SHANE’S MUSIC CHALLENGE: AC/DC – 1979 – Highway To Hell

Shane | 7 March 2014 | Reply

SHANE’S MUSIC CHALLENGE: AC/DC – 1979 – Highway To Hell
9/10

An album so good that I christened a chilli sauce with the same name in homage (See https://www.facebook.com/Rockindingohotsauces ), you all know this one, and the back story to it – how Mutt Lange was brought in to produce, taking over from Vanda & Young, how it provided the breakthrough for the Australian band to secure world footing after years living on the bones of their arses, how the title track is an all-time rock classic, etc etc. There’s been dozens of books and millions of words written about the band, so it’s redundant for me to try and cover it again here.

Suffice to say, the album is polished and, alongside Back In Black, hailed as one of the band’s masterworks.

Well… biggest, sure. But is it their best?

It’s certainly a great album, but for my taste, there’s better material earlier in their career – rawer, more immediate, less dry sounding songs that cemented the foundations of their reputation. Records that were ahead of their time and may not have sold too well upon release, but have been hailed more recently as pivotal – like Let There Be Rock, T.N.T. or Powerage. We’ll get to all of them eventually…

Highway To Hell, though, is one of AC/DC’s best songs – no doubt about that. And there’s no fat here at all, through Touch Too Much, Shot Down In Flames, If you Want Blood and Love Hungry Man, they are a lean, mean rocking machine, taking no prisoners as they do it.

But the cheeky larrikin’s glint in Bon Scott’s eye had already dimmed, sadly never to return.

At least we have the music he laid down before his premature passing, and the image of his rapscallion grin lives on. I feel another trip to visit his gravesite coming up soon.