February 19th – I think, of all the twee and off-kilter
diagnosis ever passed on a rock/pop star's death, one of them has got to be the
wording on Bon Scott’s death verdict sheet. The coroner wrote: ‘death by
misadventure.’ Now, ‘acute alcoholic poisoning’ and, ‘aspiration of vomit’
were also cited on that sheet so I guess we can say the coroner was not conversant with the ways and means of the rock world; an inclusion of those two facts would have made his death seem so much more rock 'n' roll but instead he plumped for ’death by misadventure’? Be an interesting statement to put
on your tombstone: “Here by Accident”
As front man of AC/DC Mr. Scott, for
my cash, was the forerunner of the screamer bands that are so prevalent now. To
say he had a way with a tune would be a huge understatement and I remember,
when I first heard them, thinking, “Why do they pitch their songs so high? That
guy really has to scream the lyrics”. Obvious now, of course, that was the
bloody point; all part of the AC/DC treatment. The adrenaline driven albums
they produced, ‘High Voltage’, ‘Let There Be Rock’, ‘Powerage’, would never
have worked with anything less than Mr. Scott’s vocal rendition which, I like to
think, reflected his personality.
Hard drinking, hard living and a
sprinkling of natural medication all helped contribute to the personality of a
vocalist who, by all accounts gave you what he was, both in performance and
private. So, with that as a C.V. it was the news that he had died on this day
in 1980 that prompted me to ask, “Does the replacement ever replace?”
Brian Johnson had this hard act to
follow. He was vocalist with a band called ‘Geordie’, a UK glam-rock type band who
had a few hits and some decent exposure throughout the 70’s, and AC/DC were
billed alongside them when Bon Scott was strutting his stuff, so both Mr.
Johnson and AC/DC had previous. After Mr. Scott’s demise, Mr. Johnson was
enrolled into the line up and my guess is he must have entered that arena with
a fair amount of trepidation even with his level of familiarity. We’re
talking about taking over the spot of someone who has a statue dedicated to his
exploits as a vocalist in his home country, has a grave that is in the top ten
sites to visit for Australian tourists, has a hardcore…now there’s a word;
‘hardcore’. I come from a time when, if someone told me they were into hardcore
I assumed they were a road builder working for Wimpey’s; time and a word,
huh...? Anyway, Bon Scott, he had a hardcore following who would probably NEVER
accept anyone usurping his place in the band…not even Elvis. So, Mr. Johnson was
taken in and then, as if to rub salt into the wound had the unenviable task of
working on and completing an album that AC/DC had already started making…with Mr.
Scott. Bet that conversation was interesting. Having to fit into an already
established band is hard enough, but having to work on a partially completed
playlist, some of it already penned by the deceased member you’re replacing who had god-like status with the fans…?
Well, that’s what they did, and the
result? ‘Back In Black’. Probably the best title ever for one of the best
albums ever. Chutzpah and hard rock of a standard rarely heard in the rock
world. Must have been a Hallelujah moment when Johnson just thought, ‘I’ll be
me; fuck ’em all. I can’t walk in the shadows.’
And in spite of thinking it was maybe just
a bit unfeeling of the remaining AC/DC members not to pen a whole new set of
tracks, by not throwing out the work already done on it, by remembering
the album’s foundation and the route they had travelled to get there, Mr. Scott’s spirit was contained in some of the writing and music on that album; a ghost-glimpse of
his remarkable talent and a blessing on and acceptance of his replacement?
Oh, and BTW, I wanted to put in
something about the fact that this was the day, in 1995, when Pamela Anderson
married Tommy Lee in Cancun and they went off
on honeymoon, but thought it best to leave that to your imagination…
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