Book Review: The Youngs - The Brothers Who Built AC/DC

Book: The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC

Author: Jesse Fink

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 312

Price: Rs 399

Given the decades of sold out shows and chart-toppers, even in their 60s, AC/DC is remarkably unfussy about the way they go about their music. In the four decades that the Australian band has enthralled music-lovers, it has been through only one major change – when vocalist Bon Scott's death led to Brian Johnson's entry into the band.

Extraordinarily inaccessible to most around them, the band has been known to shut down information to aspiring biographers. Writer Jesse Fink, too, did not have the band's cooperation in writing a memoir to Angus and Malcolm Young, the Scottish brothers who shaped one of the most definitive sounds of rock and roll. With 26 albums, and more than $200 million in album sales in the last 40 years AC/DC is a result of the work that the Youngs have put in since they started out in 1973.

Most of us know Angus Young, the energetic uniform-clad guitarist-songwriter, who is arguably the most recognisable face of the band. Wildly trashing about on the stage in his school uniform, and performing his famous Chuck Berry duck walk way into his late 50s, Angus, the youngest of the Youngs, is what makes up the AC/DC onstage experience. "Pink Floyd is about a spectacle. Each, each number in concert has a different type of spectacle. AC/DC is about the same spectacle every time. Called Angus Young," says film and concert director David Mallet.
But the brother that has been managing the show behind the curtains all these years is Malcolm Young, the stoic rhythm guitarist who, with his quiet presence, has ensured that the band has reached where it is today. Many believe that the latest AC/DC album, the 2014 Rock or Bust topped Billboard owing mostly to concerns over the band's continuity: Malcolm was diagnosed with dementia a few weeks later, in September.

Fink does not stop at just Angus or Malcolm. He also speaks of their elder brother George, founding member of Easybeats, Australia's first rock band, which was formed soon after the Youngs migrated to Australia. Meteoric in its rise and popularity, Easybeast had a short-lived tale of success. And when his younger brothers formed AC/DC, George ensured that they did not commit the same mistakes he and his bandmates did. Fink describes him as the coach who directs, "the stand-in bass player, drummer, backup singer ... business manager and svengali".

The book touches upon the band's time with former vocalist Bon Scott, and the six albums the band produced with him, and of Highway to Hell (1979), their first American album with manager Robert Mutt Lange and also their most popular. It also looks at the time after Scott's death, the auditions and the eventual inclusion of the affable Brian Johnson. The first album to come of this new line-up, Back to Black (1980), went on to infuse greater lyrical quality to AC/DC's legendary guitar riffs.

Working without the band's cooperation, Fink pieces the book together by speaking to industry experts and musicians alike. He speaks of the band's growth over the years, its development and changing managers, the problems it faced over the years and the controversies it embraced.

As an AC/DC fan, Fink starts by writing about how the band's music helps him get up from the dumps. Through the narrative, he looks at how the band slumps into a talentless pit at some points in time. After Highway to Hell, their most commendable work is Thunderstruck. He looks at how the band survived through the years, unlike many of their peers. And, in a way, arrives at two varying viewpoints - AC/DC is a great band, punctuated by dull spots.
However, their last album, Rock or Bust, that hit the stores after the release of this book outside India, proves AC/DC's mettle. It is a popular album with some fine work. Many say that Malcolm, who could barely be a part of it due to his health battles, still oversaw some of the work that went into it. News reports today say that Malcolm can barely remember AC/DC songs, a tragedy for its long-time lovers.

This is perhaps the last offering from the band. And as they go out, AC/DC proves that there could have been no better way to do it.