The Cavern
Rock & Words
IF YOU WANT BLOOD YOU’VE GOT IT (AC/DC, 1978)
Artist: AC/DC (C)
Recording Date: Apr 1978
Release Date: October 13, 1978, US
Record Label: Atlantic Records
Producer: Harry Vanda & George Young
Score: 10
Best Song: Whole Lotta Rosie, followed by Bad Boy Boogie
Canciones: 1) Riff Raff; 2) Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be; 3) Bad Boy Boogie; 4) The Jack; 5) Problem Child; 6) Whole Lotta Rosie; 7) Rock & Roll Damnation; 8) High Voltage 9) Let There Be Rock 10) Rocker.
Yes, I know, I'm skipping Powerage, but honestly, I wanted to take advantage of the fact that AC/DC is finishing the Latin American leg of their Power Up tour, blowing away every stadium they play, to kick off reviews with this album. We'll get back to Powerage later, but it was impossible to ignore the hurricane that the Australian band has become. Angus, at 71, is still a beast on stage, and although Malcolm is sorely missed, Stevie hasn't done too badly. This gigantic tour started on May 17, 2024, and the last date is scheduled for the end of September 2026, so it's truly monumental. No, I didn't go see them; tomorrow is actually the second show in Mexico City. Given the scale of the tour and the difficulties they've faced in recent years, it smells, reeks of farewell, but I'm still hoping they'll come back and I'll get to see them again.
Well, I was wondering how to properly kick off the reviews, and after several attempts, a video of AC/DC turning Argentina's River Plate stadium into a human tide came to mind as the perfect example. Wow, my respect to Argentinians for the way they rock 'n' roll! And I said to myself: let's start alphabetically to be fair. So instead of overwhelming you with an impossible review of the four Beatles Anthologies (which will come later, but separately), I prefer to start with this fantastic album, which is the best proof (and only official version) of AC/DC's live power with Bon Scott.
By 1978, the Young brothers—Bon, Cliff, and Phil—had become a true powerhouse. Powerage, released in April of '78, had brought them very good sales, but what really catapulted them to stardom was the massive 63-concert tour in the United States, which began in June. The band decided to spend two weeks on vacation in Miami before kicking off, knowing they needed to recharge. They started by opening for Alice Cooper for four shows on the East Coast, while Powerage began its climb up the charts. It's worth mentioning that Cliff Williams had just replaced Mark Evans on bass during the Powerage sessions, giving the rhythm section much more solidity and dynamism, but this would be his first tour, and the improvement was immediately noticeable live. In July, they played in Texas, San Antonio, California, Utah, Oregon, Missouri, and Canada, where they performed alongside Montrose, Aerosmith, and Molly Hatchet. Rumor has it that this made them look like amateurs compared to the power the Australians had developed by this point, but it gave Bon the opportunity to party with Steven Taylor and Joe Perry, who was ecstatic about their music. They participated in the Texas World Music Festival, where they shared the stage with Ted Nugent, and basically, wherever they went, they were a sensation. If today they are a power machine… Cliff Williams and Angus himself would agree that they were at their best live, and although they have good recordings with Brian, in ’78 they were a perfectly oiled machine, full of youth, and at the peak of their strength.
When they landed in Los Angeles, at the packed Starwood, a young Vince Neil went to see them and was so ecstatic that the seed of Mötley Crüe was planted right there. Later, they shared the stage with Van Halen and Pat Travers in Oakland, while Powerage continued its slow climb on the Billboard charts, despite arriving with very little to no radio support. Around that time, they were heard by impresario Bill Graham, owner of the Fillmore East and West, which had been cathedrals of rock and music for years, in New York and San Francisco, respectively. They filled the West with 65,000 people. The United States simply could no longer ignore them. But their success wasn't all good news. Bands like Foreigner refused to go on after the Australians (and understandably so). Eddie Van Halen even once asked his manager if they were really going to follow that Australian tornado. AC/DC didn't care if they were first or last… their mantra before every concert remained unchanged: We go out to kill!!!
Such was the atmosphere within the band that the topic became unavoidable, and Angus finally brought it up on July 29th in an interview with Star News: “A live album could capture our time there where the people are, the energy, and the women, where I can make the guitar something lethal.”
More gigs followed, opening for Aerosmith (Hairy Smith, as Bon called them), Foreigner, and Van Halen in Chicago. There, Peter Mensch, Aerosmith's manager, would say: “People come to see Aerosmith, but they leave talking about AC/DC.” During August, they opened for Alvin Lee (formerly of Ten Years After), Rainbow, Ted Nugent, and Cheap Trick. More and more people were coming to see them instead of the headliners, until, at the Jacksonville stop, Cheap Trick flat-out asked them to close the show. In September, on the East Coast, they opened for UFO, Blue Oyster Cult, and Thin Lizzy. By this point, their shows were ending in riots, and Bon had to do his best to calm things down. The headliners usually came on stage in a panic. On one such occasion, in Cleveland, Thin Lizzy's manager, furious, went up to the sound engineer, Ian Jeffrey, punched him, and turned down the volume mid-concert, leaving them with practically only the monitors. After the show, the short-tempered Young brothers went after the promoter, but after threatening to beat him up, it ended in a $20,000 lawsuit in favor of the Australians for damaged equipment. Well, even today they have a reputation for being the loudest show on the planet!
The tour ended with the concerts on October 2nd and 3rd, with Powerage reaching 200,000 copies sold. It was then that they resumed their live tour. They had already accumulated tapes from that tour, so George Young and Harry Vanda resumed their role as producers, hired Mark Orpiz as sound engineer, and gave him the stack of tapes. The three of them selected tracks and began mixing and remixing. They had enough material for a high-quality triple album, but contrary to the standards of the time, they wanted a short but damn good record. The album is based on the concert at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, from April 30, 1978. It was chosen for the particular energy of that night, when Bon and the Youngs, of Scottish descent, shone, even appearing in traditional kilts.
The album was cut from "Dog Eat Dog" and other tracks from the concert, but the encore "Rocker" was kept as the album's closing song. The brilliant cover art was based on a photograph taken in August before the Boston concert. They modified a guitar and added fake blood to Angus to make it look like he was committing harakiri with it. The album title was based on Bon's response in an interview with a journalist who asked him before a concert: "What can you expect from the band?" - "Blood."
The album opens with Riff Raff. The first thing we hear is the roar of the crowd, applause, expectant whistles, and a few moments of feedback that build tension until the 0:40 mark when Angus's riff kicks in, playfully manipulating his guitar and igniting the audience, until the song explodes at 1:30 with the main riff, and before we know it, we're on a raging, full-throttle train. Bon doesn't enter until 2:24, with his raspy, perhaps imperfect, voice—but Brian, forgive me, it's the perfect fit for that pure rock machine called AC/DC. Malcolm shows why he was one of the best rhythm guitarists in the world, and then comes Angus's first pyrotechnic solo at 3:05. I bet Eddie picked up a few notes during the Van Halen concerts he shared with AC/DC, right? At 4:10 comes the sequence of ascending notes and the band is back in full swing. The crowd roars, Bon roars, Angus's SG roars in an impossible dialogue, and the rhythm section, now with Cliff, sounds tighter than ever. Pure rock and roll!
We continue with Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be from Let There Be Rock, and its devastating intro, until the tension explodes at :30 with Scott's "Hey You!" and the rest of the band joining in. I insist, Bon isn't perfect, he's not very technically gifted, but he has an attitude that sweeps everything away; his voice is another instrument as sharp as the Youngs' guitars. If we add to that the show he put on, throwing Angus onto his shoulders… Then comes the incendiary solo at 2:35, which extends to 3:10, and then back to Bon's screams. This is one of the highlights of Let There, but here it's somewhat overshadowed by the rest of the songs. I was about to leave it blank, but Bon… What Bon does here is for the annals of rock!
Bad Boy Boogie kicks off with its powerful riff without further ado. A steamroller from the first second, and it's understandable why people of the caliber of Joe Perry and Gary Moore were terrified to go on stage after a band capable of this. The song continues to build tension on its ascending scale, leading up to the choruses and that elastic bridge by Angus at 1:55, one of the most sublime moments in rock history. Phil Rudd is left alone, accompanying like a heartbeat, and then everyone comes back in for a pyrotechnic solo. At 2:40, Angus holds the note while Malcolm lays down a relentless, incisive riff, and then the song seems to fade. The audience claps. Angus's guitar starts to crackle. Tension. Magic. Imagine this in a stadium with 60,000 people in Latin America! At 4:45, they start to build again, higher and higher, until Rudd's drumming gets the engine running at full speed again, and we're back in the song in full force, with Bon screaming, the guitars in perfect harmony, and the rhythm section like a giant, perfectly synchronized clock. At 6:23, the song seems to fizzle out, but the younger Young brother manages to extend it with feedback and a sizzling return until the rest of the band finally takes their leave. Can you believe it's 7:30 long? A true gem.
Next up is The Jack from T.N.T., and I stand by my statement that it's a hilarious song, where 90% of the credit goes to Bon's tremendous personality and the lyrics, with their double entendre referencing an STD he contracted from a groupie… The solo is superb, but overall it's a bit repetitive and… well… stripper music. I said it! Even so, it's a classic, and it lends itself to Bon, then, and now Brian, getting the crowd singing along, like at 2:40. It's not bad. Not at all. But they could have included "It's A Long Way" instead.
Problem Child, from Dirty Deeds, kicks off with a bang. You can hear the crowd roaring, and Bon owns the place from the moment he starts singing. The combination of the two guitars and the rhythm section is heavenly. Notice how Cliff pulls away from the drums at 1:25 to accelerate towards the explosive chorus. The solo comes at 1:55 and is another one of those moments that define rock. And at 3:35, they raise the pitch by a half step, making the stadium erupt. It's one of those songs that ends on the climax of the solo, and you can feel it in the crowd's reaction at the end, even though they cut it off.
The studio version of Whole Lotta Rosie is a strong contender for the best AC/DC song ever. But this live version sounds more unrestrained, more powerful, with the band and the stadium in full explosion. Angus's riff, along with Malcolm's rhythmic onslaught, is monumental. Phil is tearing it up with the drumsticks, Cliff is a machine, and overall, everything is… brutal. By this point, AC/DC had become masters of those sudden stops and starts. The solo is meteoric; from one second to the next, the intensity drops to 2:45, but instead of letting the crowd die, listen to their reaction in the background. And then it's back at full speed, with Angus trying to kill his guitar and Bon screaming the title at the top of his lungs for that epic finale.
Then comes Rock & Roll Damnation from Powerage, with that venomous riff, Bon taking over with that "I'm going to leave my soul here" attitude. The chorus where you have to follow the melody of the bass, and then the signature breaks, but ending in some exquisite high notes, and then the "Damnation" that the Youngs scream while Scott answers them. We don't usually mention Cliff much, but here he simply shines; follow the bass. It's one of the shorter tracks on the album, but it's no less powerful.
We continue with High Voltage, from their self-titled Australian album of 1975. A tremendous live version, faithful to the studio recording, but I insist that, fueled by the adrenaline of the concert and the crowd, it takes on new dimensions. And I insist, Williams is a much better bassist than Evans, and he clicked better with Rudd, and it shows in this version. At 2:50, he's holding the song while Bon starts playing with the audience, seven years before Mercury's legendary "Eo." Malcolm's guitar crackles again, his younger brother begins an almost timid solo, paying tribute to Chuck Berry (can you imagine him hopping like a duck?), and out of nowhere, at 4:28, we're back in the full force of High Voltage, adrenaline pumping and wanting to jump around.
Let There Be Rock doesn't let up. It kicks off with the same power as the previous song ended, the dirty guitars painting bold rock strokes. The rhythm section holds the song together while Bon launches into the opening verses. A minute later, the Youngs return, Malcolm like a chainsaw, Angus like someone who speaks better with his guitar than with his mouth, flashing light with his fingers and strings. And then the train hits 180 kph again. Cliff gallops on bass, Bon practically spits out the lyrics “Let There Be Light! Let There Be ROOOOOOOCK!!!” One riff after another, one solo after another, and before we know it, eight and a half minutes of a monumental masterclass in how to rock have passed. If AC/DC in 2026 can unleash even half the energy they have here, I truly regret not seeing them on this tour. Angus's ending is simply sublime; it's not something you can prepare beforehand, but something that emerges from the nights on the road and the energy of the stage. God! The last 3 minutes deserve a colossal monument to that 5'2" genius!!! Bon's gone, Malcolm's gone, but the day Angus leaves, that's the day AC/DC ends!!!
The album closes with Rocker from T.N.T. It's the shortest song on the album, at just 3:15. It's part of the encore, and Bon sounds a bit tired, but he doesn't sound bad. The song has tons of energy, but while it far surpasses the studio version with Angus's solos, it still strikes me as very generic rock and roll. I suppose it's a good ending, but they had a good range of options to make it truly spectacular.
In short (I've been waiting eight years to say this), the album doesn't have any bad moments, although it could have had better ones. It's possible there were issues with the recordings of other songs that led to their exclusion, or perhaps they decided to stick strictly to the setlist from that Glasgow night. But overall, it's an impeccable, powerful live album, where the band's raw energy shines through, without a single mistake I could detect, and with a phenomenal chemistry with the audience that never overshadows them. And the band itself is the epitome of a perfectly synchronized and well-oiled machine, a flawless rock machine that could fill stadiums almost 50 years ago and still does today. The point is, Bon Scott is here at his peak, demonstrating that while he may not have been the most technically gifted singer, he was, at the time, one of the best and most charismatic frontmen in the world. And Cliff completely transforms the rhythm section. I'm not trying to diminish Brian Johnson, and I'm dying to see him live before they stop touring, but the energy, the power, the pure rock they display on this album makes me think we're unlikely to ever see AC/DC rock like they did in Glasgow in 1978 again.
I hope I'm wrong…
And I hope to see it.
By Corvan
Apr/10/2026
