Listening Post: AC/DC Highway to Hell

They wrote one of the 10 greatest RAWK songs ever. The pretty much invented the fist pumping, devil horned, head banging arena rock sound. The lead guitarist is the star, in his outrageous schoolboy uniform but the real backbone is the Rhythm Guitarist. Without Malcolm there is no AC/DC. Just a lead singer and a cock of the walk screecher.
I have heard about a dozen or so songs, and, like everyone who grew up in the 70s, Back in Black was your graduation present.
But aside from the big tunes, what do I really know about the Aussie boys?
Let's find out.



AC/DC - Highway to Hell - 1980 (buy it)

Uh oh. What's that gigantic sound? Harmonies? Deeply expanded sonic tapestry? Why, it must be, yes, Mutt Lange!
Mr. Shania Twain! Crafter of the Def Leppard sound! The master has arrived just in time for the boys from Down Under to polish their talents to mass audience acceptance. (Incidentally, it should also be pointed out that Lange was The Boomtown Rats' producer on Boomtown Rats, Tonic for the Troops and one my favorite albums of all time, The Fine Art of Surfacing)
This is truly good stuff. And yet, strangely, it's not really any different from anything they have done in the past. It's really just "AC/DC". Everything you ever wanted from a blues-based, big riffed, cock-rock band, all neatly packaged on one album. In fact, the seeds of Leppard are in here on tracks like "Walk all over you", I believe. Although those lads were never this trenchant.
There's clunky junky stuff that is the genesis of glam rock that was about to come around the corner. I'm think about Touch Too Much which sounds a touch too much like Ratt will in just a few years. The more I think about it, I have to wonder just how many hair metal bands of the 80s picked up an axe and decided to be rock stars after they heard Highway to Hell? Everything that is Poison, Ratt, Motley Crue, Bulletboys and their ilk seems to have sprung from THIS record. That doesn't mean this is bad. Not by a long shot. The copies are just not as good as the original, that's all. And it seems that those bands took the big, anthemic cathedral of guitar sound and decided to forego the lead licks (I'm looking at YOU, Jet!) Too bad. But, maybe not.
Thing is, though, and this isn't the band's fault, but does "Get it Hot" sound familiar to anyone else? Like Leppard's Photograph? Now, that shouldn't reflect badly on the band, but I can't get it out of my head. I WANT to say, 'hey, it came first!' but, the latter song is better so it just dampens my experience. (I know it's not fair or right, but, fuck it, what can I do?) In fact, it's quite possible that the spectre of all that will spawn from this release haunts it and makes it difficult for me to appreciate it on it's own. Maybe if it was 1979 and I was hearing it for the first time that would be different but it's not. Its 29 years later and, sadly, there are no surprises on H2H. Not like the albums that came before.
Interestingly, the last song, Night Prowler, is so ominous and final and dirge-like that it's appropriately followed in their catalogue by the bells on "Hell's Bells".
Sadly.

Grade B+
A Side: Highway to Hell & Girls Got Rhythm
Blindside: Night Prowler. A heavy, dense and sad coda.
Downside: Love Hungry Man & Shot Down in Flames (Bon's just running out of ideas here and it's hard to believe that he has trouble getting laid at this point in his superstar rock band life. I don't buy it and the song sounds forced and fake)