6. Back in Black by AC/DC
What Do You Do for Money Honey
Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
Let's be honest about Back in Black. It's a magnificent mixed bag of bona fide rock and roll classics and forgettable filler. It's got four iconic hits that AC/DC fans expect to hear at any concert--"Hell's Bells," "Shoot to Thrill," "Back in Black," and "You Shook Me All Night Long." I say "hits" but the word does not communicate the level of importance these four songs have to the band's die hard fans. If the band were to NOT play any one of these songs at a concert, the fans would riot. Now, I'm not sure how you would tell the difference between regular AC/DC concert behavior and a riot. But I guarantee there would be a riot.
Yes, they could get away with not playing "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," but some fans would be mighty disappointed. I personally like this song a lot. Once when I was listening to AC/DC on headphones at work, one coworker who was always doing stuff to annoy me ask me to turn down the volume on my headphones because she could hear the music. I said "Okay," and before she even made it back to her cubicle way on the other side of the room, I switched the song to "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" and kept the volume loud enough that my nearby coworkers would hear it and get the joke.
The rest of the songs on Back in Black might get slipped onto a concert playlist every now and then, but it's hard to find these other songs on the AC/DC official YouTube channel, and they don't offer any concert footage of them at all. That's not saying they aren't worth listening to. I think that the fillers on this album actually sound pretty good. It's just that when you put them on the same record as those four core songs, they are clearly second-tier material.
Today this album is unarguably recognized as the apex of AC/DC's discography. But that wasn't the case when it was released in July of 1980. Many AC/DC fans complained that Brian Johnson's singing wasn't up to par with Bon Scott's. But the entire album was a tribute to Bon, including the color of the cover, which signified their mourning of Bon's passing. And to show their respects to Bon, they didn't use any of the lyrics he had written for some of the songs so that they would not benefit financially from his passing. Brian had to come up with new lyrics, and he paid tribute to Bon with those lyrics several times over, so I don't know what the die-hard Bon fans had to complain about. The man had died of alcohol poisoning. What was the band supposed to do? Put away their instruments and never play again? No way. If any other band member had died, Bon would have kept on singing new songs, and the band knew that, so instead of honoring his life with their silence, they honored it by recording the best-selling heavy metal album of all time. And I think that's a more fitting tribute.
I don't have a lot of high school memories of this album. It was one of those albums that seminary teachers and youth conference speakers loved to rail against. If anyone complained about Billy Joel's less than ideal lyrics, I could always say, "Hey, at least I'm not listening to AC/DC." But I did turn into a fan later on in life when my nephew Ryan and I went to an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City during their Stiff Upper Lip tour. After that, I started listening to a lot of their music, and it was clear to me that Back in Black was the best of all their albums.
But as much as I like this album, there is one persistent drawback to it--I feel both young and old at the same time whenever I listen to it. I mean, it came out in 1980 before I even started 9th grade, so it reminds me of my teenage years in Arimo. But here I am 40 years later listening to it and claiming it's better than the vast majority of music that's been put out since then--at least, that's what I think I'm saying by placing it so high on my Top 60 album list. That's why this album reminds me of the following Bill Burr comedy bit so much.
It’s one of the sad things about life. You get old and it passes you by. I feel it passing me by. I’m 46 years old. I don’t even have kids, but I can’t keep up anymore. I had a college gig coming up, I was like, I gotta figure out what these kids are into. I was 24 when a senior was born. I got to figure out what these dudes are into, so I guess they’re into like, this like DJ music or some shit, so I’m like, all right, I’ll watch some of this. You know? So I have like a reference or two. I don’t want to be that old comic coming to the gig being like, “What’s up with this Monica Lewinsky? Is this crazy? I mean, this Y2K– Is my stylus gonna work? I don’t know.” So I put this shit on. Dude, I lasted 90 seconds. Ninety seconds. I was open-minded. “All right, put it on!” Ninety seconds later, I’m like this old man. “Ah, this isn’t music!” You know? “When I was a kid, you dressed like a woman and you sung about the devil. Now, that was music! And you had one ballad every album, started off in black and white, and when the guitar solo came in, it went to color. Yeah, that was music.”
I kind of feel that way about this album. It defines what I think of as great rock and roll music, but it also reminds me that maybe I'm a little older than I'd like to be, and death is creeping up on me, and that I've got fewer years ahead of me than the ones I've lived since this album came out. And when I see videos of Angus Young performing on stage today, I can't help but think two thoughts at the same time. One thought is "This is so awesome to see him in that school uniform, banging his head, doing the duck walk, and strutting on stage like the Rock God that he is!" The other thought is, "Man, he looks old. And his knees must be killing him! How long will he be able to keep this up? How long will it be until me and my generation dies and all this music gets forgotten? How long until I hear Hells Bells tolling for me?"
But I suppose the answer to my question is in the last song on Back in Black.
We're just talkin' about the future
Forget about the past
It'll always be with us
It's never gonna die, never gonna die
Rock 'n' roll ain't noise pollution
Rock 'n' roll ain't gonna die
Rock 'n' roll ain't noise pollution
Rock 'n' roll, it will survive (Yes it will!)
Nardo
#6: AC/DC—Back In Black. I never owned this album, and neither did my brother. (At least not when he lived at home.) But, I do have a memory of listening to it in my Grandma’s basement pool hall room, and my brother jamming out to “Hell’s Bells.” Those bells!!! Good hell, those bells!!! (Maybe my cousin brought it with him? I’m not sure.)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I know my brother really liked some of the songs, even if we didn’t own the album. (We probably thought Mom and/or Dad would disapprove, even though they most likely wouldn’t have cared—as long as we didn’t play it in the cars’ 8-track player while they were in the car with us.)
Having listened to a lot of classic rock radio, I was familiar with a little over half of the album. (Most of the iconic songs, plus “Have a Drink On Me.”) Oddly enough, though, I was completely unfamiliar with “Shoot to Thrill” until it was used as Iron Man’s intro music in “Iron Man 2” and “The Avengers.” When Tony Stark is blasting this song across the German sky as he gives Loki the whatfor is one of the best ever showcases for using rock and roll in movies!
So, yes, even with the filler songs, this is a DAMN classic album, completely worthy of a spot this high on your list--or any other great album list, for that matter. It’s that damned good!
My only quibble would be with some of the lyrics. AC/DC are masters of rock, but not exactly kings of subtlety. I mean, even Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer would find the lyrics, “let me cut your cake with me knife” a bit embarrassingly shameful.
But that’s okay. AC/DC don’t have to be poet laureates, they just have to rock. And for that, we salute them.
(I’m sure you’ve already seen/heard it, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the AC/DC-Bee Gees mashup of “Back In Black” and “Stayin’ Alive,” which combines the best of your #6 and #21 albums. If, by some crazy chance, you HAVEN’T heard it, you will find it either completely amazing or an unmitigated blashpheme.)