AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal, but the band themselves call it simply “rock and roll”.
AC/DC underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, 1975’s High Voltage. Membership subsequently stabilised around the Young brothers, singer Bon Scott, drummer Phil Rudd, and bassist Mark Evans. Evans was fired from the band in 1977 and replaced by Cliff Williams, who has appeared on every AC/DC album since 1978’s Powerage. In February 1980, about seven months after the release of their breakthrough album Highway to Hell, Scott died of acute alcohol poisoning after a night of heavy drinking. The group considered disbanding but elected to stay together, bringing in longtime Geordie vocalist Brian Johnson as Scott’s replacement. Later that year, the band released their first album with Johnson, Back in Black, which was dedicated to Scott’s memory. The album launched AC/DC to new heights of success and became one of the best selling albums of all time.
The band’s eighth studio album, For Those About to Rock We Salute You (1981), was their first album to reach number one in the United States. Prior to the release of 1983’s Flick of the Switch, Rudd left the band and was replaced by Simon Wright, being in turn replaced by Chris Slade in 1989. The band experienced a commercial resurgence in the early nineties with the release of 1990’s The Razors Edge. Rudd returned to the band in 1994, replacing Slade and appearing on the band’s next five albums. Their fifteenth studio album Black Ice was the second-highest-selling album of 2008, and their biggest chart hit since For Those About to Rock, eventually reaching No.1 worldwide.
The band’s line-up remained the same for twenty years, until 2014 with Malcolm Young’s retirement due to early-onset dementia (he died in 2017) and Rudd’s legal troubles. Malcolm was replaced by his nephew Stevie Young, who debuted on AC/DC’s 2014 album Rock or Bust, and on its accompanying tour, previous drummer Chris Slade filled in for Rudd. In 2016, Johnson was advised to stop touring due to worsening hearing loss. Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose stepped in as the band’s vocalist for the remainder of that year’s dates. Long-term bass player and background vocalist Cliff Williams retired from AC/DC at the end of the Rock or Bust tour in 2016 and the group entered a four-year hiatus. A reunion of the Rock or Bust lineup was announced in September 2020 and the band’s seventeenth studio album Power Up was released two months later.
AC/DC have sold more than 200 million records worldwide, including 75 million albums in the United States, making them the ninth-highest-selling artist in the United States and the 16th-best-selling artist worldwide. Back in Black has sold an estimated 50 million units worldwide, making it the third-highest-selling album by any artist, and the highest-selling album by any band. The album has sold 22 million units in the US, where it is the sixth-highest-selling album of all time. AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” and were named the seventh “Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All Time” by MTV. In 2004, AC/DC ranked No. 72 on the Rolling Stone list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. Producer Rick Rubin, who wrote an essay on the band for the Rolling Stone list, referred to AC/DC as “the greatest rock and roll band of all time”. In 2010, VH1 ranked AC/DC number 23 in its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”
If You Want Blood You’ve Got It (written as just If You Want Blood) is the first live album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, and their only live album with Bon Scott as lead vocalist. It was originally released in the UK and Europe on 13 October 1978, in the US on 21 November 1978, and in Australia on 27 November 1978. The album was re-released in 1994 on Atco Records and in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series.
The album was released six months after the band’s previous studio album Powerage. Originally, a greatest hits package had been in the works called 12 of the Best but the project was scrapped in favour of a live album. It was recorded during the 1978 Powerage tour and contains songs from T.N.T., Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, and Powerage. It is the last Bon Scott-era AC/DC album produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, who also produced the band’s first five studio releases. In his 1994 Bon Scott memoir Highway to Hell, author Clinton Walker observes, “Live albums, which tended to be double or triple sets in which songs short in their studio versions were stretched out into extended tedium, were for some reason popular in the seventies. If You Want Blood reversed this tradition… it boasted a blunt ten tracks and, allowing nothing extraneous, got straight to the point, that being raging AC/DC rock and roll.”
AC/DC’s concert at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 April 1978 was used for the live tracks, and it has never been confirmed if any other concert tracks from this tour were also used.[citation needed] This concert will also be remembered for the encore when AC/DC came back on stage dressed in the Scottish Football strip, paying homage to Scott’s and the Young brothers’ homeland.[citation needed] A song with the same title of “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” appeared on the next album, and the band’s US album chart breakthrough, Highway to Hell.
The song “Dog Eat Dog” performed on the night was eventually removed from the album release, and the encore “Fling Thing/Rocker”, was edited for the album, removing “Fling Thing” and cutting out the extended Angus guitar solo, as he did a walk around the audience (with an early version of a wireless guitar lead). This part of the band’s future concert theatrics was later replaced with “Let There Be Rock”, as “Rocker” has not been performed more than a few times since the passing of Bon Scott in 1980. The live rendition of “Dog Eat Dog” from the concert was initially released as the B-side of the single “Whole Lotta Rosie” in November 1978, but only in Australia. It was later re-released worldwide in 2009 on the two (standard) and three (collectors) CD boxed set compilation Backtracks, featuring the Australian album only songs not released internationally at the time, and the live B-Sides from some 7″ and 12″ singles. The encore songs “Fling Thing” and “Rocker” (with its complete guitar solo) have appeared only on video footage of the concert by a Dutch TV station played at the time but were eventually released on the Family Jewels DVD.
According to the 2006 book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, the album title was an extension of Scott’s response to a journalist at the Day on the Green festival in July 1978 who asked what they could expect from the band and Scott replied, “Blood.”[citation needed] The cover art is from a shoot done with Atlantic Records’ staff photographer Jim Houghton before a show at Boston’s Paradise Theater, the idea for which came from Atlantic’s art director, Bob Defrin.
Picture disc from Australia:
The album is often considered to be one of the greatest live albums of all time. In a 1992 interview with Metal Hammer at the time of the band’s second live release, Malcolm Young admitted, “I personally still prefer the old album. We were young, fresh, vital and kicking ass.”[citation needed] Greg Prato of AllMusic notes, “While most other rock bands of the era were busy experimenting with disco or creating studio-perfected epics, AC/DC was one of the few specializing in raw and bluesy hard rock, as evidenced by 1978’s live set, If You Want Blood You’ve Got It.” Eduardo Rivadavia of Ultimate Classic Rock enthuses, “Other concert records may boast more songs, more Top 40 hits or even more crowd-pleasing gimmicks. But very few can challenge the sheer excitement and reckless abandon captured on AC/DC’s terrific concert document.”[citation needed] The album was listed at #2 on Classic Rock magazine’s readers’ poll of “50 Greatest Live Albums Ever”. Carlo Twist of Blender magazine praised the album, saying that “They were always a mighty live act, and this is the sound of AC/DC in Europe just prior to 1979’s U.S. breakthrough. The audience’s hysteria regularly cuts through the amps, as they howl along to singer Bon Scott’s tale of sexually transmitted disease (“The Jack”) and punctuate guitarist Angus Young’s staccato riffing on “Whole Lotta Rosie.” Imagine a punk-rock Chuck Berry played at nosebleed volume.”
Personnel:
Phil Rudd (drums)
Bon Scott (vocals)
Cliff Williams (bass, background vocals)
Angus Young (lead guitar)
Malcolm Young (guitar, background vocals)
Tracklist:
01. Riff Raff (from Powerage) 6.03
02. Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be (from Let There Be Rock) 4.15
03. Bad Boy Boogie (from Let There Be Rock) 7.34
04. The Jack (from T.N.T.) 5.53
05. Problem Child (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap) 4.45
06. Whole Lotta Rosie (from Let There Be Rock) 4.09
07. Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation (from Powerage) 3.45
08. High Voltage (from T.N.T.) 5.09
09. Let There Be Rock (from Let There Be Rock) 8.38
10. Rocker (from T.N.T.) 3.29
All songs written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young & Bon Scott.
Australian labels:
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AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal; however, the band themselves describe their music as simply “rock and roll”.
Scott died of acute alcohol poisoning. The group considered disbanding but stayed together, bringing in Brian Johnson as replacement for Scott. Later that year, the band released their first album with Johnson, Back in Black, which they dedicated to Scott’s memory. The album launched them to new heights of success and became one of the best selling albums of all time.
T.N.T. is the second studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released only in Australia, on 1 December 1975.
The Razors Edge is an album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It was the band’s eleventh internationally released studio album and the twelfth to be released in Australia. It was a major comeback for the band, featuring the hits “Thunderstruck” and “Are You Ready”, which reached #5 and #16 respectively on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart, and “Moneytalks”, which peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went multi-platinum (5 million copies sold) and reached the US top ten. The album reached #2 on the US Billboard 200 and #4 in the UK, a smash commercial success that returned the band to the popularity of its glory years of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The album has been certified 5x platinum (5 million copies sold) in the US, and was re-released in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series. The album was produced by Bruce Fairbairn.
It was in September 1974 when the legend that was Bon Scott joined the then still wet behind the ears AC/DC, formed the year before by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young in Melbourne, Australia. Over the next five and a half years, Scott fronted the band and, in tandem with the Youngs, established the group as arguably the finest rock act in the world. Bon’s tragic passing in the early months of 1980 only served to strengthen AC/DC’s fan base and appeal and across the next 35 or so years (and counting!) with perennial new boy Brian Johnson having taken on Bon Scott’s role with both aplomb and dignity, AC/DC have gone from strength to strength to strength.
High Voltage is the debut studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released only in Australia, on 17 February 1975.
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