LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-NOV 23, 2019…IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE IT WAS THIRTY EIGHT YEARS YEARS AGO AC/DC RELEASED THE ALBUM “FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK”. HERE’S WHAT YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND GOING INTO THE RECORDING OF THIS RECORD. ANYTHING THE BAND DID COMMERCIALLY WAS GOING TO PALE IN COMPARISON TO ‘BACK IN BLACK’. ‘B.I.B.’ WAS MONUMENTAL IN SALES ( 53 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE) AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, MONUMENTAL IN ESTABLISHING BRIAN JOHNSON AS THE GROUP’S LEAD SINGER AFTER THE DEATH OF BON SCOTT. EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT IN THE WORLD OF AC/DC. THEN THE RECORD COMPANY DID SOMETHING THAT WAS INCREDIBLY GREEDY AND STUPID. THE RECORD COMPANY WENT FOR A MONEY GRAB THAT CONFUSED FANS ABOUT THE TRANSITION FROM SCOTT TO JOHNSON. THE RECORD COMPANY REISSUED THE ALBUM ‘DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP’. THE BAND WAS PISSED !!! ACCORDING TO THE BOOK “HELL AIN’T A BAD PLACE TO BE”:
“The band, who were apoplectic with rage but didn’t have the power to stop the release, did their best to cover their record company’s tracks, claiming the release of Dirty Deeds was essentially to counter U.S. bootlegs of the album,”
AC/DC WANTED TO HEAD INTO THE STUDIO AND RECORD AN ALBUM QUICKLY. HOWEVER, PRODUCER MUTT LANGE IS NOTORIOUS FOR TAKING FOREVER TO RECORD A PROJECT. LANGE PUT THE SESSIONS ON HOLD WHILE TESTING DIFFERENT STUDIOS LOOKING FOR CERTAIN SOUNDS. AC/DC WAS GETTING ANTSY. ACCORDING TO ANGUS YOUNG:
“We are always well prepared, We go in the studio with completed songs and we know what we want. We don’t f— around much — unlike Mutt Lange. But that guy has always been slow. Real slow. He’d need forever to get anything done. Otherwise it would have been in and out in a week.”
THE END RESULT? ‘FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK’ WAS THE THIRD AND FINAL AC/DC ALBUM PRODUCED BY MUTT LANGE. AC/DC ENDED UP GOING TO 3 DIFFERENT SET UPS WITH LANGE BEFORE FINALLY RECORDING THE ALBUM IN THEIR ORIGINAL REHEARSAL SPOT WITH A MOBILE RECORDING UNIT.
ACCORDING TO MALCOLM YOUNG IN AN INTERVIEW FROM 1992:
“By the time we’d completed the album, I don’t think anyone, neither the band or the producer, could tell whether it sounded right or wrong. Everyone was fed up with the whole album.”
‘FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK’ DID MANAGE TO ACHIEVE A MILESTONE OF SORTS FOR THE GROUP. DESPITE ‘BACK IN BLACK’ BECOMING ONE OF THE BEST SELLING ALBUMS OF ALL TIME, IT NEVER ACHIEVED # 1 STATUS. ‘FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK’ BECAME THE GROUP’S FIRST AND ONLY #1 ALBUM IN THE U.S. UNTIL THE RELEASE OF ‘BLACK ICE’ IN 2008.
HERE’S THE OFFICIAL VIDEO OF THE ALBUM’S TITLE TRACK
