For Malcolm Young, AC/DC’s rhythm guitarist, it was always about the riff. And with one in particular, as soon as he came up with it in the early days of 1979, he knew in his bones it was something special. As he put it, with the kind of bluntness and vulgarity that had always defined the band’s work: “There were hundreds of riffs going down every day. But this one, we thought, that’s good. It just stuck out like a dog’s balls.”
This staccato riff was perfect in its simplicity, reminiscent of Free’s All Right Now. And from it came arguably the most important song of AC/DC’s whole career. Highway To Hell was the title track of their first million-selling album. In the UK it was the band’s first Top 10 hit outside of their native Australia. Most significantly, as guitarist Angus Young said: “That was the album that broke us in America.”
Part of its success was down to Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, a South African expat who had recently scored his first No.1 as a producer with the Boomtown Rats’ Rat Trap. Lange was perfect candidate for the AC/DC job – a guy with a feel for rock music and a shrewd pop sensibility.
Lange was painstaking in his attention to detail. In contrast to George and Harry’s relaxed approach, Lange placed an intense focus on tuning and rhythm. According to Tony
Platt, who worked Highway To Hell as engineer: “One of Mutt’s things that he brought to AC/DC was how to really work a groove.” And with the vocals, Lange raised the bar even higher, coaxing the best out of singer Bon Scott and also, as a strong singer himself, adding backing vocals to pump up the choruses.
All of this was evident in the first number recorded for Highway To Hell, the album’s title track. Essentially, this wasAC/DC as they always were. As Malcolm put it: “Just loud rock’n’roll, wham, bam, thank you, ma’am!” But with Lange working his magic it became something altogether bigger – a rock anthem to raise the dead.
“There were hundreds of riffs going down every day. But this one stuck out like a dog’s balls.”
Malcolm Young
The instantly arresting guitar-drum intro had been demoed with just Angus grinding away on guitar while Malcolm bashed at the drums. All was nearly lost when an engineer took the only cassette of it home, where his young son playfully unravelled it. Fortunately, Bon, who was always rewinding his own worn-out cassettes, put it back together the following day and the tune that was about to transform
all their lives was restored.
But the song – in particular the title – had AC/DC’s label, Atlantic, rattled. “The American record company immediately went into a panic,” Angus said. “With religious things, I thought everywhere was like Australia. There they call them bible-thumpers, and it’s a limited species. Very limited. Christianity was never a popular movement. It’s that convict background!”
In reality, the title had come from something more mundane. Asked to describe the band’s 1978 tour, Angus replied: “It’s a fucking highway to hell.” Of course, Bon Scott ran with the devilish in a lyric that raised two fingers to the so-called moral majority: ‘Hey Satan/Payin’ my dues/Playin’ in a rockin’ band/Hey mama/Look at me/I’m on my way to the promised land.’
“With religious things, I thought everywhere was like Australia. There they call them bible-thumpers, and it’s a limited species.”
Angus Young
Just as Atlantic had anticipated, Highway To Hell incited outrage from America’s so-called ‘moral majority’, not only for its title but also for the album’s cover image, a group shot in which a sneering Angus sported devil horns and for added effect, a forked tail. Angus laughingly recalled: “In America you had guys in bed sheets and placards with prayers on picketing the gigs. I said: ‘Who are they here for?’ And they said: ‘You!’ We heard all that stuff about Highway To Hell – that if you play it backwards you get these satanic messages. Fucking hell, why play it backwards? It says it right up front: Highway To Hell!”
By that point, the genie was out of the bottle anyway. Highway To Hell was released as the album’s first US single, giving the band a long overdue breakthrough at American radio. Their contemporaries loved it. “My favourite AC/DC song would have to be Highway To Hell,” says ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. “Quite to my amazement, I heard my grandmother singing along with it, on key and with all the words! When asked how she came onto the song, she replied, “Oh my! Sounds like a fun highway to be traveling on!” How you gonna top that?”
The genius of Highway To Hell is its simplicity: a jagged riff, a thumping beat, and a route-one chorus. But it would soon be tinged by tragedy. On February 19, 1980, less than a month after the Highway To Hell tour ended, the singer was found dead in London following a night of heavy drinking. The exact circumstances of his death would be the subjectof conjecture ever since.
Highway To Hell isn’t just one of AC/DC’s greatest songs. For the man who sang it, would become an epitaph: a defining statement of devil-may-care rock’n’roll attitude from a legendary hellraiser. In this song, more than any other, his spirit lives on.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
