Youngs : The Brothers Who Built Ac/Dc (9781466865204) (45 page)

Publicity-shy AC/DC manager Peter Mensch (
LEFT
) with Bun E. Carlos and Robin Zander (
HOLDING POOL CUE
) of Cheap Trick, and Bon Scott in Germany, 1979. AC/DC sacked Mensch after the Monsters of Rock concert at Castle Donington, England, 1981. He now manages Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The 1981 U.S. version of the long-shelved
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
conspicuously missing “Jailbreak,” a song deemed “too horrific for teenage consumption.” Released after
Back in Black
and before
For Those About to Rock
, Phil Carson considers the timing of its exhuming “one of the most crass decisions ever made by a record-company executive.”

A rare photo of Mutt Lange with AC/DC, Paris, 1981.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Brian Johnson, Malcolm Young, David Thoener (
IN GLASSES
), assistant engineer Mark Haliday, and Lange. “It was a privilege and honor to work with AC/DC and Mutt, and I will forever be grateful,” says
For Those About to Rock
engineer Thoener, who went on to win two Grammys for his work with Santana.

Thoener with Johnson. “I never worked with AC/DC again because I never got a call,” he says. “That's something an engineer/mixer gets used to. Even though you can work on a record that sells millions, it doesn't mean you'll get a call the next time they record. In a year's time there's a new ‘hot' guy that people want to check out.”

Rose Tattoo were “more primitive and raucous than AC/DC” but Jerry Greenberg couldn't break Australia's tattooed wild boys in the United States.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Rob Riley, Pete Wells, Greenberg, Dallas “Digger” Royall, Angry Anderson, and Geordie Leach.

An AC/DC pinball machine in Chinatown, New York, 2013. The Youngs' musical output has dried up but Gerard Huerta's logo and the band's catalog continue to produce rivers of gold.

Brian Johnson pretends to strangle Perry Cooper while Ellen Young, Angus's wife, offers her hand. Says Renée Cooper, Perry's daughter: “AC/DC and my father were really tight. After Bon died, my dad and Brian became best friends. When Bon passed, they found the emergency-person-to-contact card and it was my dad.”

Angus in full flight during the unstoppable
Back in Black
era. Comments AC/DC's longtime film and concert director David Mallet: “Pink Floyd is about a spectacle. Each song, each number in concert has a different type of spectacle. AC/DC is about the same spectacle every time. Called Angus Young.”

AC/DC performs on their
Black Ice
tour in Sydney, 2010. “I don't think AC/DC are capable of changing their format because they have no desire to,” says Australian rock singer and Young family friend John Swan. “It's a work in progress. As long as my arse points towards the floor, AC/DC will be AC/DC and they will never be anything else.”

 

 

PRAISE FOR
THE YOUNGS

 

“The best book I've ever read about AC/DC.”

—Mark Evans, bass player of AC/DC, 1975–77

 

“I loved it.”

—Jerry Greenberg, president of Atlantic Records, 1974–80

 

“A great job.”

—Tony Platt, engineer of
Back in Black
and
Highway to Hell

 

“Jesse Fink delivers a fresh biographical take on AC/DC. The accomplished journalist balances a serious appreciation for the music with a driving desire to cut through the mystery and misinformation shrouding this seminal rock 'n' roll band. Fink's book should satisfy both diehard fans and those who love reading good biographies.”

—iTunes “Editor's Notes” (Australia)

 

“Recent books [about AC/DC by Murray Engleheart and Mick Wall] … didn't offer much to change our perception of the band. Jesse Fink's study of the Young brothers takes a different approach … giving us a different version of many stories, especially when it comes to the wheeling and dealing behind the rock. Fink is clearly in love with AC/DC, but he knows the old bird has some warts under her make-up, and doesn't shy away from revelations that cast the Youngs in a less than flattering light.”

—
Rolling Stone
(Australia)

 

“While a lot's been written about them over the years, [
The Youngs
] provides a definitive history of the trio.”

—
GQ
(Australia)

 

“Being an all-around nice guy is no prerequisite to getting rich. Jaw-dropping reinforcement of this point is about to hit your local bookstore in the form of
The Youngs
by Jesse Fink.”

—
BRW
(Australia)

 

“A savvy new book … Fink, quite properly, can't stand the kind of music critic who feels pleasing a crowd is a suspect achievement, somehow antithetical to the spirit of rock. In the end, [he] seems to be in two minds about AC/DC. That seems the right number of minds for an adult to be in about them, especially an adult who encountered their best albums during the sweet spot of his youth … like all great popular art, [AC/DC's music] slips past the higher faculties. It makes you forget, for three minutes or so, that there's anything else you'd rather hear.”