ACDC Reimagined Discography For People Who Only Really Know ACDC From Soundtracks Or Osmosis

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, he 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.

It is creepy that the most recognizable member of the group of a bunch of old, creepy, innuendo screeching Australians looks and dresses like a little boy.

1. For Those About To Rock

When I shared this reimagined album description with some friends, I was advised that the beginning of this song is not an amazing synthesizer riff but, in fact, someone finger-picking a guitar. This is an astounding feat of intrumental camouflage but not the only one you'll find on this reimagined album.

This gets opening track credit for its amazing slow build to the heavier portion of the song. This is precisely the type of song I look for when putting together most of these reimagined albums. Neither their best nor their loudest song, I just love the chorus, 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. 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 of 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 Brian Johnson 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