“That’s the day the band started”: The artist Malcolm Young said almost ruined AC/DC
Every band has that moment where they have to lose some dead weight. It may involve parting ways with people who have been blood brothers for too long, but it’s always better to keep the status of the band at the forefront than a few hurt feelings going on behind the scenes. And for a band that was known for not messing around like AC/DC did, they were not going to let a few stragglers get by in their band if they weren’t going to put in the work to be a musical legend.
You have to remember that the Young brothers steered a tight ship whenever they were in their prime. Many have talked about how simple their guitar parts are and how easy it would be to lock in and play those tunes with them, but the cardinal sin anyone commits when they try to play their tunes is not understanding the real swagger behind their music, whether that’s their sense of swing or the sleazy nature of their material.
Make no mistake, the band was never unaware of that aspect of their sound. They knew that half the reason why their tunes worked was because of that nasty feeling that it gave people. It’s the same kind of rebellious feeling that makes kids want to turn their music up loud and piss off their neighbours, and when they first began playing their own material, Bon Scott was one of the best cheerleaders for that kind of sound.
While he was never the best singer, Scott understood the assignment as the band’s de facto mascot in many respects. Even if Angus was the one in the schoolboy uniform flashing the devil horns whenever he performed, Scott was his partner in crime every time they played, singing some of the filthiest lyrics he could think of while also celebrating what it was like to be a touring musician in a rock and roll band.
But sometimes, it’s hard to appreciate someone like Scott until you hear the band without him. As much as Brian Johnson has done a fantastic job working with them to this day, their first incarnation with Dave Evans was nothing like what they had imagined. They wanted to play rock and roll, and the minute that he walked out onstage with a Gary Glitter-style getup, Malcolm knew that he needed to be sacked.
Those kinds of grudges take a long time to heal, though, and Malcolm remembered that Evans would try to cut them down at every opportunity afterwards, saying, “Every time we go back to Australia there’s something in the local paper about, ‘I made the band AC/DC into what they are.’ The day we fuckin’ got rid of him, that’s the day the band started.” And considering the music AC/DC plays, it makes sense why it didn’t work.
Their slightly bluesy approach did have merit in the glittery rock scene with tunes like David Bowie’s ‘The Jean Genie’, but no one was going to put lipstick on Angus and try to parade him around like the hard rock Ziggy Stardust. They knew what they were about, and that was leaving everyone absolutely gobsmacked the minute that the first chord rang out during one of their shows.
Although Evans did continue to play in the Australian rock scene, there was no reason to think that he would have magically saved AC/DC if given the opportunity. The band had simply grown apart from him, and no matter how much bad press he tried to drum up for them, it was never going to smooth the waters.
