Great stuff. I'm imagining it having been given a 'Heart Of Glass' treatment by Mike Chapman... it would really work!

Rock 'N' Roll Damnation - it's heavy with high-hats and handclaps

Has there ever been a band as great as the mighty 'DC?

Grating, and I will agree willingly. Unlistenable claptrap.

so much so that I'm going to see an AC/DC tribute band at the Horn in St Albans on the 14th.

One of the weird things about 'DC is that Bon Scott was the singer for six years, while Brian Johnson has done the job for close to thirty, and sang on their biggest selling record (Back in Black). And yet, it's Bon who's still perceived as being the main man, and Brian, no matter how much he's liked, or how successful he is, seen as somehow second-best.

It's that death-as-a-career-move thing again.

Young, Dumb and full of drum(s) , it's not big or clever but they always make me smile :)

With apologies to the Word staff, this remains, perhaps, the greatest review of all time. Taken from the NME website from around 2000, this was their reaction to the latest entry in the DC canon (see what I did there?)

Let's not piss about. You can debate this and argue that but certain things we hold to be self-evident and one of those things is that AC/DC are the fuckin' greatest.

Chuck away everything ever broadly produced in the name of rock'n'roll except AC/DC and, I dunno, maybe James Brown and Muddy Waters, and you've still got all you'll ever need when the only thing to get you through is one let-loose shot of leering stomp.

The 'DC are elemental. Every other band in the world should bow before them. The 'DC bring The Rock. All you really need to know at this point is that 'Stiff Upper Lip' is more of that good ol' 'DC stuff. 'Highway To Hell', 'Back In Black', 'Let There Be Rock', 'Stiff Upper Lip'... their 17th album, business as usual, no ballsing about. If you know what's good for you, you'll go out and buy it. Now.

If they were a lesser band, making music of a lesser magnitude, one might surmise that the 'DC's guiding career principle was: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But we're talking about the 'DC here - a band who shit riffs other bands can only dream of, a band with a sound as pure as science - so we must elevate that principle to take into account that we are discussing genius. So, just so you know, the correct way to address the question of all 'DC sounding roughly the same is to react the way Keith Cameron so memorably did when the last 'DC album, 'Ballbreaker', prowled forth from the office stereo some five years ago. The esteemed journo countered the saminess question raised by some upstart cub reporter with the disdain it deserved. He raised a quizzical eyebrow and snarled, "Why fuck with magic?"

Why indeed? That's the thing with the 'DC. They're immovable. Every song is like architecture. And every song rocks absolutely because its sole purpose in existing is to... rock. Absolutely. There are no pretensions above, below or beyond that one single-minded, unashamed aim. To rock. Why the fuck would a rock band wanna do anything else? They never ask that question, by the way. They don't have to. They just do it and it is we, listening to the stunning simplicity of 'Stiff Upper Lip', who are moved to wonder why on earth anyone would be daft enough to aim for anything else.

And you can take your self-parody and stick it up yer arse because the 'DC's power actually derives from their utter inevitability. You know what's coming and, when it comes, it's always great. Each song starts at the start. With a riff. An Angus riff. Cool. Clean. Heavy. It repeats and builds and then Brian comes in. He screeches. His voice is like a metal shrew. It is absurd. So are his words."Picking up the sleaze in my car/Sucking up the juice in the bar...". Words on a par with the last album's mighty chorus, "Hard as a rock/Harder than a rock", or the legendary, "She had the body of Venus with arms"and, "Knocking me out with her American thighs"!

These are words of dumb beauty. Words created for the way they sound. Words of cartoon machismo. Words that prove they are kings of the leer. These words are the language of rock, noble words, the missing link back to the blues. They know no shame and they know no irony. They live for the double entendre. They are nudge-nudge Neanderthal. They crawl the kerb and cruise the bars. And they make us laugh out loud. Then the rest of the band crash in and go to work. Simon Wright drums like he's building a shed. Then comes the solo. The Angus solo. So the guitar gets louder. Then Brian comes back in. Then there's a crescendo like they're all falling downstairs. Or fighting. Then it ends with a thud. Or a whack. Either way, it ends. For a second or two. Then the next one starts. 'Meltdown', 'House Of Jazz', 'Hold Me Back', 'All Screwed Up'... Rock. Unabashed and unrelenting.

People once said that The Ramones were rock stripped down to its bare, brilliant essentials. Fuck me, The Ramones are like Emerson, Lake And Palmer compared to the 'DC. If folks way back had accepted the fact that 'DC ruled, there would have been no call for punk. You can't pinch an inch on any of these songs. There's no additives. No wastage. No fancy trimmings. No pianos or violins or concepts or anything progressive like that. Everything has been planed down, everything jettisoned that doesn't just... rock.

I trust you get it by now. But just in case you're totally thick, here's a couple more things that should be self-evident: 'Stiff Upper Lip' would be a 10 out of 10 if it had cannons on it. And, hey, Angus, everyone else is now wearing shorts. What the fuck took them so long?

.....unlistenable claptrap, with an unreadable review to boot. I'll pass on nudge-nudge neanderthal.
Pass the violin, vicar.

a durned sight better than Rush anyway!

I too can claim to have seen them with Bon Scott many years ago, they were incredible, but I haven't listened to them in oh 20 odd years…

I did read an interesting interview with them a few years ago when they talked about the chemistry of the band; apparently when Phil Rudd got sacked in 1983 the whole thing went flat for a while until they eventually asked him back in 1994. At that point they suddenly got their groove back. Something about his lazy slightly before the beat drumming style and how it married up with Malcolm Young's riffage.

Any fans out there who can verify this?? It's facinating how some bands just happen to gather together all the right people at just the right time.

Has there EVER been a better use of bagpipes in Rock.

The video for this track (sorry, no embedding skills) is utterly hilarious. Band on back of low loader being driven around Perth. With Royal Scots Dragoon pipers.

I took two non believers to the Wembley show on the Stiff Upper Lip tour in 2001. Two and a half sweat drenched R.O.C.K. hours later they were converted like St John on the Road to Damascus. Big bells, cannons, indoor fireworks, 40ft high "Rosie", bleeding ear drums. Yes, it's all very Spinal Tap, but my GOD, is it entertaining.

We Salute You!

edit - ref the comment above, DC's best post Back in Black work came without Rudd on 1991's "The Razors Edge". I think the downturn was more due to Malcolm Young's personal demons at the time to any deficiencies in the rhythm department

Will you lot stoop to any depth to find my weak spot: my love of the bagpipe is known. My dislike of AC/DC, which may actually be little more than a dislike of that gurning eedjit in cap and shorts, and of the Geordie single their becapped 2nd singer sang, pre Bon Scott dispatched to pastures holy, is also taken as read. Now I have to re-evaluate on the strength of one glib question set above.
Should I be on these pages in weeks to come, declaring a blind spot for these darn aussies, as I buy up the back-catalogue, Mrs Path will not be well pleased.
Whatever next? "Has Gilbert O'Sullivan ever played better melodeon than this?" "Supertramps new banjo direction: eat that Retro!". I can sense Vulpes ringing up Rentagig (see unanswered blogs above) as we write, from the strand above, bringing Roger Hodgson together with Bela Fleck.....

...but my 1st:'76, Let There Be Rock, Wolverhampton Civic Hall (supported by British Lions, featuring minor members of SAHB, I seem to remember). Followed by Motorhead on the Overkill tour...

They knew how to construct Rock in those days...

...makes me wince. That's why I can never love Back In Back.

The Bon Scott era, however, is immense. Powerage is such a raw, thrilling record. Highway to Hell is fantastic, but pales a little in comparison I feel, because it's a bit more polished and the rawness suited them better.

I've a soft spot for Acker Dacker though I don't really know why. Like Adam, above, Brian Johnson's non-voice really throws me. It's always at the point of screaming itself into silence if you see what I mean. His throat must be in shreds after each show.

I think that what I've always admired about them is the plethora (good word that) of bad lyrics that pepper their albums. This is an old, oft-aired subject I know, but AC/DC once had me weeping with laughter. The first time I heard 'Let there be rock'. An undeniably knockout riff fades to let Bon Scott give us his version of the divine inspiration for ROCK music, listing God's commandments.

"Let there be guitars!
And there was guitars!

Let there be drums!
And there was drums!"

Let there be drums. Jesus. Fucking hell, thats lovely.