Angus Young has reflected on the AC/DC song that he is most ashamed of.
The stalwart rocker is currently in the thick of promoting Acca Dacca’s excellent comeback album, Power Up. During a recent interview with Vulture, Young was asked what he considers to be the “most regrettable AC/DC song.” Unsurprisingly, it’s the saccharine High Voltage track ‘Love Song’.
“On our first album, ‘High Voltage’, we did a love song called ‘Love Song’. That was very different for us,” Young revealed. “I didn’t know if we were trying to parody love songs of the time, because Bon [Scott, the band’s then-vocalist] wrote the lyrics. I don’t even remember what the words are.
“I remember that song because the guy who worked for us at our record label told us that’s what was on the local radio at the time – very soft music. His thought we should release that song, because it’ll probably get some airplay. I remember thinking, ‘Who in their right mind would want this to go out?’”
Thankfully, AC/DC’s reputation was able to overshadow their serenade slip-up. “We were very fortunate, though, because all of the radio stations who had seen us live knew this was not who we were,” he mused.
“So these stations started to flip the record over and play the other song, which was a cover of a blues standard called ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’. We actually scored a hit from the B-side. That was the one saving grace of the song.”
Angus Young recently weighed in on what he believes to be the crowning glory in the AC/DC canon during an interview with Swiss publication SRF 3. Hailing 1977’s Let There Be Rock as their greatest achievement.
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“The reason why I like Let There Be Rock is because my brother, George [Young], who was producing it, when he said to us at the beginning, when we were making that record, he had me and Malcolm [Young], and he was sitting with us and he said, ‘What sort of album do you wanna do this time?’,” he revealed.
“And Malcolm just looked at me, and he said, ‘We just want an album that’s just gonna be pure hard rock guitar’.”
“And I thought it was great, because everyone else in the world was into whole other genres – there was punk music, there was new wave; it was all this other stuff that was coming out – and I just thought, ‘This is pure magic’.
And that album defined AC/DC in my eyes. That’s when I went, ‘This is a great band.’”
Check out ‘Love Song’ by AC/DC:
