Powerage is their high water mark. Every song a winner and it contains Bon's best lyrics. It tends to get forgotten though. My 10 year old son is partial to "Dirty Deeds..." except for "Big Balls", which he hates but can't quite explain why.
― kwhitehead, Friday, 6 April 2012 16:59 (twelve years ago) link
Too subtle?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 17:06 (twelve years ago) link
Powerage is the best. Quite agree that it has Bon's best lyrics - and I think it's the only album free of innuendo. It's a proper blue collar struggle album. Dirty Deeds has always seemed to me to be very patchy. Ain't No Fun is way too long, though it has a great lyric and Bon's best asides (Oi! Howard Hughes! Get your bloody jumbo jet off of my airport!"). Squealer is actively unpleasant, and a genuinely misogynist song.
BTW Anyone who reckons AC/DC aren't/weren't misogynist - how do you explain away Squealer and The Jack?
― Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Friday, 6 April 2012 18:08 (twelve years ago) link
I concur with you, Viva Brother. DD is patchy and the humor is too broad but, when yer 10 like my son, subtlety is a non-issue. Thankfully, he isn't aware of the misogyny.
Also, your take on "Powerage" otm.
― kwhitehead, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:50 (twelve years ago) link
In the band's defense: last time I saw them live, they made a point of women *and* men flashing their chests on the jumbotron.
Not in their defense: "Let Me Put My Love Into You"
"Don't you struggle,Don't you fight,Don't you worry,'Cause it's your turn tonight."
Come on, everybody, sing it with me!
"Let me put my love into you, babe,Let me put my love on the line,Let me put my love into you, babe,Let me cut your cake with my knife."
Great song, though.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 18:54 (twelve years ago) link
I love Dirty Deeds, far and away my favorite AC/DC album. "Big Balls" is the only point at which the humor goes too broad, imo (though I loved it as a kid), and yeah, "Squealer" is p gross. But the title track is such a blast, same for "Rocker" and "Problem Child". Surprised that people think that "Ain't No Fun" is too long. I mean, it is long, but it's one of my very favorite AC/DC tunes, totally mesmerizing from start to finish. "Ride On" too, a real curveball in their catalog.
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 6 April 2012 19:11 (twelve years ago) link
When I first heard Oxbow's "Gal," it seemed like they were taking "Squealer" and turning it into something totally bonkers and horrifying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z4ijIQYYNo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDqoJPVaV8M
― 誤訳侮辱, Friday, 6 April 2012 20:04 (twelve years ago) link
At least "Big Balls" has a joke to its joke. It's not just being naughty for naughty's sake, like, I dunno, "Given the Dog a Bone."
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 20:08 (twelve years ago) link
Bon was the king of innuendo. He made it funny without being crepey, somehow. It's kinda why I have such a hard time with Brian, because Brian makes all those songs just straight up creepy when he sings them, lol
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 20:13 (twelve years ago) link
though innuendo's a stretch, lol
So is "Night Prowler" not creepy?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 20:18 (twelve years ago) link
Not if Bon sings it. you've seen Bon, right? :D
sorry, I'm a terrible person.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 20:24 (twelve years ago) link
It is creepy but may get a pass since it was supposedly based on a true story, so I'm told.
― kwhitehead, Friday, 6 April 2012 20:26 (twelve years ago) link
I wouldn't be surprised if every AC/DC song was based on a true story!
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 20:29 (twelve years ago) link
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/22826391.jpg
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 20:30 (twelve years ago) link
the best
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 20:32 (twelve years ago) link
Bon rocking the jumbo beer!
― kwhitehead, Friday, 6 April 2012 20:49 (twelve years ago) link
beware the ides of march etc
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 20:54 (twelve years ago) link
other thing abt dirty deeds is that even if "squealer" and "love at first feel" are lyrically off-putting, they're both kick-ass songs, the former all darkly malevolent, the latter less threatening but no less memorable. and VG otm abt the difference between bon and brian.
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 6 April 2012 21:44 (twelve years ago) link
With Brian, it's like your drunk weird uncle singing 'Can I Sit Next To You Girl'. Just, no. I like him on stuff like Hell's Bells or Back in Black, but the leering songs are just skeevfests for me
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 21:46 (twelve years ago) link
I totally get that. Tough he was around 33 when "Back in Black" came out. Had Bon lived, how gross would he be now?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
I reckon Bon would've turned out like Keef
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 21:58 (twelve years ago) link
Keef crossed with Mick.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
Like, a sraggly chicken grandpa letch.
scraggly, saggy. Oh a bit of current Iggy in there, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 6 April 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
been listening through their oeuvre whilst working out & gotta say that the drop off from Bon to Brian is huge, just even wrt vocal tone; & the subject matter becomes a lot less carefree, & so these 80s albums have been a drag, man.
― Euler, Friday, 6 April 2012 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
euler otm, back in black is really the last stand
― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Friday, 6 April 2012 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
cosign
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 6 April 2012 22:34 (twelve years ago) link
I'll rep for Flick Of The Switch, but that's more for the sound of the band than for anything Brian does. The band is blazing and raw.
Otherwise, it's seriously hit or miss since BiB.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 6 April 2012 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think in some ways for all their greatness and popularity that AC/DC gets the quite rep for just the raw use of minimalism in their sound. Many of their great songs are just that very straight pounding beat tied around those huge open chord stabs. Even by their peak heyday of the 70s, people had been playing rock guitar for a while, yet that hard stripped down use of chords - you start messing with a guitar and crap it sounds like AC/DC. It's easily as genius and signature as how the Ramones used simple changing powerchords. Add in Tony Iommi's use of powerchords, sometimes detuned in Sabbath and you pretty much have the holy trinity of heavy and hard guitar riffage.
― earlnash, Saturday, 7 April 2012 00:04 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I liked the MOJO piece on AC/DC a few months back, where Angus really stresses how much the simplicity is conscious, by design. Open chords, nothing fancy. But what makes AC/DC special, I guess, is that Angus can also really play. That's the real key to something like Back in Black - big dumb songs, big open chords, blazing solos.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 7 April 2012 00:24 (twelve years ago) link
I also agree that post Back in Black, there's really only one or two killer tracks per album. But those tracks are awesome!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 7 April 2012 00:25 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah AC/DC's really pretty deceptive in their simplicity --- once you dig into the music, and Angus, they're really really on their shit.
And this is a really dumb admission but I had NO idea that Malcolm and Angus Young were George Young's little brothers. Easybeats were one of my favorite bands growing up, and it never occured to me that they were related [insert facepalm here]
but seriously, how's that for a Rock N Roll hall of fame family. Amazing to me, really.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 7 April 2012 00:43 (twelve years ago) link
i'm not a big hard rock person, but the minimalism and the guitar tone make ac/dc completely amazing. there is just nothing else that compares.
― call all destroyer, Saturday, 7 April 2012 00:53 (twelve years ago) link
Phil Rudd is one of my fave drummers. Fascinating to me how he never uses a ride.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 7 April 2012 00:54 (twelve years ago) link
everybody OTM
this beer is coming out next week from my local microbrew gods:
http://brewdad.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Ninkasi-Helles-Belles.png
― Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Saturday, 7 April 2012 00:59 (twelve years ago) link
Bon would be bald as a cueball or wearing a wig
The funny thing is that brian seems creepy but bon probably did way worse things to women irl....like he had a bad look in his eyes
But great frontman obv
― Mississippi Butt Hurt (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:05 (twelve years ago) link
old bon-era live vids are the best. that wise ass grinning all the damn time. brian is just so straight down the barrel and boring and just. he's okay but.
― arby's, Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:16 (twelve years ago) link
Oh Bon looked like the perennial 16 year-old boy up to no good, I don't even want to know half of what he got up to irl.
Brian gives the creepy vibe singing but to clarify, I think that that uncle thing works in his favor off stage. He seems like a nice bloke. You'd probably be relatively safe to have a conversation with him if you're of the female persuasion. Bon, I'm not so sure about, lol.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:21 (twelve years ago) link
Malcomn is really the secret weapon in the band. He's riff guy in that group and his playing is so fxxxxxg tight that the whole band swings around him like a clock gear.
― earlnash, Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:32 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah there's not much dead weight in AC/DC.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:33 (twelve years ago) link
^
― arby's, Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:33 (twelve years ago) link
No props for Cliff Williams? Utilitarian for sure but somehow perfect for the band. He knows his place. "Love Hungry Man" is the only song I can recall when the band let him do some fret walking.
― kwhitehead, Saturday, 7 April 2012 03:25 (twelve years ago) link
Malcolm, Cliff and Phil are my heroes in AC/DC. Malcolm especially. For the absolute self-discipline required to spend the last four decades doing as little possible while the other two do the crowd pleasing flash. Love watching them on stage, too: the factory workers who clock on, go to their work stations and just do it for two hours.
― Viva Brother Beyond (ithappens), Saturday, 7 April 2012 08:26 (twelve years ago) link
Cliff is the king of the one-note arena bass line. One of my favorite concert images is Cliff and Malcolm hanging out at the back by Phil, then sauntering up to the mic for the big choruses, only to return to hanging back after.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 7 April 2012 12:32 (twelve years ago) link
http://fuckyeahcliffwilliams.tumblr.com/
― kwhitehead, Saturday, 7 April 2012 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
Love that family photo.
― kwhitehead, Saturday, 7 April 2012 13:21 (twelve years ago) link
The thing about Cliff is that, while it may seem like he has the least demanding job in the world, the subtle swing he applies to those eighth-note parts is an utterly essential ingredient in the AC/DC sound. Their signature rhythm is defined by the tension between Malcolm and the drums, who tick away like clockwork, and the push-pull feel of Williams's basslines.
― Everybody Wants to Shag (Vast Halo), Monday, 9 April 2012 20:15 (twelve years ago) link
Hey look: A live show from 1981, with a video quality so poor that once Brian loses the hat it looks like Epstein from the Sweathogs is fronting the band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1BKB-11ISM
But man, the sound! Brian before the voice went, the band a veritable monster of rock. So good.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 02:29 (twelve years ago) link
so 'moneytalks' just popped up randomly on my ipod and you know, I don't hate it as much as I thought I did
fucking hate Thunderstruck though, still always forever
― the pen is mightier than the penisword (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 25 July 2013 23:27 (eleven years ago) link