Track #18 - “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” by AC/DC (1982)

From the album For Those About to Rock We Salute You

Music and lyrics by Brian Johnson, Angus Young & Malcolm Young

Performed by:

Brian Johnson – lead vocals

Angus Young – lead guitar  

Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar

Cliff Williams – bass   

Phil Rudd – drums

US Billboard Mainstream Rock - #4

Stand up and be counted

For what you are about to receive

We are the dealers

We’ll give you everything you need

Hail hail to the good times

‘Cause rock has got the right of way

We ain’t no legend, ain’t no cause

We’re just livin’ for today

There are two things I remember most about the summer of 1982. The first was the inescapable nervousness I had about going to junior high school in the fall. Moving from class to class all day, dealing with a hall locker and changing in front of other boys for gym class was all going to be new, and caused all sorts of adolescent anxiety that summer. Plus, there would be about six or seven other elementary schools full of new kids going to that junior high school; new faces, and new personalities I’d have to get used to. It was a lot for an eleven-year-old to swallow. The other thing I remember was the Yorx stereo I received as an early birthday gift that August; I mentioned it a few weeks ago when we discussed Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”, and stereos and electronic stores. It was an all-in-one system, with a turntable and dual cassette deck and AM/FM receiver, with two detached speakers. I remember just staring at it after my father hooked it up, and then making sure I touched every button and knob, getting the sound just right. I finally had my own stereo, but there was one huge problem: it was located in the entryway room in our house. This room was sort of a den, where my brother and I would watch the 2nd TV, wrestle, or play with our cars and action figures. There was a door leading into my grandparents’ apartment, a door leading to the garage, and the staircase to the rest of the house. No door for privacy, which meant the second the music got too loud, I was told to lower it or else. Thinking back now, I can’t remember why the stereo was not set up in my bedroom. Maybe there wasn’t space, or my parents thought it would distract me from doing homework if I was listening to records in my room all the time. But worrying about the volume of the music all the time was a drag. Don’t get me wrong; I loved having that stereo, but not being able to listen at even what most people would call a reasonable volume was annoying. I would often lay on the floor with my ear to one speaker so I could get the full effect of the bass and treble and try to appreciate what these small speakers could do. But if my parents were out, forget it; I turned that thing up as loud as it would go without blowing out the woofers. My dad finally gave me his headphones, so I could listen when everyone was home, but it wasn’t the same as letting the speakers rip at high volume. Still, that stereo was all mine, so I learned to have patience, knowing one day my parents would relent and it would be in my room. Before the Yorx showed up at my door I used to listen to cassettes on a tape recorder, and then later a small boombox, but I still bought albums on vinyl, in the hopes I would one day have a real turntable. (The plastic record player from JC Penney was long gone by now.) My mom would dutifully play my records on their stereo, and sometimes let me change them out if she was busy. As I headed into junior high that summer, I had what you might call an eclectic collection of music; some might be considered classics now, and some you might ask, “Why?” I had Loverboy’s Get Lucky, which contained their Friday anthem, “Working for the Weekend”; a very popular album at the time called Freeze Frame, by the J Geils band, and an album I still listen to now, Shake It Up, by The Cars. I also had Journey’s breakthrough album Escape, which contains the most downloaded song of the 20th century, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, and I was still listening to a lot of Daryl Hall and John Oates, especially their album, Private Eyes. Stadium rock band Styx from Chicago, and their album Paradise Theatre was also still in heavy rotation for me back then, and I even managed to get a copy of Abacab by Genesis on cassette; remember Genesis from way back at Track #1? If you’re a fan of the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, you may remember the scene where Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd admonish Steve Carell for having a framed poster of the album Asia, by the band of the same name (“You framed an Asia poster? How hard did the people in the frame store laugh when you brought this in?”) Well, I had the album, but never framed the poster; I’ll allow you to insert your sassy joke here. And you may remember when we started this journey, back at Track #2 when we talked about Def Leppard; well, I now owned my own copy of their album High ‘N’ Dry. Funny enough, this was the record that would make my parents yell, “Johnny, you gotta turn that down!!”, most often. Bottom line is that I wasn’t really a fan of any one band, or even genre of music for that matter back then. If I saw it on MTV or heard it on the radio and I liked it, there was a chance I would try to get my hands on the album or cassette. At that age, before streaming, I basically listened to what was presented to me. There was no way back then to go down the musical rabbit holes you can now with Spotify, Apple Music, Shazam or even satellite radio, to discover new music or even older stuff based on your preferences. It was all word of mouth or hanging out down at your local record store, and since I didn’t have a driver’s license and my social network was my dead-end street, all I had was MTV and the radio. But as that summer wound down and September approached, I was growing bored with my record collection, and began to play the Def Leppard record more and more, singing along to Joe Elliott’s screeching vocals with those big headphones on my ears. I loved the power chords and guitar solos, and air-drummed along with that record over and over as summer ended. If Def Leppard opened the door to hard rock for me, there was another that kicked it wide open just before seventh grade started that September. I can remember the moment I finally became a fan of something. It was when I turned on MTV and saw a video I had never seen before. It started out with a 5’2” shirtless guy bobbing his head and playing his guitar, and it culminated in cannon fire on a darkened stage.

As 1980 progressed, hard rock and heavy metal music seemed to be at a bit of a crossroads. The bands that were pioneers of that genre were in the midst of upheaval. Black Sabbath, considered the godfathers of heavy metal, had parted ways with their over-the-top lead singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1979; Deep Purple, led by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, had disbanded, and would go through several more line-up changes in subsequent years, and in September of 1980, iconic drummer John Bonham would die of alcohol poisoning, effectively ending Led Zeppelin. All three bands were considered pioneers of the first wave of hard rock and helped give way to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, or NWOBHM, and bands like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Saxon and Motorhead were gaining popularity. As the 1970s came to a close, and disco began its decline and the 1980s began, interest began to turn towards punk, new wave, and electronic music. I also seem to remember a lot of friendly-sounding music on the radio in the early 80s; syrupy ballads that sounded left over from the 1970s, and pop like “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John, and “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield. Music I can only describe as “safe.” But ultimately, 1980 would prove to be a huge year and turning point for heavy metal and hard rock. UK band Judas Priest released their breakthrough album British Steel, Ozzy Osbourne put out his debut solo album Blizzard of Ozz, featuring 24-year-old guitar whiz Randy Rhoads, and in the US, another guitar icon and his band Van Halen released their third album, Women and Children First. And in June of that year in Australia, Angus and Malcolm Young and their band AC/DC were about to release what would become the best-selling hard rock album of all time, Back in Black.

Born in Scotland, guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young emigrated with their family to Australia and formed AC/DC in 1973 with other local musicians. The name was taken from the initials “AC/DC” on the adapter plug on a sewing machine in the Young household, and the brothers liked the symbolism of the name coupled with the power and energy the band generated with their live performances. In 1974, they met Scottish singer Bon Scott through a mutual friend, and Scott became the band’s new lead singer. Scott had an over-the-top personality and stage presence to go with his screeching voice, and the chemistry with the Young brothers was instant. AC/DC would solidify their lineup with the addition of Mark Evans on bass, and Phil Rudd on drums; Evans would be replaced by Cliff Williams in 1977. They gained a tremendous following in Australia with their live performances and had the opportunity to tour as the opening act in the US for some of the biggest bands of that era, including Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, KISS, UFO, and Blue Oyster Cult. In 1979, they released their sixth album, the breakthrough Highway to Hell, produced by Mutt Lange. The album finally put AC/DC among the top hard rock acts in the world, and fans were eager to hear what the band would do for the follow up. In February 1980, they were beginning work on what would become Back in Black in London, when Scott died of alcohol poisoning after a night of heavy drinking at the age of 33. Fans wondered if AC/DC would continue as a band, and they briefly considered calling it quits, but with the encouragement of Scott’s family, they continued and recruited vocalist Brian Johnson in April of 1980. Featuring an all-black cover in tribute to Scott, the album was released in the US in July of that year; Mutt Lange once again was producer and pushed the band on every take in the studio, especially new vocalist Johnson. The result was a departure from previous AC/DC albums, and the record remains a blueprint for how hard rock and heavy metal music should be recorded. Back in Black was an immediate success and has gone on to sell 50 million copies worldwide since its release, making it one of the best-selling albums of all-time, in any genre. I would not hear Back in Black until the end of seventh grade, when I was playing hockey in a parking lot near our house, and it was blasting from a kid’s boombox. But I knew who AC/DC was, and by then had owned another one of their albums.

Late that summer in 1982, as I was lamenting the start of the school year and junior high, I was watching MTV, and saw a video I had never seen before. Live performance videos were big back then; many bands didn’t have the budgets or sometimes, the time, to shoot proper videos while they were touring, so they would often release live performances as videos to MTV. This was one such video. As I watched, it was like nothing I had ever seen or heard. There was a guy, no shirt, black shorts and black sneakers with white socks, playing lilting chords on his guitar, and bobbing his head in time with the music, and then doing a full bend at the waist every fourth beat or so. This went on for a few bars before the rest of the band came in; the kick drum, then the rhythm chords and bass, and then the snare fill before the vocals started. The vocalist, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and wearing a newsboy hat and sporting a curly mullet, began singing and he had a throaty, bluesy voice, but it also sounded like he had just smoked a pack of Lucky Strikes. The rest of the band, except for the head-bobbing lead guitarist, all wore jeans and t-shirts as well, and had hair so long it fell into their eyes. They reminded me of cartoon characters, or Muppets even, and they were just going for it; the drummer banging the cymbals, punctuating every other lyric, and the vocalist belting his lungs out. But that guitarist...I couldn’t stop watching him. Even during his solo, he did not stop bobbing his head, and then bending at the waist every fourth or fifth chord. His energy was amazing, and I couldn’t believe he was able to continue playing the way he was moving and still have it sound good. And then at the end of the song, the singer declares, “…pick up your balls and load up your cannon, for a 21-gun salute,” and then in between lyrics there was actual cannon fire from behind the stage. It was f***ing amazing. MTV used to put the song name and artist at the bottom of the screen at the beginning and end of videos, so as it ended, I made note of the band and song: AC/DC, “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”. I had heard of AC/DC in passing, and even seen kids wearing t-shirts in school, but had no idea who they were until that moment. And as I’ve mentioned, this was way before streaming so I couldn’t just queue up their entire catalog and start listening. I would have to do some legwork to get my hands on this record. Turns out, I wouldn’t need to go far; Michael, the new kid up the block who would be going into seventh grade with me, had that AC/DC album, and their 1979 release, Highway to Hell. He didn’t have Back in Black though; probably the reason I wouldn’t hear it until the following spring in that parking lot. We listened to both albums on his stereo (as loud as we wanted; both his parents were at work), and that week, right before school started, I made my mom drive me to Record World, and I bought For Those About to Rock We Salute You on vinyl. The first song was the title track, and I would pick up the needle and drop it back on that song over and over, listening on my big headphones, and staring at the cannon on the copper-colored album cover. That fall, after I had somewhat conquered the first few weeks of junior high, I would discover Canadian trio Rush, and that guitar god I mentioned earlier, Eddie Van Halen and his namesake band by seeing their live performance videos on MTV. I was still about a year from buying my first Iron Maiden cassette and wouldn’t buy that silly Masters of Metal cassette until 1984, with Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark”, but AC/DC had kicked that hard rock and heavy metal door wide open. And good thing it happened when it did…I quickly realized from all the rock t-shirts and denim jackets being worn by all the 7th and 8th graders I went to school with that metal and hard rock was becoming a dominant genre of music and we would see a lot of it on MTV in the 1980s. That is, until grunge came along in the early 90s when we were all in college and knocked all that denim and spandex off its perch. But until then, there were power chords and thunderous drums and wailing singers to be heard, and more important, I’d need to figure out a way to get that stereo moved into my room. And here’s the video I saw back in 1982, with Angus Young, and his guitar and bobbing head, and of course, those cannons firing at the end. 😊

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Next time…An 80s pop idol puts out one of the best albums of the decade, then gets serious in the early 90s.

P.S.

It’s staggering to think that For Those About to Rock became AC/DC’s first #1 album in the US, and not Back in Black, but that’s exactly what happened. For Those About to Rock was the top album in the US for three weeks, and went on to sell 7 million copies, a success by any standards, but a huge drop off in sales compared to its predecessor. In 2019, Back in Black was certified 25X Platinum by the RIAA, meaning it has sold 50 million copies since its release. It is the highest selling album without ever reaching #1 on the Billboard album chart, a feat spotlighted on Chris Molanphy’s awesome podcast, Hit Parade. In fact, he calls it the “AC/DC Rule”, when an artist has a #1 album based solely on the strength of a prior release and the anticipation of the new album. Check it out on Spotify. After For Those About to Rock, AC/DC would release several more albums in the 1980s, and contribute songs to the Stephen King film Maximum Overdrive, including the hit, “Who Made Who.” Their popularity declined somewhat in the late 80s, but after some lineup changes, they released Razor’s Edge in 1991, featuring the hit “Moneytalks” and the amazing track, “Thunderstruck.” They continued to tour and record albums into the 2000s, and in 2008, they released Black Ice, which debuted at #1, their first album to be at the top of the charts since For Those About to Rock. This would sadly be the last album featuring the classic lineup, and the Young brothers. Malcolm Young would leave the band in 2014 after being diagnosed with dementia, and he died on November 18, 2017 at the age of 64. In 2016, Brian Johnson would leave the Rock or Bust tour due to a ruptured eardrum, and was replaced by Axl Rose for the remainder of the shows. Longtime bassist Cliff Williams would depart following the tour, and the band went on hiatus until 2020, when they released Power Up; it was dedicated to the memory of Malcolm Young.

In terms of straightforward, blues-based rock and roll, AC/DC is the standard. Never complicated, with lyrics that range from the pithy (“She was a fast machine/She kept her motor clean”) to the downright blatant (“I was shaking at the knees/Can I come again please?”), they have never tried to re-invent themselves and have stuck with their formula of playing their brand of rock since their inception. Granted, they have often been criticized for doing just that, but no one can argue their popularity and influence. Even if you’re a casual hard rock fan, Back in Black is a record you should have in your collection. I’ve owned it on CD, cassette, digital download, and I now own it on vinyl. Back in Black has been on Billboard’s Top 10 Hard Rock albums the past five years, owing to its continuing popularity and generations of new fans; it remains the best-selling rock album of all time. As of this year, AC/DC are the ninth best-selling artist in US history, selling more albums than Madonna, Mariah Carey and Metallica, among others.  And what about the AC/DC record that started it all for me, For Those About to Rock? I still listen to it sometimes; it’s pretty good, but it all begins and ends with that title track, and the image of Angus Young endlessly bobbing his head.

See you next time…

JS

11/4/2022