'Back In Black' Turns 40
Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 08:05AM It is hard to believe, but AC/DC released Back In Black 40 years ago this week.
The album is wonderful of course. Tracks from the album have dominated rock radio for all 40 years. I've written in the past that I cannot listen to "You Shook Me All Night Long" anymore. It has been played so much - and in so many places - it is just too much for me.
My favorite track on the album? That would be "Black In Back" of course. I also love "Hells Bells." Back In Black always reminds me of high school. The tracks were played at every dance, enough though I graduated in 1998. So the album was "old" then but still beloved by just about everyone in my class. Truly timeless.
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AC/DC's 'Back in Black' turns 40 this week. Here we look back at 25 essential songs from the Aussie hard-rock legends https://t.co/hWdm1aQUpj pic.twitter.com/s6QVeZb3Jw
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 22, 2020
Reader Comments (13)
If you start with Let There Be Rock through to Back in Black, that was a flawless four album run by ACDC. They would still go on to out out strong albums (I particularly enjoy Flick of the Switch) and great songs, but Back in Black was the end of their peak. I will be listening to this til the day I die.
p.s. I saw AC/DC 4th Row, (POINT BLANK, haha!!) at Capital Centre in Largo, Maryland (just outside of D.C.) on August 3rd, 1980, only the third date they were playing material off their new album, “Back in Black” for which their Worldwide Tour was named ... I am fortunate enough to have seen AC/DC 8 times, the first off “Powerage “ in ‘78 and the last with AXL Rose on vocals in 2016!
I’m going with Basileus for favorite song off of the album. To this day when Shoot comes on in my vehicle, I rattle the windows. Like Bk pointed out, this is a flawless overall release. It just smokes from the first note to the last.
I did have the pleasure of meeting the entire Mark II of the band and it was hilarious because of Angus’ shenanigans twirling around to shake my hand and then twirling around to shake it again kinda like what I would imagine it would be to shake the Tasmanian Devil’s hand from Chuck Jones era Looney Tunes ...
And, of course, the honor and forever treasured moment I shook hands with Malcolm, as well as the rest of the boys ... It was especially gratifying because Virgin Megastore was trying to throw me out for trying to get an extra item signed, a “Stiff Upper Lip” CD ... They told the power trippin’ security clown to cool it and also signed the “Back in Black” Mini-Album CD that came inside the Bonfire Box Set in silver marker ...
In hindsight, I think it mighta been cool to have had them sign it in BLACK Sharpie for that BLACK ON BLACK murdered out look to play up the title even more without screwing up the graphics ...
And all of this is great but truth be told, Crüed, YOUR experience tops mine by a long shot? ... Why? Because you were in the show, hearing “The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd”, if you will, living and breathing the moment and thanked for a job well done by the man himself, instead of just being a gawking admiring fan ...
Just a fantastic incredible story from you, Crüed ... Thank you for sharing!
The best I got isn't that great. But it is a funny crowd story. I was standing next to a person who clearly only knew the hits. When the cannons went off (and I was in the good seats), she screamed "What the **** is up with those large guns!?!?! They are too loud!!!" I smiled at her as I shook my head.
you should've slowly poured your beer over her head as you shook your head heheheh
Also Him- their are times in life that you will never forget. i still see all those mental videos in my head, many,many years later. thanks for the kind words
I, like you, rely on mental videos. I also replay a lot of metal videos. As I get older, I need confirmation that what I thought I saw is what I saw. Like all cameras, the mental one gets a bit temperamental with time.