BOOK REVIEW: BAD BOY BOOGIE – THE TRUE STORY OF AC/DC LEGEND BON SCOTT by JEFF APTER

BOOK REVIEW: BAD BOY BOOGIE – THE TRUE STORY OF AC/DC LEGEND BON SCOTT by JEFF APTER

Allen & Unwin
August 2021
Paperback, $32.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Biography

85%

There have been countless books and articles published about AC/DC frontman Bon Scott –some hack jobs containing nothing new for fans and followers, some personal recollections from acquaintances or partners, and some forensic character assassinations.

Jeff Apter’s latest tome is none of the above: instead he draws from some of those alternate sources, plus his own encylopedic knowledge (he wrote what is considered an unofficial Young Brother trilogy, authoring books on elder brother and AC/DC producer, Easybeat George Young, and AC/DC’s mainstay guitar duo, Malcolm and Angus Young) to deliver a biography which is candid and revealing, without either vilifying or glorifying the man.

Bon Scott offstage wasn’t always the legend we remember now, more than forty years after his wasteful death in the back of a car on a freezing cold night in London. Often he was just a lonely bloke, a long way from home, and Apter gives many examples of Scott’s efforts to stay in touch with family and friends in Australia whilst touring the world.

Apter’s Bon Scott is, most of all, humanised here. At the time of his passing AC/DC were a long way from the stadium-busting legends they became, and his legend has built over these past decades into something almost impossible for a man to live up to. Reading Bad Boy Boogie Scott becomes far more relatable, far more real, more flesh & blood, than he is depicted in some other books.

Emminently readable, as with most of Apter’s 30-or-so music biographies, Bad Boy Boogie only adds to Bon Scott’s legacy, rather than detracting from it.

 

Category: Book Reviews