In the beginning, back in 1955, man didn’t know ’bout a rock ‘n’ roll show, ‘n’ all that jive. The white man had the schmaltz, the black man had the blues, no one knew what they was gonna do, but Tchaikovsky had the news. He said, Let there be sound, and there was sound, let there be light, and there was light, let there be drums, ‘n’ there was drums. Let there be guitar, there was guitar, let there be rock, and there was rock…And it came to pass, that rock ‘n’ roll was born. —Let There Be Rock
That’s not all that was born in 1955. That same year the future schoolboy gone bad, Angus McKinnon Young, was born on March 31 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was the seventh son and youngest of eight children born to William and Margaret Young. Malcolm Mitchell Young, older brother and riff maniac-to-be, made his debut two years earlier on January 6, 1953.
The Young household was a musical one; there was always an instrument of some kind lying around. They had a piano, guitar, banjo, saxophone, and clarinet…anything to make noise with, as Angus has fondly recalled. He claims the first thing he tried to strum on was a banjo that was missing some strings.
Eldest sibling and only sister, Margaret, introduced the family to Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Little Richard: the literal blueprints of rock ‘n’ roll in its purest form. Angus once said that “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley was one of the first songs that really did it for him. Even as a toddler, he already had good taste in music!
Once, Margaret took the kids to see the great Louis Armstrong perform. Angus remembered in an August 1996 issue of Guitar World, “My sister took me to see him when I was a kid, and I still think he was one of the greatest musicians of all time. Especially when you listen to his old records, like these [“Basin St. Blues” and “St. James Infirmary”], and hear the incredible musicianship and emotion coming out of his horn. And the technology in those days was almost nonexistent, all the tracks had to be done in one take. I can picture him in that big football stadium where I saw him. He wasn’t a big man, but when he played, he seemed bigger than the stadium itself!”
All the Young boys were encouraged to play the guitar on their weekend family camping trips. Oldest brother Alex was first to become a professional musician as George Alexander, playing saxophone in Emile Ford’s Checkmates. By the time the family immigrated to Australia in 1963, he was playing with the Big Six. Their claim to fame was backing Tony Sheridan after The Beatles had left him. Alex would go on to form the band, Grapefruit, that was the first group signed to Apple Records, The Beatles’ label.
When their father couldn’t find work in their hometown of Glasgow, the Youngs—like many Scottish families—took advantage of the Assisted Passage Scheme, which was implemented in 1947. It allowed immigrants to sail to Australia for the economical price of 10 pounds each, which is about $13. The Youngs arrived in Sydney and first moved to Villawood Migrant Hostel before settling in a bunkerstyle neighborhood in the suburb of Burwood. Many English, Scottish, and Dutch families chose Burwood… some with sons who owned musical gear. It soon became a breeding ground for garage bands. That’s where older brother George met Dutchman Johannes Jacob Hendricks Vandenberg, better pronounced as Harry Vanda, who had been in the band Starfighter. George and Harry recruited fellow Brit vocalist Stevie Wright, bassist Dick Diamonde, and drummer Gordon “Snowy” Fleet. Playing their first gig at the Beatle Village in Sydney in late 1964, they called themselves The Easybeats.
Soon after The Easybeats formed, they signed Mike Vaughan as their manager. Mike introduced them to Ted Albert, a third-generation publishing mogul of J. Albert and Son. The company was Australia’s oldest and most-respected music publishing house. The first order of business for the Alberts was to sign The Easybeats. This would be the one key factor that would benefit all of their futures.
They quickly went into the studio to record, and their second single, “She’s So Fine,” made them the top recording act in Australia. Glenn A. Baker wrote in Billboard magazine, “From the first single, ‘For My Woman,’ in March of 1965, The Easybeats became astronomical superstars. While England reeled under the onslaught of Beatlemania, Australia was shaken by “Easyfever.” Airports, television stations, theaters, and hire cars were reduced to rubble, fans were hospitalized, and general mayhem reigned wherever they set foot. Like The Beatles, the group was public property, with their private lives spread across the front pages of the daily newspapers.”
The Easybeats had broken into the international music scene with their single “Friday On My Mind.” That song made it to Number 16 on the U.S. charts and Number Six in Britain, which prompted the band to relocate to London. This would also become an advantage to Malcolm and Angus, who would ask George to send them all the best music from the U.K., since many of these albums weren’t available in Australia.
Following in their big brother’s footsteps, Malcolm started playing guitar around the age of four, strumming to Elvis or whatever he was listening to. By the time he was 11, he was playing along to Beatles songs. Angus played whatever he could get his hands on, also starting around the age of four or five. Their mother finally went out and bought them each a 10-dollar acoustic guitar, saying, “Here’s one for you and Mal. Now behave yourselves.” She could only hope.
When Malcolm was 14, Harry Vanda gave him his Gretsch guitar, which Malcolm had always admired. (It is widely reported that George gave him the guitar, but Malcolm was quoted in Guitar Player magazine saying it was a gift from Harry.) When Malcolm graduated to a Gretsch, Angus got a Hofner guitar. But when he saw a Gibson SG in a friend’s guitar catalog, he decided to switch and has played one ever since. Angus was known to play the guitar constantly around the house, even taking to sleeping with the instrument. Don’t ask.
Both brothers attended the Sydney Ashfield Boys High School. Well, sort of. It seems Malcolm attended school and learned how to fight well, especially when he had to defend his little brother. Angus, on the other hand, didn’t seem to attend much school at all. When he did attend, his favorite subject was art because it was the only class that would let him do what he wanted. He once recalled scaring everyone on the school bus with a six-foot papier-mâché housefly. Although it’s hard to believe Angus would ever be big enough to carry home a six-foot fly, even today.
Brother George’s rise to fame was not lost on Angus or Malcolm, who once recalled coming home from school to find dozens of girls trying to do anything they could to get a look at him. Angus once joked to me that when he saw that, both he and Malcolm knew that rock ‘n’ roll was going to be the life for them. He was quoted as saying, “One day George was a 16-year-old sitting on his bed playing guitar, the next day he was worshipped by the whole country.”
In the February 1984 issue of Guitar Player magazine, Angus affirmed, “It was definitely an inspiration. There was a hell of a lot that came from that band; they were the forerunners of a lot of things. They were at the time of the early stages, when people didn’t know how to react. Mal and me were kept away from them. In school, you got frowned upon because obviously your brother or your family was an influence to rebel. At that time, it was better for us not to be sort of pushed at it. My parents thought we’d be better off doing something else.” Even though The Easybeats were quite successful, their father kept asking George when he was going to get a proper job!
This didn’t deter Malcolm, who loved to listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and The Who. He also got into Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band… all the while perfecting his own unique playing style.
Angus had two bands—Kentuckee and, later, Tantrum—before joining up with Malcolm. He often ran home from school and would leave again for rehearsal without changing out of his school uniform. When a headmaster gave Angus grief over brother George being a pop star and declaring that his older brother was now in “a profession for perverts,” his parents defended him. They didn’t care for Angus being pushed around, so they didn’t protest when he stopped going to school altogether. His father encouraged him to keep learning and suggested he spend some time in the library. This is where Angus discovered the American rock ‘n’ roll magazine DownBeat. These were magazines you couldn’t buy on newsstands in Australia and he loved reading about his favorite blues artists.
At 14 and nine months, he was officially asked to leave school. Obviously they didn’t want to wait until he turned 15. Angus once said, “If you weren’t there for so many days a year, they figured you weren’t worth teaching, so they got rid of you.” Malcolm had already dropped out two years earlier, taking work as an apprentice fitter, then later as a sewing machine maintenance mechanic for Berlei, a brassiere factory. Angus ended up working as a typesetter at the soft porn magazine Ribald. Both jobs are quite ironic, considering much of AC/DC’s future lyrical content.
In 1971 at the age of 18 while working at Berlei, Malcolm met and joined The Velvet Underground—not to be confused with the band of the same name that was fronted by Lou Reed. This band formed in Newcastle, England in 1967 and had become a top dance band playing covers by The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. After they lost their lead singer, they moved to Sydney. The band included drummer Herm Kovac, guitarist Les Hall, bassist Michael Szchefswick, and singer Andy Imlah (who joined after they relocated to Australia).
When the band met Malcolm, they needed another guitar player. And they all needed to get out of the brassiere factory! Once Malcolm joined the band, he added songs by his idol, T. Rex’s Marc Bolan. Supposedly, “Bang A Gong” Bolan was the only rock star to ever have graced the walls of Malcolm’s bedroom.
Drummer Herm Kovac remembered in Clinton Walker’s book, Highway To Hell, “We used to go round and pick Malcolm up. The first time, this little punk skinhead answered the door. It was Angus. I hid behind Les (the guitarist); in those days you’d hear about the skinheads down at Burwood Station, Strathfield Station. Shaved head he had, big boots. He said, ‘Eh, come in ’ere.’ So we follow him into his room, he straps on his SG, jumps on the bed, and goes off on this exhibition, running over the dressing table, showing off, couldn’t play any chords, just lead, and when he finishes he says, ‘Whaddya reckon?’ You had to say, ‘Pretty good, Angus.’ Every time you’d go there, you’d have to go through this same ritual.” It sounds like nothing much has changed.
Angus was allowed to come out and see his big brother play in The Velvet Underground, where he would stand in front of the stage, transfixed. Only receiving a few formal lessons around the age of 11, Angus became a self-taught musician. Once he was out of school, he would hang out with older musicians and jam with any band that would let him. He quickly started catching on and was later billed as the “baby guitar star.” Since he was underage and very small in stature, they often told club owners who would question his age that Angus was a dwarf, which usually got him in.
Even though George and Harry had written their biggest hit, “Friday On My Mind,” The Easybeats would never repeat the success of that song, constantly chasing their true sound. George believed that a band should stay loyal to their roots, a philosophy he would wholeheartedly teach his younger brothers. The Easybeats did have two more minor hits in 1968, “Good Time” and “St. Louis.” In 1969, they would leave England one last time to tour Australia, where they were supported by The Valentines before officially breaking up.
From 1970 to 1973, George and Harry would hone their expertise, practically living in their London recording studio. Since J. Albert and Son hadn’t yet found a hit band in England, Ted Albert persuaded them to move back to Australia. They immediately went to work with an Alberts’ prodigy, John Paul Young (no relation). They wrote the song “Pasadena” for him, which almost made it into the Top 10. This success inspired Ted Albert to finance their recording studio and Albert Productions was born.
The next project for Albert Productions was recording the Marcus Hook Roll Band, which started out as a casual project. When EMI’s American division expressed interest in a full-length album, as producer, George brought Angus and Malcolm into the studio as supporting players. This would be their first time in a studio where they recorded tracks for the album, Tales Of Old Grand-Daddy. George later told Australian rock journalist Glenn A. Baker, “We didn’t take it very seriously, so we thought we’d include them to give them an idea of what recording was all about.”
Malcolm had been working steadily in The Velvet Underground and by 1972 they were playing their own sets and providing backup for one of Albert Production’s artists, Ted Mulry. By this time, Malcolm had become disenchanted with The Velvet Underground’s musical direction and was looking to do something on his own.
When he got his first taste of recording, he decided he didn’t believe rock ‘n’ roll was meant to be overdubbed and recorded to perfection. Malcolm wanted to record rock ‘n’ roll like it was played, live without any studio trickery. Now he just had to find the right people to record it with. Although his future band would go through several incarnations, the fact that he eventually did find the right people could be one of rock’s biggest understatements!