The band that Steven Tyler called “the litmus test” for rock and roll: “No greater”
Rock and roll has never been about abiding by the rules. While there’s usually a model for every rock band to follow the same blue progression to get them started, it’s more fun to just think outside the box and see whatever comes out of it. There’s still got to be that badass foundation anchoring everything, though, and for Steven Tyler, AC/DC personified everything that one should look for in a rock band.
Even within the context of the 1970s, the Australian rockers were already known as a bit of a throwback. Since most people were copying the model that Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones had laid down, half of what the Young brothers came up with felt like the true beginnings of rock and roll, only cranked much louder than people like Chuck Berry or Little Richard would have dared to go.
In fact, there’s a good case to be made that AC/DC aren’t technically a hard rock band at all. They sing about the topic more than a few times and represent a lot of the values of the genre, but if you were to commit the sacrilege of playing their songs on an acoustic guitar, chances are it would just sound like a slower blues song than anything to do with traditional rock music.
Tyler wasn’t all that far off from that kind of music, either. He had done his fair share of blues playing when trying to copy The Yardbirds in his prime, and even when he was borrowing from The Stones and Led Zeppelin with Aerosmith, Tyler would still occasionally throw in something like ‘Milk Cow Blues’ or ‘Big Ten Inch Record’ into the setlist from time to time.
When inducting them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Tyler thought that anyone who has put a few chords together could learn something from what Angus and Malcolm Young put together, saying, “There has been no greater purveyor of the power chord than AC/DC. From the pubs of Australia to the stadiums of the world, AC/DC became the litmus test of what rock does. Does it make you clench your fist when you sing along? Does it make you dance so close to the fire that you burn your feet and still not give a rat’s ass? If it doesn’t, it ain’t AC/DC.”
While Aerosmith and AC/DC were almost on parallel tracks in the rock scene throughout the 1970s, Tyler took a few cues from them working on their later records. Since Aerosmith was spiralling after losing Joe Perry in the early 1980s, their initial return with Done With Mirrors boasted more than a few songs that were pulled from AC/DC’s playbook, with riffs being placed front and centre on every track.
After Back in Black, though, the Young brothers knew that they never needed to change their sound ever again. They knew what they were about as a rock and roll band, and even after the passing of Bon Scott, it was always important to stay true to themselves by writing down-and-dirty licks like ‘Thunderstruck’ rather than try to expect.
Whereas Aerosmith tried their hand at ballads throughout their later years and got mixed results, AC/DC’s track record remained pure. Regardless of the changing times, they offer a story of what happens when you keep making music because you want to. And never for one moment did anyone need to worry about them throwing a ballad to the fans.
