Correction (March 1 10:35 pm): Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Backtracks is a two-CD, three-DVD set. The version reviewed by Diversions contains two CDs and one DVD. The story has been changed to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for these errors.
2.5 of 5 stars
AC/DC hasn’t aged well. Bon Scott’s death in 1980 and Brian Johnson’s ascension as lead singer was like the onset of some kind of degenerative disease. The body remained strong at first, but has been breaking down ever since. Unlike some bands who can successfully reinvent themselves time and again, AC/DC, since the mid-80s after Back in Black, has refused either to be true to the glory of their gritty past or to grow into something distinctly new.
By offering up Backtracks, a two-CD, one-DVD set focusing on rare studio and live songs spanning the decades, Columbia records is doing AC/DC fans both a great service and a great disservice. That service is bringing to light some real gems by the boys from Sydney. Many of the band’s studio songs were buried on European and Australian releases that didn’t make it to American markets, and that’s a shame, because a couple of them never should have been “rarities” in the first place. They should have been deep tracks on the early albums we know so well today.
“Crabsody in Blue” is a good example. It’s a quintessential Bon Scott masterpiece about having the blues from pubic lice. It’s clever, dirty and artistically irreverent. But its sound is unprecedented. You’ve never heard AC/DC like this, and you’ll be sorry for that fact if you at all like their early albums.
Then there’s the disservice, which is in reminding AC/DC fans at every turn what they lost in Scott’s death. None of the studio rarities sung by Brian Johnson are worth a second listen — some aren’t worth a complete first. This obviously isn’t the band’s fault; guitarist Angus Young can still rock his riffs on the new material, but he just can’t cover up Johnson’s constipated-gerbil screams. It’s mostly a problem of unimaginative songwriting, which is to say that it’s mostly a problem of Johnson’s glittering lyrical generalities.
This isn’t entirely fair to the band under Johnson. I admit that he could tear it up at live performances, and this box-set has some live rarities that display this fact prominently. One notable example is a recording of “Back in Black” from 1981 that really swings. It’s probably the best live AC/DC track I’ve ever heard. The very next song, however, is a grotesque butchering of “T.N.T.” from the same year. I guess you call that “hit or miss.”
Which is what Backtracks is as a whole: hit or miss. It’s most of what you love about AC/DC intimately wrapped up with everything you wish you could ignore. There are pleasant revelations, to be sure, but not enough to justify the kind of money needed to buy this unwieldy three-disc monster.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
