AC/DC: Hard Rock since the seventies

Hello there! I will pause the historical writing a while and talk about one of the first great bands on Hard Rock, because contributions to music from bands like this simply make history. As I mentioned in the previous article, in the 70’s a new Rock n’ Roll variation was heavy metal, but it had come from hard rock, a previous variation of Rock n’ Roll. AC/DC is a hard rock band, or high voltage band as many people would say.

AC/DC was officially founded in 1973 by the brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. They lived in Sidney, Australia, where Rock n’ Roll had already had its influences through musicians like Chuck Berry; Malcolm and Angus were amazed by his playing and started to have interest on playing guitar. They were also influenced by his older brother George who had his own band: The Easybeats, authors of the famous song “Friday on my Mind”. So Malcolm Young became playing electric guitar, and so Angus, because he would pick up the guitar when his older brother left it aside. Angus Young became more and more interested in playing guitar, and when he was 17 he would practice with his band Tantrum right after school. Malcolm also had a band, Velvet Underground, but he proposed Angus to join his band as a second guitarist in 1973. He needed someone capable of sounding hard, with long hair and high boots. It would be their sister who suggested them the name “AC/DC” for the band, what meant “alternating current/direct current” referring to the high energy of the group (ac-dc.galeon.com).

Since then AC/DC would start their presentations, filling the audience with energy and amazement, as they could not believe what they were seeing: some short guy dressed as a scholar, joined to a guitar, jumping around like crazy, “with high voltage on his veins”. Before dressing as a scholar, Angus would play dressed in awkward and funny costumes, such as a gorilla, a swordsman, TV characters, and comic characters like Superman. In 1974, they move to Melbourne, where they would get a manager, who would get Bon Scott for them as the singer of the band. Before, Bon had been a truck driver, and obtained some degrees as a percussionist in school when he was 16. The band was very successful with him, playing tours around the world. But he died in 1980 tragically after being drunk, and the band then hired Brian Johnson, with who the band remains today and involves in tours (ac-dc.galeon.com).

In Angus Young’s words…. X)

Guitar World Magazine, January 1993 (Maile, Ashley).

Your performance style is so strenuous. Have you ever hurt yourself onstage?

Sure. I’ve lost teeth. I mean I don’t go out there to do myself a deliberate injury, but when you are on the road for that length of time, you’re bound to twist an ankle or something. (…) I’ve jumped off amps and fallen ass over it -made a complete full of myself.

What was your most embarrassing moment onstage?

Well, I’ve had my pants fall off. All of a sudden my wedding tackle was out there for all to see. You know, I’ve even had my shorts stolen a couple of times.

(…)

You’ve said somewhere that you can’t play guitar well unless you’re jumping around like a lunatic.

Yeah, well I go with the guitar, because I’m pretty small. On most people, a Gibson SG looks small –like a violin. On me, it looks like a big guitar. I’ve got small fingers, too. Now, when most people bend a string up, their finger bends the note. With me, my whole body’s got to go. [He mimes how he uses his entire forearm to bend a string.] I hug the guitar, if you want to get technical about it. Now for vibrato…[he convulses with laughter as he illustrates]…I’ve got to shake my leg a little. When you are a little guy, there’s not much pull on the strings, especially with the heavier gauges.

The most important thing for me onstage is playing the guitar. The whole epileptic routine –whatever I do up there –comes out of that. I do become a little… “possessed”, as Malcolm says.

(…)

One last thing: what’s the origin of the schoolboy get-up?

My sister. As a kid, I’d come right home from school and pick up my guitar, without changing out of my school suit. At dinnertime, I’d still be in the school suit, playing away. My sister always remembered that. She thought it was cute. (…) At least it’s worked for us.

Works cited

“Historia de ACDC”. ac-dc.galeon.com. ACDC: Let there be rock. n.p., n.d. Web. September 15, 2011.

Maile, Ashley. “Angus Young”. Guitar Legends 7 September 2010: 84-88. Print.