Review Summary: OUT OF MY WAY, I'M RUNNING HIGH
Highway To Hell is everything Bon Scott era (and probably the current era) AC/DC were about
: a life of sexual, alcoholic excess told through a mouth that smirked sneering lyrics with straight-up, hard rock blues boogie locked in precise timing.
What makes AC/DC great is their ability to stick to a reliable, simple formula and remain, not just a surviving band, but one of the world’s best selling music acts. When you consider the astounding fact that they haven’t yet released music online, leaving their only sales to come from more outdated CD stores, this is simply amazing, and undeniable evidence of how popular they really are.
Highway To Hell opens one of the most famous AC/DC songs, and arguably the Bon Scott era’s best: Highway To Hell, with a massive opening riff that is recognised the world over and brilliant, declarative lyrics. The song is simple yet undeniably catchy and one of the best and most famous Aussie rock songs ever.
Not much of the album has deep lyrical inspiration, but then again, that’s not the point.
AC/DC are so hugely popular because everyone has a spot, deep down inside, that loves the devilish impishness and sly, unsubtle double entendres. Girls Got Rhythm, Walk All Over You and Touch Too Much are, like many AC/DC songs, fairly self explanatory, but with punchy, lively lines, loud riff work from the Young brothers Angus and Malcolm and a tight, metronomic timing from bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd. All three are more than smut and lewdness however-the wit of Bon’s lyrics rocks through all three of them (Girls Got Rhythm’s chorus packs of power lyrics with the gang responses from Cliff and Malcolm, Walk All Over You is half-time yet has bullying power and Touch Too Much has the classic one liner She had the face of an angel, smiling in sin.) The scribbled lightning riff of Beating Around The Bush is a classic epitome of Angus’s frenzied onstage persona, while Shot Down In Flames showcases Bon’s ability to make himself the punchline in stories yet remain as much of an untouchable larrikin as he is. Recounting stories of failed attempts to pick up women in bars (he mistakes one for a prostitute and a boyfriend turns him away from the other), Shot Down In Flames is completely addictive, with another classic AC/DC riff and banzai solo from Angus.
The anthemic If You Want Blood (You Got It) has no obvious meaning, yet that really doesn’t matter-the conviction and power behind this pump up song is more than enough. The lighter, one-two-one-two beat of Get It Hot and Love Hungry Man are nice breaks, and completely likable as well.
The huge closer of Night Prowler, about someone or something stalking for victims in the dead of night, is a dead set five star song and the second best on the album. Bon’s darkly poetic imagery, with Angus’s opening searchlight siren of a riff and the massive pump and head bang, with the humungous hook:
And no one’s gonna warn ya/No one’s gonna yell attack
And you don’t feel the steel ‘till it’s hanging out your back, yes I’m a night prowler!
What makes Highway To Hell is that it does so much with an uncomplicated bass-and-drums rhythm and simple yet brilliant riffs. Back In Black was the best AC/DC album, but Highway To Hell is the definitive one.
