The problem with having a hit album is that people forget about
\nyour past works. When I was a DJ, people would be constantly
\ncalling in to hear songs from AC\/DC’s 1980 classic
\nBack In Black<\/i>. And while I love the album as much as the
\nnext person, I sometimes get sick of hearing the same songs from
\nthe same album over and over again. (After a while, when people
\nwould call for songs like “You Shook Me All Night Long,” I would
\nsay, “No. It’s overplayed.” And I wonder why I had no
\nlisteners.)<\/p>\n
One fine example of an album which has been pushed aside by the
\nblockbusters is their 1978 release
\nPowerage<\/i>. It has remained somewhat in the eye of the public
\ndue to the band’s performing “Sin City” at their live shows, but
\nthis whole album is one which deserves to be unearthed – as I did
\nin the Pierce Memorial Archives (only sixteen more boxes to
\nunpack).<\/p>\n
AC\/DC was in a period of transition at the time this was
\nrecorded. Gone was original bassist Mark Evans, and in came Cliff
\nWilliams, who added a whole new dimension to the backbeat of the
\nband – as well as a decent backing vocal. Bon Scott and crew must
\nhave decided that it was time to kick some serious ass on record.
\nAnd for the most part, they succeed.<\/p>\n
Opening with “Rock ‘N’ Roll Damnation,” AC\/DC show they’re
\ncapable of mixing hard rock with a touch of the blues (is that
\nharmonica or a good imitation on guitar?) while creating a groove
\nyou can dance or slam your head to. (This one was released as a
\nsingle at the time; somewhere I have a DJ pressing of the track in
\nstereo and mono, AM radio still being big in those days.)<\/p>\n
One track later, on “Down Payment Blues,” the big picture is
\ndisplayed. The opening guitar riffs of the brothers Young let the
\nlistener know quickly that this song is going to be a rollercoaster
\nride. The power builds as the riffs get more intense, and I don’t
\nthink I’ve ever heard Scott sing with more intensity (as well as
\nhoarseness). It’s truly a great song, one which was dusted off
\nduring the
\nBallbreaker<\/i> tour. (Brian Johnson held his own very well on
\nit, by the way.)<\/p>\n
“Sin City” has been a concert staple for the longest time, and
\n“Gone Shootin'” was brought to people’s attention courtesy of the
\nsoundtrack to
\nBeavis & Butthead Do America<\/i> (which I still have to
\nsee… and I’ll eventually get to it). The only other track that
\nmay be somewhat familiar is “Riff Raff,” which opened up their
\nfirst live album,
\nIf You Want Blood You’ve Got It<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Other songs on
\nPowerage<\/i> can be spotty at times. “Gimme A Bullet” is a
\ndecent enough track, but is not as strong as a good portion of the
\nalbum. “What’s Next To The Moon” is different, to say the least,
\nbut in my book, it doesn’t rank among AC\/DC’s best songs. “Up To My
\nNeck In You” is okay, as is “Kicked In The Teeth.”<\/p>\n
At this time, the European versions of AC\/DC’s albums usually
\ncontained a track or two that never made it onto the American
\nversion. This time around, they left out “Cold Hearted Man,” a song
\nwhich I haven’t heard in a few years. (Guess I’ll have to dust off
\nmy import copy of
\nPowerage<\/i> later tonight.) Seeing that Atlantic (or Atco, or
\nwhatever the hell label they’re on now) just remastered AC\/DC’s
\nentire catalog, I honestly don’t see why they couldn’t have thrown
\nthis track on finally. Cripes, the disc is less than 40 minutes
\nlong; not only would it have filled out the album, but it would
\nhave given long-time fans another reason to buy another copy of the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
The production work of Vanda and Young (yes, he’s related to
\nAngus and Malcolm Young) is raw, but is perfect for the atmosphere
\nthese tunes create. In this case, I don’t want to hear the polish
\nthat a state-of-the-art, 48-track digital studio can give me. I
\nsometimes like my cheese crunchy, and
\nPowerage<\/i> gives it to me the way I like it.<\/p>\n
This album captures a band in transition, from nobodies to
\nfuture stars in bloom, and is one treasure that has been ignored by
\nrock fans for far too long. Way back when I wrote for HitsWorld I
\ncalled this one album people have never heard of from a group they
\nshould have. Let’s hope that this statement won’t be true much
\nlonger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5683],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35672","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ac-dc","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35672"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35672"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}