Today is the 30th anniversary of Bon Scott’s death. You can read more about AC/DC and me here and here and especially here.
One of my fave AC/DC bootlegs is “Electric Shock” (although side three tends to be a bit lengthy with its two versions of “Rocker”). It was one of the earliest AC/DC boots and although I don’t play these vinyl bootlegs too often these days, they have kept much of their mystical aura from when I was young. In like 1979, AC/DC got really popular with the release of “Highway to Hell” and you had a lot of kids wearing band shirts, patches, buttons. More often, you’d see handmade AC/DC logos in the craziest colors everywhere where you could draw upon with a pen – school bags, shirts, jackets of all sorts and such, some drawn very accurately while others looked like coming from the trembling hands of a 9 years old spasmo (which in some cases was of a rather amusing diligency too). I too began to feel that certain drive in me which pushed me further into the lands of fandom: I didn’t want to be just another teenage music fan, that wasn’t enough for me. Even as a kid, I had always suspected others to be trendies in their life style and it beats me where this rigorousness came from. It was simply there and hunting and buying vinyl bootlegs was one of the marking points for becoming a “true fan” (I know, it sounds silly, but that’s how I remember it to be). The mullet heads, the rednecks and idiots would never buy a bootleg: The quality was too bad, the price to high and hell, it was just too much work to get one of these albums and maybe in the end, the music wasn’t that important at all.
Bootlegs were expensive and hard to find. Some shops were said to be legally pursued for selling bootlegs and whether it was a fact or not, only few of them would carry boots in stock. In some cases, you’d go up to the cashier and ask if they had bootlegs on sale and if you were a regular visitor, they’d eventually pull out a small box full of these plastic diamonds from under the table. It was like the clouds vanished from the sky and fanfares sounded. “May I?” was the key to the paradise and was it granted, you’d hastily flip thorough maybe two or three dozen bootleg LPs, most likely from big acts like Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple, but I also remember a pretty early Siouxsie & the Banshees LP (which I bought in 1982; I still have the receipt for it, haha) or a Damned live boot. And of course AC/DC pirate vinyl.
“Electric Shock” was one I did not find in a shop. There was this guy, maybe 10 years older than me, who had a reputation for being physically strong and thus playing a leading role in the scene. Guido, that’s his name, had taken me under his wing. I often skipped school these days and sometimes, I’d walk the two or three miles down to the place where he lived. If he wasn’t home, I knew where the keys where hid. He had allowed me to enter his flat at any time and that’s what I sometimes did. I took a sip from a half empty whisky bottle, played a record, put the feet on the table and it just felt like heaven. It was a safe harbor: No parents, no teachers or cops and no bully boys. Some of the other older guys gave me a hard time, including his brother who you’d often see with a black eye which he carried like a medal. He scared the shit out of me, but I was of a fragile recklessness that made me endure the beatings and humiliating and that’s what probably made Guido keep an eye on me. He made sure things didn’t get out of hand. Two or three times he visited me at home to my great pride and my mom just loved him with his self made tattoos all over (like eagles and such – you get the picture). One time, he brought me this copy of “Electric Shock”: He knew I was totally obsessed with it ever since I had seen it at his place so he just thought, what the hell, and gave it to me.
Oops, sorry for the jabbering. During the ripping of the vinyl, all sort of pictures and recollections arose and the stream carried me away, but before it gets too pathetic, I take a break here (and maybe will continue next year same time).
Download the complete “Electric Shock” bootleg here (for a limited time only). It’s a sampler of various live recordings from 1976 to 1979. Some of the sources have since re-appeared in full and better quality on numerous bootlegs.
If you like this, do yourself a favor and get the bootleg (and if you say, “what, paying over 100$ for a record??” then go and fuck yourself). The internet has made it so easy, so take your chance. Methinks, there’s nothing like a vinyl bootleg from the 70s or 80s. The materiality of these old pieces is often phenomenal; pure fetishism. False labels (indicating a different band, like in this case), cheap printing, glued on paper and the smell of thirty years of sitting somewhere probably not too clean and tidy. Wonderful.
Oh yeah, before I forget: “Electric Shock” has been repressed a couple times. The original first press has blue labels (it says “Hopscotch Music” on them, presenting “The Aerobics live in concert”).
25 Comments
You know I love you.
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You’ve inspired me to convert and post some live ’77-’78 Bon Scott mp4 from DVD over at the blog…hope the punkers understand. Good write-up’s on the links as well. Yes my first vinyl was AC DC “Back in Black” by first DVD was Roy Orbison “Black and White” and my first live show was Big Black with a brick of firecrackers to start it all off. Love to the all the rockers who make life living.
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Well damn it effed up on me…well here’s to good intentions.
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L O V E !
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This post and this rip together are a true labor of love. I love blog posts like this- the enthusiasm is infectious and really bleeds through the writing (it helps that I enjoy the band, too, but still…) I was just thinking about how I wanted to hear more live Bon Scott AC/DC, so this comes at a perfect time and I can’t wait to hear it.
Out of curiosity, is that Banshees boot any good? I like them and own no live stuff.
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Excellent writing as always. Also remember the stories/rumors that shops had to close down if they was caught selling bootlegs. But at least in Sweden the boots where available among the other stacks of records. The Siouxie record is Love in a Void?
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haven’t yet downloaded the link but I already it’s going to rule. great writeup. I noticed all your writeups on ac/dc have a very special quality. it’s like watching a movie readin your memories. you really should write a book or make a movie out of this stuff. I’m sure it would become a success.
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Perfect man, “jabbering” and all. There was at least one underground store in LA that had mountains of bootlegs, of course my money was spent more on beer. Whatever happened to Guido?
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I agree with your sentiments about the old vinyl bootlegs, spot on, but we got into early punk to get away from heavy metal, NWOBHM etc, which we found tedious back then and it sounds no better right now!
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great post, thanks for the download!
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Graeme, you fig eating pederast, AC/DC transcend any and all futile attempts at pigeon-holing. Thanks for this. Post some Rose Tattoo bootlegs when you have the time, Erich.
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Hey, remember how many of those overpriced bootlegs just plain sucked; most people I knew stopped collecting after the second or third attempt; this is great, though. thanks!
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Not Guilty – are you suggesting AC/DC aren’t ‘Evvy Metal???
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I’m just relishing seeing such an obscure UK specific schoolyard 70s/80s word like ‘spasmo’ being used by a middle aged Swiss guy in 2010!!! Huh? Or maybe you have the Young Ones on DVD…..!
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AC/DC definitely aren’t heavy metal. Plus their audience consisted of old rockers, headbangers, and punks, too!
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And lots of screaming teenage girls. – Just watched footage from concerts the band played in Australia back in the seventies: The front rows consisted exclusively of young girls holding up “Angus”-banners and trying to touch the band…
Quite a contrast to Europe were AC/DC was first and foremost the soundtrack to male juvenile delinquency.
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Spot on, Jochen!
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Those who don’t get a charge out of this AC/DC boot should consult an electrician. Or Dr. Frankenstein. He may be able to bring you back from the dead! ; ).
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Saw AC/DC back in 1979 in Nuremberg in front of 60,000 people just a couple of days after “Highway to Hell” was released. It was a big open air with The Who headlining and Scorpions, Molly Hatchet and Cheap Trick playing. But everyone had turned up because of AC/DC – at least it felt like it. It was M-A-S-S-I-V-E – a band on the verge of becoming superstars and knowing it. Saw them again the following year in December on the Hell’s Bells tour in Munich, and they were a completely different animal. But actually even more devoted and forceful – they just knew that the fans wouldn’t accept Brian Johnson without a fight. And fight they did. Both shows were incredible. And by the way: When AC/DC first appeared in the German mainstream media in teen-magazine BRAVO, they were labeled a punk band. They even had a fotocapture with two punk girls that read “Two punk chicks sucking in the electric sound of AC/DC”. So, of course, in a way, they were as punk as can be, without ever being a punk band. Thx for the great boot.
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Thanks much for the input, Thomas! That’s exactly how I see it: they were punk without being a punk band. One might further add that the german 1976 “High Voltage” 7″ even had the famous “Punk” logo printed additionally on the front cover.
I have a vinyl AC/DC bootleg of the Nuremberg gig and will post it especially for you.
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Wow, thx, Erich. I guess, we might know each other from back in the day… I was good friends with Röbi… So it seems, there was a similar trajectory in our musical path (metal, nwobhm, punk, hardcore etc.)… Though I deviated from it sometime early in the nineties and took a permenant leave of absence… But for some personal reasons I was looking for a rip of the Körö 7″ and found your site, which just brings back a LOT of GOOD memories… Anyway, I was 13 when that show happened, it was my very first concert, and it was just the most exciting experience one could imagine. Did you know there was a one hour radio special on BR 2 (I think, might have been 1, but it must have been 2) on that concert with live bits and pieces of all the bands plus interviews (there is a totally absurd q&a with Rudolf Schenker about the pros and cons of wearing spandex pants and ballerina shoes)? That must have aired a couple of weeks later. Unfortunately I don’t have the tape anymore.
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Wait a minute, wait a minute – TRUST-Tomasso?
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Yup.
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False labels indeed!
Subsequent pressing of “Electric Shock” in white labels, Double LP, Pleasure Lobe Records, titled “In Shock” The songs on the vinyl do not coincide with the sleeve in any way shape or form. Sleeve has side A through D sides with 4 songs on each of the vinyls. The vinyls have Side 1 through 4 with 3 songs per side of vinyl. All the songs stamped on the vinyl are made up such as “Dig we must” “My current Love” “Electric wind”. The Sleeve shows AC/DC(Bon Scott) stage recorded performances from 1976-1979.
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Rather amusing that Brian Johnson’s Photo with the band made it on the rear of the DLP, when in fact he lends no vocals on the performances of Electric Shock.
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