Popcorn Culture
Ruminations on TV Shows, Comics, And Music
ACDC Reimagined Discography For People Who Only Really Know ACDC From Soundtracks Or Osmosis12/9/2024 A coworker in his sixties once lamented to me that his eleven year old son had just "discovered" ACDC. This was around 2015. He was a big funk, R&B, and early hip-hop fan who was also pretty knowledgable about the classic 80s and 90s rock but, despite his love of George Clinton bands, couldn't get on board with ACDC's amateurish innuendo lyrics. I understand that. I was probably also around eleven when my family was spending a couple of days with one of my mom's coworkers. The coworker had two kids who were slightly older than me but not so much older that I felt the need to look up to them, nor did they find me annoying. While our parents drank, we were in the basement, which doubled as their bedroom, watching A Clockwork Orange, which none of our parents would have approved of. We must have been eating and drinking solid sugar because the two of them were actually bouncing when the movie was over, and they put on Back In Black. I had probably heard a couple of ACDC songs on MTV or at a friends' house but my parents definitely didn't then and still don't listen to Stephen King's favorite rock band. I thought some of the songs were really good and when I, at around age thirteen, scammed Columbia House for cheap albums, I got two or three ACDC albums. I hated them. I'm definitely a Greatest Hits fan of ACDC, not a true fan. Many of their songs have the same effect on me and I don't think they evolved in any interesting way between when I first encountered Back In Black and when I stopped seeing their more modern songs on MTV in the late 90s/early 2000s. So this is a very mainstream radio friendly One Album Discography of a band that I'm not super into but which was very important to rock history and who have a few unignorable bangers. 1. For Those About To Rock
It's probably weird for an ACDC album to start with synthesizers instead of guitar riffs, and to slowly build to the heavy sound, but that's how I roll when putting together most of these reimagined albums. Neither their best nor their loudest song, I just love the chorus on this and how it has a more jangly sound than anything that follows. The weird repeated breakdown/canon fire section about 2/3rds of the way through is late 70s/early 80s metal gold. 2. It's A Long Way To The Top There's almost a country rock vibe at the beginning of this track. It was years before I realized this was an ACDC song. I don't know who I thought it was or why I didn't recognize it. I had heard quite a few of the Bon Scott-era songs but I just couldn't place the vocalist, probably because I was so distracted by how a country sounding metal song is suddenly invaded by relentless bagpipes. I do feel like these first two tracks are kind of a cheat, since they're both about rock and roll and contain almost no middle-school innuendo but, and this is rare for me, I prefer their self-referential songs to their dick jokes. 3. You Shook Me All Night Long Here comes the sex songs! This is an absolutely basic classic rock radio staple. This has been in so many movies, TV shows, commercials, and it's been played so many times while I've shopped in stores that I'm not sure whether I like it or I'm just accustomed to it. 4. Thunderstruck I'm certain I enjoy Thunderstruck. The wild guitar lick while a chorus of men do a little sport chant until the lead vocals come in is First Class 70s/80s Arena Rock, so imagine my surprise to find that this is from 1990. The middle of the song is just standard classic rock but that opening minute is worth the price of admission. 5. TNT Prime 1970s radio metal. The main guitar riff is just a clean riff you might hear in a Joan Jett song. The verses are typical braggadocio about how good at sex the singer is but, honestly, it's top tier sex braggadocio. It's not clever, it's just catchy and not terrible. And the underlying ois are so sing-alongable. The descent into guitar madness at the end works in the song's favor, too. 6. Who Made Who Stephen King has been singing the praises of ACDC for decades. Rightfully, so. This song, the title track from an album that doubled as the soundtrack for one of King's more memorable, if not necessarily good, movies: Maximum Overdrive. This is another case of a song that I know many of the words to, and bop my head along to but I'm not sure if I like it or if it just happened to play on the radio frequently when I was just getting into harder rock. 7. Highway To Hell How do you not bop your head to the guitar riffs on this song? The catchy, adolescent rebellion chorus is a classic for a reason. It also descends into guitar madness near the end before we get one more Highway To Hell. 8. Hard As A Rock I'd guess this isn't on many peoples' Best Of ACDC list. It's a typical innuendo-based song with a solid but not Earth-shattering riff. It just happened to come out when I was watching a lot of MTV. It's not a legendary track but it's better than just album-filler. I do like the somewhat jangly riff that is mostly under the surface of the main crunch for most of the song. 9. Hell's Bells The title-necessitated bells and the lead guitar could have made this a hit without any vocals. When the vocals come in, they're great, but this one is driven mostly the Young brothers, and whoever rang those bells. 10. Dirty Deeds Done Cheap Decades ago, a friend who was the lead singer of a hardcore band told the story about hearing this song when he was really young, and how he used to wail "Dirty deeds and the Dunder Chief!" I can definitely hear that interpretation. This is one the band's all-time best. John Popper of Blues Traveler used to play the harmonica so blisteringly, you'd swear it was a guitar. The guitar in the middle of this track, conversely, is so blistering, you'd swear it was a harmonica. The chanting on the way to the outro is also magic. 11. Let There Be Rock I thought I closed out this reimagineed album with a great counterpoint to the opening track. Another rock song about rock. This one is a bit heavier with a couple of epic breakdowns scattered through its six minute length. Along with "Devil Went Down To Georgia", this has to be one of the best ever songs presenting lyrics as a religious fable. As much as I loved it, I realized there was a better closer. 12. Back In Black The clicky intro, the strummy, percussive guitar parts, the way Bon Scott makes the word back have five syllables. I tend to end rock albums with ballads but I can't think of an ACDC ballad that works as well as a closer than this absolute scorcher of a finisher. I think this album contains all the songs I'd reasonably listen to when I'm in the mood for ACDC. But were I to make a second album, I couldn't really go in-depth about my choices but it would probably be: 1. If You Want Blood (You've Got It) 2. Whole Lotta Rosie 3. Demon Fire 4.Sink The Pink 5. Touch Too Much 6. Kick You When You're Down 7. Nervous Shakedown 8. Livewire 9. Rock & Roll Train 10. Have A Drink On Me 11. The Jack
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Having been watching Doctor Who on and off but mostly off for the last forty years, I am excited by the current re-re-rebooted series featuring the fourteenth and fifteenth doctors. After a divisive Twelfth Doctor, and a Thirteenth Doctor who was, herself, very interesting and entertaining, but whose overall storyarc was less than satisfying, I'm relieved to be optimistic about the show, even if it still had a couple of clunker episodes. I've already done a How To Watch Doctor Who project that focuses just on the great episodes, and how to watch them in order for most enjoyment. This is something different. If you love continuity, you're going to either want to skip this one or watch it very, very closely. This is Doctor Who told incredibly out of order. Each series will have a theme and/or a complex storyline. Each season will use multiple Doctors and companions, and will rarely (but not never) follow their adventures in such a way that you see a companion's growth as a character. I did this, not just because I think it's fun to try and experience the series in a new way but I offer this to people who haven't watched Doctor Who, who would like to see some of the old episodes but can't stomach watching the 20th century episodes for several months in order to get to the modern stuff. We start modern and bop around so that you're never stuck in the black and white era or the 4,000 minute long serial era for very long. The first season is all about learning who The Doctor is. He's a seemingly somewhat immortal time traveler, and when he gets really ill, he regenerates into an entirely different looking/behaving person who tend to have a sort of temporary amnesia. We're going to be introduced to the first thirteen Doctors (except 4) in this season, out of order, usually including their first episodes where they are unsure what kind of person they are and struggle to get a handle on their new personas. 101. Blink (10, Martha, Weeping Angels) Some argue that this a terrible introduction to Doctor Who because The Doctor is hardly in it. That's why I enjoy it as an entryway. This is a fun sci-fi/horror story with a mysterious character who we're soon going to get to know. And there are really imaginative monster antagonists. 102 & 103. The Family Of Blood / Human Nature (10, Martha) Now we find out who The Doctor i---oh, The Doctor has to go into hiding during World War One. His companion is there watching over him but racism is making things difficult. As are aliens. 104. Time Heist (12, Clara) An entirely different face of The Doctor and a new companion find themselves in the middle of a bank heist with no memory of how they got involved and what their aims are. They puzzle it out as shenanigans unravel around them. 105. The Woman Who Fell To Earth (13, Ryan, Yasmin, Graham) Another another face for The Doctor. This time a woman who acknowledges she was just a raving Scotsman. She meets a new crew of potential companions tracking down a monster who appears to be hunting humans for...teeth? 106. The Invasion (episodes 2, 7 & 8) (2, Jamie, Zoe, Brigadier, Cybermen) It's Cybermen vs UNIT (we are meeting both for the first time), as a black and white era Doctor must make military alliances on Earth to keep it from being destroyed. 107. War Games (episodes 1, 9 & 10) (2, Jamie, Zoe, Timelords) Yet another face of The Doctor and a couple of his companions find themselves in the midst of a very confusing war. Just as they begin to sort everything out and plot their escape they're taken to The Doctor's home planet where they are separated, and we learn a little bit about how The Doctor's face keeps changing. 108. Spearhead From Space (3, Brigadier, Liz, Autons) Picking up from the previous episode for the first time, we meet a new and confused face of The Doctor and see him interact with someone who was familiar with a previous face. We also meet the Autons, an odd race of mannequins. 109. Terror Of The Autons (3, Brigadier, Jo, Mike, Autons, The Master) More mannequins! More Brigadier! The introduction of a very important villain who also appears to be a Time Lord. 110. Rose (9, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Autons) This is probably the last time we'll see The Autons. It's much further down The Doctor's timeline, and they're targeting London. Once again, there's a new face of The Doctor, and he's trying to get a hold on who he is. 111. The Christmas Invasion (10, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Harriet Jones) Oh, hey, we're back to the very first face of The Doctor we met this season. Only, oooh, this is his first adventure. Is it those damned mannequins again? Luckily, we have three companions from the last episode to help a seemingly exhausted Doctor remember who he is and what he should be doing: saving Earth from aliens! 112. The Eleventh Hour (12, Amy, Rory) Another another another face of The Doctor, also confused, lands on Earth and discovers cracks on a young girl's wall. We also see for the first time several of the faces he's already had on this weird journey. 113. & 114. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood (12, Amy, Rory, Silurians) The Doctor's companions from the last adventure join him on a drilling expedition where they go too far beneath The Earth's surface and get involved in interspecies warfare. 115. Vincent & The Doctor (12, Amy) After the previous episode's events, The Doctor takes Amy to visit one of Earth's greatest painters. 116 & 117. Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead (10, Donna, River) Back to our original Doctor. He and a friend are drawn to a library where an expedition has arrived to research why there are no people there. One of the members of the expedition seems to know The Doctor but he has no idea who she is. 118. Time Crash / Castrovalva (10, 5, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, The Master) This is a fun, weird continuity floof. Our friend the 10th Doctor runs into a face we haven't met yet (The Fifth Doctor), and they suss each other out. Then we follow The Fifth Doctor into his first adventure where he wakes up surrounded by companions who know him but, as we're becoming accustomed to, he isn't sure who he is or what he should be doing. Oh, and The Master is around, which is annoying. 119. The Enemy Within (7, 8, The Master) Two new faces in one! The Seventh Doctor has The Master's remains, and is trying to determine what to do with them when, of course, something goes awry that ends up causing The Doctor to regenerate in America where everything is a teensy bit darker and more violent. 120. The Fugitive Of The Judoon (13, Yasmin, Ryan, Graham, Judoon, Fugitive) And now we're back to the Steampunk Doctor. A military alien race has quarantined Earth as they search for a criminal who, you're never going to believe this, turns out to be Another face of The Doctor. 121. The Two Doctors (6, 2, Jamie, Peri, Sontarans) Another multiple Doctor affair sees some Sontarans and some Earthlings and some other rogue aliens teaming up. One of the alien races is always searching for new and more refined culinary experiences and they bring a very silly element to an otherwise grave situation. 122. War Of The Sontarans (13, Yasmin, Dan, Sontarans) There's not a silly culinary alien in sight when The Sontarans due to some weird timey-wimey scenario, end up on Earth during World War One and therefore on Earth for the entirety of the 20th and 21st century? Steampunk Doctor must try and correct a very jumbled history. 123. & 124. The Time Meddler (1, Vicki, Steve) Reaching way back into the black and white era, we see The Doctor and his companions have to deal with The Monk, another time traveler who is messing up history by exposing ancient civilizations to twentieth century technology. 125. Heaven Sent (12) It's just The Doctor. Trapped in a puzzle, he must figure out not only how to escape but why he's there but every time a mysterious entity reaches him, he is dissolved and has to start the quest over. It's a phenomenal episode and shows exactly who The Doctor is when he's focused and against insurmountable odds. How To Watch The WWE In A Focused, Fun Manner Whether You're New Or A Long Time Fan, 20: Thunderdome10/1/2024 2020 was a serious drag. Pandemic, another terrible American election, Brexit kept getting somehow worse, it might have made you want to lock yourself in your house, if you weren't in fact mandated to stay in your house because of a plague. The Thunderdome era featured WWE piping in fan noise and having walls of iPads showing fans who were watching online. NXT, AEW, and Impact just had very limited audiences, usually made up of non-competing wrestlers and personalities. While this was a bit of a bummer, most of the companies found creative ways to entertain, including cinematic matches, and a ton of stipulations. The biggest story to come out of this is The Bloodline Saga, which is somehow still going on, over four years later. Season 20: |
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