A Rumor Is A Rumor, But... Is This The Fitting Coda Hard Core Fans Have Wanted?
Today's post is from our friend HIM.
I take most everything with a grain of salt (actually, more than a grain... I need to cut back on the sodium). So, like the picture debates of recent weeks, I have been following the AC/DC rumor train with a curious, if jaded, eye. Chris Slade has no idea what is going on? I figured that might be how they treat him. Phil and Brian are back? Quick. Zoom in on the pictures and try to time-stamp what they are wearing, all the while wondering why such a “hush hush” get together is able to be filmed from a person’s balcony . . . and filmed again after the news was out.
And I have gone on record saying that I think AC/DC are more smoke and mirrors than jokes and beers. I think the Young Brothers crafted a good story, some great music, and turned it into a dream for them and fans alike. I remain a fan. I mean, who do you know who isn’t a fan who still talks lovingly about Flick of the Switch?
So here is the recent wrinkle, with a sprinkle of Williams (Cliff, not Brian):
I have no issues with this information if it is true. I would love to see the three fellows back in the fold . . . for one last album and one last outing. I also don’t mind the idea that these are songs that are already worked through, and worked through enough that they would involve the deceased Mal adding to the mix he basically oversaw. I mean, it is a calculated sorta’ thing. And a different sort of calculation that Van Halen did when they resuscitated old tracks on A Different Kind of Truth (which I also enjoyed). But if it holds up to the standard of some of the songs on Rock or Bust, and is better than most of the songs on Black Ice, what’s the problem? AC/DC has never been about bursting expectations. They are about comforting uniformity, that rocks. Do take note that I said at the start of this paragraph, though, that this all makes perfect sense as a way to bow out with respect.
So I continue to watch the rumors . . . through a glass, darkly. When it comes to AC/DC, you only know what they want you to know. Which isn’t always a bad thing. All I really care about is that what I find out (eventually) suggests a band going out on their shield, not faltering on fumes.
One final addition: for fans of the Bon Scott years, I recommend The Last Highway: The Untold Story of Bon Scott and AC/DC’s Back in Black. Jesse Fink, who I have corresponded with on several occasions and about several of his projects, does a great job of creating a mystery novel—that is non-fiction!—about the struggles that Bon and the band endured leading up to Highway to Hell, the facts of Bon’s death, the album created in the wake of his death, and the overall manner in which AC/DC managed to carry on and achieve continued (and greater) success.
I also offer some words of caution: this is not a glowing overview of any of the aforementioned topics. He has, like I do, a rather critical opinion of how AC/DC actually conducts their business. He also interviews, and at times threads together, people with dubious memories and potentially questionable motives. He paints Bon as a flawed person, who succumbed to excess but also was looking for a way through, and potential out of, AC/DC.
As a fan, I always like to see alternative takes on what I like and love. That there are more flaws than I assumed doesn’t negate what I like and love. If anything, it humanizes both. Fink is not interested in destroying icons. Rather, he is invested in removing the fog of illusion when it only serves to sell one story, and one story only, at the disservice of telling a greater truth.
While he does not entirely live up to the suggestions of the title, Fink more than makes up for it in the pain-staking research he does to put the often faded, contradictory, and damaging pieces together. There is no final answer to some of these questions. He ends by offering up several plausible scenarios regarding the greatest mystery in the book and leaves it to the reader to decide (even if we know his position). But, unlike others who have glorified AC/DC and Bon without question, Fink was at least willing to go further in asking the tough questions.