Milestones

Ac/Dc

Name: Ac/Dc – Back In Black
Item: Back In Black
Author: Davide Sechi

Back In Black

1980 (Atlantic)

hard rock

by Davide Sechi

Rock that feeds on commonplaces, on axioms, on truths that are incontrovertible, non-negotiable, unstoppable, irreducible. One of these, among the most popular, and it could hardly be otherwise given the subject, is that Ac/Dc always make the same record, but they make it well, it looks easy but try it yourselves etc etc… That blend of boogie, of Chuck Berry fired off at 3000 mph down the Variante Ascari, of electric rock'n'roll so ferocious it borders on parody, chest out, but without heroic posturing, because none is needed, the point makes itself. In short, 45 years of sweat, brutal blows and glory turned into routine, because it all looks the same, as always, as it did from the start, a formula pushed to its extreme consequences. Except that's not actually true.

Origins

A street in south London turns into an unexpected crossroads for the fate of millions of people, first and foremost for Bon Scott, hairy chest thrust out, package in perpetual evidence, a jokey attitude, a kind of latter-day court jester, absolute protagonist of his own circus act but without any star trip or hauteur. For more than five years he's the popular, working-class face of a combo of Scots on Australian assignment, devoted to rewriting the still-young grammar of rock'n'roll blues, amid exasperated women, testosterone-fuelled men, arm-wrestling contests, the odd punch-up, brotherly hugs, colossal benders and an irony that mocks any kind of intellectual posturing. And Bon drinks, and so do his comrades-in-arms, but he drinks far more, a situation that puts a psychological brake on his alter egoa little runt dressed as a schoolboy who busts his ass every night like there's no tomorrow, careening around the stage, drenched in sweat and seemingly boundless energy.

Bon and Angus are the stylistic signature of Ac/Dc, while the other lanky one, nervy Malcolm, represents their soul. They meet up every day, after a classic Bon-style night out, made of debauchery and rampant sex: riff after riff and filthy stories. And then, as everyone knows, that's how these things go: first you have your fun, then you pay for it. And Bon pays for it in a side street in south London, on the night between 18 and 19 February 1980, where he dies, silently, in his sleep, awash with a few dozen pints. Right around that time, in fact, he'd been working with his two eternal little brothers on the first building blocks of the new album. A shame. Except, actually, not - artistically speaking, that is.

The turning point

At the dawn of the Eighties, Ac/Dc had found the thread that would lead them out of the maze, or at least the road to the charts, and from there to glory. After a series of well-placed lashings - "Let There Be Rock", "Powerage", a hair-raising live album - they'd started winning over quite a few people, and some very prestigious colleagues were making the case for them too; and when that colleague is Keith Richards, then the road they're on has to be the right one. They're determined, sure of themselves, almost haughty, they don't do half measures, which is why they struggle to find an adviser, also known as a producer. But then Robert John "Mutt" Lange comes knocking, a long-haired South African who changes their lives and his own too, not to mention the lives of the aforementioned millions of fans. Together they pave the road to hell, which of course turns out to be heaven. "Highway To Hell" is the long-awaited passport to American success, and therefore to worldwide success. Compared to its predecessors it sounds more compact, rhythmic, palatable, melodic, resounding, modern, unhesitating, yet without losing an ounce of the credibility earned up to that point. In short, something different had happened, but it wasn't yet a truly epochal shift. For that, a tragedy was needed - one that would tear through the clowns' canvas.

Spring 1980

A band adrift. How do you carry on without the frontman, the friend, the "brother"? Is it even worth it? Do they even want to? Auditions begin. All sorts of people show up. But then Lange suggests they get in touch with a certain Brian Johnson, a Brit with an Andy Capp haircut, singer of Geordie from Newcastle, boogie rock, soul-scarred rasp and a touch of glam. They meet, try out a few tracks, say their goodbyes, meet again, and decide they can share the table. The turning point, which seems like a mystery but actually confirms a certainty: in the history of pop-rock, the first element you notice, the one that becomes familiar, that draws the line, that sets the coordinates, the one everything revolves around, is the voice. Johnson's pipes are different, not just from Bon's, and that changes the entire sonic spectrum, and perhaps even the underlying intentions of a band whose moves were already classic.

Back In Black

Ten songs, not a single filler track, everything rings out clear within the prevailing darkness, a blackness that has to be read as a tribute to Bon. But Bon is no longer here, gone is his swagger, his grinning, hip-swaying rhythm, his barroom one-liners. On the cover of "Highway To Hell" they're all posing menacingly, except Bon, who's laughing. Bon is no longer here. There are bells, there's a dramatic, grim riff, it's still blues, but it feels like something different, in the very year the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal first made its mark.

Ac/Dc aren't metal, but from this moment on, right here, they write an entire chapter of it, and a decisive one. Brian at the mic is exasperated, wrathful, making the familiar 4/4 hit even harder, as if the scores themselves had taken on something malevolent, sulphurous, and not as a joke. The measured pace of "Hell's Bells" builds slowly and steadily alongside the newcomer's hysteria, the mood is dramatic for the first time and it doesn't let up even when the tempo rises and falls in line with the earlier Scott-era tracks.

This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Davide Sechi, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

What do you do for money, honey?

How do you get your kicks?

What do you do for money, honey?

How you get your licks?

There's nothing sinful, sensual or pornographic left, the words sound accusatory now, as if wielded with a sharpened knife in hand. And his bandmates get dragged along, falling in line, pushing like maniacs, they seem like a gang ready to throw punches, to plough through everything, no longer merely rude but outright violent.

Oh, she's using her head again

She's using her head

Oh, she's using her head again

I'm just a givin' the dog a bone

Givin' the dog a bone

Brian screams and the backing vocals sound like battle cries, growing louder and more deafening each time. The evidence hardens into concrete certainty the moment the two-chord riff of "Let Me Put My Love Into You" kicks in, which by rights should sound spartan, bare-bones, and instead feels like a Wagnerian orchestra, epic, enormous, and it only intensifies further, as if there's meant to be no limit at all, on "Shake A Leg", a fury, a tank equipped nonetheless with an agility that's lethal for everyone else. An update that applies to Angus too, the man who once said one afternoon, "Eddie Van Halen is good, sure, but he always seems to be playing in front of a mirror, so you might as well do it alone" - and sure enough, out bursts a solo as furious as Brian's C'mon!!!, blindingly fast, acrobatic, like a gunshot.

Back in black

I hit the sack

I've been too long, I'm glad to be back

Yes, I'm let loose

From the noose

A tribute that turns into a mission statement for a band, a scene, an era - unleashed, free to plunge headlong, and woe to anyone who dares get in the way. And what about Bon? He's there too, if only for a moment, but it's a moment that never ends, not least because it becomes the band's biggest hit, "You Shook Me All Night Long", like a pause, a divertissement, one that not even Brian's fervour manages to undermine. Johnson, closing things out, confirms once more the marks of a true great, one that many hard men, real or feigned, would have to pay tribute to in the years to come: "Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution", a soul-blues number, sung with vocal cords torn raw, a lit cigarette as its incipit, a more measured start, played in lower tones and all the more intense for it, before the fury takes over. Andy Capp is the third guitar of Ac/Dc, a genuine axe.

The mystery of "Mutt" Lange

An album that sounds like the apotheosis of emphasis, a point of no return, an unprotected free fall, an all-or-nothing gamble in which the two options become one and the same, feeding off each other. And 50 million copies sold. And when the lights go down, for a moment, the figure of the proofreader looms in the half-light, the organiser of energies, the future engineer: Robert John "Mutt" Lange. An enlightened producer, and the results don't lie: from the refresh of the Foreigner at the dawn of the '80s to the architectures devised for Def Leppard, right up to the mixing desk tinted pink for Shania Twain's fake country, millions of copies, record-breaking, unbeaten and unbeatable hits. Lange so decisive that he ends up devouring his protégés, making them massively famous but then prematurely aged, or in any case postcards a little too closely stuck to their own era: think of the super-chic synth-pop super-chic of the Olympian Carsor the one-two punch of "Pyromania" and "Hysteria", with every note repeated to the point of exhaustion, polished, calibrated, analysed, right through to the homogenisation of Bryan "Robin Hood" Adams. It all began with "Back in Black", on whose grooves Lange prepared for his own take-off, even though nothing of his later moves can yet be detected there.

It was the spring of 1980, there was a different air about, dark, unrepeatable. The death knells tolled, and then nothing was ever the same again.

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07/03/2021

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Tracklist

1. Hells Bells
2. Shoot to Thrill
3. What Do You Do for Money Honey
4. Givin' the Dog a Bone
5. Let Me Put My Love into You
6. Back In Black
7. You Shook Me All Night Long
8. Have a Drink on Me
9. Shake a Leg
10. Rock N' Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

AC/DC online

Official website

Ac/Dc on OndaRock

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Ac/Dc

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With their primal riffs and their wild-riding energy, Australia's AC/DC reinvented hard rock. Their early rhythm and blues roots were the decisive push. Before stardom dragged them into the metal melting pot. The story of an epic saga played out on stages and in arenas across half the world