AC/DC - High Voltage

When I first started buying my own music, from groups other than Alice Cooper and The Beach Boys, I mainly focused on AC/DC. One of the first CDs I bought was High Voltage. This album is mainly made up of songs from AC/DC's T.N.T., which was only released in Australia at the end of 1975.

Also this version of High Voltage should not be confused with the Australian release from 1975, with the same name. A couple of the songs from that album were on this one, but most of the songs from that album ended up on the international release '74 Jailbreak.

This High Voltage was internationally released in 1976 and contained seven of the nine songs found on T.N.T, as well as two from the the Australian album with the same name.

The 1976, internationally released High Voltage starts off with It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll). First, let me start with saying AC/DC used Bag Pipes in rock n' roll first. This was the first and only time I heard them in rock until around the change of the millenium. All in all a good solid start to the album.

Rock 'N' Roll Singer is the song I care for the least on this album. It's a "skip it" tune for me. Not because it's bad, but due to it being a very basic, A-typical AC/DC song. The only real filler on this album from my point of view.

The Jack may be the greatest song ever written about venereal disease, although it's not overly clear on this radio friendly, poker game song. There's a lot of anger and resentment in this song, as well as blues riffing and vocal frothing. I love the way "She' got the jack" comes out of Bon Scott's mouth, like he's spitting out poison.

There's this great simple bass riff that plays over and over, as soft crunchy sounding chords work up to a ruckus at the begining of Live Wire. The song feels a little hollow and empty, but where that would often take away from a song for me, it allows this one to rip itself apart as it powers up in the choruses. This song is literally explosive sounding, more so than T.N.T I think. Live Wire's not my favourite AC/DC song, but it's one of the ones that gets me most psych'd up.

That brings me to T.N.T., to which all I have to say is "Oi! Oi! Oi!"

Okay I have more than that to say. This song makes me want to start a bar fight, kick some ass, and wake up in the county jail. T.N.T. is the bad boy of rock and roll, that you just do not fuck with.

The next three songs are "take 'em or leave 'em" songs. I like all of them, but don't feel a need to listen to them unless they are mixed into my CD player.

Can I Sit Next To You Girl is very energetic. It's like a kid on a trampoline pounding back Red Bulls, while trying to pull some tail. It's a single ADHD case trying to get a little DP with nothing but a cocky attitude, a lot of sweat, and only one penis. This song is worse than a mastif humping your leg, with it's lyrical content.

Next up is Little Lover. It's slower, groovier, and reeks of even more dirty sex than the last song. It starts playing all nice and shy, with a little perversion, then opens up into a full out orgy of inuendo and primal lust. It's very sleezy, in a way that I think only rock stars and teenagers get.

Of the three songs I can take or leave on High Voltage, She's Got Balls is the one on the bottom. There is no easy explanation except for maybe that by this point in the CD I've been in a teenage hormonal over drive for too long. It could also be that somewhere in the back of my head, I think this is a song about one of the guys in the band discovering that he accidently hooked up with a transvestite, and is screaming "She's got balls" as he runs from the room.

The title track for this album, may actually be the weakest song on the album. It's much like Live Wire in style, but not in performance. The instrumentation is excellent, in fact I think they branch out and explore their sound on this song more so than on any other on the album. At the end of the album though, I've just heard too much of the same thing and it takes the song down a notch or two by this point.

As a teenager this was one of my favourite albums. I played it over and over, much to my mom's dislike, and never tired of it. I still love this album and throw it on all the time. However, it doesn't hold as much for me as it once did. Not to mention there are other, better, AC/DC albums.

7/10 - content

7/10 - production

8/10 - personal bias