AC/DC: We salute them — and all those about to rock at Croke Park
Pat Carty, features writer, and Justin Hawkins of The Darkness
We can argue this and that but surely we all agree that AC/DC are the greatest. Their mighty works constitute the Himalayan peaks of rock and even their lesser moments make other ‘bands’ sound like mewling cubs. They are the Platonic ideal of rock and have no use for ‘strings’ or ‘ballads’ or ‘club remixes’. As Van Morrison, who probably enjoys a blast of ‘Shake A Leg’ on his days off, once sang, It Ain’t Why, It Just Is.
Justin Hawkins, frontman with The Darkness, YouTube doyen, and a chap who knows his way around a salacious riff and a nod n’ wink lyric, concurs from somewhere glamorous on the European mainland: “As soon as you start listening to music, someone tells you about AC/DC, possibly the local alcoholic giving out tapes on a Friday night in The Fighting Cocks. I had the iconic logo tipp-exed on my school bag and AC/DC pyjamas designed to look like denim, with a Monsters Of Rock ticket hanging out the arse pocket. When I started listening back, I fell in love with the Bon Scott years.”
In 1974, fellow Scottish immigrant Bon Scott joined brothers Angus and Malcom Young in the Sydney-based band they’d named after the symbol on their sister’s sewing machine. They released a couple of Aussie-only albums before signing with Atlantic in 1976. and the magnificent were gifted unto us and they hit paydirt with the epochal in 1979.
“I think he invented bawdy lyricisms,” says Hawkins, forcing some very heavy lifting on the word bawdy. “Everybody tries to sound like him but they don’t. For me, it goes Bon, then Freddie Mercury, then Steven Tyler. He’s the greatest of all time” We have a brief disagreement about what song’s on what. I’m wrong so a smug Hawkins picks as the best Bon album.
“Normally I’d say [the correct answer] but there’s joy to be had from . It’s got ‘Problem Child’ and ‘Dog Eat Dog’! Although his best lyric is from . “Up to my neck in whiskey, up to my neck in wine, up to my neck in wishin’ this neck wasn’t mine.” Poetry. I’ll go for “A body of Venus, with arms” from ‘Touch Too Much’ but there are no wrong answers.
As work began on a new album in February 1980, Bon Scott passed away after a particularly heavy night out. Acute alcohol poisoning was the verdict (“Didn’t he choke on his own vomit?”).
The band thought about packing it in but, encouraged by Scott’s parents, they looked for a new singer. Several candidates, including Slade shouter Noddy Holder (”He would have kicked arse. Great clothes as well.”), were considered before Geordie screecher Brian Johnson got the nod. They had , the second best-selling album of all time, out by the following July.
“I can’t think of any other band who replaced an iconic singer and got bigger. That’s really a timeless record,” Hawkins grins. “’Hell’s Bells’, ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, it’s very nearly as good as . They don’t do that hammering away, almost punk style anymore. There’s nothing rushed about it, it’s deceptively slow, and refined in terms of groove and space. That’s the difference musically between ‘new’ and ‘old’ ‘DC.”
1981’s 'For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)' (with added cannon) was a US number one. Hawkins isn’t crazy about it although how anyone can berate an album that includes ‘Let’s Get It Up’ — another song title you only have to hear to know how it goes, is beyond me.
After that, the 80s saw a bit of a decline (“It got a bit too clean”) although ‘Heatseeker’ from 1988’s (and ‘Who Made Who’) proves that even when they weren’t great, they were still great. This dip may have been due to the absence of drummer Phil Rudd... given his marching papers after a row with Malcolm. He’d return but later fall foul of the law thanks to methamphetamines and murder threats because AC/DC are not Coldplay.
Their 90s were better. houses the elemental ‘Thunderstruck’, and features this immortal couplet chosen by Hawkins, “Her bad behaviour will leave you standing proud. Hard as a rock. Harder than a rock.”
We bicker over what’s the best song from 2000’s but it’s the title track where Johnson claims he was "born with a stiff... a stiff upper lip".
There were setbacks in the last decade. Rhythm guitar god, Malcolm Young, passed away in 2017. “He was probably the heart of the band. He defined what a rhythm guitarist in a rock n’ roll band does.” Johnson was advised to drop out of the Rock Or Bust tour lest he go completely deaf but they soldiered on with Guns N’ Roses shrieker Axl Rose. “He did a pretty good job. The rumour was they said 'if you don’t show up on time, you don’t get paid', so guess what? He showed up.”
Long-time bassist Chris Williams retired but you couldn’t keep them down as the near-perfect ‘Shot In The Dark’ showed in 2020. Their current European jaunt, with Johnson and Angus hanging in there, concludes in Croke Park on August 17.
“Angus is all attitude and power, he doesn’t rely on anything fancy. And those Gibson SG guitars are hard to wrestle. It’s like watching Gene Wilder ride the buffalo in ,” Hawkins reckons. “He has an iconic look in the same way The Spice Girls did, wearing a school uniform for no apparent reason. It would have made more sense if the rest of them also wore them but then it would be a boys’ version of . Lyrically, there’s nothing wrong with being sexy. There’s a lot of cancellable stuff but I think everyone recognises the harmless fun being, ahem, poked. It rhymes, that’s the main thing.”
Hawkins must return to his Satyriconian lifestyle (a veggie burger and an early night) but leaves us with this rumination on the magic of The ‘DC.
“You know exactly what you’re going to get. Triumphant riffs that make you feel good and that original excitement every time. There’s magic in their songs, I don’t know how else to put it. There’s a bloke in a school uniform and a load of other blokes keeping out of his way. It shouldn’t work, but it does because AC/DC are the greatest rock band there’s ever been. Listen to ‘Problem Child’ then go see them while you’ve still got the chance.”
