in a song with a billion different prog sections added into the mix, but there was always one simple test that every song had to pass in order to make it onto the record, and it all started with the rhythm.
Despite all the attention being focused on Angus during the live show, Malcolm Young was the true pioneer of the band’s sound, and that always came from locking in with the rest of the group as he hammered every single open chord. So if it didn’t feel right for him to play something when Phil Rudd was laying down a groove, chances are there was something wrong with the tune rather than the band being off.
And it’s not like his instincts were that wrong, either. Looking through the band’s catalogue, some of their best tunes always have a slightly danceable quality. You have to remember that they came from the generation when rock and roll was still party music, and if it didn’t have some kind of swing behind it, there was no point in them suddenly trying to make everything sound technically impressive.
Although Mutt Lange did eventually put a massive amount of sheen behind albums like Back in Black, AC/DC weren’t about to change their sound once they hit the big time. They knew what they were good at and were more than happy to play to anyone who would listen, but by the time they got to work on tracks like ‘Meanstreak’ from the album Blow Up Your Video.
The album itself may have been nowhere near records like The Razor’s Edge in terms of sales, but while Malcolm loved playing ‘Meanstreak’ live, he admitted that fans would have been a little bit turned off by it if all they had known from them was ‘Highway to Hell’, saying, “I also liked ‘Meanstreak’, even though I think it may have been too funky for some of the fans.” And when a band has made as solid a foundation as they have, it’s easy to spot when something’s a little off.
That’s not to say that ‘Meanstreak’ itself is a terrible song. The band are in top form as always, but the rhythm is a lot looser than many people may have expected, especially when the band come crashing in on the chorus. It didn’t sound as harsh as something like Fly on the Wall, but it must have had some of the hardcore fans wondering why the band started to get a bit more experimental.
While AC/DC’s definition of “experimental” is a lot more muted than others, it’s hardly a bad thing for them to switch things up once in a while. No band can claim to play the same song forever, and since the band were more than happy to work in some blues influences later on Stiff Upper Lip, they were never afraid to tweak their sound a little bit to see what their fans wanted.
