In 1976, when the Eagles, Peter Frampton, and Heart ruled the rock airwaves, along came five scruffy young men (the lead guitarist was maybe all of 18 and dressed in a schoolboy's uniform) from Australia playing some of the rowdiest, hardest, dirtiest rock of all time. Screaming "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)," singer Bon Scott teased like a braggart. Sensing the rock community's growing dissatisfaction with bloated, epic-scaled bands, AC/DC were indeed a high-voltage act: their drummer nailed the beat with fury, their bluesy guitar riffs mutated into something metallic and sharp-edged, and Scott's vocals took the shrillness of early Robert Plant to a leaner and meaner place. "Live Wire" is one of the most electrifying hard rock songs imaginable, "High Voltage" and "TNT" are the musical equivalent of touching exposed nerves with a rusty fork, and "Jack" proves that white rock dudes can, contrary to popular belief, get down. Whew! --Lorry Fleming
Most critics complain Back in Black, the album AC/DC recorded after the death of their original lead screamer Bon Scott, is ridiculously juvenile, obvious, snickering, bludgeoning, derivative, single-minded about sex and booze, a big cartoon. All true, of course, and--on rock 'n' ragers like "What Do You Do For Money Honey," "You Shook Me All Night Long," and the title track--all great. As Scott's replacement Brian Johnson reminds us, loud and crunchy, no-holds-barred "rock and roll ain't noise pollution...it makes good, good sense." Never trust anyone who refuses to drink domestic beer, laugh at the Three Stooges, or crank Back in Black. --David Cantwell
What Highway to Hell has that Back in Black doesn't is 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. In other words, on crunchy, hook-heavy metal classics like the title track, and on "Get It Hot" which is more roadhouse rock than metal, he had the perfect instrument for such wild-living anthems. Too perfect, it turned out. --David Cantwell
While Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap sounds like every other AC/DC album, it is distinguished by a lyrical puerility spectacular even by Bon Scott's standards. Two tracks--"Love at First Feel" and "Squealer"--are ruminations on the morality of sex with schoolgirls. "Big Balls," ostensibly a narrative from the perspective of an aristocrat socialite, is actually a somewhat labored excuse for the band to chant "We've got big balls." This juvenile posturing was, to a large degree, AC/DC winding up their burgeoning foreign audience by playing to stereotypical expectations of Australians. On Dirty Deeds, however, AC/DC try too hard. Only on "Ain't No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)" is Scott's laconic wit deployed to real effect: the sheer glee in the line "Get your fuckin' jumbo jet off my airport!" is almost worth the album's purchase price. --Andrew Mueller
