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Credit: Far Out \/ ACDC<\/p>\n
Sat 17 October 2026 12:00, UK <\/p>\n
The greatest thing about AC\/DC<\/a> as a band? You don\u2019t have to overthink their music to enjoy it.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong, there\u2019s a time and place for the more sentient approaches to rock and roll, the sort pioneered by psychedelic rock bands or those introducing jazz fusion into the genre.<\/a> Without the innovation of those bands, songs and albums, music would never have moved forward. But when you\u2019re talking about the gritty get-down and rock and roll release, there\u2019s no band that can do it better than the Australians.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their songs rarely had hidden meanings and were more frankly designed to give an honest and excited slice-of-life tale. Take \u2018Highway To Hell\u2019 for example, a relatively simple song structured around a trusted four-chord arrangement and lyrical hook, that was inspired by nothing more than an old bus ride<\/a> the band used to take.\u00a0<\/p>\n It came from a stretch of road that ran from where Bon Scott lived in Fremantle and ended at a pub\/bar called The Raffles, which was a microcosm of the AC\/DC rock and roll spirit. Really called the Canning Highway but duly dubbed the \u2018Highway to Hell\u2019, it was a simple symbol of the sort of debauchery that followed the band in their private lives.<\/p>\n That was it, nothing more or nothing less. The sort of song that could perfectly distil this straightforward essence of a band whose sole purpose was to provide unbridled musical thrills for its audience. But in doing so, and becoming so universal, they inadvertently wrote a global anthem in \u2018Highway to Hell\u2019, one that ultimately took on more meaning than just the simple pilgrimage from Scott\u2019s home to the front of the bar at Raffles. <\/p>\n After becoming the first AC\/DC song to chart in the US<\/a>, it became something of an anthem for living life in the fast lane, soundtracked by the pure sounds of rock and roll for newfound fans of the band. Even though Angus Young grew up on those same dusty streets as Scott and knew just how colloquial the song was to them, he saw it change in real time. <\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Highway to Hell\u2019 was a big statement at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Angus Young<\/p>\n He shed light on why that was by adding, \u201cWe were slogging it out; we were touring so much, it didn\u2019t stop. You\u2019d be in America, and then you\u2019re on a plane to Europe to do two weeks there, and then you\u2019re back here, and then fly back to Europe and do a couple of summer shows, crisscrossing the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Concluding, \u201c\u2018Highway To Hell\u2019 probably sums up what you would call our career up till then: it was a highway to hell! It was one big bus trip, touring and playing, rocking and rolling, partying and boogying.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n