Singer Brian Johnson first achived fame as the vocalist of Geordie and then in 1980 he replaced Bon Scott in AC/DC, reaching a whole new level of superstardom with all the successful albums he recorded with the Hard Rock group. Over the decades he helped the band to compose many hits that became the favorite songs from millions of fans around the world.
In an interview with the BBC Radio 4 show “Inheritance Tracks” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) in 2022, he talked about two of his favorite songs of all time and revealed which one he inhereted and which one he would like to pass on to a new generation.
The 2 songs that Brian Johnson picked as some of his favorites
Nazareth “Broken Down Angel”
“The track I’d like to pass on is “Broken Down Angel” by Nazareth. It was a song by a friend of mine Dan McCafferty, who passed on and I’m gonna miss him. I’m just absolutely devastated to hear of his loss. But we first met at a submarine base in Glasgow. It was the big dance night at the naval base. We got on like a house on fire.”
“(…) I’d like to pass on “Broken Down Angel” not to only one person. But down to every young kid that wants to be a singer in a Rock and Roll band. So just listen to it, you can feel it everything in his voice, you know. If you can learn from this, just the basics, you can not go wrong.”
“I had a special relationship with him and it easily involved a bottle of whiskey and a good laugh. Half the time I couldn’t understand a word he said the more he drank, the more Glasgow region he got. But I think he was always that. He was proud of it and I was proud of him too,” Brian Johnson said.
Dan McCafferty died at the age of 76 back in november 8, 2022. His death cause was not revealed. But he retired from Nazareth in 2013 due to a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“Broken Down Angel” was featured on Nazareth’s 1973 album “Razamanaz”, produced by the famous Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover.
Paul Butterfield Blues Band “Look Over Yonders Wall”
“The track I’ve inhereted is “Look Over Yonders Wall” by Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I was about 15, I was going out with a girl and she worked in the record shop in Newcastle and she said: ‘You see those albums over there, they’ve been there for about three weeks and nobody’s buying them. Just stick one under your jumper. So I’ve stuck this LP up in my jumper, of course I had the biggest nipples in Newcastle walking out of the store and it was Paul Butterfield’s Blues album.”
“”Look Over Yonders Wall” was the first track and it just bloomed out. It was fantastic. The thing was, we was just starting our very first band called Section Flying and we learned probably about three or four songs off there. So it taught us how clear the Blues, not just Chuck Berry-wise, was an alternative from The Stones. Was something just a little rougher.”
Brian Johnson continued:
“It set me up for life, really listening to that. I came from the northeast of England and there was a mining village called Dunstan. It was a strange kind of upbringing. Because you were in these horrible little council houses. From our bedroom window, there was three boys in one bed, you could see all red-tailed roofs.”
“There must have been about 45, 50 rows of streets where all the workers would come down to the factories below. So music didn’t had a place there, really. I was in the scouts when I started to sing and people applauded at the end and I liked that. So I started getting picked to sing solo songs. Then I was head choir boy at the Catholic Church. I remember once I sad ‘Dad, I’d like to be a singer.’ He said ‘There’s only one singer in the world and he is called Johnny Cash. You are not Johnny Cash’. When I hear this track now it makes me feel young again,” Brian Johnson said.
“Look on Yonder Wall” was originally recorded by James “Beale Street” Clark in 1945. 20 years later, the track was covered by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band on their self-titled debut album released i 1965.