Back To Back In Black

I'm an AC/DC fan. If you're 'of a certain age', and enjoy rock & roll music, chances are you are too. But here's the thing...as great as the Back In Black album is, I was sick of it within weeks of it's release.

Yeppers, even back in 1980, radio stations were killing music by putting certain songs into heavy rotation. Sure, these were, and still are, GREAT songs...but damn, enough was enough. It wasn't the only album available but you'd think it was. It was everywhere. I don't know many of my contemporaries who didn't have a copy...whether it be on vinyl, cassette, or (gasp!) 8-track. Many updated to a CD copy 10 years later. Why? The record is just that good.

Yes, I dig the album...but pretty much ignored it for years...because I just couldn't get away from it. Eventually, I'd hear one of the tracks on the radio and crank it up...giving it it's due. BIB is really one of those records every band wishes they could record. Song after song was just awesome. Not a runt in the bunch. But it's popularity overshadowed how excellent it was. EVERYONE was listening to it...and listened to it, seemingly nonstop, for years. It was easy to get sick of it. Too much of a good thing.

Here I am, 34 years later, listening to Back In Black, start to finish...again...and it sounds as good as the 1st time I heard it. I was 14 when it came out. I was a young, budding guitar player...prone to rehashing Hendrix and The Beatles, as well as bashing out punk riffs and the latest "new wave" hooks by The Cars or whatever band I was into that week. Sure, I learned the AC/DC riffs...it was de rigueur for us back then...but I did not want to listen to the record. If "You Shook Me" came on the radio, I either switched the station, left the room, or openly ignored it. Like I said, too much of a good thing.

That said, for a record to still sound fresh decades after it's release really says something about the quality. This is just basic, balls out, raw rock and roll. These cats aren't masterful musicians...but they know how to rock! They always have. I saw them in the late 70s as the opener for another act. They blew me away. Loud and raw...the way rock and roll is best played. They were tight! Bon Scott was a wild man. Angus Young looked demented in his school boy outfit with his Satanic-looking Gibson SG. By the time Back In Black was released, the world was ready for them. I just wasn't ready to be drowned in their music.

Their subsequent releases were good...but let's face it, nothing matched Back In Black. If they never recorded another note...they would be remembered for this one record. It wasn't their first, but it was definitely their best. I've heard lots of bands try to cover these songs...and no one does them justice. Let's face it, no one can sing/scream like Brian Johnson.

23 years after it's release, I was playing my first show in Australia. Being cursed/blessed with being a smart ass...I introduced the world to my rockabilly version of "You Shook Me" by way of introducing it as "a song by Australia's #1 rockabilly band...you might have heard of them, they're called AC/DC." This led to 8000 Aussies going nuts. I was treading on hallowed ground...and could have easily been viewed as the asshole many see me as. But it worked. The Aussies seem to share my sense of humor...and there I stood, leading 8000 ockers and ockerettes in a sing-a-long, rockabilly version of one of their nation's greatest musical exports. On my next Australian tour, I was often asked to play "the Acca Dacca song." I was even informed that a member of the Young family was in attendance at the first show, and it was shown on television. The Young brothers even enjoyed my take on it. Talk about a humbling experience! Damned live television...if there's a copy of it anywhere, I've yet to find it.

So here I am...48 years old...and reliving this monumental album. I've heard each of these songs at least 100 times over the years...but they still sound as great as that first time around. I have it playing full blast...and damn, this is what rock and roll is about. No one can do it like these cats.

AC/DC have a new album. It's being touted as "defiant" and "rebellious", etc. Hogmuffins. It's AC/DC doing what they do...playing AC/DC-style rock and roll! This comes as naturally to these cats as taking a shit. I look forward to hearing the album. I'm sure it's going to ROCK! Thankfully, I rarely listen to the radio these days, and the internet is too busy with it's flavor of the minute...so I doubt I'll be overwhelmed to the point of running from it. And that, kids, is a good thing.