Highway to Hell
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend AC/DC's 1979 album digitally remastered and reissued in a special digipak plus a 16 page full color booklet containing all original album art, many unpublished photos, classic memorabilia and new 2003 liner notes. Epic. … Product details and pricing info |
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190 Customer Reviews Posted
- Rest In Peace Bon Scott
- Another classic AC/DC album. This is actually AC/DC`s sixth studio album and the one that broke them in the U.S and world wide. It is a brilliant album but what let`s it down a tiny bit for me is the production is a bit polished, but i suppose it had to be done to please some American record company executives. The album Dirty Deeds still hadn`t been released in America even after this album went gold in America. Dirty deeds only got released in America after Bon died and it went higher in the charts than Highway to hell did. Someone at Atlantic records just didn`t have a clue did he? The front cover artwork is different to the Australian version of this album and i prefer the Australian cover as it has more details in it (fire and a bass guitar fret board that looks like a highway/road. It`s a bit strange because Lynyrd Skynyrd`s final album cover artwork, before singer Ronnie died in a plane crash, had fire on it too, but was later changed after the plane accident. Another story i`ve heard is that AC/DC, who were/are friends with Lynyrd Skynyrd, got offered to fly on the same plane with Lynyrd Skynyrd when it crashed, but Malcolm`s wife didn`t want to go on it. Although this album is a bit polished it still is a great loud rocking album and any AC/DC fan (old and new) would still love this album. It has some great classics on here. The title track is my favorite and Beatin round the Bush is a bit of a more faster paced song, almost to the speed of early eighties Motorhead. The last song on the album "Night Prowler" is about sneaking into your girlfriend`s house while her parents are asleep and making love to her. It`s got nothing to do with that Richard night stalker person, and what he though the song meant.
- 2008-11-09, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A killer song, no filler...just solid rock. 85/100
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It took me a while to buy this album. Don't get me wrong...I love this band...in fact I consider them to be the best rock band of all time and only behind The Beatles as far as all musical acts are concerned. Why this trepidation? Well, as a kid, I was used to buying an AC/DC album and knowing that there would be a couple of great songs on it and that I would discover some good songs that I hadn't heard before. With "Highway to Hell", I only really knew the title track...sure, it's great, but does this album have anything else decent on it? Yes. Here's my pick of the best tracks on this album:
Highway to Hell: THE classic track off of this album. AC/DC is yet to release a fully fledged greatest hits album ("Who made who" comes closest to this), but the title track is an automatic selection of any hypothetical compilation. AC/DC has rarely come close to the celebration of living life hard and to its fullest as in this song. It's a classic for its grating, typically AC/DC guitar riff/introduction. *N.B. an ANNOYING feature of this song is that the riff is lopsided...if you listen to it on headphones, the audio for the riff is tilted to the right hand speaker. Oddly, when I heard this song on the radio, the 'tilt' was on the left hand side. This suggests to me that the remaster was flawed. One of the GREAT things about AC/DC classics is how you get one guitar crunching out a riff and then getting joined by another guitar on the other speaker. As it stands, the sound on this song is almost as bad as those early, faux stereo songs the Beatles used to churn out (and that's because they really didn't have proper stereo when they started out). Really, I see this 'tilt' as a mistake which should get fixed. It might be less noticeable if you listen to it on loudspeakers.
There really aren't any other 'classics' on this album, but of the rest, the most solid songs are:
Walk all over you: has a promising intro...moody. This song does seem to have some unintended distortion on the guitar. I like the lead guitar work in this song as well as the backing vocals, which is very good, in AC/DC's signature, laddish way.
Touch to much: I must have heard this song somewhere along the line as I always thought it could be a good song. Probably didn't hear it on the radio, as ONLY the title track seems to get played...at least nowadays, here in Australia. Good stereo stage...must stop whingeing about the lack of this on the title track! Excellent backing vocals too.
The two songs above are the kind of songs that grow you. In other words they might not have the immediate sex appeal of classic AC/DC songs but they are the kind of songs that would be welcome on any compilation by this band.
The last song of particular interest on this album for me is:
Night Prowler: lead singer Bon Scott sounds particularly phlegmy, especially for the intro. Lead guitar is REALLY soulful in sound here. I like the backing vocals here too, and it's not just the typical echo-ing which the band is so fond of...they get their own lines too. Lyrical construction in this song is good too. It's quite menacing. Apparently it's not meant to be, according to the band, but it is. Think I heard that this song is there version of the Rolling Stones' "Midnight rambler"...and after just now looking at the lyrics to that song, they are BOTH menacing...so, I don't see how AC/DC can get criticised for a song like this and not the Stones!
Anyway, despite my initial misgivings on this album, I think it is an essential purchase. This is pretty much the first AC/DC album where I've noticed that they actually do have a bass guitar player...it's quite noticeable in songs like "Shot down in flames" and "Love hungry man".
For me, AC/DC are the greatest guitar act of all time. There are Malcolm Young's crunching riffs on rhythm guitar, and brother Angus' equally exceptional lead guitar work...whether the songs be rock, rock'n'roll, boogie or whathaveyou. To the uninitiated who claim that this band has only ever released one song, multiple times, this puts the lie to that claim. There is a lot of variety on this album.
The boys' and Bon Scott's lyric writing is also in exceptional form here. In some songs the lyrics are a bit dated...e.g. "Night Prowler" lightens the tone at the end with Bon referencing American comedian Robin Williams' character "Mork" from the tv show "Mork and Mindy". You have to be of a certain age to get that ad-libbery. Bon also has some fun at the end of "Shot down in flames". The boys don't take themselves too seriously, which is good. - 2008-10-23, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- AC/DC En el Mejor Momento de su Carrera.
- "Highway to Hell" es para muchos fans(me incluyo)el mejor álbum de su carrera,con la llegada del productor "Mutt" Lange encuentran el equilibrio y la potencia necesaria en sus composiciones, dando el salto de calidad que los hace superestrellas del rock y una fuerza que surge a finales de la década de los 70's, para iniciar con todo un movimiento que avecinaba el reinado del hard rock durante la siguiente, empezando por el himno "Highway to Hell", donde lucen contundentes en su interpretación, con cada tema va llegando un nuevo clásico, y canciones como "Girls Got the Rhythm", "Walk All Over You", "If You Want Blood", se hacen indispensables en su repertorio, el cual, sin saberlo quedaría como el final del legado de Bon Scott con la banda, y dejaría el camino preparado para su otra obra maestra "Back in Black", y así Brian Johnson comenzara la nueva década al frente de el que para muchos junto con "Iron Maiden" y "Judas Priest" forman los 3 grupos indispensables y más importantes del Heavy Metal en su mejor momento. Una obra indispensable para los rockeros de todos los tiempos.
- 2008-09-27, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- AC/DC Highway To Hell/ Cant Live Without
- By 1979 AC/DC were starting too gain recognition in the US but still werent that big there and they had a few albums behind them, High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, Powerage, If You Want Blood Youve Got it LIVE, but this one just might be one of the best AC/DC albums ever realesed. From the title track too the end this album never stops rocking and the song, Highway To Hell, shows that it doesent take 10 minute jams to make a great rock album all it takes is simple three chord riffs basic rock beat drums and cool vocals and a nice guitar solo in the middle. Highway To Hell is another one of those riffs every rock fan knows. Realesed in 1979 Highway To Hell is the album that got AC/DC too become a big band in America. Unfortunatly though it would be the last album with the singer, Bon Scott because he died in 1980. Buy this album today people or get a copy of it somewhere cant live without this album.
- 2008-09-14, 1 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Bon Scott's swan song with AC/DC still a masterpiece nearly 30 years on
- Australian hard rockers AC/DC released their album Highway to Hell in July of 1979.
By this time, AC/DC were still trying to establish themselves in the US although they were already huge in the UK and in their native Australia. They had a few albums under their belt and toured with everyone and opened up for bands such as Styx, Aerosmith and Rush during this time period of 1977 and 1978.
However, commercial success eluded the band until 1979's Highway to Hell which was the first of three albums that AC/DC would work with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album is pure AC/DC. Every track is great.
You get the rock radio staples out of the album's title cut, "Girls Got Rhythm" and the pulsing "Shot Down in Flames".
Other highlights include "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" (a song named after their live album from 1978), the minor single "Touch Too Much", "Beating Around the Bush", "Walk All Over You" and "Get it Hot".
However, the best songs on the album are first "Love Hungry Man" which is somewhat of an overlooked gem in the AC/DC repertoire and the album's last track which the spooky "Night Prowler" which caused controversy when an AC/DC hat was worn by "the Night Stalker", a murderer who used AC/DC as a scapegoat for his evils. The song, ironically enough, was about what teenagers used to do, sneak out of their windows to their boyfriend or girlfriend's house whilst the parents were asleep.
Highway to Hell was coincidentally the band's first Top 20 charting and Platinum selling album here in the US. Sadly, Highway to Hell was also the last album with the late Bon Scott before he died in February of 1980 after a long night of drinking and this album found Scott at his best on his last album as was Angus Young's possessed lead guitar work. You really have to listen to what's not played on the radio to understand how great he was.
Today, the album still sounds competent nearly 30 years on, especially with with this digitally remastered edition.
Highly recommended! - 2008-09-12, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
