Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Guitar Heroes - Angus Young


I have decided to pepper my usual inane drivel with a few posts about my favourite guitar players. I would like to start with Angus Young, mainly because I went to see AC/DC at the Manchester Evening News Arena last night.

As incredible as the band were, I was particularly awestruck by Angus Young, a man who is in his fifties yet runs around the stage like a twenty year old and plays the guitar in an amazing way.

AC/DC have been a constant companion from my teenage years until now, yet bizarrely, last night was the first time I have seen them live. They delivered everything I expected and more. There I was singing along with Brian Johnson as he belted out a series of classic and new songs. I felt like a kid again. The man standing next to me kept glancing over, presumably because occasionally he heard my wailing out of tune voice. I didn’t care one jot.

Angus was in fine form and has inspired me to post about those axe men who have given me so much pleasure over the years.

I love most songs by the band but here are my favourite AC/DC songs in no particular order:

(1) Thunderstruck
(2) Let There Be Rock
(3) Whole Lotta Rosie
(4) For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
(5) Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)
(6) Touch Too Much
(7) Fire Your Guns
(8) Highway To Hell
(9) Safe In New York City
(10)Stiff Upper Lip

Here is a very young Angus Young in 1977 performing “Let There Be Rock” with the legendary Bon Scott on vocals. It doesn’t get much better than this.


8 comments:

Martin in Bulgaria said...

Hi, i missed all that musci rock scene in the 70s due to being on the classical music path at the time. I looked with interest at your examples and am now quite sorry I missed the rock boat all those years ago. Some cool riffs knocked in there man!

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Martin,

It's never too late. There's plenty of great stuff out there to catch up on.

:-)

Cheers

PM

Jon said...

Great stuff. AC DC are my all time favourite band, I thought you would enjoy seeing them live. I've only ever witnessed them playing live once. It was twenty tears ago in Dublin and the gig was part of the For Those About to Rock Tour. It was amazing. Good to hear that they're just as good nowadays as I'm off to see them in June.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Jon,

You won't be disappointed, I promise.

Cheers

PM

Brian said...

Good choice of favorite AC/DC songs. Thunderstruck, T.N.T., and Back in Black would be in my top 3, and I of course like just about every other AC/DC song.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Brian,

Yes - TNT and Back In Black were bubbling under. They performed all three of them live.

Great band!

:-)

Cheers

PM

earthtoholly said...

Great post, PM.

I especially like "Touch Too Much" and of course, "Highway to Hell." That's a great photo there of Angus Young, even if he is in his 50s!

BTW, Clapton and Winwood will be here in June, but I don't think I'll be going...waaahhh! :o(

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Holly,

Shame about Eric Clapton. Never mind. I wouldn't mind seeing the maestro in action myself.

:-)

Cheers

PM