AC/DC: Back In Black

AC/DC: Back in Black

1980

Atlantic Records

Format I Own it On: Vinyl

Track Listing:  1. Hell's Bells  2. Shoot to Thrill  3. What Do You Do for Money Honey  4.  Given 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 and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

I've had this record my whole life, know it by heart, heard it ten million times and actually haven't listened to it since the late 90's....To tell you the truth, due to every single track on the album being played to death on classic rock radio, I  kind of take it for granted...I haven't even listened  to classic rock radio for about 10 years and I still hear "Back in Black, Hells Bells, & You Shook Me All Night Long" ALL-THE-TIME!

But let's face it...They became overplayed classics because...well...they're pretty great!

After playing it for the first time in years, it turns out I  I totally forgot about  "Let Me Put my Love Into You."  But it was for a pretty good reason...it's not that memorable. Still,  I'll defend its inclusion to the death based on that hilarious title alone.

This is their second record with Mutt Lange and these guys really had it down to a science at this point. The music reminds you of nothing so much as a well-oiled machine cranking out highly- polished Rock N' Roll. The attention to the space in between the notes is very effective, There's empty space all over this thing and it brings a satisfying weight to every riff.

 I can only imagine what it was like at the time, pulling the record out of that foreboding black cover, putting the needle down only to hear an ominous clanging church bell and that spine-tingling "Hell's Bells" riff ...and then finally getting to hear Brian Johnson's voice for the first time, screeching "I'm Rolling Thunder...Pouring Rain!" like he'd spent his whole life drinking gasoline and swallowing rusty nails, and was finally let loose upon this world to raise hell add scare the shit out of us. Sure, he's lacking Bon Scott's playful grasp of irony, but the guy's great in his own right.

One memory I have as a kid, riding the school bus, there was this girl listening to this on her old-school 80's boombox...you know the type...

...anyway she was playing the cassette tape of this album and I remember her singing along to "You Shook Me All Night Long," but she had the lyrics kind of wrong...not wrong, so much as, she kind of added a word...

"She was a fast machine, kept her motor lean, best GOD damn woman that I ever seen..."

For some reason, it seemed so right, To this day I still find myself singing it that way...

...and you can sing it along with me as we check out the original video of "You Shook Me All Night Long." But probably not the version you're thinking of with the one with the girl with the big...hair....

For some reason (like I don't know...some silly little thing called copyright infringement,maybe...) I can't find a video for that version so you're gonna have to make due with this one...