I'm a huge AC/DC fan and play in a classic hard rock cover band that does quite a few AC/DC songs (our drummer has that whole Bon Scott/Brian Johnson voice perfected).
My drummer and I both just finished this book a few months back...
AC/DC - Maximum Rock & Roll
Quite interesting for me as a bass player playing hard rock. Both Mark Evans and Cliff Williams are covered in the book, but I found it interesting that Cliff Williams was auditioning for Manfred Mann at the time he got a call to try out for AC/DC and that he was quite an accomplished bass player on the scene in England prior to being AC/DC's bass player.
Mostly...just the whole attitude of AC/DC has really rubbed off on our whole band and we are playing with more attitude ourselves and it is no coincidence that crowds are getting bigger and wilder for our band. We just appreciate AC/DC's candor about what Rock music should be. Being older (in our late 40's), over the last couple of years we just became a little jaded and complacent in our approach to our gigs. But now we've stopped taking ourselves so damned serious as "musicians" and have started to just play our asses off much more over the last few months or so since we've read this book. No more F'in "polite" music or low volume just to placate some people. Now it's more just us sayin to the crowds, "
be prepared to rock your ass off tonight." Bar owners can't wait to hire us back because we are packing clubs again. Funny...same set list basically with maybe a few more harder rockers on it.
Even our regular crowd has told us we aren't the same band anymore...like we've just taken our gigs to a whole new level.
The more AC/DC we play, the more I appreciate the simplicity of Cliff's playing. After 30 years of playing more complex rock music (Yes, Rush, etc.) I am almost embarrassed to say I've only recently had that "light bulb" moment of realizing just how much more powerful rock music is when you give it some "space".
After all these years of feeling like I would only be thought of as a good bass player if I played complex sh*t, I've come to find that is exactly what I think it is...sh*t
I am having this metamorphosis in my playing. I feel liberated being able to just play good, solid bass in a rock band, without feeling the need to play anything fancy at all. Letting the music breathe and getting so much more satisfaction out of playing simpler (yet more powerful) bass lines is just so damned much fun!
Anyway, for those who may not have read the book, it is a great way to re-live those days of life on the road (if you've done that) and to see that even rock legends like AC/DC didn't have it all given to them. They are, without a doubt, the hardest working rock band of all time. Very inspiring book for rock lovers.
The perfect book for rockers that are sick and tired of being politically correct performers. We're too loud? We smoke? We don't play enough slow dance tunes? We drink too much? "
, We'll just go somewhere else and take your crowd with us then!" Interesting that is exactly what is happening. Bars that don't want to hire us for those reasons are losing their crowd to the places that will hire us...and now those old clubs want us back! LOL.
Rock and Roll. It's ALL attitude. Great book about a GREAT band that knew how to do rock and roll the right way. Simple music? Yup...just like a punch in the face, simple.
