p e n g u i n d e v i l

Sometimes, even if you’re at work, on a walk, or sitting around the house at 8am drinking coffee and reading Little Golden Books to the baby, you get that feeling. I know, we all have it, where you just have to listen to a whole lot of AC/DC. Well, it was one of those days today.

AC/DC at their best line-up

So it got me thinking about that nutty band. 35 years, 15ish (depending on how you count, but I don’t tend to count the Australian editions as that makes things too convoluted) studio albums, the worldwide 2nd highest selling album of all time (Back in Black, damn that Michael and his Thriller!) and something in the area of 200 millions albums sold, make them one of the biggest, highest selling and longest lasting rock bands ever. And, of course, they are the best and greatest band ever to walk the face of the Earth. Sometimes the most popular bands really are the best.

Though the last 20ish years have been pretty weak in terms of their material, their first 9 albums more than make up for it. Honestly, I wasn’t hooked at first listen. I remember when Back in Black came out, I was 12 and quite indifferent. I also had a friend who loved Dirty Deeds (the album), which I thought it was an annoying wall of indistinguishable noise, except for the title track which I though was cute (though I had no idea what they were talking about). That all changed in 1981 when I saw the video for “Let’s Get it Up” on Casey Kasem’s top ten.

I came around completely and loved all of their music (except for Dirty Deeds) and they’ve been my favorite band since. From their great blues rock of the early Bon Scott years filled with Bon’s personal, wonderfully humorous and suggestive (yet generally good natured) lyrics and Angus’s brilliant and crazy guitar solos, to the hard rock of the early Johnson years (lacking the personal edge and humor in the lyrics, and moving the suggestiveness straight to downright dirty) I like it all… Though, in the switch of frontmen, I miss the humor in the songs and I’m always bothered by the move from the “songs written around Angus playing guitar” of the Bon Scott era to the “wall of noise with Angus in there somewhere” of the Johnson years… But the Johnson band still put out some great albums. Here is my little summation from 27 years of continual listening.

Best Songs (in chronological order):

The Jack (High Voltage)
Rocker (Dirty Deeds)
Ride On (Dirty Deeds)
Bad Boy Boogie (Let There Be Rock)
Whole Lotta Rosie (Let There Be Rock)
Riff Raff (Powerage)
Up to My Neck In You (Powerage)
Kicked In The Teeth (Powerage)
Down Payment Blues (Powerage)
Gimme a Bullet (Powerage)
Touch Too Much (Highway to Hell)
Shot Down In Flames (Highway to Hell)
Beating Around the Bush (Highway to Hell)
Shoot to Thrill (Back in Black)
Let Me Put My Love Into You (Back in Black)
What Do You Do For Money Honey (Back in Black)
Rising Power (Flick of the Switch)
Back in Business (Fly on the Wall)

Best Albums:

Powerage (1978)
Highway to Hell (1979)
Back in Black (1980)

Best Line-up:

Young, Young, Scott, Rudd, Williams (1977-1980: Powerage, Highway to Hell)

Best Lyric:

“I’ve got patches, on the patches, on my old blue jeans
well they used to be blue
when they used to be new
when they used to be clean”
From “Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)”

Best Album Covers:

High Voltage (1976)

Let There Be Rock (1977)

Powerage (1978)

Though it’s lame that their newest CD (when it comes out) will only be available in the US at Wal-Mart (I wonder if that means not even Amazon?), most of their records are sold outside of this country anyway, and most of the CD’s inside this country are sold at Wal-Mart (as completely fucked up as that is, what’s wrong with people?), so I guess it makes some kind of sick sense. But all of their old albums have be re-mastered and re-released as great digi-packs with fun bonus material and the Family Jewels DVD set is fantastic (at least the first disc is), so there’s is plenty of stuff around outside of Wal-Mart. And speaking of sick sense, here’s a final look…

Angus… What? Why?