AC/DC or ZZ Top?
- Thread starter The Tradition
- Start date
While I technically agree with all of your points, I think Let Me Put My Love Into You is a worse song than Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution. Neither is great however.
I love both bands but AC ⚡️ DC by a nose.
In retrospect, I should have edited the post to state the last 3 Scott studio albums. You're absolutely correct, 2 stinkers on Back in Black.
I don't even listen to it any more. I include Shake A Leg and Givin' The Dog a Bone on my kitchen sink songs playlist. The 3 hits have been so damn overplayed for so many years...don't include them any more. I used to have Shoot To Thrill in it also, but even that tune got overplayed roughly a decade ago when it got included in some commercial.
But...I get it that the album itself, what is it, one of the 3 or so biggest selling albums of all friggin' time? Hard to argue with that. I credit that to the production...not a perfect album, but a perfect sounding album for sure (The Mutt Lange Effect I'll call it).
I would prefer whichever hasn't been played to death in all walks of life, so ZZ Top here. In a parallel universe where ZZ Top was more popular, I'd go with AC/DC.
Who is Jim Brewer? Hell, last I hear they were on their 3rd lead singer--Scott died, Johnson went deaf or something, and they were using Axl Rose I think? Still love it every time I hear one of their songs.
It appears Brian Johnson is back and they'll be touring starting in Denmark in October.
First introduction to AC/DC - long CSB edition...
Not sure what year it was (1976 I presume), but back then few people had ever heard of AC/DC. I went to the Okoboji area with a friend who had his weed source there, people I didn't know and I wasn't into it, and as I was chilling in the living room waiting for him to conduct his business in another room and they had this album playing of a band I had never heard of (pretty sure it was High Voltage?).
Anyway, as I'm sitting there and the tracks are rolling along, I start thinking to myself Holy Shit this is good, who the hell is this band? Decided right then and there I had to get this album and have my buddies from my hometown hear it, who I was certain had never heard of them either (wait till they get a load of this sort of thing! Ha!).
I don't recall the particular's, but it was a hard album to find and acquire at the time (no Amazon back then kiddies......). I finally got my hands on it, and I started hauling it around to parties in my hometown ( had to watch it like a hawk so someone didn't sneak off with it!) Needless to say, it went over VERY WELL. Ha!
We listened to a lot of ZZ Top, The Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Doors, CCR, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, etc. around that time. But the parties didn't start until I got there with that "new" AC/DC album. Back then it took months before enough people got their hands on it so I didn't I have to haul it around anymore (still have that original version I bought to this day).
Bagpipes and Rock"n"Roll. Great times indeed.
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Mine was similar, believe it was 1979 after Highway To Hell was released.
I first heard H2H a few days after it got released. A buddy had a cassette recorded from KRNA (who used to play new release albums Sunday nights late) and a bunch of us were piled in my 1973 GMC van (we called it The Whoopie Van). That's how we discovered new albums...KRNA or even the Coe College radio station used to play full albums Saturday nights (had to live really close to the campus to receive their channel).
It was the first time I had ever heard them before...they got absolutely zero radio play that I remember hearing until H2H. Then once that song began getting airplay locally (pretty much KRNA only), then I started hearing Let There Be Rock and Whole Lotta Rosie too.
I remember ACDC albums were being difficult to find until Highway To Hell came out - and then only the Atlantic printed copies were available. The prior ATCO albums like High Voltage, Dirty Deeds, TNT etc didn't really begin showing up in CR until Back In Black broke big. Then pretty much all their albums both domestic and import were available.
I had a buddy who was a DJ in Carroll in the early 80's (I think it was Carroll anyway), no idea of the station he worked for, but everytime he came home to visit his Mother he would stop by and drop off some Demo Album he thought I might like. Don't remember all of them, it was hit and miss, but definitely no AC/DC finds in there. Ha!
Great find.
Bon - "The boys say I drink too much". Looks like the boys were right, sadly. Missed out on a lot more AWESOME music because of it. Dammit.
The question nobody will ever be able to answer is would of AC/DC ever have become the band they became with Bon over Brian?
I just don't know really. The band's profile was definitely rising worldwide. But they had yet to have that signature song that sort of acted as a multiplier of awareness to the band - and YSMANL definitely did that for them. Then add in the iconic nature of Hell's Bells...that album could hardly fail with those two songs on it. And given the rest of the album was mostly other great "filler" so to speak...there were a lot of great songs on BiB to give it sustainability.
The ironic thing is as I look back at Highway to Hell...heck, that song is the worst song on the whole damn album! The material was there, but there just wasn't that "You Shook Me All Night Long" on it to carry them over to superstardom.
Timing too I believe played a big part into it. Hard rock and heavy metal was climbing in popularity by then - but was also seeing a bit of a changing of the guard too. There was no longer a Led Zeppelin. Black Sabbath had flamed out. Deep Purple had flamed out. There was a bit of a vacuum there - and "younger" acts like ACDC and Van Halen filled it. They were younger, exciting - not your older brother's bands.
Then add in MTV beginning in 1981, and here's this band with a guy shredding on a Gibson SG in a schoolboy outfit. So, what's their latest album? Back In Black? SOLD.
Not sure either, but the songs were much more intricate under Bon ... '74 JailBreak EP is gold. The intro for this song is strong! A full 2 minutes ...
Who are the 36 idiots thus far that have voted for ZZ Top over AC/DC? What a ridiculous poll. AC/DC, no contest.
Best live album ever recorded. You can fell the energy from this concert pulsating out of the speakers and flooding the air.
Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, April 30, 1978.
Best live album ever recorded. You can fell the energy from this concert pulsating out of the speakers and flooding the air.
Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, April 30, 1978.
The Apollo Theatre held 3,500 people. I saw them in Omaha at a smaller venue (2,610) in September the same year. I can attest. 🙂
That said, I love ZZ Top also, but I had to pick one, so AC/DC it was.
My pick is AC/DC, saw them live twice, once with Bon, once with Brian. Both great concerts and yes I do know why my hearing is not so good anymore!! Holy shit were they loud!
1985 Fly on the Wall tour, 5 seasons center with Ynvey Malmsteen (sp?) opening. I was only 14 but that was the loudest concert I ever heard to this day, especially firing the cannons during ‘For Those About to Rock’.
Bon Scott era was the best to me. Some people care what others think, not Bon. He gave everything he had to entertain the audience, never concerned about looking cool or impressing people. He fronted the band like Dick Butkus played linebacker- with reckless abandon. Malcolm Young is underrated to me. He was like a rhythm machine driving the energy of the band.
First I ever heard of the band was when Back in Black came out and You Shook Me was all over the radio. I don’t think most Americans were aware of AC DC until after Bon died which is a shame. The band had more flavor and color with Bon. Brian is good, workmanlike singer fronting a ferocious band. Bon was a nut everyone enjoyed watching.
Bon Scott era was the best to me. Some people care what others think, not Bon. He gave everything he had to entertain the audience, never concerned about looking cool or impressing people. He fronted the band like Dick Butkus played linebacker- with reckless abandon. Malcolm Young is underrated to me. He was like a rhythm machine driving the energy of the band.
First I ever heard of the band was when Back in Black came out and You Shook Me was all over the radio. I don’t think most Americans were aware of AC DC until after Bon died which is a shame. The band had more flavor and color with Bon. Brian is good, workmanlike singer fronting a ferocious band. Bon was a nut everyone enjoyed watching.
If I want musicianship I’d go ZZ Top, their songs are very tight and good to listen to while driving. If I want to rock out, I’d choose AC/DC. I don’t really look at these as comparable bands. I‘m not sure that AC/DC has a comparable band. They just are what they are and have been for decades. Their music is fun, loud, and mostly simple.
PS, the 17 string base is stupid, looked like he played somewhere between 4-6 of the strings on the top and bottom and nothing else.
PS, the 17 string base is stupid, looked like he played somewhere between 4-6 of the strings on the top and bottom and nothing else.
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