Shake Your Foundations...

The first 'rawk' album I bought was 'Fly On The Wall' by AC/DC.  In retrospect, this is not their greatest effort.  Commercially, it 'only' sold 1m copies... which is shit when you think that they also recorded the second most successful album of all time, at c. 45m copies and counting.  But for me, it was an introduction to a band, which, while not these days necessarily part of my Desert Island Discs, will always have a place in my heart - and let's be honest, in my ear 'oles, because there are some mighty fine tunes in their catalogue.

However, you won't find those mighty fine tunes here.  There are some good rockers - 'Shake Your Foundation', 'Playing With Girls', 'Back In Business' and 'Send For The Man' all punch hard, with that post-Bon Scott abruptness that marks Acca Dacca as something special, and BJ's chainsaw voice, but the album is not jam-packed with quality.  It's pretty standard birds-and-booze AC/DC.  Nothing wrong with that, but not as right as 'Back In Black', or even the much under-rated 'Flick Of The Switch'.

It makes me chuckle a little now I'm getting old and grey to think I got a whole lotta stick at school from my peers because I wasn't running with the flock and listening to aural effluent like Simple Minds, but was beginning to explore my own avenues, and the small number of us who did were beginning to converge and swap and share new discoveries.  The sheep, I find, are now keen fans of Acca Dacca...

Anyway, try this for size...

PS.  As I sit here writing this, with a bottle of beer and this album bellowing out of the speakers, I find that my feet are tapping and my head's nodding...  that's the problem with this band, even their trash is pretty good!  Which might explain that they remain one of the most successful rock bands in history, both on record and in the flesh.  Why wouldn't you want a bit of this?