''Flick of the Switch'' is the ninth studio album by Australian
hard rock band
AC/DC. The album was deemed a commercial disappointment after it failed to match the sales figures of the band's two previous releases, 1980's ''
Back in Black
''Back in Black'' is the seventh studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC. It was released on 25 July 1980 by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records. It is the band's first album to feature lead singer Brian Johnson, following the death ...
'' and 1981's ''
For Those About to Rock'', and its release represented the beginning of the band's commercial decline. Despite this, opinions of ''Flick of the Switch'' have been quite positive in the years since its release, and the album has often been mentioned as one of the best releases of 1983.
The third AC/DC album to feature lead vocalist
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. He and the rest of the band were inducted into the Rock and Rol ...
, the album is also the last to feature drummer
Phil Rudd
Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd (born Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecius, 19 May 1954) is an Australian drummer, best known as the drummer of AC/DC across three stints. On the 1977 departure of bass guitarist Mark Evans from AC/DC, Rudd became ...
before his return on ''
Ballbreaker'' (1995). The album was re-released in 2003 as part of the ''AC/DC Remasters'' series.
Recording
AC/DC returned to
Compass Point Studios
Compass Point Studios was a music recording studio in the Bahamas, founded in 1977 by Chris Blackwell, the owner of Island Records. The concept of the studio was of a recording facility supported by in-house sets of artists, musicians, producer ...
in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
to record their ninth album, the same studio where they had recorded ''
Back in Black
''Back in Black'' is the seventh studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC. It was released on 25 July 1980 by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records. It is the band's first album to feature lead singer Brian Johnson, following the death ...
'' with
Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Robert John "Mutt" Lange (born 11 November 1948) is a South African record producer and songwriter, mainly known for his work in rock music as well as his previous marriage to Canadian singer Shania Twain, for whom he wrote and produced several ...
in 1980. Lange had produced AC/DC's three previous releases but this time the band chose to produce themselves. On the recorded commentary on the album for the ''
Live at Donington'' DVD, the band members state that the album was an attempt to make the band raw again, and were happy with the result. In the book ''AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll'', AC/DC engineer
Tony Platt
Tony Platt is an English sound engineer and record producer, best known for his work with a diverse mix of artists, including, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Bob Marley, Iron Maiden, Shy, Buddy Guy, Foreigner, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sparks, Jaz ...
recalls:
The album is notable for its "dry" sound, with very little of the polish that is evident on their previous effort ''
For Those About to Rock We Salute You
''For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)'' (referred to as ''For Those About to Rock'' on its cover) is the eighth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It was released on 20 November 1981 for the United States, 27 November 1981 ...
''. In a 1983 interview that appears on ultimateguitar.com, Angus Young said of the LP, "We wanted this one as raw as possible. We wanted a natural, but big, sound for the guitars. We didn't want echoes and reverb going everywhere and noise eliminators and noise extractors."
However, the album's birth was a troubled one; after having problems with Malcolm as well as drugs and alcohol, drummer
Phil Rudd
Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd (born Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecius, 19 May 1954) is an Australian drummer, best known as the drummer of AC/DC across three stints. On the 1977 departure of bass guitarist Mark Evans from AC/DC, Rudd became ...
was fired midway through the album's recording sessions, although he had completed his drum parts. According to Murray Engleheart's band memoir ''AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll'', Rudd had been struggling for some time; tour manager Ian Jeffrey recalls getting a phone call from a strung-out Rudd at four in the morning when the band was playing in Nebraska on the Back in Black tour and finding the drummer in his hotel room in a state of disorientated agitation. Eventually Rudd broke down crying and begged Jeffery "Don't tell Malcolm." Jeffery also reveals that Malcolm punched the drummer after he showed up two hours late for the band's show at
Long Island's
Nassau Coliseum and was unable to play the last song of the encore. "It was an absolutely stupid thing that finished it, but it had been brewing for a long, long time," Jeffery remembers.
"He got into drugs and got burned out," Malcolm later explained to KNAC.com in August 2000. Former
Procol Harum
Procol Harum () were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single " A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Although noted for ...
drummer
B.J. Wilson was hired to help complete the recording if needed, but his contributions were not used. Platt later recalled to band biographer Jesse Fink, "It wasn't a happiest of albums. There were all sorts of tensions within the band. They were all pretty knackered by that point. It was the album that copped the backlash, really." The drum position was eventually filled by future
Dio drummer
Simon Wright after more than 700 auditions were held in the U.S. and UK.
Simon Kirke
Simon Frederick St George Kirke (born 28 July 1949) is an English rock drummer best known as a member of Free and Bad Company. He has been the only continuous member of Bad Company since their inception.
Life and career
Kirke was born in L ...
of
Free and
Bad Company
Bad Company are an English rock supergroup that was formed in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell. Bad Company ''AllMusic'' Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, a ...
fame, and
Paul Thompson of
Roxy Music
Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone ...
were two of the drummers auditioned.
Wright appeared in the videos for "
Flick of the Switch", "
Nervous Shakedown", and "
Guns For Hire". A second video for "Nervous Shakedown" was also shot at a pre-show rehearsal at
Joe Louis Arena
Joe Louis Arena was an arena in Downtown Detroit. Completed in 1979 at a cost of US$57 million as a replacement for Olympia Stadium, it sat adjacent to Cobo Center on the bank of the Detroit River and was accessible by the Joe Louis Arena ...
in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. He also toured for the album, and is seen in the pro-shot video recordings from that period. The videos, which were shot in an aircraft-hangar sized area, seemed to reflect the stripped-down sound of the album and flew in the face of the growing infatuation that the music business was developing with the glitz of
MTV.
The songs on ''Flick of the Switch'' contain much of the outlaw bravado ("Guns For Hire," "Badlands") and sexual innuendo ("Rising Power," "Deep in the Hole") that fans had come to expect from the Australian rockers. The song "Bedlam in Belgium" was inspired by the band's appearance at
Kontich
Kontich (, old spelling: ''Contich'') is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Kontich proper and Waarloos. In 2021, Kontich had a total population of 21,260. The total area is 23.67&nbs ...
when a riot nearly broke out when police tried to close down the show after the band allegedly ignored a strict 11 p.m. curfew. On tour in support of the album, "Guns For Hire" was the set opener. The tour resulted in more upheaval in the band's inner circle when Malcolm, frustrated by mixed reviews for ''Flick of the Switch'' and dwindling audience numbers in certain cities, fired tour manager Ian Jeffrey. In his
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980.
Born in Forfar in Angus, Scotlan ...
memoir ''Highway to Hell'', author Clinton Walker observes:
Album cover
The ''Flick of the Switch'' cover features a simple, pencil-drawn picture of Angus, illustrated by artist Brent Richardson, that he himself had originally sketched out to reflect the simple, raw approach of the album, and
Atlantic Records hated it.
Angus had also wanted the album graphics to be embossed the same way that ''Back in Black'' had been but, according to Ian Jeffrey, Atlantic did not want to spend the money because they believed the album contained no hit singles.
Reception
Recorded shortly after their 1982
European tour
The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...
at the beginning of 1983, the album was originally released with little promotion in the US on 15 August 1983. The album reached No. 4 in UK and No. 15 in the US, and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. In his original ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' review,
David Fricke
David Fricke is an American music journalist who serves as the senior editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, where he writes predominantly about rock music. One of the best known names in rock journalism, his career has spanned over 40 years. I ...
noted, "Produced by the band, ''Flick of the Switch'' isn't quite the monster blowout that 1980's ''Back in Black'' was, and the Youngs' retooling of old riffs for new hits also teeters on self-plagiarism at times." Canadian journalist
Martin Popoff
Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionall ...
considered the album "the blinding furious peak of the Brian Johnson era", where AC/DC recaptured "the raw edge lost during the Mutt Lange years... even if the songs were starting to relive past glories".
Steve Huey of ''
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
'' was of the same opinion, writing that "as perhaps indicated by the record's idiotic original title, the utterly generic ''I Like to Rock'', AC/DC seemed to be running out of ideas at an alarming rate, and their record sales began to reflect that fact."
Malcolm Young later said of the LP, "It was thrown together real quick. I wouldn't say it's a great album..."
''
Cash Box'' said of the title track that it "blasts off in suitable fashion with a basic hard rock guitar riff from Angus Young followed by Brian Johnson’s just-as-basic hard rock squeals" and the rest of the song follows in kind, consistent with the song's lyrics that "with a flick of the switch she’ll blow you sky high."
Track listing
Personnel
;AC/DC
*
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. He and the rest of the band were inducted into the Rock and Rol ...
– lead vocals
*
Angus Young
Angus McKinnon Young (born 31 March 1955) is an Australian musician, best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and only remaining original member of the hard rock band AC/DC. He is known for his energetic performances, schoolbo ...
– lead guitar
*
Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
*
Cliff Williams
Clifford Williams (born 14 December 1949) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. He started his professional music career in 1967 and had previously been in the English ...
– bass guitar, backing vocals
*
Phil Rudd
Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd (born Phillip Hugh Norman Witschke Rudzevecius, 19 May 1954) is an Australian drummer, best known as the drummer of AC/DC across three stints. On the 1977 departure of bass guitarist Mark Evans from AC/DC, Rudd became ...
– drums
;Production
*
Tony Platt
Tony Platt is an English sound engineer and record producer, best known for his work with a diverse mix of artists, including, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Bob Marley, Iron Maiden, Shy, Buddy Guy, Foreigner, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sparks, Jaz ...
– engineer, mixing
*Barry Harris, Benjamin Armbrister, Gary Helman – assistant engineers
*
Bob Ludwig – mastering at
Masterdisk, New York
Charts
Certifications
References
External links
Lyricson AC/DC's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flick Of The Switch
AC/DC albums
1983 albums
Atlantic Records albums