Any serious rock fan has to only mention AC/DC’s name in any conversation to get sage old head nodding in approval and younger fans salivating as they prepare to hear more tales of one of the hardest rock acts to grace the genre in 40 years. From their 1975 debut High Voltage (Australia, 1976 elsewhere) through to the superb Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, the career defining Back In Black and finally the 1988 Blow Up Your Video, fans knew what to expect and they devoured each album in their droves.
Blow Up Your Video stands between the uncharismatic Fly on the Wall and the band’s best album post the untimely death of Bon Scott, the 1990 release The Razors Edge and even though it doesn’t make a dent in The Razors Edge, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Back in Black top three albums by the group, it nevertheless is an album that should be listened to on a regular basis.
The band’s 11th album was released in January 1988 and after the first soundtrack the group were involved in, the mish-mash, greatest hits like package cunningly disguised as the theme tracks to Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive, it was back to business as usual. However the albums that had been released since Back in Black, the first to have Brian Johnson as vocalist, don’t seem to have the same gravitas or power to pull an audience in with as much yearning as the memorial to Bon Scott’s life. Blow Up Your Video re-started a love affair with the band and in some cases introduced new listeners to group that was fighting against the likes of America’s Metallica and Megadeth and perennial British rock favourites Iron Maiden as the heaviest on the planet.
The album starts in explosive style with the attention grabbing Heatseeker. Although the song cannot be, neither should it be, compared to Hells Bells, the lead song of Back in Black nor the outstanding Thunderstruck from The Razors Edge, it nonetheless has the pulling power an opener requires, a definite swagger in its musical treatment and disdain for the so called celebrity music that was doing the rounds in the charts at the time.
The band’s instruction to blow up the video can be seen as a rallying call to keep music in a purer state, not just to be seen as entertainment that can be switched over when it becomes dull. The multitude of music channels has burgeoned ever since and at one point could be seen a part of a society attitude to live music. The age old question of why go see a band in its ultimate concept when I can watch a couple of video’s by them at home is one that thankfully in some quarters never affected certain bands, AC/DC for one.
Heatseeker gives way to the songs That’s The Way I Wanna Rock ‘N’Roll, Meanstreak and Kissin’ Dynamite. All good Rock/Metal tracks but not hitting the heights of what you would expect from the premier band to come out Australia at the time. Unusually for an album of the time, it is the B’ Side that really perks the interest and leads the band neatly into the musical high they would experience with The Razor’s Edge.
With tracks such as Some Sin For Nuthin’, Two’s Up and the outstanding This Means War the dynamic that had developed between the Young brothers and Brian Johnson since Back in Black was back on track. This highly charged, highly popular group was out to make a statement that no matter the success of Britain’s Iron Maiden and the new wave of Thrash Metal coming over from America, they were still relevant and one of the heaviest bands on the planet.
Blow Up Your Video sits well in the pantheon of music by the band and although nowhere near the extreme high set by Back in Black or the outrageously brilliant The Razor’s Edge which followed it, Blow Up Your Video is easily an album that should be explored and played as loud as you can possibly handle.
Ian D. Hall