“We were very fortunate”: The song that almost ended AC/DC before they began
Where would we be without AC/DC? One of the greatest hard rock bands of all time are often unfairly branded as one-trick ponies who release similar-sounding music, but that’s not the case. What you actually have with AC/DC are a band who fully understand their influences and who they want to be as a result of said influences, as well as masters in rhythm guitar, lead, and piling attitude into every single song they release.
While AC/DC might not have diverted too much from their trademark style throughout their careers, this is for a very good reason. When they were on the verge of making their record, Let There Be Rock, Angus Young sat down with his brother Malcolm and discussed what sort of album they wanted to make.
This conversation happened on the verge of hard rock being ushered out of the mainstream and other styles, such as new wave and punk, taking the spotlight. AC/DC wanted to be a famous band but didn’t want to compromise on their views to get there. As such, any inkling to do an album removed from the music they loved was rejected by Malcolm Young, who suggested they keep making good guitar music.
Angus Young has frequently called Let There Be Rock the definitive AC/DC album because of the gravity of this decision; however, it wasn’t the first time that the band were asked to potentially compromise on their views for the benefit of getting more attention. Before they had made a name for themselves outside of their hometown, record labels attempted to shape AC/DC into something they weren’t.
“On our first album, High Voltage, we did a love song called ‘Love Song’. That was very different for us,” recalled Angus Young, “I didn’t know if we were trying to parody love songs of the time, because Bon [Scott] wrote the lyrics. I don’t even remember the words […] I remember that song because the guy who worked for us at our record label told us that’s what was on the local radio at the time – very soft music. He thought we should release that song, because it’ll probably get some airplay.”
There’s a reason why ‘Love Song’ hasn’t gone down in history as one of AC/DC’s classics. It feels incredibly far-removed from the AC/DC songs that people ended up becoming obsessed with, and if it was a road they decided to go down more than just on the one song, you dread to think what sort of band AC/DC would have ended up becoming. It eventually came down to the disc jockeys at local radio stations seemingly knowing the band better than their manager did, as upon hearing the single they released, they opted to play the B-side instead.
“We were very fortunate, though, because all of the radio stations who had seen us live knew this was not who we were,” recalled Angus, “So these stations started to flip the record over and play the other song, which was a cover of a blues standard called ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’. We actually scored a hit from the B-side! That was the one saving grace of the song.”
