They may be Australian rock legends, but does AC/DC make a mess or masterpiece of heavy metal? Sacha Molitorisz and Tony Davis debate topic.
AC/DC represent the pinnacle of Australian musical culture.
AGREE: Fact one: The band's songwriters are the creme de la creme. There's the Harry Vanda/George Young connection. They wrote Friday on My Mind, named best Aussie song of the past 75 years at the 2001 APRA awards. George's younger brothers - guitarists Malcolm and Angus (pictured) - wrote AC/DC's songs, together with singers Bon Scott and Brian Johnson. Among their classics: It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll), and Highway To Hell.
Fact two: Bon Scott was the Joan Sutherland of rock'n'roll. The diminutive brawler could squeal and yell and grumble like Satan in a thunder box.
Fact three: Angus Young is the virtuoso of our time. AC/DC's best songs are deceptive: they seem stupid, but are intricately constructed and expertly played. The best feature pauses, dynamics and subtle changes in gear. Angus offsets simple, bluesy riffs with uncannily fast fretwork in his solos. Naysayers note Mozart was once accused of using too many notes.
Fact four: More than 90 million albums sold counts for something.
Sacha Molitorisz
DISAGREE: AC/DC do not even sit at the high end of their genre, the knuckle-scraping, air-licking end of hard rock. Many bands play better, rock harder, write tighter, more tuneful songs and aren't so repetitive. AC/DC once did have one small thing going for it: the wit of Bon Scott. It wasn't sophisticated but at least it made the 1973-1980 incarnation of the band stand out in a generally humourless genre.
Scott's dour, screeching successor, Brian Johnson, quickly showed himself to be lyrically challenged. Spinal Tap produced more intelligent couplets than AC/DC; sample the latest AccaDacca masterpiece, Stiff Upper Lip (composers: Angus and Malcolm Young): "Now I warn you ladies/I shoot from the hip/I was born with a stiff/Stiff upper lip."
If Angus Young is a great guitarist he hides it from the people who buy AC/DC records. They are treated merely to his heavy-metal guitar skills, popularly measured by the number of notes hit in a given time rather than light, shade, mood or melody. Mozart may have been accused of using too many notes, but at least they were all good ones
