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The AC/DC album Angus Young said still gives him goosebumps
AC/DC was formed more than five decades ago and has been one of the most successful bands in the world ever since. Although there were many line-up changes along the way, they released 18 studio albums until 2024 and sold an estimated amount of more than 200 million records worldwide.
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Of course, there were records that were more successful and a few ones not so much. But after all those albums, Angus Young once revealed which is the one after all these decades still gives him “goosebumps” when he listens.
The AC/DC album Angus Young said still gives him goosebumps
Although the first era of the band with Bon Scott on vocals is incredible, Angus Young named in an interview with Guitar World back in 2020, when talking about Brian Johnson, the album with him on vocals that still gives him goosebumps.
Angus was asked in the interview if “Back In Black” (1980) was Johnson’s finest moment. But he actually said he thinks is “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” (1981).
“Brian has recorded a lot of strong stuff with the band. The Back In Black album especially, and For Those About To Rock, which still gives me goosebumps,” Angus Young said.
Although the only big hit of that album was really the title-track, there are other praised songs. Some of them are “Let’s Get It Up” and “Breaking The Rules”. At the time, the album peaked at number 1 on the United States Billboard 200. It was the last album of the band, until 2008 when they released “Black Ice”, to reach that position.
What inspired “For Those About To Rock” according to Young
The guitarist Angus Young was the main songwriter of the band alongside his brother and the vocalists. He recalled in an interview with Paste Magazine back in 2021 what was the inspiration for the album’s title-track.
“Well, the title comes from ancient Roman times. (It was) when the gladiators would go in and they’d be fighting in the arena. Before they went into battle, they would say, ‘For those about to die, we salute you.’ And funnily enough, the first time I heard the phrase was, it was really Bon who had the book. He was commenting on it.”
He continued:
“He’d read a story by that writer Robert Graves, and he used that title ‘For those about to die.’ So that stuck with me, that quote, and the whole idea of that. And later, when we were putting the song together.”
“We were at a rehearsal place in Paris, and while we were putting it together, there was a guy in the background, a night watchman. He had a TV on, and I could hear cannons going off on the TV. That kind of inspired me. And it just seemed so right. I said, ‘What if we could get these cannons going off in sync? In sync to the music?’ So that’s how that came into it,” Angus Young said.
According to Setlist.fm, since the album was released, the song “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” has been played live by AC/DC more than 1100 times.
