{"id":23524,"date":"2020-05-03T00:21:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T04:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=23524"},"modified":"2020-05-03T12:58:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T16:58:34","slug":"why-powerage-by-ac-dc-is-the-greatest-album-youve-never-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/why-powerage-by-ac-dc-is-the-greatest-album-youve-never-heard\/","title":{"rendered":"Why \u201cPowerage\u201d by AC\/DC is the Greatest Album You\u2019ve Never Heard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Recently, I decided to answer a question on Faceblearrgh that nobody had actually asked me \u2014 namely:\u00a0\u201chey, HVB.\u00a0Can you name 10 albums that are absolutely perfect?\u201d\u00a0Like a gladiator, I rose to my own challenge, and, facing myself as disdainful Caesar in the stands, recited my list, boldly, proudly, flawless disc by flawless disc, as the hungry lions circled.\u00a0I was thoroughly pleased as I watched myself lift my royal thumb towards the sky in approval of my own bold opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AC\/DC - Riff Raff (Filmed April 30, 1978)\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ErXbMB9R5-0?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But, no, I\u2019m not here to tell you which albums made my list \u2014 nor am I asking you for yours.\u00a0We\u2019re supposed to be above that kind of shit here in the Halls of Rocke Towne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will, however, spend a few moments explaining why one album from my list \u2014 an album you\u2019ve probably never heard, called \u201cPowerage\u201d \u2014 is not just the best album in AC\/DC\u2019s career; it may also be one of the best albums ever made. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Howzabout we *not* start with a discussion of Angus Young\u2019s \u201cmanic\u201d\/\u201cslashing\u201d\/\u201cangry\u201d\/whatever guitar playing. That is a thing, for sure, but yawn.\u00a0Ditto for the overall quality of the songs, musically speaking.\u00a0Those are givens here. No, I want to talk about the lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lord knows, Bon Scott has a well deserved reputation for writing leering single-entendres about big butts, crabs, booze, and the general, universe-wide, triumphant reality of feeling good (as opposed to the pointless pursuit of being good, or things that actually are good).\u00a0But there\u2019s a strong current of Bon\u2019s songwriting that speaks to ordinary losers, and about the stacked decks, con artists, and rich dickheads that keep them down. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Down Payment Blues\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QFyGuuJJfKU?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To be clear, \u201cPowerage\u201d features a few fine songs about sexual frustration (\u201cGimme a Bullet\u201d), romantic rejection\/betrayal (\u201cKicked In the Teeth\u201d), actually-scary S&amp;M perversion (\u201cWhat\u2019s Next To the Moon\u201d) and so forth, and they\u2019re all surprisingly compelling \u2014 no, really \u2014 but most of the record is about (are you ready for this?) the class war, and whether or not Bon thinks it\u2019s worth your time to fight in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the time, he doesn\u2019t seem to think there\u2019s any point.\u00a0His characters revel in the freedom their lack of status grants them (\u201cRiff Raff\u201d), find humor in their own materialism and harmless hypocrisies (\u201cDown Payment Blues\u201d) \u2014 or he sings from his own heart about the perpetual unfairness of capitalism (and his cynical wish to be the top dog), as in \u201cSin City.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What&#039;s Next to the Moon\" width=\"695\" height=\"521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gf23KfIW3dc?feature=oembed&amp;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But, meta-analysis aside, here\u2019s the last point I want to make: Bon\u2019s words *sound* great.\u00a0Any student of Chuck Berry (as Bon was) knows that\u2019s the really important thing.\u00a0Do the words sound good?\u00a0Do they make your reptile brain happy?\u00a0Are they good to your earhole?\u00a0Do they make you want to sing along?\u00a0All across this working man\u2019s hard rock album, the answer to those questions is a full-on, beer-drenched \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPowerage\u201d by AC\/DC is flawless, and Bon Scott\u2019s lyrics are a big part of the reason why.\u00a0I have spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HVB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I decided to answer a question on Faceblearrgh that nobody had actually asked me \u2014 namely:\u00a0\u201chey, HVB.\u00a0Can you name 10 albums that are absolutely perfect?\u201d\u00a0Like a gladiator, I rose to my own challenge, and, facing myself as disdainful Caesar in the stands, recited my list, boldly, proudly, flawless disc by flawless disc, as the <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/why-powerage-by-ac-dc-is-the-greatest-album-youve-never-heard\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[13,204],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}