It isn’t a great year to be a rhythm guitarist. We’ve already lost Quo’s Rick Parfitt, Y&T’s Joey Alves; both highly revered by their peers and fans. but now, with the loss of AC/DC’s Malcolm Young, there really is a huge hole left behind.
Malcolm Young, stood at the back of the stage to the right of the drumkit, wasn’t exactly high-profile in AC/DC but he was their founder, their principal songwriter and the undisputed leader of that band. Everybody else took their cues from him, including Angus Young, the eternal schoolboy whose frenzied antics on stage took most of the attention. Angus himself acknowledged that Malcolm was the more accomplished player, but it was Malcolm’s idea that Angus should take the lead role, while he directed operations from the rear. Such was his humility however, that he described his role merely as ‘making sure the sound gets across’ in an interview with Kerrang! many years ago.
The story of how the Young family emigrated from Scotland to Australia when Malcolm and Angus were, well, young is well-documented, as is the formation of AC/DC in 1973 by the brothers, releasing several albums with fellow Scottish expat Bon Scott on lead vocals. They were a potent live act by 1980 and had just broken through to large-scale success when Scott died, aged 33. Unwilling to just give it up, the Young brothers picked themselves up and recruited Brian Johnson to take over the mic, after an audition where they thought he had not showed up, only to find the Geordie singer playing pool with their road crew! With Johnson in place, the band recorded their landmark ‘Back in Black’ album, still the benchmark for everything they did since then. The band went on to ever-greater success, with the group defying critical derision as well as musical trends, all the while breaking box-office records wherever they went. Their recorded output slowed in recent years, with the gaps between albums becoming bigger as their tours grew in scale. What wasn’t known in 2008, when they released their ‘Black Ice’ album was that Malcolm was already in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The intensely private Young siblings kept it between themselves and the rest of the band, as Malcolm insisted on committing himself to one last big world tour while he could still perform. Angus later revealed that during that run, Malcolm was already forgetting his own songs and was actually re-learning his guitar parts each day on tour, in order to perform them that night.
The band’s mammoth tour came to an end in 2010, and when the group reconvened four years later to record what must surely be their swansong album (‘Rock or Bust’), it was with Stevie Young in Malcolm’s place. Stevie, a nephew of Malcolm and Angus (though of a similar age to the brothers), had previous experience of playing live with AC/DC. He had stepped in for the group’s 1988 tour when Malcolm took a leave of absence from the band, in order to seek treatment for an increased dependence on alcohol. Observers at the time were hard-pressed to tell that Malcolm was not there, as Stevie looked a lot like Malcolm in 1988.
In 2014 the group declared that Malcolm would be ‘taking a break’ from the band, and when Stevie came in this time it would be to record the album and tour. He no longer looked similar to his uncle, but having done it once before, was seen by Angus as the logical choice to take over the role. ‘Rock or Bust’ was released in late 2014 and all seemed set for another world tour, their first with Angus steering the ship. However, without Malcolm there things fell apart rapidly. First of all drummer Phil Rudd had been replaced by another former member in Chris Slade, after Rudd had been arrested in his home country, charged with several serious offences. That was a mere prelude, as long-standing vocalist Brian Johnson was next to go, being forced to quit the tour midway through after being warned that he was close to losing his hearing completely. The choice of W. Axl Rose to take over for the remainder of the tour was controversial to say the least, though the tickets still sold and the tour went ahead. Finally, bassist Cliff Williams announced that he was to retire from the road on completion of the tour, initially stating that the band had changed beyond recognition but he later backtracked, as Angus insisted that Cliff had given his notice before the band even set out on that tour.
Meanwhile, while the band was on tour, Malcolm had been checked into a facility in Australia and reports were that his condition accelerated rapidly to the point where he could no longer remember any of his songs, and he was in need of round-the-clock care.
That left just Angus from the band which cut ‘Back in Black’ and ‘Black Ice’ standing, and as of 2017 it is unclear whether there will be any more from him under the AC/DC name. The loss of Malcolm will have hit him hard, as did the earlier loss of his elder brother George, who produced much of the group’s early work and had tasted success himself as a member of the Easybeats in the 1960s.
It is cruel indeed to think that the man who founded one of rock’s most successful and enduring bands, was a massive influence on many musicians who came after him and wrote some of the best-loved songs in hard rock, never got to enjoy a happy retirement after many years of hard touring. He defined the style of rhythm guitar in hard rock/metal (although he insisted that the music AC/DC made was nothing more than ‘rock ‘n’ roll’), and was admired even by the likes of Keith Richards, the man dubbed ‘the human riff’. His songs will live on of course, the many tribute bands playing AC/DC music across the world will see to that, and his influence is clear for all to see in younger bands, such as fellow Australian rockers Airbourne.
Tributes have been flooding in from almost anyone who was anyone in rock, and on the night when the news broke (18th November), towards the end of a Deep Purple concert in Manchester, guitarist Steve Morse paid a tribute of his own by playing the opening riff to ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ to huge cheers.
Perhaps the best tribute came from Angus Young himself, signing off the band’s official statement with the simple words: ‘Malcolm, job well done.’
To close this post, written admittedly while your correspondent was still processing this news, here are some classic AC/DC clips:
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