It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Want to Rock and Roll)

Or Ian Curtis having his first epileptic fit whilst in a (mini van?) containing the whole of Joy Division driving back to Manchester after a gig.

this song has just been turning me inside out every time i hear it lately. i've always liked it but it's turned into this sort of ineffable alpha and omega of the human condition for me lol. just like, being whisked away on a rocket ship above lives lived, dreams made and crushed. why now i'm not sure, i feel like it's maybe a cliche to be head over heels in love with this song, but that is just the mystery and blunt sense of humor of life for you i guess. when the first verse moves into "getting robbed / getting stoned / getting beat up / broken boned" i start crying. and then when it moves into "getting had / getting took / i tell you folks it's harder than it looks" i just want to explode.

then there's the bagpipe. that sound is just like instant third eye activation for me. all those dueling overtones. the insane buzz of crickets in the summer. tony conrad touching down in a rock song. in fact this whole song is a masterpiece of minimalism, the long sustained major chord riff finally falling into the iv and then exploding into the iv's iv during the chorus. the mid-song guitar solo is so well-shaped, nothing wasted. the construction of the whole thing is just tension release wham bam, just enough new added to the second half, then the visionary bagpipe sending the thing out into the cosmos again. the whole song, how it's five minutes long i have no idea. a punk band would have killed to make a song this powerful.

and then "getting old / getting gray / getting ripped off / underpaid" - there's me crying again. "getting sold / secondhand / that's how it goes / when you're in a band". and then the chorus and this time there's a fucking shaker and handclaps over that eternal beat... and after the chorus rips through time and space once again, refrains, refrains again, and the bagpipes rip into our backs and take us up into the air, a single major third escapes from the pressure cooker of that main riff like a shooting star.

I'm not much of an AC/DC fan but this song is indeed brilliant.

Great post map. Booming even.

yeah that's fantastic

Yeah, this sent me back to the song for the first time in several years, which is every bit as incredible as map says. The unbelievable, mechanical-man precision of Malcolm Young's rhythm guitar riff, which never wavers once, combined with the drone of the bagpipes? It's a fantastic performance.

George Young having the idea to use bagpipes in the track because he'd heard Bon Scott had played in a pipe band, only to find out he'd played drums in a pipe band, seems somehow typical of Bon Scott.

great post. i've started playing this recently mixed in with a massively extended intro and mixing out on the second bagpipe chorus looped endlessly to fade, with a big low end boost on the eq. it sounds huge. works every time. also is possibly the best scottish, not scottish song ever.

oh god. i'd never recover from that.

i've been blasting this song again recently. i remember posting about it last year but i forgot about stirmonster talking about his edit. rest in glory!

the call and response guitar and bagpipe section. deceptively idiotic. absolutely transcendent.

yeah I blasted it recently and it ruled

gosh would I love to hear that stirmonster edit

Man, imagine. God what a loss, still.

When my dad would take us kids to the bakery after school as a special treat, we would inevitably get to hear him sing:
🎵it's a long way to the shops if you want a sausage roll 🎵

haha oh no

Whole Lotta Rosti

I’m sorry but I don’t think I have heard this song outside of School of Rock. It’s ok I guess

Seriously though, I should dig into ACDC sometime. I remember really wanting the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack because I was a preteen Stephen King freak.

hard one for me, i had a job where i heard the bagpipes from this song every day, guy at the other end of the office had classic rock softly playing all day, this is all that would cut through besides the intro to Floyd's "time". i also immediately think of mike rizzo coming out onto wrigley field waving the ws championship flag or whatever

best song ever. tony conrad on a rock song otm. I feel like Jim Orourke feel the same way about it – he was music supervisor on School of Rock, and it's the last song on the movie with the kids, over the credits – and knowing how he feels about tony and new music and all, I think it's a nod in a way.

I just recently learned the band has not played it live since 1980 out of respect for Bon. It's considered his defining, or signature song.

All-time promo clip, for anyone that's never seen it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nULs4JW3tPI

Apparently no footage exists of the band playing it live, with Bon and pipes, but there are a few recordings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3qy7Aqa6eg

Apotheosis of a lot of things. I feel like AC/DC (and many many other bands) spent the rest of their careers trying to chase this

seeing seminal Minneapolis garage punk bruisers the Mighty Mofos do this in the tiny 7th Street Entry with three full dress bagpipers remains over one of my favorite live rock n roll memories