The band came together In November 1973 in Sydney, through several other bands forming and breaking up. Malcolm Young and bass guitarist Larry Van Kriedt had just played together and decided they wanted to continue working together. Malcolm’s younger brother Angus then came on board as well. They then found a drummer in Colin Burgess, who had worked with well known Australian band the Masters Apprentices, and the group was completed by the addition of vocalist Dave Evans. In searching for a name of the band, legend tells us that Malcolm and Angus came up with the band's name after their sister Margaret pointed out the symbol "AC/DC" on the AC adapter of her sewing machine. It was to be a prophetic decision.
AC/DC's first official gig was at Chequers nightclub in Sydney on 31 December 1973. As was a popular notion at the time, for about 18 months most members of the band dressed in some form of glam or satin outfit. Angus, being the youngest and looking for a stage presence to outweigh his more docile usual nature, tried various costumes including Zorro, a gorilla, and Superman. Their set list during this time involved cover versions of songs by the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, the Beatles and other popular blues artists, while also throwing in original songs when they cropped up. After many attempts at a stage presence in pantomime, Angus first wore his soon-to-be iconic school-uniform stage outfit in April 1974 at Victoria Park, Sydney, an idea that apparently was their sister Margaret's.
The band did a recording session in January 1974 at EMI Studios in Sydney, with George Young and Harry Vanda as the producers. George of course is Malcolm and Angus’s older brother, and both were former members of the Easybeats. Several songs were recorded, including "Can I Sit Next to You, Girl", "Rockin' in the Parlour" and an early version of "Rock 'n' Roll Singer". Following this, the band signed with Albert Productions in June 1974, which led to "Can I Sit Next to You, Girl", backed with "Rockin' in the Parlour", taken from the January session, being released on 22 July 1974 as the band's first single. The song reached the top 50 on Australia's Kent Music Report singles chart.
Despite this, there were many changes still going on in the band members. A week after the January recording session, Burgess was fired due to intoxication. Subsequently, Van Kriedt was replaced, and his recorded bass lines for the January session were re-recorded by George Young. Their replacements, Neil Smith on bass guitar and Noel Taylor on drums, lasted six weeks, replaced in turn by Rob Bailey and Peter Clack, respectively.
AC/DC had developed a strong live reputation by mid-1974, which resulted in a supporting slot on Lou Reed's national tour in August. It was during that tour that Malcolm switched to rhythm guitar, leaving Angus on lead guitar – the roles the two guitarists played from then on. At this stage the band was still persisting with a glam rock image, but the end of 1974 Malcolm and Angus had decided they needed to change their direction and pursue a more pub rock sound. It was also around this time that they decided that Dave Evans was no longer suitable as the frontman of the band. This situation was solved by befriending of Bon Scott, formerly of the bands The Valentines and Fraternity. With an audition performed to make it official, Evans was sacked and Bon named as his replacement. Bon’s first gig as lead singer was at that doyen of concert places, the Masonic Hall at Brighton-le-Sands south of Sydney on 5 October 1974, before heading into Albert Studios just a month later to record their debut studio album, titled “High Voltage”.
AC/DC recorded their first studio album, High Voltage, in November 1974, with Vanda & Young producing at Albert Studios in Sydney. During the recording, Bailey and Clack were still members of the band, but Clack played on only one track, with session drummer Tony Currenti providing the drums for the rest. George Young, as had been the case with the earlier recordings, handled some bass parts and later rerecorded others. The recording sessions lasted ten days and were based on instrumentals written by the Young brothers, with lyrics added by Scott. Following the recording sessions, the band relocated to Melbourne where both Bailey and Clack were dismissed. Paul Matters briefly took over bass duties before also being dismissed and replaced temporarily by George or Malcolm for live performances. On drums, Ron Carpenter and Russell Coleman had short tenures before Phil Rudd from the band Buster Brown joined, and when bass guitarist Mark Evans was enlisted in March 1975 it established the line-up that lasted for the next two years.
While the songs on High Voltage showcase a wider influence and perhaps more in the direction of the sound they were trying to move away from than the riff-based hard rock sound that followed this release, the structure of the songs in regards to wriitng can definitely be heard here in their infancy. In an interview with VH1 in 2014, Angus is quoted as such: "I think the '60s was a great time for music, especially for rock and roll. It was the era of the Beatles, of the Stones, and then later on the Who and Led Zeppelin. But at one point in the '70s it just kind of became... mellow. When Malcolm put the band together, it was obvious what was missing at the time: another great rock band. So it was basically a reaction to that, because the music at that point had just turned into that soft, melodic kind of period, and that seemed to be all over the world. For us, it was a pretty easy choice, especially because Malcolm and myself – we’re two guitarists – so from the get-go, it was going to be a guitar band."
From the outset, despite the fact that AC/DC is the garage band Aussie pub rock gods, it is Bon Scott that more than anything plants his influence all over this album. The re-recorded and slightly more innovative cover version of the original “Baby, Please Don’t Go” from Big Joe Williams leads off the album, and brings the energy and high tempo to the album from the start. This song was performed live by the band on the influential ABC music programme ‘Countdown’, with Bon Scott decked out as a blonde schoolgirl. You can still find this on YouTube if you have never seen it, but it was this performance that gave AC/DC a platform that showcased them to the nation rather than the bounds of the Sydney city limits.
"She's Got Balls" (apparently written about Scott's ex-wife Irene) was the first song that Scott and the Young brothers put together, and it is immersed in the sound that the band was trying to strive for. The solid guitars and bass tracking each other, and the steady clomp of the drums driving the song along, and Bon singing his diatribe over the top. As soon as the song begins, you know the era it comes from and who is behind the music. From the opening track that hits you with the pace and fun, back into this serious architecture based on blues but pushing hard at the pub rock scene, the album opens with two tracks that have stood the test of time since its release.
“Little Lover” draws itself back into the cocoon of the blues-based rock that the members of the band had grown up with, moving along at the pace of a slug sludging its way up the concrete path. Bon holds court with his captivating vocal, telling his story in his own way in his own time, and doing so as the band holds back on anything too extravagant. The band wrote several of these types of songs for their early albums, and not all of them worked as well as this one does. It’s creeper, musically and as a hook into the song. “Stick Around” sticks to the tried and tested (beyond this album) method of the solid guitar riff rhythm that AC/DC made famous. It’s the perfect example of how the band created this from their first album, making a song structure that was to survive their entire career. A good solid track that identified where the band was heading.
Another song on the album that is a real creeper is “Soul Stripper”, a song that establishes a blueprint for several songs to come later in the AC/DC catalogue. The opening of the track has the rhythm of guitar, bass and drums locked in as it would for the next 50 years and counting, with Angus’s lead guitar softly building over the opening two minutes into the track, perfectly subtle and yet building in power. Bon’s vocals come in from a softer tone before they build to the chorus and following verse. Then comes the Angus solo break that doesn’t break out to extreme levels, but instead is a well thought-out and played piece that doesn’t repeat itself, entwined as the song flows out to its natural conclusion in the same manner as it introduced the song. This apparently came from an unrecorded song called “Sunset Strip” by Malcolm and Evans, and its style may be familiar to anyone who knows later tracks such as “Live Wire” and “Squealer”. The follow up “You Ain’t Got a Hold on Me” follows similar lines to the previous song, the easy rhythm of the track, Bon’s mellow vocal lines following the lovely bass line of the track, while the solo from Angus again is understated compared to what came later on, but suits the track’s style perfectly.
"Love Song" apparently evolved from an unrecorded song called "Fell in Love" which was written by Malcolm and Dave Evans. However, Bon rewrote the lyrics for this version for the album. It’s a rather maudlin song both lyrically and musically and does feel a little out of place on the album. However, "Love Song" was released as the album's first single (under the title "Love Song (Oh Jene)") and was backed with "Baby, Please Don't Go". Not surprisingly, the radio stations who received this single to play all preferred the B side to the A side, and it was “Baby Please Don’t Go” that got the airplay, and not “Love Song”. The album then concludes with the upbeat and blues rock based “Show Business”, a song that mirrors the stock songs that filled the spaces of the hit maker songs on the following several albums. It’s a serviceable and enjoyable song, but doesn’t offer anything extraordinary in its composition, something AC/DC was about to produce in spades.
Like most teenagers growing up in Australia, I was exposed to AC/DC on a number of fronts. The singles were on the radio, the albums were around at different people’s places, and they were played in the school yard by the kids whose fathers were fans of the band. It was an all encompassing thing. If you are Australian and growing up in Australia, you knew who AC/DC were. So I was the same. I knew songs, but not albums. And it wasn’t until the late 1980’s that I actually owned an AC/DC album, and from there began to build my copies of their discography.
The problem with this debut album is that it was only ever released in Australia and New Zealand and since the end of the 1980’s the only version that is readily available to buy is the international version, which in fact is a hybrid of this album and their next album “TNT”. Then a portion of the other tracks were released on the “Jailbreak ‘75” LP. But two of the songs, “Stick Around” and “Love Song”, can only be found on the “Backtrack” compilation that was released years later. It’s a mishmash, and makes it very difficult for someone like me, who wants everything in order and as it was released, to actually make that happen. And for me, the essence of this album has been lost because of record company policies and politics. The international version of this album should not exist, just this album and then “TNT”. The same with the international version of the band’s third release “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” which for some reason does not have “Jailbreak” on it. And yet, that is the only version that is readily available. Idiots!
Anyway... let’s move on. So, I have a copy of this album, but it is a cheap version that does the job rather than adorn my collection with pride. And when I got it, which was some time after I had collected all of the other album released to that point in time, I found it to be a novelty. Because though it showcases the real roots of AC/DC, and gives us a glimpse into the window back in time when they were just starting out, it is different from what followed, even just a few short months later. There are different sides of the band that didn’t appear from this album on as the band refined their sound and began to blast it out of the speakers. And that is lost in a way by the unavailability of this album in the modern day. It takes away the progression that this album shows occurred between this and the next album. And, although others will say that the majority of these songs have been made available in other formats... that just isn’t the same as listening to THIS album.
I think this is a terrific debut for the band. Yes, there are lots of albums come from this point on that would be considered better, but it doesn’t overshadow the importance of this album. The playfulness of “Baby Please Don’t Go”, the change in moods of “She’s Got Balls” and “Little Lover”, and the songs that show the potential that the band exuded here that came to fruition going forward, songs like “Soul Stripper” and “You Ain’t Got a Hold on Me”. All of this bathes in the sound the band began with, a mix of glam rock and blues rock, the rhythm section that became the best in hard rock history, the man with the voice at the front, and the guy in the school uniform throwing out solos that electrified a generation.
Of the 17 studio albums the band has released – the AUSTRALIAN releases too I might add – for me this ranks at #9. I’ve had it on over the last week or so, a dozen times in total, and it still entertains and delights. For those of you who have missed out on this important album, it's time to track it down and give it a listen. Turn the stereo up to 11 if you like. It’s worth it. And it's a great place to remind you of the wonderful career it started.
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