AC/DC

Debuted New Year�s Eve, 1973, at the Chequers Club in Sydney, Australia. Founding brothers Angus and Malcolm Young led the band through a number of personnel shifts in the early stages, but hit the jackpot with the addition of lead singer, Bon Scott. The addition of drummer Phillip Rudd and bassist Mark Evans in 1974 rounded out a group that quickly established a solid reputation in their native Australia, but it took several years before they became a presence on the American charts.

The band released two albums � High Voltage and TNT � in Australia in 1974 and 1975. Material from the two albums was used to create the version of High Voltage that was released in the U.S. and U.K. With the release of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap in 1976, the band was gathering a following, and the 1977 release of Let There Be Rock became the first album to chart in the U.S.

The band was as well-known for their live performances as for their albums. Lead singer Bon Scott, originally the group�s chauffeur, will probably never be described as one of the era�s great singers. His vocals were almost painfully rough, but his stage persona was provocative and swaggering. Angus Young was fond of mooning the audience, which led to the group being banned from several British venues. Combined with Scott�s convictions for minor criminal offenses and his rejection by the Australian Army as being �socially maladjusted,� the band�s reputation as crude brutes flourished.

If their behavior wasn�t enough to establish a sufficiently �bad boy� image, their lyrics certainly were. They veered from violent images to crude sexual references, and the double entendre became their forte. Some of the most notorious lyrics came from the Dirty Deeds album. The title song is basically a hit man�s advertisement:

If you got a lady and you want her gone
But you ain't got the guts
She keeps naggin' at you night and day
Enough to drive you nuts -
Pick up the phone
Leave her alone
It's time you made a stand
For a fee
I'm happy to be
Your back door man

And of course, the manically cheerful �Big Balls:�

I'm upper, upper class high society
God's gift to ballroom notoriety
And I always fill my ballroom
The event is never small
All the social papers say I've got the biggest balls of all

Brutes or not, by the time Highway to Hell came along in 1979, the band had become a force to be reckoned with, although it was a toss-up what was better known � Angus Young�s gritty, blues-based guitar riffs, or his bizarre school-uniform stage apparel. Highway became the group�s first million-seller in the U.S., and went to number 17 on the U.S. charts.

It seemed as though AC/DC�s relentless march would be sidelined in 1980. Bon Scott died on February 20, 1980, after what was described as a �routine� night of partying. The coroner�s report stated that he had �drunk himself to death.� To this day, the most common story told is that Scott died from choking on his own vomit after an all-night drinking binge, although the official cause of death was eventually ruled hypothermia.

Although they briefly considered breaking up, the group found a suitable replacement with Brian Johnson, and returned to the studio to record Back in Black. Despite worries that Scott�s shoes were too big to fill, the album proved to be the group�s biggest album. It peaked at number four on the U.S. charts, and went platinum in October 1980, and continues to sell over 20 years after its release, being certified double diamond in July 2004.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was re-issued for the U.S. market in 1981 and went to number 3. The band followed-up Black in late 1981 with For Those About to Rock We Salute You, which became the group�s only number one U.S. album. While albums through the late 80�s and early 90�s couldn�t live up to the band�s commercial success of the earlier years, their albums regularly go platinum, although oddly, the band has never had a top 20 single in the U.S. Their live shows also continue to be a huge success. In 2002, Q magazine put AC/DC at the top of their list of the �50 Bands to See Before You Die�.

In March 2003, AC/DC became members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith inducted the group into the Hall, and spoke for legions of their fans:

"AC/DC became the litmus test of what rock does. Does it make you clench your fist when you sing along? Does it scare your parents to hell, and piss off the neighbours? Does it make you dance so close to the fire that you burn your feet--and still don't give a rat's ass? Does it make you want to stand up and scream for something that you're not even sure of yet? Does it make you want to boil your sneakers, and make soup outta your girlfriend's panties? If it doesn't, then it ain't AC/DC".

Neil Young's Live at Massey Hall 1971 Review

Neil Young: Live At Massey Hall 1971

Singer/songwriter, guitarist, and filmmaker.

AKA: Bernard Shaky, Joe Yankee, Phil Perspective, Clyde Coil, Shaky, and Shaky Deal.


Mr. Young is a multi-talented, multi-faceted, versatile, ever changing, ever evolving, innovative, and provocative, artist and musician. As a human being and a man, he consists of many layers. His achievements are many, and his endurance is certainly commendable. As he once said, He is lucky just to have made it through the turbulence of the revolutionary 1960's and 1970's. He managed to do just that, and he has landed on solid ground. So many of his fellow musicians and friends were lost, to drugs and so much great music, that should have been created, never was.
Due to drugs, in particular, Heroin. It is just too sad to think about. Neil young has never let the adversities that he has faced in his lifetime hold him back, or slow him down.


Live At Massy Hall is an awesome, trip down memory lane and a rare experience of Neil Young’s raw talent.

The show, from January 19, 1971, contains a set list that has been widely bootlegged over the years
A collection of 17 songs recorded at a solo concert but never before released.

“I’m gonna sing mostly new songs tonight “I’ve written so many new ones that I can’t think of anything else to do with them other than sing ‘em.” Says the 26 year old singer/songwriter, in his opening line.

Every song in this collection is a catapulting transportation in time, if you are old enough to remember the era, sorry to say, like me. Not sorry for the era just sorry for how old that makes me. Songs like “Tell Me Why,” “Down By the River,” “Ohio,” and “The Needle and the Damage Done”—a eulogy for Crazy Horse band mate Danny Whitten. A heroin casualty, felt very deeply by Neil Young.—

When one thinks of Neil Young many things come to mind, and when I say many, I mean many. Sincerely folks, this man is in every stretch of the term, an over achiever. His creativity abounds. When I think of Neil Young, I think of, "Blue blue windows, behind the stars. Yellow moon on the rise." We all know the musician, the songwriter, and the political activist for human rights, and environmental issues. We remember the "Four Dead in Ohio" and Woodstock, and we have imagined what that "Cinnamon Girl" looks like;

When we look at the body of work that Mr. Young has amassed in the years since this performance, and his many achievements in the last 30 years, we can see the raw talent through this latest release.



For those of you who may not be aware of Neil Young’s many Achievements, here are a few.

• Young was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982.
• He was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: first in 1995 for his solo work, with an induction speech given by Eddie Vedder, and again in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.
• One of the founders of Farm Aid, he remains on their board of directors.
• For one weekend each October, in Mountain View, Ca, he and his wife host The Bridge School Concerts,
• The concerts are a benefit for the Bridge School, which develops and uses advanced technologies to aid in the instruction of children with disabilities. Young's involvement stems at least partially from the fact that both of his sons have cerebral palsy and his daughter, like Young himself, has epilepsy.
• Young owns Vapor Records. .
• Since 1995 he has been part owner of Lionel LLC, a company that makes toy trains and railroads.
• Young has twice received honorary doctorates. First in 1992, an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lake head University in ThunderBay, Ontario, and secondly in 2006, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University. The latter honor was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School.
• In a "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list in the June 1996 issue of Mojo Magazine, Young was ranked number 9.
• In 2004, Rolling tone Magazine ranked Neil Young #34 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
• In a "Greatest Living Songwriters" list in 2006 by Paste Magazine Young was ranked number 2 behind Bob Dylan.
• Perhaps the Greatest achievement Neil has made is that of a Father. He has been a Loving and kind, Father, under extraordinary circumstances.

Discography Live at Massey Hall

All songs written by Neil Young.

1) "On the Way Home" – 3:42
2) "Tell Me Why" – 2:29
3) "Old Man" – 4:57
4) "Journey Through the Past" – 4:15
5) "Helpless" 4:16
6) "Love In Mind" – 2:47
7) "A Man Needs a Maid / Heart of Gold Suite" – 6:39
8) "Cowgirl In The Sand" – 3:45
9) "Don‘t Let It Bring You Down" – 2:46
10) "There's a World" – 3:33
11) "Bad Fog of Loneliness" – 3:27
12) "The Needle And The Damage Done" – 3:55
13) "Ohio" – 3:40
14) "See the Sky About to Rain" – 4:05
15) "Down By The River" – 4:08
16) "Dance Dance Dance" – 5:48
17) "I Am a Child" – 3:19

Performers
Neil Young - vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica