The song Malcolm Young called AC/DC’s “return to form”
AC/DC have always been relatively unwavering in their desire to make a particular sound. While many bands have experimented with various styles and genres over decades of making music, AC/DC has always been keen on staying true to what they know and is passionate about two things: hard rock and heavy guitar music.
When they originally made the album Let There Be Rock, they found themselves at a slight crossroads as they toyed with the idea of what they could do with the band. Hard rock music wasn’t as popular as it used to be, and the members of AC/DC were left asking themselves if they should move with the times and try something new.
After pondering what kind of album they wanted to make, it became clear that any attempt to pivot genre would be in vain. The band was passionate about only one style of music: good guitar music. It was what got the band initially into music and what they continued to care about the most, so why bother attempting to make anything different?
Even in Malcolm Young’s final days, as his mind and body betrayed him, his brother and bandmate, Angus Young, sat by his side and played him guitar music. In those bleak moments, that style of music could bring him joy.
Malcolm admitted earlier in his life how much of an inspiration The Rolling Stones were to him and how much they inspired him to learn the guitar. As he grew ill, The Stones released some covers, which his brother played. “One of the last records I ever played him was The Rolling Stones when they were doing a lot of blues tracks [2016’s Blue and Lonesome],” said Angus. “He just thought it was great.”
So, with such an affinity for guitar music, there was only one style that AC/DC would adhere to. The issue with this stubbornness (or dedication, depending on how you look at it) is people’s interest in such a sound rise and dip. AC/DC have had astronomical highs, but there have also been low points in their career when albums have failed to sell, and the public hasn’t seemed as interested in them anymore.
This was the case right before they released their album Who Made Who. Their previous couple of records hadn’t sold well, and the band found themselves in a slump. They were asked to do the score for Stephen King’s horror/train wreck of a movie Maximum Overdrive, and in doing so put together a compilation album of the AC/DC classics that made it into the final cut.
The band weren’t keen on simply releasing a compilation album, though, as they didn’t want to merely repackage old material and sell it back to fans, so they started working on new music that could also be featured on the record. In the process, they wrote the song ‘Who Made Who’, which has since become one of the fan’s favourites and was precisely what the band needed to pull themselves out of their rut.
“We were asked to provide the soundtrack music for the film Maximum Overdrive. There was some old stuff in there, like ‘Hells Bells’, as well as ‘Who Made Who’,” Malcolm concluded. “We had the old [original producers] Vanda & Young back producing the title track, and I think that was what we needed. ‘Who Made Who’ was a return to form for the band and it’s become one of our most popular live tracks. We even used it as the opening song on our tour that year.”
