A quiet weekend is what I needed,
and a quiet weekend is what I’ve given myself. Today will be music day,
starting with this review and then moving on to some guitar practice.
Disc 619 is…. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Artist: ACDC
Year of Release: 1976
What’s up with the Cover? It’s the band,
posing as regular folks, along with two young attractive women and an old lady –
all with their eyes blacked out. I am guessing the idea is that although they
are blending in with the crowd, they are actually dangerous criminal types. The
whole scene looks lifted from a Tarantino movie.
How I Came To Know It: I’ve known this album since I was a kid, but my love
for it was rekindled in the early nineties by my buddy Greg, who owned it on
tape. We used to crank “Problem Child” in his car over and over again
How It Stacks Up: I have nine ACDC albums, and “Dirty Deeds” is one of
the best. I’ll put it second. If you’re wondering what’s first, you’ll have to
wait until I roll it.
Rating: 4 stars
“Dirty
Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” has everything you look for in an ACDC album; driving
power chords, relentless energy and even a little humour. At a time when the
future of ACDC is in doubt, it is fitting that I rolled an album that helped
launch their international career.
“Dirty
Deeds” is not a complicated record, but that isn’t what ACDC is about. If you
are after creative time signatures and innovative song construction go look
elsewhere – maybe in the jazz section. If you are looking for power rock that gets
your head banging, and your hands inadvertently playing air guitar in public,
then “Dirty Deeds” will serve you well.
The
record opens with the title track. Decades after its release, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” is still an
instantly recognizable rock anthem. The song is told from the perspective of a
hit man, offering his services to kill your girlfriend or your high school head
(principal). The opening guitar riff sets the scene for such dark deeds, low
and crunchy with a predatory menace.
The
whole album is a clinic in how the rhythm guitar drives a great rock song. On “Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round to be a
Millionaire).” An amateur guitar player will tend to increase the speed of
his playing by accident, but “Ain’t No
Fun” incorporates a deliberate, perfectly measured increase to the tempo
that slowly builds the urgency and impatience of waiting for fame.
Only a
few weeks ago it was discovered that rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young has a
serious illness and may never perform again.
As lead guitar, Angus Young gets the majority of the glory in ACDC,
cavorting about the stage in his school uniform, and he is a lot of fun to
watch. “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” reminds me that Malcolm is the glue
holding this band together. Sad as it would be if he never performs again, this
record is a fitting legacy to his talents.
Meanwhile,
lead singer Bon Scott brings his lascivious, dirty vocals to every song. On the
title track he is simmering with violence, and on “Squealer” he is sexually disturbing. And while it isn’t my
favourite song on the record, Scott is positively hilarious on “Big Balls.” “Big Balls” is one long double entendre in which Scott is ‘itching
to tell us’ about his big balls, by which he means parties. Oh, and also his testicles.
“Big Balls” was a favourite in my high
school, and to this day I get a juvenile thrill out of quoting lyrics from the
song. My current favourite section is near the end of the song, where Bon Scott
begins discussing some of the things at his big balls, including ‘seafood cocktail, crabs, crayfish.’ I’m
not sure how crayfish fit into the scene, but I know that when Bon Scott sings
it, it is dirty.
While
the title track and “Big Balls” are
the albums best known songs, my two favourites are “Problem Child” and “Ride On.”
“Problem Child” has the perfect
combination of Malcolm laying down an amazing rock riff, Angus delivering a
kick ass solo and Scott singing about how badass he is. The lyrics are simple, direct
and decidedly anti-social:
“I’m hot
And when I’m not
I’m cold as ice
See me comin’
Step aside
Or pay the price
What I want I take
What I don’t I break
And I don’t want you.”
Not
exactly Alfred Lord Tennyson, but it gets the point across.
My other
favourite, “Ride On”, is the
emotional opposite; a slow bluesy number about depression and loneliness. “Ride On” shows Bon Scott’s softer side,
and reminds me of just how tragic it was that he would be dead less than five
years after recording it. The whole song smells of road dust and musty cheap
hotel rooms:
“It’s another lonely evening
And another lonely town
But I ain’t too young to worry
And I ain’t too old to cry
When a woman gets me down.
“Got another empty bottle
And another empty bed
Ain’t too young to admit it
And I’m not too old to lie
I’m just another empty head.”
This is
the confused youth of Alice Cooper’s “Eighteen”
ten years later, with the burden of the world weighing him down, but still
without answers. “Ride On” is a song
for late night drinking, when you’ve switched to whisky when you should’ve
switched to water.
“Dirty
Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” is a ballsy blast of rock enthusiasm from a band that
knew it was going to be famous and was ready to pay whatever price came with
that. Its message may not be complicated, but it is delivered with confidence
and authority and still fresh nearly forty years after its release.
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