Gonna be honest with you, blog. We haven't been trying our hardest, have we? We've been taking the easy route. "Ooh, what's tickled your anger this week Rory? What's got you all flustered and spluttering and David-Mitchell-y today? Yeah that's right. Don't forget the trademark filth! Gives it that extra edge."
So, in a break with tradition, I'm going all gooey on you. It's a misty-eyed, lump in the throat special. In no real order, and for no real reason, I'm going to tell you why I love the rock band AC/DC.
1) They're genuinely good.
Everybody has their iPod guilty pleasure. A bit of George Michael here, a bit of Duran Duran there. About 50% should never see the light of day. If it was a puppy, by now you really should have risked the difficult conversation with your children and drowned it. The other 40% will have some value. It might make you wince a little, but it won't make the last request on your deathbed for your spouse or family to wipe your itunes in a bid to better preserve your memory. Then there's the 10% that's be genuinely good. The final resting place of Queen, the Dire Straits and Fleetwood Mac. At the risk of sounding like a superior music dick, this is where AC/DC belong.
Like any band, their work varies in quality. Anything made after 1980, with a few exceptions, is a bit balls. But for five years they released a string of up-tempo blues rock albums - High Voltage, Dirty Deeds..., Powerage, Let There Be Rock, Highway To Hell, and Back in Black - which are, and I really want you to pay attention here, genuinely genuinely good. Not for everyone, but good. Fuck it, just wrap your ears around this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=en7EKL1pX5w
...and then tell me that little half-naked bastard can't play guitar.
They're not hacks. The music is honed over years of practice. They weren't engineered by a manager, not dictated by committee or demographic, not ceding to any popular taste. They do it for the love. They're the cure for cynicism.
2) They're fucking bad-ass.
Just watch this;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VlRUIHwygc
I'll give you a minute to recover...
...
...
...How awesome was that?
The guitarist (Angus) is dressed as a schoolboy. The singer (Bon Scott, rest his booze-addled soul) is dressed as a schoolgirl. The music sounds like God punching you in the ears. Everyone has gloriously awful hair. There's no way you can come away from that without a huge stupid grin on your face.
If you'll allow me to make another laboured comparison, if they were a person they'd be the sort of person who'd come round to your house at 11 on a Sunday, eat all your cereal, feed beer to your dog, have casual sex with your sister and leave the toilet seat up. And have you pay them to do it.
3) They're Australian.
As a nation, the Aussies haven't been particularly well served in terms of musical talent. The fact that, if I asked you to remember an Australian band, 97% would think for a minute before suggesting Men At Work, probably says enough. But along with Nick Cave, AC/DC have been pretty much atoning for this lack for the last 35 years.
Now, my antipodean roots may be very slight, but I've proud of them. And since I never had the patience to follow cricket or the confused sexual orientation to follow rugby there wasn't much I could do to exercise this pride. So liking this sorely outdated rock 'n roll quintet has been my equivalent.
4)They say things like this;
'I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sounds exactly the same, Infact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.' Angus Young
Which is just awesome. Compare it to a quote from a recent 'alternative' group;
'Yeah I decided to call the album 'Through a Glass Darkly' because it's, like, from the Bible, and, y'know, I've always been quite a spiritual person. I mean, I often feel like...I AM the new Jesus, y'know? And also because y'know, in a way, we're all seeing the world through, like, this, dark glass. I mean, literally, if you're wearing sunglasses. Which I always am. Because I'm a tosser.' Some Arrogant Fucker
And you get what I mean.
5) Because you know what? They made me feel cool.
Okay guys. Here's where it gets personal. Look away now.
I wasn't the trendiest teenager. I'm still not. But I was weird. I was naive and over-earnest. I had the hand eye coordination of a spastic pirate. All my clothes were hand-me-downs from bigger, more stylish kids. I had a haircut like David Cassidy. I always had some sort of cancer. I was so awkward I spend half of the day wanting to crawl into a corner and die and the other half giving myself reasons to do so. I was no 'Skins'esque success. I was a fuck-up.
But aged 13, listening to 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' at full volume, I'll admit it...I felt cool. And to any band that can manage to do that, I salute you.
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