I just read at acdczone.com that AC/DC is writing a new album and releasing it this year in 2013, which is a follow-up to their 2008 album Black Ice. This Australian rock band's 40 plus year longevity in the music industry is incredible with still a massive fan base today. This why AC/DC continues to tour and write new music.
As a teenager, I listend to AC/DC, had their Highway to Hell poster on the wall in my bedroom, t-shirts and went to AC/DC's concert during the Back in Black tour where they had the big Hells Bell on stage. I had every album they every released from the 1970's and 80's even European versions on Vinyl. I don't listen to any of their newer music, but know that it is still great and true to their hard rock style.
There is no one that puts more energy in a concert performance than Angus Young. I consider Angus Young one of the greatest guitarists of all time as well as one of the greatest performers playing guitar on stage. The rumor was back in the 80s that after every AC/DC performance Angus Young lost 5 pounds because of his non-stop ENERGY on stage. Of course, science would tell you that if it were true he wouldn't be alive today; but it sure looks like he does. I want to recognize AC/DC for all their accomplishments and still entertaining new generations who love their music. Below is AC/DC's biography from the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME including the tragic story of Bon Scott's death, rockhall.com. Check out "Hells Bells" live in 1983, and the original music video of "You Shook Me All Night Long", and the classic "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" with Bon Scott in 1976. I have included, discography pics and videos as I remember AC/DC in the hight of their career. ~ Kenny Leibow
TRIVIA - The band's name AC/DC came from a sewing machine. It was on the back of Angus' and Malcom's sister's sewing machine, and stood for "alternating current/direct current".
TRIVIA - It's not well known, but it was AC/DC that helped launch the career of Def Leppard in which AD/DC's manager, Peter Mensch, who brought Def Leppard on board and get them signed with Polygram records. Def Leppard toured with AC/DC back then. Rumored that the solo in AC/DC's song "Highway to Hell" was copied in one of Def Leppard's tracks with permission.
TRIVIA - The band's name AC/DC came from a sewing machine. It was on the back of Angus' and Malcom's sister's sewing machine, and stood for "alternating current/direct current".
TRIVIA - It's not well known, but it was AC/DC that helped launch the career of Def Leppard in which AD/DC's manager, Peter Mensch, who brought Def Leppard on board and get them signed with Polygram records. Def Leppard toured with AC/DC back then. Rumored that the solo in AC/DC's song "Highway to Hell" was copied in one of Def Leppard's tracks with permission.
AC/DC Live 1983 "Hells Bells"
Source: http://www.acdcfamilyjewels.com/
AC/DC DISCOGRAPHY
AC/DC BIOGRAPHY
Phil Rudd (drums; born May 19, 1954), Brian Johnson (vocals; born October 5, 1947 or 1948), Bon Scott (vocals; born July 6, 1946, died February 19, 1980), Cliff Williams (bass; born December 14, 1949), Angus Young (lead guitar; born March 31, 1955), Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar; born January 6, 1953)
For three decades AC/DC has reigned as one of the best-loved and hardest-rocking bands in the world. Featuring guitarist Angus Young as their visual symbol and musical firebrand, they grew from humble origins in Australia to become an arena-filling phenomenon with worldwide popularity. They did so without gimmickry, except for Angus’s schoolboy uniform, which became mandatory stage attire. From the beginning they have been a straight-ahead, no-frills rock and roll band that aimed for the gut. “We’ve never pulled any punches,” vocalist Brian Johnson has said. “We just play music that’s fun and simple--the way our audience likes it.”
“Cliched as it might be, we’ve always been a good, hard rock ‘n’ roll band,” Angus Young has said of AC/DC.
This uncomplicated approach has given AC/DC a single-minded sense of mission. They’ve never recorded power ballads or gone soft to enhance their commercial appeal. Their unwavering devotion to no-frills hard rock with plenty of bawdy wit has made for a consistency that’s won them the loyalty of millions of fans, who range from working stiffs to the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards. Another famous fan, author Stephen King, tapped AC/DC to assemble Who Made Who, the 1986 soundtrack album to the film version of his novel Maximum Overdrive.
Angus Young was born into a family of musical siblings. His oldest brother, George Young, belonged to the Easybeats, an Aussie beat group whose “Friday on My Mind” was a hit in most countries following its release in 1966 and a hit in America by the spring of 1967. Another guitar-playing sibling, Malcolm Young, had the original idea for a no-nonsense rock band built around energetic Angus, who was the brood’s most talented musician. The Young brothers chose the name AC/DC, which implied electricity and a hint of danger. The nascent AC/DC played their first gig at a club in Sydney on New Year’s Eve 1973. The group’s lineup solidified in 1974 when vocalist Bon Scott, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Mark Evans replaced early members Dave Evans, Rob Bailey and Peter Clack.
Hungry and tirelessly hard-working, AC/DC toured and recorded constantly in the 1970s. Their first five studio albums - High Voltage (1975), T.N.T. (1975), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976), Let There Be Rock (1977) and Powerage (1978) - were produced by George Young and his Easybeats partner, Henry Vanda. The Vanda-Young tandem captured the band’s raw energy in the studio. At the same time, AC/DC’s songs had a straightforward appeal that made them more of a hard rock than a heavy metal band. The group signed a worldwide contract with Atlantic Records in 1976; as a result, the American reissues of AC/DC’s early work differ significantly from the Australian originals. Let There Be Rock(1977) was the first AC/DC album to be released simultaneously around the world. After its recording, tour-weary bassist Evans left, replaced by Cliff Williams. A live album, If You’ve Want Blood You’ve Got It, came at the end of 1978.
AC/DC’s studio mastery took a giant leap with Highway to Hell (1979), recorded over a six-month period in London instead of Australia. At George Young’s suggestion, they tried a new producer: John Robert “Mutt” Lange (who’d later work with Def Leppard and Shania Twain). Angus sported a pair of devil’s horns on the jacket, which contributed to disapproval of AC/DC in some fundamentalist quarters. The band headlined its first European tour as Highway to Hell hit the British Top Ten and reached Number 17 in America. These triumphs were followed by tragedy when singer Bon Scott died of asphyxiation following a drinking binge on February 19, 1980.
Though devastated, Malcolm and Angus quickly began working up new material as a form of therapy. “I just rang up Angus and said, ‘Do you wanna come back and rehearse?’” Malcolm Young told Rolling Stone. “This was about two days afterward.” After auditioning new vocalists, they settled on Brian Johnson, a native of Newcastle, England, whose gruff, aggressive vocals helped AC/DC successfully enter a dramatic new phase of its career. The group rebounded with Back in Black, whose title and all-black cover paid silent tribute to Scott. The music rocked with a determined authority that catapulted AC/DC into a class with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones. Because they were younger than those bands, AC/DC bonded with a youthful audience that kept them on top throughout the 1980s. Back in Black was an instant classic that ranks as the sixth best-selling rock album of all time, having sold 19 million copies in the U.S. and 41 million worldwide. The album gave AC/DC a series of anthems that have formed the backbone of their live show: “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Back in Black” and “Hells Bells,” which began with the tolling of a two-ton bell.
Building on their momentum, AC/DC followed Back in Black with For Those About to Rock (We Salute You), whose title track is performed live as cannons detonate. A decade of hard work was rewarded whenFor Those About to Rock (We Salute You) became AC/DC’s first Number One album in America, selling a million copies in its first week of release. Having ascended to the top of the hard-rock realm, AC/DC headlined 1984’s Monsters of Rock in Donnington, England and 1985’s Rock in Rio in Brazil, where they performed for an audience numbering nearly half a million. More albums followed on a dependable schedule - Flick of the Switch (1983), Fly on the Wall (1985), Who Made Who (1986) and Blow Up Your Video (1988) - each of which yielded a few new AC/DC classics to the expanding canon.
In 1990 came The Razor’s Edge, whose opening track, “Thunderstruck,” was one of AC/DC’s strongest in years. It was based on a real-life experience: a lightning bolt struck the small plane in which Angus Young was flying, which nearly crashed as a result. The album also contained an uncharacteristic hit single, “Moneytalks.” A live recording, prosaically entitled Live, appeared in 1992 and was made available as a double disc and an abridged single disc. While not as prolific in the studio or omnipresent on the road in the 1990s, AC/DC continued to deliver when they did tour and record: in 1995 with Ballbreaker and in 2000 with Stiff Upper Lip. In 1997, during the five years between studio albums, the box set Bonfire was released.
Though their choruses were as infectious as anything on radio, AC/DC were fundamentally the antithesis of a Top Forty band. Thus, they’ve cracked the U.S. singles charts only three times: “You Shook Me All Night Long” (Number 35), “Back in Black” (Number 37) and “Moneytalks” (Number 23). Their albums, on the other hand, have been all gone gold or platinum. In the America, AC/DC’s best-sellers are Back in Black (19 million copies sold), Highway to Hell (6 million), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (6 million),Who Made Who (5 million), Live (whose single and double-disc configurations have sold a combined 5 million), For Those About to Rock We Salute You (4 million), and The Razor’s Edge (4 million). AC/DC moved from Atlantic to Sony in late 2002, and 2003 began with a major reissue program and the promise of a new studio album.
Thirty years on, AC/DC continues to give the fans what they want. Through it all, they’ve never lost the common touch - the sense that the band and their audience were interchangeable, and that both were celebrating the joyful jolt of electricity provided by good, hard, uncompromising rock and roll.
