#vinyl lps

In honor of the passing of guitarist Malcolm Young, the Vinyl of the Day is ‘For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)’ by AC/DC, 1981. Following the INSANELY MONSTROUS MEGA-SUCCESS of their previous album ‘Back In Black’, it couldn’t quite reach the heights of the songs on that record, but it’s a very good follow-up, continuing the band’s sound of high energy hard rock anthems. In contrast with ‘Back In Black’, ‘For Those About To Rock’ possesses a more upbeat vibe that probably reflected the bands mood at this point in time - Brian Johnson had seamlessly transitioned into fronting the band after losing original vocalist Bon Scott, who many felt was irreplaceable. Their fortunes were soaring and their dreams of global success were now within their grasp. Although their formula was essentially the same, the tempos are a bit more relaxed. These songs are catchy with a subtle pop-metal vibe that seemed to make them ready made for FM radio.

Here the band explores all of their expected territory with epic rock anthems (the classic title track) and the predictably fashioned wine, women, and song scores ('Let's Get it Up,' 'Put the Finger on You'). But in a stunning yet well balanced manner, AC/DC brings listeners to a world on the streets, taking elements of frustration (the excellent 'Spellbound'), distrust (superbly crafted 'Night of the Long Knives') and rebellion ('Breaking the Rules'). 'COD' is classic AC/DC all the way, while the marvelous rockers 'Evil Walks' and 'Snowballed' seem to contradict the quintet's classic subject matter. Lead vocalist Brian Johnson's lyricism and bellows give the album its broad feel, while the guitar playing of Angus & Malcolm Young lead the rhythm section of Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd.

This is AC/DC's last truly great album, their last where almost every song pulses with creative energy. The songwriting might not be as inspired as on ‘Back In Black’, but overall the album is still a helluva lot of fun to listen to, and when it comes to AC/DC, that's what matters.

And seriously; if this is Tony Stark’s favorite band, they’ve GOT to be great!

Original Rolling Stone review by Kurt Loder, 1982

AC/DC must be slipping — their smarts are starting to show. Critically dismissed for most of their nine-year career as a band of simpleminded Australian thudmerchants, they long ago made the useful discovery that, when it comes to connecting with the large and loyal hard-rock audience, rock critics don't mean diddley. The average adolescent male may not know much about critical trends, but he knows bullshit when he hears it, and he knows he prefers the real thing — which is to say, landslide riffs, stuck-pig vocals and screaming guitar solos that sound like they were recorded in the grip of a grand mal seizure. He also appreciates a lyric he can relate to: "I can't do nothin' right/...I can't even start a fight," for example, a classic plaint embedded in the bone-crushing riff of For Those About to Rock We Salute You's "Spellbound." As should be apparent to everyone by now, there's a whole new generation of horny, hung-up James Deans out there — feeling isolated, out of it, often beer-addled or swacked silly on some tacky drug and yearning for expression. AC/DC are playing their song.

AC/DC are the real thing, perhaps the purest major practitioners of hot and snotty rock since Led Zeppelin lumbered off the boards. Other groups, from Van Halen to REO Speedwagon, may base their music on similar elements, but they inevitably emerge from the studio sounding cleaned up and rather too eager for AOR airplay. AC/DC, from the start, have always left the rough edges in. The rough edges are the point, much as they were part of the point of, say, Little Richard in the Fifties or the Rolling Stones in the mid-Sixties.

Until recently, this bareknuckles approach has tended to obscure the fact that, beneath all those enormous guitar riffs and gut-wrangling rhythms. AC/DC is an unusually expert songwriting band. This became particularly apparent on last year's Back in Black, the first LP on which the late Bon Scott, the group's semilegendary lead singer, was replaced by the more expressive Brian Johnson. On For Those About to Rock We Salute You, AC/DC's best album, the case for the band's talents is finally made with undeniable force and clarity. You want anthems? Here, they abound, from the title track's avalanche attack — complete with booming cannonades, of course — to "Night of the Long Knives," a rousing singalong reminiscent of the classic mid-Sixties Anglo-pop tradition. All ten tunes are aimed straight at the group's testosterone-plagued audience, but the music and lyrics transcend mere calculation. True, in "Put the Finger on You," the helplessly horny protagonist's sexual member seems to have a life of its own ("I can't control it, can't even hold it ... I put it right on you"), but "C.O.D." takes a more wizened look at the consequences of such inchoate lust ("It's the curse of love"). This marginally broader lyrical outlook may again be attributable to Brian Johnson, who writes the songs with band-leader-guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young. Johnson's relatively wide ranging tastes are also apparent in the nicely nasty "Inject the Venom," in which he manages, rather charmingly, to sound like Lou Rawls with a beer gut.

But while Brian Johnson has added a more engaging vocal texture to AC/DC, the backbone of the band is still the enormous bass-and-drums barrage pummeled out by Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd, and the riff-manic brilliance of the redoubtable Young brothers, whose ferocious combination of hollow and solid-body guitar interplay has created a sound that's unique in the hard-rock field. It may seem difficult to take a droolflecked runt dressed in schoolboy shorts seriously as a guitarist, but if you listen closely to Angus Young's serpentine solo in "Let's Get It Up," you'll hear his unabashed blues roots shining through. Similarly, John Lee Hooker himself might want to take a good squint at the dark-toned guitar filigree on "Snowballed," just as Jeff Beck may be surprised to hear how strongly the final leads in "Breaking the Rules" recall his vintage flash-fingered artistry on the Yardbirds' Over Under Sideways Down. Malcolm Young is equally adroit at mongering meaty riffs, and with Williams and Rudd slamming home the message — basic though it may at first appear to be — what you've got here is one unbeatable rock & roll band.