Published on Mar 16, 1997
Back when I was a teenager, I used to go to a little record shop
a bike ride away from where I lived. One summer day in 1985, I
found AC/DC’s latest,
Fly On The Wall, as a cutout for about three dollars.
Something was wrong, said the voice of reason in my brain, but I
took my new toy home to slap on my cheezy stereo. What I heard was
okay, but disappointing. Where the hell was Brian Johnson signing
his vocals from – outside the studio? The production sounded
crappy; there’s reason some people rated this one as AC/DC’s
worst.
Let’s turn the clock forward to today, and see what the
technology of the compact disc has done to this album. It has, in
fact, given it a whole new life, and people who despised their
vinyl copies at the time should pull up a chair, grab a sandwich
and a beer, and read on with interest.
AC/DC was definitely in a transition at this time. Long-time
drummer Phil Rudd had left the band prior to the start of the
Flick Of The Switch tour. New drummer Simon Wright had made
it through the tour, but had yet to set foot in a studio with the
band. The boys were trying to shake off disappointing sales of
Flick Of The Switch, and wanted to regain their position in
the hard rock market.
Sure the songwriting is the cock-rock style that I’ve so often
ridiculed other bands for – hell, this has been AC/DC’s whole
career. But at least with AC/DC it sounds like they are kidding.
Plus, they’re not your typical “pretty-boy” band, so it’s not like
they’re singing about getting laid by a different groupie every
night. So excuse me if I set my standards aside this time.
I’ll concede the songwriting is a tad weaker on
Fly On The Wall than on some of their other albums – to name
a song “Sink The Pink” today would be asking for trouble. But the
groove is the thing here, and Angus Young et al. know how to groove
their asses off, and make you do the same. “Playing With Girls” has
an incredible groove that they had not captured for some time;
Wright’s drumming is perfect for this mood.
The first single, “Danger,” is a bit of a shift for AC/DC; it’s
one of the first times they released a song with a plodding beat
(though not the first song they wrote with one), making it sound a
tad sinister. Another single, “Shake Your Foundations,” is another
example of groove rock, though the songwriting weaknesses show in
the chorus – c’mon, you couldn’t do better than “Ai, ai, oh – shake
your foundations”?
The title track takes some getting used to, but isn’t as bad as
some may make it out to be. The rest of the album you will either
love or hate – it depends if AC/DC has won you over with the groove
on side one (or, for the CD crowd, the first five songs). My
opinion: they’re good, with “Hell Or High Water” and “Send For The
Man” being strong points.
This is a relatively short album – the ten songs clock in at
under 40 minutes – but the power contained therein is incredible.
(One warning, though – stay far away from the conceptual home video
released at the same time. May have been a good idea, but for a
band that wasn’t into doing videos at this time, not the way to
start things out… and I know they did videos before this one.
Anyone know where I can find the video for “Jailbreak”?)
(Editor’s note: Since I wrote this, I did indeed find the
“Jailbreak” video, thanks to eBay.)
Fly On The Wall is hardly AC/DC’s worst album – it may not
be their best, but it is a very good effort that is highly
entertaining, and worth a listen. Turned out to be the best $3 I
spent at that time.