High Voltage – The Australian pack that woke the world

Atlantic pack from Albert Studios

In May 1976, Atlantic and Atco put High Voltage in shops outside Australia, and for most listeners that LP was the first AC/DC record they could actually buy. It was not a fresh studio album cut in one run. Seven tracks came from the Australian T.N.T. sessions of mid-1975 at Albert Studios in Sydney; Little Lover and She’s Got Balls reached back to the November 1974 Australian High Voltage dates. Harry Vanda and George Young produced both source albums. The international sleeve sold a band already road-hardened, not a debut demo.

Rhythm and riff come through first. The polish does not. Malcolm Young’s right-hand pulse sits under Angus Young’s SG leads; Bon Scott sneers and swings rather than belting for radio. It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll) opens with bagpipes, a George Young idea after he learned Bon had marched in a pipe band as a teenager. Bon had been a drummer in that band, not a piper, so he learned the instrument enough to track it and later take it on stage. The pipes rarely behaved live. On record they mark the song as something no other hard-rock act was doing in 1975.

T.N.T. turns a studio chant into the gang shout on the record. George Young caught Angus muttering « oi » to himself and pushed him to record it as a gang call. The Jack stretches a blues double entendre over a slow grind; Live Wire and Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer keep the tempo mean and the guitars dry. Mark Evans and Phil Rudd lock the bottom end on the T.N.T. material. The mix leaves space for Bon’s rasp instead of burying it under stacks of overdubs.