Number 3
Angus & Malcolm Young
NOW we are in the meat of it all. Folks, this is going to be a long one.
I once had a friend who told me “The Beatles are the GREATEST rock band of all time. But AC/DC is the BEST rock band of all time.” I really couldn’t put it better than that.
AC/DC’s guitarists, brother’s Angus and Malcolm Young, have written the thickest catalog of AMAZING rock songs of all time. Without question. Without argument. Some things are objective and some subjective. Objectively, they HAVE written the thickest catalog of rock songs of all time. This is one of those statements that truly can not be disputed. AC/DC is THE greatest rock and roll band of all time.
AC/DC has sold, in their 50 year career, more than 200 MILLION albums.
AC/DC still sells out auditoriums at every place they go. Not little 1,200 seat places. 10k-40k arenas. Even places with 200k+ people. And they have for the past 44 years.
In the 1970s-1980s, arguably the greatest time in rock history, AC/DC’s Back In Black, a tribute to their late lead singer Bon Scott, became the second highest selling album of all time, just behind the juggernaut world-wide once-in-a-lifetime cultural explosion that was Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
And they did it with the greatest riffs of all time. Period. It’s unquestionable. Want proof? Sure, here we go. Can you name a band, any band, who can match, much less top this list?
It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock ‘n’ Roll)
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
Rock and Roll Ain't' Noise Pollution
And these are just the hits! This doesn’t include the hidden gems or deep cuts that so many fans love.
And AC/DC, like only Van Halen, rose to these heights with two different singers: Bon Scott and Brian Johnson.
Bon Scott was with AC/DC from 1974 until 1980, when he died, as the Brits put it, “By Misadventure”. Basically, he passed out from drinking in the back of a car and froze to death. A terrible tragedy. Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, loved Bon Scott. He was wild, fun, and always up for a good time. He was a cheeky songwriter and could take the incredible riffs that the Young brothers gave him and make them, somehow, even better. Bon was an in-your-face performer and was about to become a massive international star, aided by the riff-wizard brothers and Angus’s energetic performances.
They thought of breaking up after Bon died, but Bon’s dad told them “Don’t you dare. Bon wouldn’t have wanted that". So, they hired a man that Bon eerily said “If anything happens to me get that guy to replace me”. That man is Brian Johnson.
AC/DC is greater than the sum of their parts. They don’t do anything fancy…it’s straight up box blues, pentatonic scales. Just like their hero Chuck Berry before them. Angus, clad in his trademark school boy uniform, even uses Berry’s “duck walk”. This has led to their greatest criticism: that all their songs are the same. Well, that’s absolutely not true. They may SOUND similar, but they are not the same. They have the same tone because it’s the brothers’ sound, and they love it and don’t want to change how they sound. And why would they?!? They are in the biggest, most successful rock band of all time with hit after hit after hit selling out arenas. If you wrote Back In Black and then your next song someone said “that sounds quite a bit like Back In Black” would your answer be “oh, sorry, mate. Let me change that? NO! You’d say “you mean this new song reminds you of the greatest rock song of all time? Awesome!”
At the release party of The Razors Edge, some asshole music “critic” (aka good for nothing lowlife who has failed at music himself so he judges others for creating music that he could only dream of) asked Angus Young “How does it feel to write the same album 12 times?” in which Angus, not missing a beat, said “Excuse me!! We’ve written the same album 13 times”.
Malcolm Young, when told “Every album you’ve ever made sounds the same,” he’d respond, “Yeah. It’s the same band!”
I’ve said this several times in this post...AC/DC is cheeky. They are the greatest band (without question) to come from Australia. Ironically, all of them are Scottish, even Brian Johnson. But the Young brothers grew up in Australia, which is where they got their thick skin and dogged dedication to just doing whatever in the hell they want to do. In spite of the accolades, they don’t see themselves as anything different than a plumber. Although the Young brothers each are worth more than around $150M, they haven’t changed. Ask anyone who knows them. Angus has been married to the same woman for more than 25 years. I’ve known preachers who couldn’t pull that off.
Why, you may ask, am I including Malcolm AND Angus in one slot? Well, because you wouldn’t have one without the other. Malcolm wrote the majority of the main riffs to the entire AC/DC catalog. Angus is the duck-stepping, ground-spinning box-blues face-melting lead guitarist and soloist. Angus isn’t who he is without Malcolm, and Malcolm wasn't who he was without Angus.
When asked if he ever wanted to take the lead in songs instead of his little brother, Malcolm said “Nah. I never wanted my guitar playing to get in the way of my drinking.”
Malcolm Young died on November 18, 2017 after a long bout with dementia. His oldest brother, George, who was their first manager, died just a few weeks before. Angus is still melting faces all over the world.
For changing Rock and Roll by NOT changing Rock and Roll, the Young brothers have collaborated on several dozen of the most beloved, recognizable, and lasting riffs and songs in history. They have stayed true to themselves, and nothing is more Rock and Roll than that.
For these, and so many other reasons, I have Malcolm Young and his little brother Angus as the number 3 guitarists of all time.
