In the minds of many, myself included, AC/DC is more than just a band; it’s an institution of rock — a way of life for over four decades. The group was formed in 1973 by the Young brothers, Angus and Malcolm, in their adopted homeland of Australia. The outfit released a couple of very successful albums in Australia in 1975 — High Voltage and T.N.T. Tracks for these two were then combined for AC/DC’s global debut album, High Voltage, in 1976. And the rest of the story, as that old adage states, is history.
The band’s minimalistic, hard-rocking, no-frills songs and sound are AC/DC trademarks that have remained unfalteringly consistent for 43 years and some 19 albums (including live ones). Self-righteous critics and self-appointed “experts” are often quick to dismiss the band as a three- or four-chord, one-trick pony, but over 200 million global album sales prove them wrong. Many moons ago, a snarky reporter asked Angus what it felt like to have effectively released the same album 10 times. The axeman’s response was as lightning fast and cutting as one of his celebrated solos: “That’s a dirty lie, mate — we’ve made the same record 12 times!”
During the ’90s, I had the profound good fortune of getting together with Angus for an article on his playing in Guitar World magazine. The result? A piece entitled “That’s the Way: A Private Lesson with Angus Young.” And, as the title maybe suggests, armed with a cream-colored Gibson SG, Angus showed me how he played a few of AC/DC’s often wrongly transcribed riffs.
I guess Angus liked what I wrote (phew!) because, shortly after that article hit the streets, he agreed to do a series of six monthly columns for the magazine, with yours truly conducting the Q&A for each one. As I’m sure you can imagine, those few hours spent with him were not only amazing — they were priceless. The title of Mr. Young’s column? “Let There Be Rock.” Then, when they were rerun a few years later, they were equally aptly titled “Dirty Deeds.”
The accompanying 5 Famous AC/DC Riffs Frequently Played Wrong video (a.k.a. 5 Famous AC/DC Riffs Played the Angus Way) is a direct result of those two encounters. The five riffs covered are from the following classic cuts:
- “Hells Bells”
- “You Shook Me All Night Long”
- “For Those About to Rock”
- “Sin City”
- “Riff Raff”
Plus, the proverbial elephant in the room “Highway to Hell” as a bonus.
To be honest (as opposed to lying!), the video covers all the above pretty thoroughly, so here’s a quick overview, followed by Angus’s unique fingering of an open G5 power chord and AC/DC’s trademark D/F# shape, then finishing up with some memorable “according to Angus” quotes plundered from my time with rock’s favorite schoolboy.
“Hells Bells” (Back in Black, 1980)
Its hauntingly catchy opening A minor riff is often performed and transcribed in the open position — the notes are right, but the position is wrong. Angus starts the riff off in the fifth position, making it sound slightly darker and also way easier to play. “Perhaps those guys were playing it the right way!” Angus quipped when discussing the open position versions.
“You Shook Me All Night Long” (Back in Black, 1980)
Just like “Hells Bells,” the notes of the opening two bars are 100% right but fretted where Angus does. The “incorrect” way is played near the nut, whereas Angus plays the same exact notes but higher up the neck. The “Angus way” has a few subtle advantages: a slightly warmer sound, it makes it easier to apply a subtle fretboard hand vibrato to the opening dyad and also eliminates the chance of the open G string note ringing in either sympathy or if struck by accident.
“For Those About to Rock” (For Those About to Rock, 1981)
I’ve frequently seen Angus’s cleverly syncopated, hybrid-picked opening salvo incorporating either the open B string as a “drone” on every pluck — or the same note an octave higher at the 12th fret on the same string used in the same exact way. Both options sound pretty cool and nice and full, but neither are the “Angus way.” He plays the same progression but minus the B string, just using the G and high E strings. He sounds the repeated F# note at the 11th fret on the G string with his pick while simultaneously plucking the notes on the high E string with one of his picking hand fingers. “You can’t always be going for the throat,” Angus grins wryly.
“Sin City” (Powerage, 1978)
This driving riff is a live favorite that revolves around a quartet of power chords: E5, B5, D5, and A5. Sounds simple, right? And it is, but where you finger said power chords is vital for what Angus refers to as the riff sounding “tough.” And this is where AC/DC’s predisposition for using a lot of open chord shapes comes into play. Watch and listen to the video, and all will be revealed with regard to the required “toughness.”
“Riff Raff” (Powerage, 1978)
Like 99% of all transcriptions I’ve seen of the riff in question, I’ve been guilty of playing just one fleeting note in it an octave too low for decades! I was playing the open A string note when I should have been playing the A an octave higher at the second fret on the G string. The note in question passes by in a flash, and the riff played my “old, wrong way” sounds great. Careful scrutiny of both Angus’s and Malcolm’s picking on YouTube revealed the truth, and then a fan-made video of Angus jamming the tune with Guns ‘n’ Roses in the Netherlands in 2017 made it 110% certain!
Bonus: “Highway to Hell” (Highway to Hell, 1979)
The proverbial “elephant in the room” riff! I say this because if I didn’t mention it, I’d be troll-bait, and if I did, I’d be damned too! The fact that Angus and Malcolm play a D/F# chord shape (see photo 2) as opposed to a “normal” open D chord in this classic three-chord riff is old news…real old news. The vital importance of the timing of the riff is not. One of my favorite YouTubers, Paul Davids, made a wonderful video of this oft-overlooked and deceptively difficult aspect of what many refer to as “one of the simplest rock riffs to play.”
And talking of “Highway to Hell,” here’s the somewhat unusual way Mr. Young fingers the G5 and D/F# chords in it…
Striking a chord — the Angus way
The second chord played in “Highway to Hell” is an open G5 power chord — namely, the well-known open G chord shape played without the major third note, B, at the second fret on the A string. To do this is easy:
- Don’t fret that note… duh!
- Mute the A string with the soft underside of the finger you’re using to play the G note on the low E string. This is vital as you obviously don’t want that string to sound.
Here’s how Angus fingers this G5 shape, using my hand:
As you can see, Angus’s fingering of this chord is a little different than most. He’s using his ring (third) finger to simultaneously fret the G note on the low E string and mute the A string and his pinky to fret the D note on the B string and also mute the high E string — that way, if he hits that string, it’ll be silent.
The next photo is my hand showing how Angus fingers the D/F# chord shape that immediately follows the G5.
As you can see, he’s now using his middle finger to fret the F# note on the low E string while muting the A string with its underside. His third finger has moved to the A note at the second fret on the G string, while his pinky remains where it was for the G5, fretting the D note on the B string while muting the high E.
And there you have it. While these two fingerings might seem a little unusual, they certainly do facilitate the quick switching between the two shapes that the main “Highway to Hell” riff calls for.
To close, as promised, a handful of revealing and often amusing “according to Angus” quotes from my unforgettable time with the man.
According to Angus…
On his rhythm playing style:
“I just plug in and hit the thing really hard. Because I’m so small, when I strike an open A chord, I actually get thrown to the left, and when I play an open G, I go right. That’s how hard I play, and that’s how a lot of my act on stage comes about.”
On why he picks so hard:
“I always liked to really hit the string. I grew up with Malcolm who, besides having a really great right [picking] hand, really understands how to get the most out of a guitar. He would always tell me, ‘don’t tickle it; hit the bugger!’ The funny thing is, when you learn to play really hard, you also learn the instrument’s limitations.
“I honestly believe that you have to be able to play the guitar hard if you want to be able to get a totally different sound by playing it softly. I normally play hard, so when I start picking a bit more softly, my tone changes completely, and that’s really useful for creating a more laid-back feel.”
On why AC/DC uses open chords so much:
“Yeah, we tend to stay at that end of the neck… it’s easier for us to reach! Actually, it’s the sound quality of open chords that’s the thing. They’re big sounding buggers, and they can ring for ages. I mean, take a song like ‘Problem Child’ [Let There Be Rock, 1977], play it with barre chords, and you’ll hear exactly what I mean. It’s just not ‘tough’ sounding anymore.”
On the difference between his and the late, great Malcolm’s complementary guitar tones:
“Mine is grungier compared to Mal’s; I’m a lot dirtier sounding. Mal has a nice, thick, biting tone with a big, warm bottom and bright highs — it’s a sound a lot of guitarists would love to have but could never get. Actually, if you listen to him carefully, his sound is really clean — there’s not half as much distortion as most people think.
“Compared to some of the stuff going on out there, my sound is pretty clean too. Actually, a lot of people who’ve picked up my guitar have been shocked at just how clean it is.”
Got Marshalls?!? Malcolm’s backline on the 2010 “Black Ice Tour.”
On what makes AC/DC, er, AC/DC:
“Our art is there is no art! The critics view is always, ‘they’ve just made an album, and it’s exactly the same as the last one.’ Well, I’ll have 17 of them anytime! A lot of bands can chop and change their style into almost anything. We’ve never gotten sidetracked like that: we know what we do best, and we’ve never strayed from it. If we did, then it wouldn’t be AC/DC. I mean, if I wanna hear some reggae, then I’ll by a @#$%in’ Bob Marley album!
“A song’s got to have a good rhythm, that’s the first requirement. As Mal often says, ‘If it doesn’t swing, it doesn’t mean a thing.’ It’s also got to rock, ’cause if we can’t sink our teeth into it, we don’t play it. There has to be something in there that makes it stand out from the next band too — y’know, that little spark, that little bit of magic. And we like it to be a song, not just a collection of riffs. It has to flow and be very natural.
“I’m what you might call a musical illiterate. I mean, I don’t even know the names of half the chords I play! To me, rock and roll has always been a very visceral thing, so it’s very difficult for me to pick it apart and discuss it. There’s no magic formula to what we do… it either feels right or it doesn’t — end of story.”
Why is Bowcott smiling? Because that’s one of Angus’s SGs he holding!