There are so many entries in the “it just doesn’t seem possible” file in realizing that today is the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Back In Black by AC/DC.
BThe album – the first after the death of Bon Scott barely 17 months earlier – was a gloriously snotty blues-rock romp, the kind of thing every garage band in the world – including mine – thought they could pull off.
Of course, few garage bands had a leather-lunged shrieker like Brian Johnson, or a blues-rock machine like Angus Young or – to me, the band’s signature – a metal-shredding rhythm player like Malcolm Young to base their sound around.
Here’s the part that blew my mind; Back in Black, with 49 million copies sold, is the second biggest-selling album of all time (that’d be worldwide; it’s #5 in the US), and the biggest ever from a band.
And the ultimate “it doesn’t seem possible”?
That it was thirty years ago!
It’s hard to write much about AC/DC. I’ll just let the band do the talking.
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