Day After Day #91: It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll) (1975)

When it comes to playing rock music, sometimes simplicity is the best approach. Play it hard and fast and let the chips fall where they may. AC/DC's been doing it that way for over 50 years now. Founded in Australia in 1973 by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, the band has been dishing out the same brand of hard rock since it first started. 

Although the band's biggest successes have come since 1980 when current vocalist Brian Johnson joined, I always preferred the albums with Bon Scott as lead singer. The band released six albums with Scott, who replaced original singer Dave Evans in 1974 and led the band to prominence before dying of alcohol poisoning in 1980. 

Johnson helped the band record its biggest album, 1980's Back in Black, but there's something about the cocksure delivery of Scott that made AC/DC unique among its hard rock peers. And there was the visual hilarity of Scott looking like a motorcycle gang member paired with the diminutive Angus Young in schoolboy garb on stage.

The early years of the band featured a lot of lineup changes before Scott joined, bringing his bluesy screech to the band. Their first few albums were released in Australia only; their international releases would confusingly feature different track listings than the original versions. T.N.T. was their second album, released in December 1975, and the one where the band really locked into the style that brought it success: heavy blues-based rock. 

The second single was "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" and it featured the unique combination of bagpipes and hard rock guitar. Scott and the Youngs were all originally from Scotland and Scott had once played in a bagpipe band; although he was a drummer in said band, he bought a set of bagpipes and taught himself how to play for the song. The middle section of the song features a call and response between Young on guitar and Scott on bagpipes.

Inspired by a Melbourne club manager who warned young bands that it was a long road to success in the music business, the song details the difficulties of touring.

"Riding down the highway/Going to a show/Stop in all the byways/Playing rock 'n' roll/Gettin' robbed/Gettin' stoned/Gettin' beat up/Broken boned/Gettin' had/Gettin' took/I tell you, folks/It's harder than it looks."

Ironically, the band reportedly only played the song live about 30 times because of the difficulty tuning the bagpipes. The last time it was played was in 1976, when Scott put the pipes down on the stage during the concert and fans destroyed them. After Johnson joined the band, he didn't play the song out of respect for Scott; "It's a Long Way" had become Scott's signature song.

"If you think it's easy doing one night stands/Try playing in a rock 'n roll band/It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n' roll/Hotel motel/Make you wanna cry/Ladies do the hard sell/Know the reason why/Gettin' old/Gettin' grey/Gettin' ripped off/Underpaid/Gettin' sold/Second hand/That's how it goes/Playing in a band."

The song was the first track on AC/DC's first internationally released album, High Voltage, which came out in April 1976. The band didn't break through in the U.S. until 1979 when Scott's final album Highway to Hell came out, although AC/DC had been touring relentlessly internationally for the previous four years. Radio stations began playing some of the older songs as well and "It's a Long Way to the Top" soon became a fan favorite. 

To AC/DC's credit, Scott's replacement wasn't a vocal (or visual) clone. Johnson was bigger and burlier and had a distinctive screech of his own. His debut with the band remains their biggest-selling album and one of the biggest of all time. Their popularity tailed off in the late '80s but picked up again in 1990 with the song "Thunderstruck" becoming a hit. They've only released four albums since 1995's Ballbreaker, but their tours perform well. Malcolm Young died in 2017 and Johnson had some health problems that forced him off the road, but the band has soldiered on, with Axl Rose of Guns 'N Roses stepping in on vocals for one tour. And despite their early warning about the dangers of touring, AC/DC is gearing up for another tour this year.