The 1981 song Angus Young would never get tired of: “Still gives me goosebumps”
Angus Young didn’t claim to be one of the most eclectic artists in the world when he first formed AC/DC.
The band were about rock and roll first and foremost, and everything they ever played was about trying to capture the same excitement that they felt when they heard people like Little Richard and Chuck Berry for the first time. You can call them a one-trick pony if you want, but that’s half the reason why so many of their songs work whenever Young struts up and down the stage.
Sure, they might have jammed a little bit more when they were with Bon Scott, but even when Brian Johnson entered the fold, what kept them going was the power behind their riffs. Not all of their records were absolute knockouts, and there were more than a few times where even Angus wasn’t as proud of what he had done with the group, but even if they weren’t the most fashionable band in town, they weren’t going to try to change their sound to suit whatever they were doing.
Because think about it for a second: an AC/DC unplugged record or an album full of dance remixes of their music wouldn’t have worked. It was all about the swagger in their step whenever they played, and if Back in Black was their big comeback, For Those About to Rock was the first time that they had a lot more to prove with the new lineup. Anyone can try to pull off the impossible once, but from the opening notes of the title track, Angus and his brother Malcolm were already back in business.
The song is a much more moody track when it opens up, but when Johnson’s screaming chorus comes in, there isn’t much else in the band’s catalogue that really compares to it. Other tunes like ‘Shoot to Thrill’ had the same kind of energy, but Angus felt that he got a shot of adrenaline every single time he stepped up on that stage and started that tiny fingerpicking part at the top of the tune.
Plenty of AC/DC songs have found their way out of the setlist over the years, but Angus felt that he would never get tired of playing a song like ‘For Those About to Rock’, saying, “Brian has recorded a lot of strong stuff with the band. For Those About To Rock, which still gives me goosebumps. The title comes from ancient Roman times. (It was) when the gladiators would go in and they’d be fighting in the arena. Before they went into battle, they would say, ‘For those about to die, we salute you.’ And funnily enough, the first time I heard the phrase was, it was really Bon who had the book.”
If they were pulling from Roman times, though, there was a lot more fury in the way that they performed it than you might have expected. No AC/DC was meant to be tame by any stretch, but when you hear those first notes being picked out, it feels like a musical bomb about to go off before the central riff comes in. But, really, no one was going to truly experience the song until they played it live.
The Scott-led lineup of the band may have been about the raw power behind their music, but breaking out the canons during this song is still one of the most epic rock and roll moments ever. Any other band would have had their ears blown out by now every single time that Johnson screams ‘FIRE’, but the fact that they have kept trucking through and making everyone’s hearts stop live is half the reason why the band remains one of the biggest stadium draws in rock and roll.
Their classic rock sound might be a little bit retro by today’s standards, but the fact that they can make people jump the same way they did in 1976 wasn’t by accident. They knew that they needed to keep upping the ante every single time they performed, and even if they can play the hits these days, Angus was almost proud to be a one-tricky pony if this was the kind of trick he could pull off. Yeah, they might write the same song over and over again, but that song is one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time.
