Swearing at MotoristsThe original Blizzard from Oz
returns with another of Satan’s musical telegrams
The time: 1981. The place: Junction
City, Ore. The scene: the high school’s annual talent show, utterly
dominated by the three-chord wonders JC/DC and their completely
inept cover of AC/DC’s “T.N.T.” Having moved to this tiny
agricultural burg the year prior with my family from the decidedly
more urban environs of Long Beach, Calif., I couldn’t understand
where all the minorities went (answer: there weren’t any) nor did I
get all the Camaro-driving heshers and their parking-lot fixation
with AC/DC’s brain-numbing, redneck rock. I secretly worshipped
Black Flag and pined for the day when I could return to the LBC,
reminding myself that a) eventually I could blow this hillbilly
popstand and b) it was possible to know nothing whatsoever about
music and still make a killer racket guaranteed to piss off adults
and thrill your peers. JC/DC swept the contest in a landslide and the
group’s juvenile delinquent brothers became local legends on the
basis of their perfectly imperfect performance; I bought a cheap
guitar and started a similarly crap band (albeit, one whose idea of a
good time didn’t involve playing “Highway to Hell,” much to my
later-life regret). Three decades later, I realized I was wrong about
two things: Junction City (the place was always populated by
honorable, hard-working people; I was just too arrogant to see it)
and AC/DC, a band which time has shown to be one of the finest
post-modern blues acts to ever plug into a wall of Marshalls.Swearing at Motorists
So that’s why, listening to the
band’s 15th studio long-player since its formation back in the
early ‘70s (and ninth since losing original frontman Bon Scott to
the bottom of the bottle), I can hear the jokes from the
unenlightened already: “Back in Black Ice?” “Highway to Hell
Freezes Over?” “Dirty Deeds Done the Same Damn Way as Before
(but several decades older)?”
Here’s the simple, somewhat
counterintuitive truth about AC/DC: for a band with a sound so huge
it can cause a concussion, their single-minded determination to blow
up your video, stereo and/or brain has always been a minimalist’s
feast of major chords, fraternizing with minors and lyrics that
didn’t get in the way of either. And Black Ice is, in many
respects, just a consolidation of all AC/DC’s strengths and/or
perceived weaknesses in one easily-digested package. Yes, there is
filler among the killers, but in large measure what you have here is
grade-A, late-vintage rawk with no frills and most of the thrills
intact. This is a band that has written more great songs about rock
‘n roll than anyone aside from Chuck Berry, and on this album you
get three of the finest of the form: the “Highway to Hell”-evoking
“Rock ‘n Roll Train,” the obvious but funky “She Likes Rock
‘n Roll” and the ever-so-slightly-wistful “Rock ‘n Roll
Dream” (in which Brian Johnson, Scott’s replacement and a singer
Scott admired during his lifetime, suggests that “it could be the
very last time” in a manner suggesting he just might mean what he
says).
Elsewhere, “Big Jack” flaunts a terrific orthogonal riff tethered to
one of the band’s patented four-on-the-floor throwdowns, “War
Machine” harkens back to the rumbling menace of “Sin City,” and
“Stormy May Day” proves that someone’s learned how to play a
mean little slide at some point along the way. Meanwhile, “Decibel” is
one of Angus Young’s classic blooze showcases, a simple little
circular riff doused in gas and set alight like so many of the
arsonist’s in-jokes the band has played with over the years.
Johnson’s leathery shriek of a voice has surely seen better days,
and no, there are no new ideas here (nor have there been in the
three-plus decades the quintet have thrived and survived together),
but this is all totally beside the point for the band’s millions of
supporters and aficionados: for these Aussie mischief-makers it’s
always been about riffs, tiffs and spliffs, and in that regard, Black
Ice succeeds on every level imaginable. And for that, AC/DC, we
salute you.
Listen to AC/DC's "Rock 'n Roll Train" from Black Ice on the band's MySpace page.