AC/DC: The Razor's Edge

 

 AC/DC: The Razor's Edge

1990

Atco Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing:  1. Thunderstruck  2. Fire Your Guns  3.Moneytalks  4. The Razor's Edge  5. Mistress for Christmas  6. Rock your Heart Out  7.Are You Ready?  8. Got You by the Balls  9. Shot of Love  10. Let's Make It  11.Goodbye & Good Riddance to Bad Luck  12. If You Dare

I remember Christmas 1990, my sister bought this cassette and Megadeth's "Rust in Peace" for me. Which actually made sense since track 5 is a Christmas song...

 These tapes were great picks because no two albums scream "1990" to me more than AC/DC's "Razor's Edge" and Megadeth's "Rust in Peace."  Y'see, back in the day, I was a weird headbanger kid who looked like this...

(that's my friend Josh on the left, me on the right and ...Star Trek's Johnathan Frakes' head on the ground...don't ask....)

Hard rock and Heavy Metal was my life...it was all I cared about...Before too long I would run across copies of Misfits "Earth A.D." and GBH's "City Baby's Revenge" and move onto punk, but in the meantime, it was all about  the heavy shit...

I can recall hearing "Thunderstruck" and "Moneytalks" and maybe a few others on the local radio station WKQZ 93.3 FM, in Michigan, shortly before the album came out. Last time I heard this station it was terrible (Active Rock! Yuck!) but I can tell you back in the late 80's and early 90's this was the place to hear rock. And I remember there was some talk/music show where they were previewing cuts from AC/DC's upcoming album "The Razor's Edge." I couldn't believe what I was hearing! When I heard the slow build intro to "Thunderstruck," with that suspenseful one-handed-tapping technique Angus was playing, I knew I had to have this album!

When I finally got to hear it, I couldn't fathom that it was recorded in a studio. Nuh, uh. Listen to "Are You Ready?" They must have recorded this in a packed arena somewhere! The whole thing has that giant ringing arena-rock sound that epitomized late 80's early 90's glam rock but this wasn't exactly glam rock. Hair-metally producer Bruce Fairbain did a really great job of utilizing this technique for AC/DC's brand of working-man's rock.

Needless to say, this record was in  ridiculously heavy rotation during 90-91. You know how it is, when you're 13 years old and you love nothing more than being locked in your bedroom listening to music, but you only have a handful of records. You end up playing the shit out of them. I knew every split second and nuance of this tape.

Listening to it now, the record is a tad inconsistent, but the high points are still high. In addition to the aforementioned singles, there's also a grip of should-of-been singles. "Fire your Guns" sits well next to hits of AC/DC's past and the incredibly ass-kicking title track, which is so foreboding it should've been on "For Those About to Rock" (where it very well might have blown away all the other tracks.)

Oh yea, and it has the song "Got You By the Balls." Which is at least their third song about balls so far. Man, these guys love balls! 

I used to also have a videocassette my friend Joe gave me that had the video for "Are You Ready?" and maybe a couple others...It's hard to remember...I mainly remember the cover, which looked like this...



Back in the day, I also had a mirror of this record cover hanging up in my room. Remember, when you used to go to the carnival and hit balloons with a dart or something and they'd give you a bootleg mirror in a white cardboard case, usually depicting a heavy metal band, beer logo, chick leaning against a corvette, or Freddy Krueger with his glove on the wrong hand...This isn't the one I had but they usually looked something like this...

They may still do this...I haven't been to many carnivals, lately...Maybe now they have mirrors with Justin Beiber on them...I don't know.. Anyway, I used to have one of those mirrors with the "Razor's Edge" cover on it...

I never bought or listened to an AC/DC album after this one. I moved on to other bands and they were relatively inactive for awhile...Then one day "Ballbreaker" (these guys can't keep their minds off of balls!) came out and I was listening to it at my brother's house and heard "Cover Me in Oil" and it made me want to puke! I'm still tempted to check out one of their later albums, but I'm kind of afraid. It's entirely possible "Cover Me in Oil" wasn't as bad as I'm remembering it, but I also don't want to hear it and then get so disgusted that I stop listening to AC/DC all over again...

Has this ever happened to you guys? Have you ever heard a record by a band that was so bad that you stopped listening to them completely. Even the records you used to like were tainted by its memory.

I said "taint."

Oh well...Let us not dwell on the negatives...I prefer to remember AC/DC like this..."Are You Ready?"