AC/DC: Back in Black

Angus Can't/Defeat Children Edition

Now we're talkin'! This is the seminal AC/DC album, in my humble opinion. If you have to own one, it should be this one. I caught on late, however. The first AC/DC album I got on tape back in the 80’s was “Who Made Who”, the soundtrack to Stephen King’s film “Maximum Overdrive”. A lot of “Back in Black” is on “Who Made Who”, but it just feels better here. It was pretty obvious that Maximum Overdrive was Stephen King’s “ego-project”, going so far as to include his self-professed favorite band as the soundtrack. It didn’t save the movie, sadly. Emilio Estevez, what happened to you?

The title song on “Back in Black” holds a special place in my heart, since I performed as Angus Young in a Battle-of-the-Airbands in High School with my friends. I rocked it; School-jacket, backspin and all. I stayed up very late making an AC/DC stage sign out of PVC pipe the night before. We got huge applause, but it was the cheerleaders doing…some nonsense…that won the night. Bah!

Lyrically, this album is like Haggis: All guts and junk-meat. It's edible, but you probably don't want to chew on it too long or think about it too hard. Musically, though, the whole album is tight, crunchy, catchy rock at its purest and blackest. So good, it's a cliché. Don't let that scare you off.

Sterling Rocks Out to AC/DC from Jim Renaud on Vimeo.