Forty years of AC / DC’s Back in Black, the best-selling album in history – Music and Books – Culture

Neither the Beatles nor the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath achieved an album with such success nor with such scandalous figures. Back in Black it’s a milestone as big as The Dark Side of The Moonby Pink Floyd; a true classic that today we have to celebrate at full volume.

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AC / DC was going through its best artistic moment thanks to its sixth album, Highway to Hell, It was released in July 1979 and had given them their first top 20 on America’s best-seller lists. An achievement that surely came due to its commercial sound dimension, without losing its essence of raw rock, given by producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange.

The band was formed in 1973 by guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young, along with vocalist Bon Scott, bassist Mark Evans, and drummer Phil Rudd. They released two albums in their home country under the Alberta Records label, but only began to gain an international name when the British division of Atlantic Records signed a record deal for them in December 1975.

Although records like High Voltage (1976), Let There Be Rock (1977) o Powerage (1978) did not have a major impact, Highway to Hell It was a unique opening to the door of popularity. In January 1980, the album had already sold more than half a million copies in the United States alone and the band was getting ready to dedicate their efforts to a new recording. But success suddenly seemed to be cut short when, on February 19, his 33-year-old vocalist Bon Scott died in London.

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A new voice

The group, which now had Cliff Williams as bass player, turned the page, despite the fact that at some point they wanted to abandon everything, with the conviction that the path was already drawn and they had no way back. They auditioned several vocalists, often with speculation from the press about who had been chosen, but in March they had no qualms that the ideal to replace Scott was Brian Johnson, suggested by ‘Mute’ Lange, its producer.

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Johnson came from being the leading voice of a glam rock from Newcastle called Geordie. She soon adapted to AC / DC and had full support from her peers. Replacing Bon Scott was not easy, her style and originality were a trademark. They were different, but Johnson also had strength and power in her vocal performance.

In April of that year, the band embarked on the adventure of their new album. Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange was again in charge of the production and took with him as recording engineer fellow producer Toni Platt, who had collaborated with him to finish a couple of songs on the band’s previous album.

The recording

Although Lange and the AC / DC had serious difficulties filming Highway to Hell At the Roundhouse Studios in London, the pair of engineers opted for a studio that would give them better conditions. That was how this new album, which would be titled Back in Black it was recorded at Compass Point Studios, located in the Bahamas capital Nassau, owned by legendary businessman Chris Blackwell, the genius behind Island Records.

This location, which closed its doors in September 2010, after 33 years of operation, was the epicenter of great recordings by artists such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, U2, Lenny Kravitz, Talking Heads, Dire Straits, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, James Brown o Roxy Music, among many others.

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The first anecdote that surrounds the recording of the iconic album is that the schedule was turned upside down when the equipment and instruments that the band was carrying were held at the Nassau airport. A hurricane had affected the operation of the electrical networks and therefore the airport operation was suspended.

But then, in the midst of great camaraderie, the recording sessions were held in the midst of an environment that was absolutely novel to the band members, and even more so to Johnson, who, to date, had never been out. of Europe. On many occasions, the technical staff found it difficult to get the musicians off the beach to start a recording session.

The musical consistency of Back in Black It is attributed to several factors and one of them is the methodology with which ‘Mutt’ Lange and his assistant, Toni Platt, assumed the recording. On the one hand, they placed the musicians in the studio in the same position they did for their concerts, and found a special location for the drums to give better sound.

But the magic was in the different microphones and amplifiers that they used exclusively in each song, looking for an ideal timbre and in a series of individual combinations for each one that was never repeated. In addition, Malcolm and Angus Young always used different guitars for each case, either for the sound intention of the engineers or for the taste that both guitarists felt when executing them. You could say that any band that wants to emulate the sounds of the songs that make up Back in Black will never be able to find them.

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In this regard, and in a note for the magazine Sound On Sound, In November 2014, Toni Platt commented: “It was like organizing a photography set, where the photographer continues to make small adjustments to lighting or the way the model is posing until, at a certain point, they shutter and say: ‘That it’s the photo I want. ‘” Platt also believes that if it were possible for all those involved to re-record today, with the same conditions, the same equipment and in the same studio, the result would be totally different.

The creative process of that moment followed the model they had always had. Angus and Malcolm wrote the music and the melody, and handed over to the newcomer, Brian Johnson, the responsibility for the lyrics. In fact, when the recordings started, most of those songs, to which the Youngs had already given titles, were almost complete only in the musical part, but without lyrics. Respecting their names, Brian Johnson did his part.

The recording was very basic. The two guitars, the bass and the drums, and, later, the vocals of Johnson, who required a little privacy for his task. Platt recalls that during the capture of his vowels they had to put some racks on each side so that he did not feel observed, but he also requested that the air conditioning be turned off.

This implied that the vocalist stayed in the cabin as long as possible, because that increase in temperature and humidity were going to contrast with the cold environment outside, in the control room, which would be detrimental to his voice. But, in addition, he had the perfectionist pressure of the producer, something that was new for him, who forced him to repeat the shots over and over again.

Supporting voices were subsequently made on behalf of ‘Mutt’ Lange, Malcolm Young and Cliff Williams, some of them in New York, when the mix was made at Electric Lady Studios in May 1980.

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One of the flagship parts of this recording are the four bells that are heard at the beginning of the album, at the opening of the song Hell Bells. Toni Platt tried to record it in the bell tower of the Museum of the Carillon and Memory of War in Leicestershire, England, but the sound of birds prevented it. Finally, using 15 microphones, she managed to capture at the same John Taylor Bellfounders company foundry, which the band had commissioned a one-ton bronze bell, which she would later use in her concerts.

Extraordinary figures

Back in Black, which was later mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk Studios in New York, was released on July 25, 1980. He had anticipated the release of the single. You Shook Me All Night Long, and in the week of August 23, he debuted at number 24 on the US sales charts. Although she entered directly at number one in England, her highest position in North America was fourth, achieved in December of that year.

Over the years, Back in Black It has been the cause of several relaunches, of remastered versions. It has always been on the specialized charts of the best rock albums in history and from media like magazines Rolling Stone and NME, and, in all this time, it has never lowered its periodic sales figures.

In December 2019, It was certified for the twelfth time by the American Recording Industry Association (RIAA), this time for 25 million copies, making it the fourth best-selling record in history in the United States. Globally, the numbers are higher, just over 50 million, the second highest number after Thriller by Michael Jackson.

With its amazing and great sound, power, guitar amalgam, Brian Johnson’s huge vocals and a collection of songs that are absolute classics like Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution, Shoot to Thrill, its title subject or the two mentioned above, Back in Black, with its famous black cover, commemorates its 40 years of publication with the same freshness with which it was first heard in 1980. Its magic continues and will continue to be present.

DANIEL CASAS C
*FOR THE TIME

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