Most AC/DC fans love both eras of the band: the first with Bon Scott on vocals and the second with Brian Johnson as frontman. Although the tragic change of singers could have altered the band’s sound, it remained remarkably consistent thanks to brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, whose songwriting and unmistakable guitar style became the backbone of AC/DC.
Although Johnson has been in the band for nearly five decades, songs from the Bon Scott era remain a major part of AC/DC‘s setlists to this day, showing how much those records are still cherished by both Angus and the fans. Over the years, the guitarist has spoken about many of those songs, and Rock and Roll Garage has selected two that he has praised as among his favorites.
2 Bon Scott AC/DC songs that are among Angus Young’s favorites
“Riff Raff”
When asked which were AC/DC with great guitar riffs, he first mentioned “Riff Raff” as one of his favorites: “Well, I would say just listen to our album ‘Powerage’ (1978). There’s a song on there called ‘Riff Raff.’ That’s a cooking guitar riff. So that’s a good example of a guitar riff,” Angus Young told Tiny TV in 2020.
In an interview with Vulture, when asked which was the guitar riff that achieved “platonic ideal status”, he chose “Riff Raff”. “That’s straight-up Rock and Roll. It’s got a Chuck Berry style in it, but also has a swing groove that’s unique to AC/DC. For a guitar player, it’s a perfect rock piece. A lot of music types very much like that album it was on, Powerage. Because it has a life of its own, especially that song,” he said.
Besides the brothers and Bon Scott, at the time the group was also formed by bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd. AC/DC played this track live more than 130 times, including on their most recent tour. It’s part of the album “Powerage”, which Angus also likes and curiously was mentioned by Eddie Van Halen and Joe Perry as their favorite one by the band. In fact, Eddie used to tease Malcolm before AC/DC shows by asking if they were going to play “Down Payment Blues”. That was his favorite track from “Powerage”.
“I remember that time because Eddie liked hanging out with Mal, Brian and Cliff . They liked going out and having a drink in the bar and stuff. But Malcolm used to say, ‘Eddie keeps going to me all the time, ‘You gonna do ‘Down Payment Blues’?” he told Forbes in 2020.
“Bad Boy Boogie”
“Let me see, on ‘Let There Be Rock,’ (1977) I would say ‘Bad Boy Boogie’. (It) has got a flavor because it’s got a little bit of a twist in it. It sounds easy but Malcolm had a little twist that I don’t think many could do. Even when I do it today, I’d still listen again to how clever was he (Malcolm). How clever was he to do that. I still play it just for the fact that he just changed that little note around. It just made all the difference. And that’s how he was too when you would work with him, doing things like guitar riffs. He was great!” Angus Young told Tiny TV.
“Let There Be Rock” is Angus’ favorite album with Bon Scott. “I happen to love Let There Be Rock – that’s my favorite AC/DC album. Over time, we’ve all learned a lot about recording technique. We’ve taken more and more time getting our albums together. That’s given us a different style over the years. I think we’ve probably maintained a sound throughout our career that’s very recognizable. I like to think that you can hear the first few notes of an AC/DC song and know who it is right away.”
Angus Young continued:
“And the reason why I like ‘Let There Be Rock’ is because my brother, George, who was producing it. When he said to us at the beginning, he had me and Malcolm, and he was sitting with us. He said, ‘What sort of album do you wanna do this time?’ And Malcolm just looked at me, and he said, ‘We just want an album that’s just gonna be pure Hard Rock guitar,’” he told Radio SRF in 2020.
“Bad Boy Boogie” was written by Angus, Malcolm and Bon. Although it is one of the greatest tracks from that record, it was overshadowed by other ones. Some of them are “Dog Eat Dog”, the title-track and “Whole Lotta Rosie”. Besides Bon, Angus, Malcolm and Rudd, the band was also formed at the time by Mark Evans on bass.