Listening Post: AC/DC For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

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 - For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) - 1981 (buy it)

Okay. How do you follow up the second biggest selling album of all time? One of the monsters of Rock? You try to copy the past and fail miserably.
This isn't really a carbon copy, it's more problematic than that. Brian Johnson is still in pretty good form here and the songs are somewhat acceptable but this isn't AC/DC. This is the Mutt Lange Production Project. Those big BIG drums and killer bass, that's not AC/DC. That's something else. That's.......Def Leppard. This is a Def Leppard album. And, if you strip away the production what you are left with is a bunch of guys who used to write barroom brawlers, then were thrust on the worldwide stage and giant stadiums and decided they had to write "ARENA ROCK" songs every time.
It doesn't work. It falls flat. The opener is still a great song, but after that, it's a downhill slide. Is there anything as bad, so far, as "Inject the Venom" or "Night of the Long Knives" in the band's repertoire? No. This is "Bandit" bad. (Bandit is a crappy metal band that Brian Johnson had a hand in years before. There's some magic here, "Snowballed" is tasty as is "Spellbound" and, perhaps, "Evil Walks". But nothing can redeem the unmitigated crapola that is the lyrics for "C.O.D."
That's just awful.

Grade C
A Side: For those About To Rock
Blindside: Snowballed
Downside: Inject the Venom