For this second edition of “Classics” we look at the classic Back in Black from the Thunder From Down Under.  When this album came out 1980 it catapulted AC/DC from respected blues hard rockers to international stars. With the recent Double Diamond award (20 million albums sold in the U.S.) it is the perfect time to explore what makes this album a classic! 

Welcome to Hard Rock : 101, class. You may be seated. Open your textbooks to February 19th, 1980. On this day, Bon Scott, lead singer of the living legend Rock outfit known as AC/DC, is left in a car by a friend and dies by choking on his own vomit. Devastated, many fans are convinced that this is the end of AC/DC. Then, in March, rumors began to circulate that a search to replace Bon Scott was underway. Several names surface--- Stevie Wright, Gary Holton, Alan Fryer--- but it was ex-Geordie frontman Brian Johnson who emerged as the heir apparent to Bon Scott’s throne and, in early April was officially named the band’s new frontman. To the surprise of many, things got underway at breakneck speed--- hardly surprising for a band who is the living embodiment of living fast--- and somewhere between mid-March and early-April, our heroes teamed up with Mutt Lange at Compass Point Studios, in the Bahamas, with the intention of recording an album that was to be called Back in Black.

This album, dear students, was recorded in seven weeks. I repeat: SEVEN weeks. No frills, no studio magic--- just bing, bang, BOOM--- rather fitting for a group like AC/DC, don’t you think? 

Just chew on that for a moment. 

In less than a single year, this band loses its seemingly irreplaceable frontman, and against all odds crosses paths with who might have been the only living soul, at that time, who fit this band like the proverbial glass slipper, drops into the studio, and in seven weeks time comes out with what is arguably one of the greatest doses of heavy Rock that has ever been put to tape. If you’re not phased, you had BETTER check yourself for a pulse.

Please turn to the next page in you textbooks.

And so on July 21st, 1980 ( U.S.), Atlantic/ATCO records released what was then the latest offering from those indestructible, rowdy Australian sages of boisterous, bad boy Rock n’ Roll--- AC/DC’s Back in Black. By the second week of August, Back in Black had topped the UK charts for two consecutive weeks, and reached the U.S. Billboard charts by late August, peaking in January, 1981 at number four. France was also evidently smitten with this golden vein of unadulterated Rock n Roll--- by December of 1980, the French had snatched up 2,000,000 copies of Back in Black. Love it. By July of 1981, worldwide sales of Back in Black had reached 12,000,000 units. There was no apparent force which seemed able to stop this album. Fast forward the clock to 1990--- when our arch enemies at the RIAA certified Back in Black as having gone ten times multi-platinum. 

Please re-read the last four words of that last sentence. To me, the most faithful test of an album’s greatness, is its ability to stand up against the passage of time--- like all great monuments should. If you walk away from this history lesson having retained anything at all, I hope this rule will be it. Time is the Great Killer of gimmick, of fads, of trends. Over the course of an entire decade, Back in Black did not fizzle out--- in point of fact, it acquired a status, and a place in the annals of Rock, that is the stuff of legend. Millions of earnest musicians long to make a record that will never lose its vigor and its potency. Only a handful succeed. Back in Black is the real deal, ladies and gents--- an indisputably genuine article. It’s time to face facts : this album doesn’t care about politics, it doesn’t have its panties in a bunch over the ozone layer, it doesn’t care if your daddies didn’t love you enough when you were children, and it sure as hell doesn’t give a frog’s fat ass if your girlfriend left you for another guy. This is AC/DC, buddy. This record is one gorgeous, straight-laced, fist pumping, pill-popping, booze swilling, chair breaking slab of down n’ dirty Rock n’ Roll. This record has been determined by the Surgeon General to be the world’s leading cause of vehicular speeding, beer puking, smashed table lamps, unplanned pregnancies, littered lawns, and some of the most decadently enrapturing parties known to humankind. Turning to Brian Johnson and Angus Young to do some soul searching is about as preposterous as turning to Ted Kennedy for a tax cut. Got it? 

Perhaps a ten-year run doesn’t impress you? Tell you what… why not make it a seventeen year run? In November of 1997, Back in Black was certified as having gone sixteen times platinum, and became the second biggest selling Hard Rock album in U.S. history.  

Still nothing? Why don’t we go for a chunky twenty-one year run, then?

In February of 2001, Back in Black was certified as having gone platinum NINETEEN times over. This rather impressive feat made AC/DC the fifth best selling band of all time--- and for the grand finale--- Back in Black acquired double diamond status in June of this year.

Like a vintage wine, this juvenile, testosterone laden, crunchier-than-thou record has the ability to age well, hold its grip, and not fall apart, and it does it year after year. Call it what you will. Just bear the facts in mind before you speak your piece about Back in Black. Me--- I call it a genuine, big ol’ slab o’ Grade A, kick ass Rock n Roll--- and time’s on my side to back my case, too.

Now I’ll raise my glass. Here’s to twenty one years of Back in Black… and here’s to twenty one more years of Back in Black. Have a drink on me. This is the DeadSun, signing off.

DS

Back in Black is the AC/DC album that everyone owns, regardless of musical preferences or backgrounds.  If you have heard the words “rock and roll” then you have heard Back in Black.  My cowboy neighbor would blast “What Do You Do for Money Honey” from his truck speakers while hauling his horses.  16-year-olds are sitting in their bedrooms right now trying to master the riff to the title track.  My mom has a copy of Back in Black.

This album is and should be a staple in every record collection.  It is rock and roll at its bare-bones best; loud, rude, catchy, sexy, fist-pumping, beer-drinking and completely ridiculous.

AC/DC is about hard-driving, fearless rock and roll, but they have a sense of humor and a willingness to let it all hang out that makes the music so memorable.

The AC/DC formula appears too easy, but they are the only band that has been able to do it so well.  The guitar riffs, the tight rhythm section and the whiskey-soaked vocals come together and form a band that is unparalleled.

Back in Black should be required listening for anyone interested in rock and roll or in playing the guitar.  After the first listen to this album you will have a new favorite band and then you should promptly go buy Highway to Hell.
 

I’ve been thinking about what to write about this album for the past few weeks. It’s one of those records that’s been an indelible part of the popular music catalog for two and half decades, a classic in the truest sense for so many people. Then a few nights ago, something happened to me that just reaffirmed this belief.   

I was sitting in the drive-thru at In-N-Out. It was a warm summer night, the top was down and I was just getting back from a seeing a local band. There were a couple of high school girls in the car in front of me. I had my stereo down so I could place my order and then suddenly I heard the familiar “gong” blaring out of the car in front of me. At that point the girls cranked it up and started rocking out as Angus Young’s unforgettable intro lead to “Hells Bells” cut through the night air. I flipped over the radio and found the song playing on a classic rock station and did what came naturally; turn the volume up! A few moments later, one of the girls looked back at me and gave me the devil horns.  Then I looked in the rear view mirror at the car that pulled in behind me and it too was filled with teenagers and they seemed to be rocking out to “Hell Bells” too.  It was a bit surreal, but here we are 24 years after this album came out and it evokes that kind of reaction even with kids that weren’t even born when it came out. 

I saw first hand that Back in Black is one of those rare albums that never goes out of style, never gets old and never stops kicking ass. It may have been the inspiration of losing Bon and having to prove themselves that compelled AC/DC to produce this album. Whatever it was, it worked and the band never came close to capturing that same magic again. Like Zane said, Back in Black is a rite of passage and if you don’t have this CD in your collection there is a major keystone missing.  

I was about 14 when that rite of passage came my way. A buddy of mine asked me casually what I thought of the new AC/DC album and I told him point blank I knew who they were but didn’t know their music. Being the kind soul that he was, he lent me his cassette of Back in Black and that was all she wrote. That cassette became a big part of the soundtrack to that summer for me. It was an instant favorite and still remains one to this day. There is just something about the simplicity of it, the unforgettable leads and Brian’s shining moments as a vocalist. I still get chills when I hear the bridge to “Shoot to Thrill”.  I can put it on now and it takes me back to that summer of cruising around with my crazy friends cranking up “Rock n Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution,” inventing a drinking game to “Have A Drink on Me” where we’d have to take a shot every time Brian sang the word “drink” (a real quick way to get drunk).  But the coolest thing for me was what I witnessed in that drive-thru and seeing that this album has continued to be a tradition. It was part of the soundtrack for a generation when it came out, it became one for mine and I was fortunately enough to see first hand that it is part of the soundtrack for the kids today.  That says it all for me. Good albums come out every year but very few stand up against the test of time. And Back in Black has done that and is definitely a classic no matter how you define the term. 
 

AC/DC - Back in Black
Label: Atco/Atlantic - Legacy Recordings (remastered version)
 

Tracks: Hells Bells Shoot To Thrill What Do You Do For Money Honey Given The Dog A Bone Let Me Put My Love Into You Back In Black You Shook Me All Night Long Have A Drink On Me Shake A Leg Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

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