AC/DC - High Voltage (1976)
I went through a pretty massive AC/DC phase as a kid - partly due to the influence of the Stephen King flick Maximum Overdrive
and the accompanying soundtrack (AC/DC's Who Made Who
- a greatest hits of sorts that plays as the perfect soundtrack to the desperate desolation and technological domination portrayed in this action/horror vehicle featuring Charlie Sheen's, ahem... , more "sane" sibling, Mr. Emilio Estevez). The soundtrack brought AC/DC back to a whole new generation and plopped them down in the MTV hard rock scene dominated by bands like Def Leppard and Billy Idol. This resurgence, coupled with my own father's emphatic stories about seeing AC/DC in 1976 were what cemented the band's legacy in my young brainstuff. Dad would recount with apparent glee stories of the "coke crazed" guitar player, running about the stage and headbanging so hard that his face was smeared with his own blood and snot and about the singer who put said guitarist onto his shoulders and waded into the stoned throng to spread aforementioned guitarist's aforementioned upper respiratory fluids and blood and about how the band, at the end of the set, all stepped forward to "moon" the crowd - exposing their white, Aussie arses to some 14 or 15,000 American heads. I'd like to say that this is one of the first AC/DC records I purchased as it is one of my all time favorites but it's not. My copy was purchased as part of a lot of garage sale records in the mid 90's. A gem amongst a horde of hair metal, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and some assorted mid-70's through mid-80's oddities.
The cover of the album is classic AC/DC - super action photo illustration of young Mr. Angus Young, clad in schoolboy attire, Gibson SG clutched in overt masturbatory pose - slashed by a lightning bolt and made to appear as though the edge of the LP sleeve is ablaze and curling upward from the burn.
The back cover is our introduction to these miscreants - "letters" from fans, angry night club managers, angry parents and of course Misters Malcolm and Angus Young's Secondary School Headmaster complaining of the boys' bad behavior.
The songs that burst forth from this masterwork read like one Blues based, Chuck Berry on bathtub crank, Rock N' Roll warcry after another.
It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll)
Rock N' Roll Singer
The Jack
Live Wire
T.N.T.
Can I Sit Next to You Girl (Young & Young)
Little Lover
She's Got Balls
and
High Voltage
This is Bon Scott putting down the stamp of badassery that was so purely his own, backed by a bunch of goons that will ride into history as one of the greatest and tightest live bands to ever tip brews together. For me, AC/DC brings so much sensory memory flooding into my head that just one chord from the mighty SG will send me immediately into a world of tiny mustaches, denim, patches, Marlboro smoke, shoplifted tall boys of Budweiser and crumbly little sandwich bags full of 60/40 (60% stems and seeds and 40% dirty brown homegrown), stories of the band's demonic possession and their allegiance to the "Dark Lord" evident in their name (Anti Christ/Devil's Child). AC/DC is Australia's greatest export and America's favorite rebel rock quintet.
