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September 19, 2008

AC/DC - "Rock n' Roll Train"

TDS Editors


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3 Comments

#1 MP says:

Borrrrrrringg.

#2 thirteenburn says:

I second that. The 'boring' analysis is spot on.

Angus Young running around in a school boy outfit; his brother Malcom and bassist Cliff Williams stand at stage right and left, respectively, of the drum kit manned by Phil Rudd (which I'm pretty sure is the same exact drum kit from the 70's as well) while "singer" Brian Johnson still screeches and howls unitelligble vocals. Oh ya, and Angus still runs around with all the absent-mindedness of an Alzheimers patient on Meth while his brother Malcom still uses the EXACT SAME guitar he started with, color and all. Speaking of which, has anyone noticed that his guitar is pretty much as big as he is? I swear if you stood his guitar on end, the top of the head stock would be equal to, if not an inch or two HIGHER, than the top of Malcom's head, I shit you not.

Hmmmm, so lets see here...NEW AC/DC?

Er, not so much.

No, this was all being done back in the mid 70's and the shtick hasn't changed one iota since their first album. Well, OK, maybe Angus has changed the COLOR of his Gibson SG but the chords and melody and song keys are all EXACTLY the same, top to bottom.

Wait, check that - Phil Rudd's hair is shorter and Cliff's hair is grayer, but Cliff still wears the black tank-top and Malcom still wears the grey one. That's what blows me away is that even their clothing never changes. Brian still wears that pork-pie hat, black tank with black button down. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'll bet that the drum set is even the same fucking color as when they first started out.

As a matter of fact, I would venture a guess and say that the entire AC/DC catalog is the exact same song, except the chord progressions are in different orders and new lyrics are added. Hell, that would mean that Brian is the only one who goes into the studio to record his vocals, then the producers and engineer's just pick a song and rearrange the chord progressions and Viola! New AC/DC record for what amounts to nickels and dimes and they make nothing but bank off the huge tours they do. 'Highway To Hell' is 'Back In Black' is 'Black Ice' is 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'. That's a pretty sweet racket, no doubt about it. It makes you wonder why no other bands have done the same thing.

Bottom line is that it's absolutely mind numbing how this one band, who hasn't changed ANYTHING in the last 30 years (give or take a year) is still as rabidly popular as when they started, and who's music is still being blasted out of millions of high school students cars.

#3 frank says:

I haven't seen the video yet but I agree that it's probably more of the same, and that the song probably can't compete with their best work from their earlier days. But thirteenburn's comment ends with a very interesting question: what's the appeal?

I think it's because when they play live, whoever goes to their show will leave the venue knowing that ac/dc ROCKED THE FUCK OUT. I only make this point because I was at a music festival in San Francisco over the weekend and I noticed that many of the indie-rock acts succeed brilliantly at one thing: boring the audience to tears.

So, it's easy to dis ac/dc for being old and hokey, but this band of geriatrics stand a better chance of having a hot young girl throw her panties on stage than most of the toothless indie-rock acts out there today. Why? Listen to "Riff Raff" or "Kicked in the Teeth" to name just a few songs from one album. The shit rocks. It seems to me that rock music, at its best, satisfies something primal in the audience. For example, those guys from Paris, Justice, know this and cultivated a lean, hard sound. That's why audiences go apeshit as soon they hit the stage and unleash their distinctive basslines to upper-case beats.

It'll be the same when ac/dc tours. They'll unleash those famous riffs and the crowd will go apeshit. The audience doesn't care how complex the music is. They want something from the gut that rocks.


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