AC/DC released For Those about to Rock We Salute You

First posted 9/4/2010; updated 9/7/2020.

For Those About to Rock We Salute You AC/DC

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Released: November 23, 1981 Peak: 13 US, 3 UK, -- CN, 3 AU Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, -- UK, 8.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: hard rock/heavy metal

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) For Those about to Rock We Salute You (12/5/81, #15 UK, #4 AR) Put the Finger on You (12/19/81, #38 AR) Let’s Get It Up (12/19/81, #44 US, #13 UK, #9 AR) Inject the Venom Snowballed Evil Walks C.O.D. Breaking the Rules Night of the Long Knives Spellbound Total Running Time: 40:10 The Players: Brian Johnson (vocals) Angus Young (guitar) Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) Cliff Williams (bass) Phil Rudd (drums)

Rating: 3.500 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings) Quotable: “A record Beavis and Butthead would describe as ‘cool’ – and, as usual, they’d be right.” – Andrew Mueller, Amazon.com

About the Album: “Lesser bands might have been put off their stride by the death of their lead singer, but not AC/DC. No sooner had Bon Scott met his whiskey-sodden end in 1980 than AC/DC recruited a new singer, Brian Johnson – who sounded almost exactly like Scott – and released, in Back in Black, the biggest-selling album of their career.” AM “For Those About to Rock We Salute You is a suitably triumphant follow-up” AM with “some decent material,” SH but it also marks the point when “AC/DC’s hot streak began to draw to a close.” SH While Back in Black was infused with the energy and spirit of paying tribute to Bon Scott, it became apparent on the follow-up that the group really did miss Scott more than it initially indicated.” SH The band “slowed down the tempo frequently, sounding less aggressive and inspired.” SH “Brian Johnson’s lyrics started to seem more calculated and a bit clichéd, lacking Scott’s devil-may-care sense of humor,” SH although they did also show that his “lyrical preoccupations were broadly congruent with those of his predecessor: Let’s Get It Up and Inject the Venom are as subtle as their titles sound.” AM And, of course, no matter how you view the whole album, “the cannon-punctuated title track – the most auspicious marriage of music and artillery since Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’ – still provides a spectacular finale to AC/DC concerts.” AM In the end, this is no Back in Black, but it “is a record Beavis and Butthead would describe as ‘cool’ – and, as usual, they’d be right.” AM

Resources and Related Links: AC/DC’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry Mutt Lange’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry SH Steve Huey, All Music Guide AM Andrew Mueller, Amazon.com

AC/DC released Highway to Hell

First posted 9/4/2010; updated 9/7/2020.

Highway to Hell AC/DC

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Released: July 27, 1979 Peak: 17 US, 8 UK, 40 CN, 13 AU Sales (in millions): 7.0 US, -- UK, 15.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: hard rock/heavy metal

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Highway to Hell (9/1/79, #47 US, #14 UK, #29 AR) Girls Got Rhythm Walk All Over You Touch Too Much (2/2/90, #29 UK) Beating Around the Bush Shot Down in Flames Get It Hot If You Want Blood, You’ve Got It Love Hungry Man Night Prowler Total Running Time: 41:40 The Players: Bon Scott (vocals) Angus Young (guitar) Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) Cliff Williams (bass) Phil Rudd (drums)

Rating: 4.167 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings) Awards:

About the Album: Highway to Hell is the final album recorded with “Bon Scott, AC/DC’s original lead singer who died just months after this album was released. Scott had a rusty, raspy, scream of a voice, like he might break into a coughing fit at any moment.” DC “He had the perfect instrument for such wild-living anthems” DC and “provided the group with a fair share of its signature sleaze;” STE “Scott literally partied himself to death, dying of alcohol poisoning after a night of drinking, a rock & roll fatality that took no imagination to predict.” STE “In light of his passing, it’s hard not to see Highway to Hell as a last testament of sorts, being that it was his last work and all, and if Scott was going to go out in a blaze of glory” STE this collection of “crunchy, hook-heavy metal classics” DC was “certainly was the way to do it. This is a veritable rogue’s gallery of deviance, from cheerfully clumsy sex talk and drinking anthems to general outlandish behavior. It’s tempting to say that Scott might have been prescient about his end – or to see the title track as ominous in the wake of his death – trying to spill it all out on paper, but it’s more accurate to say that the ride had just gotten very fast and very wild for AC/DC, and he was simply flying high.” STE “After all, it wasn’t just Scott who reached a new peak on Highway to Hell; so did the Young brothers, crafting their monster riffs into full-fledged, undeniable songs. This is their best set of songs yet, from the incessant, intoxicating boogie of Girls Got Rhythm to If You Want Blood (You've Got It).” STE There’s also “Get It Hot which is more roadhouse rock than metal” DC “Some of the credit should also go to Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, who gives the album a precision and magnitude that…[earlier albums] lacked in their grimy charm.” STE “Highway to Hell was the first AC/DC album not produced by Harry Vanda and George Young.” WK “Filtered through Mutt’s mixing board, AC/DC has never sounded so enormous, and they’ve never had such great songs, and they had never delivered an album as singularly bone-crunching or classic as this until now.” STE “The change proved to be fortuitous, and the album was the band’s biggest yet.” WK “This would be the first solid success that AC/DC would achieve in the U.S.” WK “and it propelled AC/DC into the top ranks of hard rock acts” WK as Highway to Hell became the band’s “first album to break the U.S. top 100, eventually reaching #17.” WK “Lange would go on to produce the band’s next two albums and biggest sellers, Back in Black and For Those About to Rock We Salute You.” WK

Resources and Related Links: AC/DC’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry Mutt Lange’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry DC David Cantwell, Amazon.com STE Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia