Metropolis Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Highway to Hell or High Voltage? This became a heated topic at work the other day. I was mumbling "It's A Long Way To The Top" when someone from another department chimed in that they loved AC/DC and that Highway To Hell was an all-time great album. I quizzically looked at him and asked "really?" IMO "Highway To Hell" is an all-time great Song, but as an album isn't even top 3 for them. That's when a female associate with 20 years on me asked the guy had he ever owned the album. He said no and she went to town on him. Now everyone's opinion is their own but you lose me when you declare something an all-time great album and have trouble naming another song off of it other than the title track. Sorta like the BOC thread. My favorite album of theirs is Imaginos, but that has to do with it coming out at the time I really got into rock. I would never falling an all time great, though I'm not sure BOC has one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Given just those 2 choices, I'd go with Highway to Hell. They were just barely even a band when they put out High Voltage; Bon Scott had been with them about 2 minutes and they didn't even know what they wanted to sound like yet. And you get different tracks if you get the original album vs the USA Atlantic release, which, on this one, makes big difference, IMO. I think Back in Black is a slightly more polished package than Highway and would get my #1 slot for that alone, but I ADORE Bon Scott and am meh on Johnson so it even s it all out for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolis Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Well yeah High Voltage over here was the equivalent of an album with bonus tracks when it was released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Still. It's too...wibbly-wobbly as an ALBUM. Highway to Hell was a more cohesive piece of work with more hits and a much more definite direction. On High Voltage, they didn't know if they wanted to be a rock band, a progressive outfit or a blues retro metal band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolis Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Don't get me wrong. It's a solid album, but an all time great? I think Dirty Deeds is a better album. It's like the Pink Floyd debate about Dark Side of the Moon being their best work. Good album. A bit disjointed to me. Especially considering it's the belated soundtrack to the Wizard Of Oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Well, NOW you're just splitting hairs. AND YOU DIDN'T AKS FOR ALL TIME GREAT GATDAMMIT YOU SAID: Highway to Hell or High Voltage? SO STOP THAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolis Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 No. I said it wasn't an all time great to the guy at work. I don't even consider in their top 3. High Voltage to me is a more listenable album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Well, seriously, I wasn't there for the conversation you had with a guy at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pong Messiah Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 AC/DC has two great albums: Highway to Hell, and Back in Black. And isn't High Voltage (at least the American version) more of a compilation than an album, anyway? Either way, while there is loads of energy on the early tunes and several great songs scattered throughout, Highway to Hell was the first AC/DC album that had it all and maintained it the entire time: energy, songs, production, smut, humor, and malevolence, all in a way only AC/DC could deliver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolis Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 High Voltage was basically a mix of their first two albums in Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 And their first major US release Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kurgan Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Let there be Rock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 meh. Wasted vinyl outsidea Rosie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 If the choice is between Highway to Hell or High Voltage only, then I have to go with Highway to Hell. AC/DC has two great albums: Highway to Hell, and Back in Black.Wrong. There are three: those two, and Dirty Deeds. And if you want to count comps/sound tracks, then you have ACDC Live, Who Made Who, and Iron Man 2. Really, outside a box set, those 6 are all you really need from ACDC. All the rest of the albums have good songs, but you have to get through some filler songs to get to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pong Messiah Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I wouldn't go so far as to call Dirty Deeds "great," but I do think it's their third best album. Just a matter of taste: the mid-tempo "Love at First Feel" and "There's Gonna Be Some Rockin" always make me skip to the next track, while there's not a single song on HtH or BiB that I would skip past. Maybe a slightly off-topic, but here's my favorite live version of "Problem Child." "THANK YOU PETER!" and the scream at 2:50 is about as pure a shot of Bon Scott as you can get (legally):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYcLXBTxR30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Lohr Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Wait, you mean AC/DC albums don't all sound alike? (I kid, I kid! Mostly, I kid!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 OMG SHUT UP HEATHEN GAWDUH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I wouldn't go so far as to call Dirty Deeds "great," but I do think it's their third best album.Why must you blaspheme? Dirty DeedsProblem ChildSqueelerBig BallsRide OnJailbreak That is as great as any AC DC album can be. Outside a compilation album, no other ACDC album has so many good songs on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pong Messiah Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Like I said, it's a matter of taste... but as far as I'm concerned, Dirty Deeds has 7 tracks I really like, 2 tracks I consider filler. Both Highway to Hell and Back in Black have 10 tracks I really like and no filler. This makes Dirty Deeds good enough for #3 in their catalog on my list, but it's a distant third, to be honest; H2H and BiB are just so damn good. Now if you want to get into a real argument, ask me what #4 is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolis Posted July 11, 2015 Author Share Posted July 11, 2015 Razor's Edge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeygirl Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I would take Highway to Hell over High Voltage, but I would also take Powerage over both of them. High Voltage just didn't have the Bon era ACDC awesome factor that Powerage did. To me Sin City is the by far the best ACDC song of all time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolis Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 MG, Razor's Edge is an underrated album. It could be Pong's fourth. Or maybe it's Fly On The Wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pong Messiah Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 MG, Razor's Edge is an underrated album. It could be Pong's fourth. Or maybe it's Fly On The Wall.Agreed on Razor's Edge being underrated. "Thunderstruck" is painfully overplayed, and Johnson's voice was so shot by this album, it sounded like the band was being fronted by Daffy Duck... but there are several good tunes here, and a lot of energy. I don't know if you were being sarcastic, but Fly on the Wall is actually #4 with me for realz. I hate -- hate -- the production: too polished, vocals way too low in the mix (this was fixed on the two tracks that were re-released on Who Made Who?), too focused on gaining a foothold on MTV, and I guess the lyrics would be incredibly offensive and stupid if I could actually understand them. But there are some absolutely great riffs to be found on that album, and Angus Young never played with so much aggression and intensity over the course of 40 minutes. It's super cheesy (especially if you watch the video), and a failure on multiple levels, but still a guilty pleasure for me; aside from BiB, it is the only album from the Brian Johnson-led lineup that I can listen to all the way through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolis Posted July 13, 2015 Author Share Posted July 13, 2015 Not being sarcastic. Took a guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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