Epic Rock

You know how when you read an epic book, you sort of “re-live it” in your day to day life? I mean, lets say for example you’ve got The Lord of The Rings. The hobbits are making their way through the Mines of Moria, and you’re so damn absorbed you’ve lost all track of time. Then you look up for a moment, and reluctantly admit that you have to put down the book and go to work. But all day, even though you’re separated from the book, there is a “reality” in your own mind created by the “current goings-on” in the plot. You might be photocopying some documents, or pressing the “kerching!” button on the cash register, but in your head, you’re right there with those feisty little hobbits as they press ever-deeper into the bowels of that perilous mountain.

Well, I don’t want to blow this all out of proportion, but something similar has happened to me with AC/DC: Maximum Rock and Roll, by Murray Engleheart.

For the last six weeks, I’ve been working my way through this thick doorstop of a book, which painstakingly pieces together the band’s history. The book begins, in fact, prior to the formation of AC/DC, describing George Young’s struggles and triumphs with the Easybeats (George was Angus and Malcolm’s older brother, and has been a constant guiding force throughout their career).

It goes through the Bon Scott era, devoting whole sections to the back-story for each and every member of the band (and there are quite a few of them, since for various reasons, musicians were hired-and-fired on a regular basis…) Naturally, the book devotes quite a lot of detail to Bon’s death and the subsequent need to find a new singer. It then rounds off with a series of shorter chapters, about the Brian Johnson era of the 80s and 90s.

From reading Clinton’s biography of Bon, I already knew quite a lot about Bon’s own story and how he met his doom. But Clinton’s book finishes right there. After Bon’s death, it’s as if nothing else really matters. In fact, many fans assert that THERE IS NO AC/DC AFTER BON (saying things like: “The band died with Bon, man”; or “They’re the same band in name only”; etc etc.)

But Angus and Malcom DID press on. They did find a new singer, record new albums, go on new tours. And getting towards the end of Maximum Rock & Roll, I’m right there with them. Bon is well and truly dead, and they’re struggling to carry on with their lives. They’re experiencing commercial success beyond their wildest dreams, but they can never quite reach the dirty magic of the 1970s. Something has been lost. The band spends album after album trying to re-create that magic, but it’s beyond them. The spectre of the restless spark they had with Bon hangs over them constantly. Strangely, even though by now they’re considered in many circles the greatest rock and roll band in the world, they’ve lost all confidence in themselves. It’s actually very sad.

What makes this situation different from The Lord of the Rings, of course, is that the “characters” in Maximum Rock and Roll still exist in the real world today. There’s hope, then, that things might yet turn out differently – that the new album they’ve just finished recording will be some kind of master stroke which vindicates them for their years in the wilderness.

Or will there be a completely unexpected twist in the tale?

At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo has to carry his precious burden all the way to Mount Doom. His mission is to destroy the very thing that makes him special, the gift that sets him apart from all the other hobbits, this ring that has been thrust upon him, and which has uprooted his blissfully ordinary life. What would happen to Frodo if he had failed to destroy the ring? Gollum, of course, is a walking talking slavering miserable embodiment of such a failure.

Can AC/DC throw their golden past into the fire? Can they destroy the very thing they hold most dear? Will they be transformed by the process and surprise us all?

Am I completely nuts carrying on with this gibberish?

Dear readers, the final chapters of Maximum Rock and Roll are still waiting to be written.