Rocktrospectiva: The Metal Masterpiece "Back In Black" Turns 45

Released on 25 July 1980, "Back In Black" was the 7th., studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC. It was the band's first album to feature Brian Johnson as lead singer, following the death of their previous vocalist Bon Scott. After the commercial breakthrough of their 1979 album Highway to Hell, AC/DC was planning to record a follow-up, but in February 1980, Scott died from alcohol poisoning after a drinking binge. The remaining members of the group considered disbanding, but ultimately chose to continue on and recruited Johnson, who had previously been the vocalist for Geordie.

The album was composed by Johnson and brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, and recorded over seven weeks in the Bahamas from April to May 1980 with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who had also produced Highway to Hell. Back in Black was an unprecedented commercial and critical success. It has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, making it the second-best-selling album in music history. The album spawned four singles "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Hells Bells", "Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" & "Back In Black". 

As the new decade approached, the group set off for the UK and France for the final leg of the Highway to Hell Tour, planning to begin recording their next album shortly after playing those dates. On 19 February 1980, vocalist Bon Scott went on a drinking binge in a London pub that caused him to lose consciousness, so a friend let him rest in the back of his Renault 5 overnight. The next morning, Scott was found unresponsive and rushed to King's College Hospital, where medical personnel pronounced him dead on arrival. The coroner ruled that pulmonary aspiration of vomit was the cause of Scott's death, but the official cause was listed on the death certificate as "acute alcoholic poisoning" and classified as "death by misadventure".

After Scott's funeral on 1 March, the band immediately began auditions for a replacement frontman. At the advice of Lange, they brought in Geordie singer Brian Johnson, who impressed the group. The band begrudgingly worked through the rest of the list of applicants in the following days, and then brought Johnson back for a second rehearsal. On 29 March, to Johnson's surprise, Malcolm Young called the singer to offer him the job.

Three weeks of rehearsals for Back in Black were scheduled at London's E-Zee Hire Studios, but the rehearsals were cut to one week when an opening came up at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, in the Bahamas. Although the band had wanted to record their next effort in the UK, there were no studios available, and the Bahamas presented a nice tax advantage, so Back in Black was recorded at Compass Point from mid-April to May 1980 with producer "Mutt" Lange. Johnson recalled that "It was hardly any kind of studio, we were in these little concrete cells, comfy mind, you had a bed and a chair.  Around the time of the band's arrival in the Bahamas, the area was hit by several tropical storms, which wreaked havoc on the electricity at Compass Point. Johnson referenced the bad weather on the opening lines of "Hells Bells": "I'm rolling thunder, pourin' rain. I'm comin' on like a hurricane. My lightning's flashing across the sky. You're only young but you're gonna die."

The general attitude during recording was optimistic, though engineer Tony Platt was dismayed to find the rooms at Compass Point were not sonically complementary to the group's sound, which was designed to be very dry and compact. According to Angus Young, the album's all-black cover was a "sign of mourning" for Scott. Atlantic Records disliked the cover, but accepted it, on the condition that the band put a grey outline around the AC/DC logo.

Back in Black was first released in the United States on 25 July 1980. Its release in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe followed on 31 July, and it was released in Australia on 11 August. To promote the album, music videos were filmed for "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Hells Bells", the title track, "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution", "Let Me Put My Love into You", and "What Do You Do for Money Honey", though only the first four of those songs were released as singles. "You Shook Me All Night Long" became AC/DC's first Top 40 hit in the US, peaking at number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The album is regarded it as "not only the best of AC/DC's six US albums", but also "the apex of heavy-metal art, althought other critices were more critical, saying they found the songs indistinguishable from one another and marred by hypermasculine fantasies, rock music stock phrases, garish guitar, and dull rhythms. In the years to come, the album has been reviewed as a heavy metal masterpiece, an influential hard rock and heavy metal album, due in part, cause the the album was released at a time when heavy metal stood at a turning point between a decline and a revival, as most bands in the genre were playing slower tempos and longer guitar solos, producer Lange palyed a key role in order to pushed AC/DC moved further away from the blues-oriented rock of their previous albums, and toward a more dynamic attack that concentrated and harmonized each element of the band. Lange's production for the album has had an enduring impact in the music industry and used as a guide for how a hard-rock record should sound

 

Back In Black Track List: 

 

1. Hells Bells 

2. Shoot To Thrill

3. What Do You Do For Money Honey

4. Givin' The Dog A Bone

5.  Let Me Put My Love Into You

6. Back In Black

7. You Shook Me All Night Long

8. Have A Drink On Me

9. Shake A Leg

10. Rock And Roll Ain't noise Pollution