Maps of Music

Powerage (1978)

Where the lyrics of Powerage take you, and where it was really made.

Powerage was the first AC/DC album without a title track, and the first released worldwide with the same cover in every market.

Key places

Where the Powerage sessions were recorded (1978)

Recording site Albert Studios — The band returned to Sydney in early 1978 to record the album. The sessions officially began in January 1978 and lasted about eight weeks. Some songs had earlier been started at Albert Studios during rehearsals in July 1977. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Powerage: fifth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC
• Released 5 May 1978 in the United Kingdom and 25 May 1978 in the United States
• Issued by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records
• First AC/DC album to feature Cliff Williams on bass guitar
• First AC/DC album without a title track, apart from the Australia-only High Voltage
• Re-released in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series

Background

• Bassist Mark Evans was fired from AC/DC on 3 May 1977, after a 12-date European tour opening for Black Sabbath in April
• Former manager Michael Browning said the Young brothers were considering Colin Pattenden of Manfred Mann's Earth Band
• Browning feared Pattenden was too old and did not fit the band's image, so he pushed for Cliff Williams instead
• Williams had previously played with Home and Bandit and could also sing background vocals
• Williams passed the audition and was asked to join the band
• The band first toured America in summer 1977, starting with smaller markets before playing CBGB and the Whisky a Go Go
• In December 1977 the band played a set for a small audience at Atlantic Recording Studios in New York City, broadcast live on Radio WIOQ in Philadelphia
• In early 1978 the band returned to Sydney to record the next album

Recording

• Several songs were started in July 1977 during the first rehearsals with Williams at Albert Studios, including 'Kicked in the Teeth' and 'Up to My Neck in You'
• The Powerage sessions officially began in January 1978 and lasted about eight weeks
• Atlantic executives complained that the album lacked a radio-friendly single, so the band recorded 'Rock 'n' Roll Damnation'
• Producers Harry Vanda and George Young produced the album, and Mark Opitz was the engineer
• This was the last Bon Scott-era studio album made with Vanda and Young, who had produced all earlier band albums

Cover

• One cover image was used for both the Australian/international releases, the first AC/DC album to do so worldwide

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in November 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young.
• The band name comes from the AC/DC symbol on the adapter of their sister Margaret's sewing machine.
• Their music has been described as hard rock, blues rock and heavy metal, though the band calls itself simply a rock and roll band.
• Their early sound was rooted in Australian pub rock.

Members

• Angus Young (lead guitar) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar) were the founding core of the band until Malcolm retired in 2014.
• Bon Scott was lead vocalist until his death in February 1980.
• Brian Johnson became lead vocalist in 1980.
• Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams and Stevie Young have also played key roles.

Career

• Their 1980 album Back in Black became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
• The band has sold an estimated 200 million records worldwide.
• They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Detroit Free Press called AC/DC another late-'70s boogie band making strides toward commercial clout
• Cheshire Observer wrote that the LP captured the fresh, aggressive style and the compelling high voltage rock better than ever
• Sydney Morning Herald said the band were Australia's first punk rockers but were not their best or last

Reappraisal

• AllMusic called it the most uneven of AC/DC's 1970s material but still containing a few genuine classics, specifically 'Down Payment Blues' and 'Up to My Neck in You'
• Stylus Magazine's Edwin Faust considered Powerage AC/DC's best album because it is not simply about sex, drinking and tongue-in-cheek Satanism, showing a band growing up
• Bon Scott biographer Clinton Walker wrote in 1994 that Powerage seemed to lack the uncompromising coherence of its predecessor
• Band biographer Jesse Fink cited it as containing the band's best ever collection of songs
• Rock Hard ranked it number 325 in its 2005 book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time
• Kerrang! listed it at number 26 among the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time

Records

• Initial sales were somewhat disappointing
• Reached number 133 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart in the US, above its predecessor Let There Be Rock
• Eventually achieved platinum certification

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Rock 'n' Roll Damnation was released in Britain at the end of May 1978 and reached No. 24, the best chart performance by an AC/DC single until then.
• The song features handclaps and maracas and has no traditional guitar solo.
• Initial European (UK) LP pressings used a different, harder mix, and some omitted 'Rock 'n' Roll Damnation' from the track list.
• Mark Evans plays bass on 'Cold Hearted Man', while The Youngs book claims George Young played bass on all tracks, a claim Cliff Williams denied in a 2020 interview.
• Some cassette copies, such as the original Canadian issue, had an alternate track listing.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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