Malcolm Young retires

[Basvarken]

He obviously doesn't bother (anymore) to put his false teeth in...

[clankenstein]

more here. i hope he is o.k. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/music/news/article.cfm?c_id=264&objectid=11355209

[Highlander]

I think a song is in order here...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PepRBMXKCFs

or maybe...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOTMw0o1ELM

[uwe]

Anyone heard the new album yet? It's surprisingly poppy, Brian Johnson doesn't sceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam all the time but sometimes actually sings in his pleasant lower register (he always had, but was hardly allowed to use with AC/DC).



Hey, and Cliff Williams plays bass runs on a couple of songs! A bit more diverse than your usual AC/DC fare, but still unmistakably AC/DC - with a touch of CCR in places. Or Georgia Satellites. There is also a Led Zep pastiche:



The single is ironically one of the very typical AC/DC tracks, B-B-Back in B-B-Black revisited:

http://www.dooloop.tv/#!video/4148028/acdc-rock-or-bust

And that is not Phil Rudd drumming. Or Chris Slade or Simon Wright for that matter.

[lowend1]

There were hints on Black Ice that their sound was changing a bit.
Just a hair, but as Uwe said, still AC/DC.

[uwe]

With the exception of Hell's Bells I actually prefer AC/DC when they play major chord scale harmonies. Stuff like You Shook Me All Night Long. Their minor stuff usually isn't dark enough for me as coming from the Judas Priest school of things. (Priest otoh sound a bit awkward when they are in major rather than minor mode. Living After Midnight always sounded silly and the minor breaks in it forced.)

[gweimer]

My favorite song from them, by far, to this day...



You know, it's too bad about Malcolm.  People comment that he's had such an exciting life, but I can't imagine existing in a state where I couldn't recall what my own life had been.

[amptech]

With the exception of Hell's Bells I actually prefer AC/DC when they play major chord scale harmonies. Stuff like You Shook Me All Night Long. Their minor stuff usually isn't dark enough for me as coming from the Judas Priest school of things. (Priest otoh sound a bit awkward when they are in major rather than minor mode. Living After Midnight always sounded silly and the minor breaks in it forced.)

I always felt the same! I really like AC/DC, but during my teen years I had a brief but intense Priest period. Some of their songs (and lots of their guitar riffs/solos) are great, but I guess i was too puzzled by how one album could be so uneven. After hearing ´realms of death´, you dont´t want to flip the LP over and listen to Smokie...

As for the new AC/DC album, well I´ll probably want to see them if they tour again, but I pay little attention to the recent recordings. I know it´s a silly thing to say, but there is too much riff recycling. I don´t blame them, I have had a great time following them since 1985, by when people already thought the new albums were recycled old ones.
After back in black, their albums have a couple of good songs and sounds like good rock overall at best. Even the albums that sold well, they only take one or two tracks of it to play live. Last time I saw them, they didn´t even play ´ anything goes´which I guess was a single going good at the time.  Fine with me, I buy the new album, play it once with a beer, have a good time. If a Smokie song arrives (moneytalks, anyone?) I just go and make a sandwich or just skip it.

I do like that they have that live recorded feeling, but must admit that the two - three last albums sounds somewhat more sterile than (don´t shoot me) flick of the switch and flly on the wall, which, although maybe not their finest moments, packs a decent amount of identity. I listen to them, and I´m immediately put back to the mid 80´s.

Cant imagine myself listening to black ice in 20 years, close my eyes and think : yeah... 2008 - those were the days..

But who knows..

[gearHed289]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/ac-dc-chris-slade-quit/

Huh... A Firm reunion doesn't seem like a bad idea. Paul is done with Queen, Plant won't do the Zep thing, Chris sounds into it, and Tony's thing with JLT is likely going nowhere fast.

I admire Slade's honesty about the somewhat youthful foolishness of leaving a major band like that.

[uwe]

"After hearing ´realms of death´, you dont´t want to flip the LP over and listen to Smokie ..."

Huh???, Exciter (the first track on the flipside of JP's Stained Class) sounded to you like Smokie? 



"I admire Slade's honesty about the somewhat youthful foolishness of leaving a major band like that."

Yup, I read that interview too a while back, a nice, collected man without any bitterness. Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Uriah Heep, The Firm, AC/DC and (the other) Asia is no track record to be ashamed of. 

I always found that The Firm as a band got too much unfair flak, their two albums didn't set the world afire, true (Rodgers has never been an innovator, no matter which band he was in, he just sings well), but certainly didn't pale in comparison to the last Led Zep and Bad Co lukewarm offerings either. Bad timing, they existed at the wrong time me thinks.

[gearHed289]

Forgot he was with Manfred Mann. Their version of Springsteen's "For You" is great!

[gweimer]

As I recall, Chris Slade got his first break with Englebert Humperdink.

[uwe]

It got better from there.

[Iome]

Great, they'll tour next year.
Got 2 ticket for the concert at the Imola Racing track. Damn tickets got burned in less than 15 min....

[gweimer]

Visiting an old thread.  I saw this, and thought of you guys immediately.   

http://eveningharold.com/2015/04/21/acdc-drummer-sentenced-to-whitesnake/