My Life Is A Song #4

Yeah, okay, so this song is kind of cliché to put on a list of great songs.  It’s on every classic rock radio countdown, often in the top ten.  I admit this isn’t exactly an inspired choice or an example of digging deep into a legendary band’s catalogue.  Nonetheless it is a great song, a legendary song, and I’m willing to bet it’s the first song that comes to mind when the name AC/DC is mentioned.

This is why my hearing sucks

Sure, there are many terrific AC/DC songs and some are arguably better than this one.  There may even be some on the album from which this song comes that are better.  That does not diminish how great a hard rock song this is or the fact that it is absolutely the song that initiated my decades long love affair with AC/DC.

If you recall last week’s post, rock and roll was hardly a mainstay of my childhood.  Discovering AC/DC was a glorious moment in my life and I have two fond memories both a direct result of this song and this band.

The first is mowing my Grandpa’s lawn, earbuds in place, AC/DC cranked as loud as my Walkman would go so that I could hear the songs over the noise of the lawnmower.  It was the only thing that kept me sane during that boring hour long chore I did weekly each summer.  It may also account for my less than stellar hearing abilities today.

The second is having this song being played soon after midnight at The Twist every Saturday night.  The Twist was the big dance club in Waterloo and I hated going there with the passion of a pack of jackals on a zebra carcass.  But that’s where the hot girls in enticing outfits were every Saturday so that’s where we went.  Thankfully each Saturday, at midnight or soon after, they’d play a short set of rock songs.  I have no idea why but I’m ever so grateful they did.  It was the only truly enjoyable time I had at The Twist, mostly because said girls never had much interest in me.  This song was one they always played, the dance floor jammed with raucous air guitar impresarios.

Surely you’ve all guessed it by now.  I’m kicking off your weekend with “You Shook Me (All Night Long)” by AC/DC from one of the greatest rock albums of all time, the 1980 post Bon Scott comeback album Back In Black.  I should also like to say that this video is just awesome; nothing fancy, no gimmicks, just five guys playing rock and/or roll.  Take that The Twist!

Studio