#Powerage

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

AC/DC - What's Next to the Moon

[auriemma]

RIDE ON BON AND MAL!

[rotor25]

[metalsongoftheday]

Friday, August 16: AC/DC, "Kicked in the Teeth"

R.I.P. Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (1946-1980), Malcolm Young (1953-2017)

“Kicked in the Teeth” was the perfect way for AC/DC to end one chapter, even if Powerage as a whole was arguably the one true outlier in their entire discography.  The tune had a bit of the old time rock and roll that permeated the band’s early years, primarily in Bon’s screechy howling during the opening, but was also one final blast of unhinged hard rock before they met Mutt Lange and sharpened their writing and arrangements considerably just one year later.  There was a distinct shagginess to the proceedings even as Malcolm, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd had developed into one of the greatest rhythm sections of all time- the groove was perfection, but Angus and Bon were incorrigible and untamable, giving “Kicked in the Teeth” a distinct push/pull that made the track and Powerage a simultaneously strange and totally awesome experience.  AC/DC still had decades of great music ahead of them, but they would never sound quite this rowdy again.

[49scream]

Seventies AC/DC patch.

[ungoliantschilde]

Powerage, 1978.

Worked all day, spent most of it thinking about how to articulate what I want to say about this album.

This is the album where Cliff Williams joined the band as the bass player, and Phil Rudd solidified himself as the third piece of the band’s bedrock: the rhythm section. Malcolm Young is regularly called the greatest rhythm guitarist of all time. Just a brilliant, brilliant player and a riff-writing machine. Phil Rudd’s drumming has a swing to it that perfectly matches what the band does when they’re at their best. And Cliff Williams on bass just locks in with Phil and Mal. Mal, Angus, Phil, and Cliff are the best AC/DC lineup. All of them just seem to know exactly how to play with each other in perfect lock step.

Now, for Bon’s work on Powerage, I am gonna talk about the lyrics.

Let There Be Rock, lyrically, exemplified everything enjoyable about Bon Scott. He was a wild-eyed, mischievous good time at his best. Powerage exemplified the dark side of that personality. It has the most personal, emotional, and directly confessional lyrics of their entire catalogue. For a band that is defined by seeking commercial success, an album comprised of almost entirely first person accounts of heartache is noteworthy. Bon was beloved for being a lewd, lascivious, rabble rousing ring-leader of a band of miscreants.

But Powerage was Bon as a broken hearted poet.

When an interviewer asked Angus what Bon was like, he said “what you see is what you get”. That is what Angus remembers about Bonny: that you could absolutely judge that book by its cover. In another interview, Angus was asked about why Bon drank himself to death, Angus answered in his typically terse style again, “it’s in the songs, mate.”

The songs on Powerage, to be specific.

From “Rock and Roll Damnation”:

-you say that you want respect, honey for what? for everything that you’ve done for me, thanks a lot. you say that I act the fool, well honey I’m a fool for you.

From Brian Johnson’s favorite song, “Down Payment Blues”:

-feeling like a paper cup, floating down a storm drain

From my favorite track, “Gimme a Bullet”:

-she had the word, had the way, the way of letting me know. She said ‘you go your way, and I’ll go mine, and that’ll be the start’. Come tomorrow, come to grips with being all alone. Give me a bullet to bite on. Something to chew. Give me a bullet to bite on and I’ll make believe, I’ll believe it’s you.”

From, “What’s Next to the Moon”:

-it’s your love that I want (background: your love that I need)

From, “Gone Shootin’”:

-Bought a ticket of her own accord… …I stirred my coffee with the same spoon… She never made it past the bedroom door, what was she even for? I took a lover in another town, she took another pill. She was runnin’ in an overdrive, a victim of overkill. My baby’s gone Shootin’… I used to love her so.

According to what I’ve read, Bon once had two separate women in the maternity ward, and they were unaware of each other. Bon was not a guy that would have done well in the age of social media and cellphone cameras. His point was that he found a girl who loved him for being a rock star, and he was not gonna quit being a rock star for her. He was a gross, lascivious and carousing womanizer. And she knew it. When she did the same things back to him, Bon didn’t like being on the receiving end. He was drunk and high most of the time, living out of hotel rooms and the beds of welcoming lovers in every town.

The end was coming, and his family and friends all knew it. No one that knew Bon was shocked when he drank himself to death. The tragedy was how inevitable it was at this point in life.

Powerage was the last of the Aussie made albums. The finale of their time as a bar band. And it’s their most personal, most poignant, and most heartbreaking.

Sad lyrics aside, Powerage is the album that every rockstar that grew up with AC/DC cites as the band’s best. Slash, Joe Perry, and basically every guitar player that was in a band formed after 1983 says the same thing. Powerage is packed with virtuoso performances from every band member. Every track is an all time favorite guitar riff.

Listen to it. Pay attention to it. It’s AC/DC’s breakup album. There’s a reason it’s so well regarded.

[longliverockback]

AC/DC Powerage [50th Anniversary Edition] 2024 Sony Music ————————————————— Tracks: 1. Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation 2. Down Payment Blues 3. Gimme a Bullet 4. Riff Raff 5. Sin City 6. What’s Next on the Moon 7. Gone Shootin 8. Up to My Neck in You 9. Kicked in the Teeth —————————————————

Phil Rudd

Bon Scott

Angus Young

Malcolm Young

Cliff Williams

* Long Live Rock Archive

[music-addiction-disorder]

"Rock ´N´ Roll will never get old and you're never too old to Rock 'N' Roll !!!"

🤘🖤🎤🎧🎸

[circusrockmag]

May 1978: AC/DC released Powerage. 

4/30/78 performance 

📽️ https://youtu.be/n0y_s_uuVZQ 📺

🎪

Join us at the CIRCUS Magazine Official Website👇 

🖥️ https://www.circusrockmag.com/dynamic-library 📱

[scoop16]

Angus!!!

[mrbopst]

Today in Bopst Design/Promotion/Radio Programming: 5/22/2017 & 5/22/2018

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

AC/DC - Down Payment Blues

[gianlucacrugnola]

AC/DC - Powerage

Powerage, quinto album in studio per gli AC/DC,  considerando la pubblicazione unicamente australiana del debutto, rappresenta con molta probabilità il picco artistico per i ragazzacci prodotti dalla coppia Young/Vanda nonostante la poca considerazione critica e di pubblico. Powerage si presenta come l’ultimo rabbioso e primitivo album del periodo seventies, hard-rock e riff blues disegnati dalla…

[rotor25]

promo francaise de l'album "powerage" 1978

[metalsongoftheday]

Friday, August 11: AC/DC, "Down Payment Blues"

R.I.P. Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (1946-1980), Malcolm Young (1953-2017)

Powerage was fundamentally no different from any other AC/DC record, but it was also somehow the one album in their voluminous discography that wasn’t quite as immediate, not as quick to embed in everyone’s bones.  As a result, it was initially considered a bit of a disappointment, and to this day remains one of their more neglected entries.  But that same borderline impenetrability made Powerage the AC/DC album most ripe for rediscovery, and indeed as time passes it has increasingly become a dark horse favorite among the fanbase, to the point where many consider it among their absolute best, if not actually the best.  And “Down Payment Blues” illustrated the album’s particular idiosyncrasy as well as anything else: it didn’t have the skull-smashing hooks and choruses AC/DC were becoming known for, but it had that classic primal groove that steadily insinuated its way into the bloodstream, not to mention steady and simple but absolutely perfect rhythm guitar from Malcolm Young.  Bon Scott maybe sounded a little more casual than usual, but still had his inimitable swagger, and of course Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd were perfectly locked in.  “Down Payment Blues” just kept moving along without changeup or dynamics, but a sudden time change would’ve been jarring and beside the point.  No, the point of the track was straight up rock and roll with an edge, and on that level it succeeded magnificently.

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]