It’s the signature song that has inspired millions of air guitarists and full-throated karaoke performances but AC/DC dropped it from their setlist 45 years ago.
The Aussie rock legends who open their Power Up tour in Melbourne on Wednesday, won’t be playing “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)” at any of their nine homecoming concerts.
As AC/DC kick off their tour, fellow hard rock luminaries Metallica have been walking onto stage soundtracked by the instantly recognisable song at their Aussie shows.
The iconic rock classic was retired from the band’s concert setlist in 1980 after the death of frontman Bon Scott in London at 33 from alcohol poisoning.
His replacement Brian Johnson has said he would never sing it out of respect for Scott, who co-wrote the anthem with Angus and Malcolm Young, as it was regarded as his trademark track.
But there were other factors in the band’s decision to drop it from their setlist which features other early hits including “Highway To Hell”, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”, “T.N.T.”, “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “High Voltage”.
Blame it on the bagpipes.
The band’s producers Harry Vanda and George Young were looking for something to give AC/DC a distinctive edge on their second record.
Scott mentioned he had played in a pipe band when he was young and was keen to include the woodwind instrument on the recording of “It’s A Long Way …”
He enlisted Kevin Conlon of the Rats of Tobruk Pipe Band for some lessons to nail the solo, which was polished in the studio by production wizard George Young.
The singer muddled through playing the bagpipes during their concerts from 1975 before his kit was destroyed by rabid fans during a gig in 1976 at the St Albans High School in Victoria.
From then on, until the final performance of the song in 1979 before Scott’s death, the bagpipes were either replicated on guitar or playing on a backing tape.
It was also a huge musically technical feat to bring the bagpipes into a live context as it requires all the other instruments to be retuned to match its tones, a near impossible task.
Besides the bagpipes riff, the song is also steeped in Aussie rock legend because of its music video.
AC/DC famously filmed a performance of the song in February 1976 on a flatbed truck driving down Melbourne’s Swanston Street in 1976 for the weekly music show Countdown, with less than 100 bemused onlookers watching the ratty rockers mime to the track.
While the hard rockers retired it from their live gigs, John Farnham made it a staple at his shows and it has also been performed by hundreds of superstars from Keith Urban to The Veronicas.
AC/DC open their Power Up tour at Melbourne’s MCG tonight and return to the stadium on Sunday before rocking around the country.
