Fly on the Wall (video)
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''Fly on the Wall'' is the tenth studio album by Australian
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
band
AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...
, released on 28 June 1985 by
Albert Productions Albert Productions, a division of music publishing and recording company Albert Music, is one of Australia's longest established independent record labels to specialise in rock and roll music. The label was founded in 1963 by Ted Albert, whose ...
, and
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
. The album was re-released in 2003 as part of the ''AC/DC Remasters'' series.


Background

Although AC/DC's 1983 album ''
Flick of the Switch ''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'' an ...
'' received mixed reviews from critics, the band remained one of the biggest hard rock acts in the world. In October 1984,
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
released in the United States the EP '' '74 Jailbreak'', a collection of studio tracks previously unreleased outside Australia, taken mainly from the band's 1975 Australian debut ''
High Voltage High voltage electricity refers to electrical potential large enough to cause injury or damage. In certain industries, ''high voltage'' refers to voltage above a certain threshold. Equipment and conductors that carry high voltage warrant spec ...
''. In January 1985, the band took three weeks off from recording what would become ''Fly on the Wall'' to headline two nights at the 10-day
Rock in Rio ''Rock in Rio'' is a recurring music festival originating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It later branched into other locations such as Lisbon, Madrid and Las Vegas. Nine incarnations of the festival have been held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1985, 1991, ...
festival in
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, appearing to over 250,000 people on 19 January with
Scorpions Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...
,
Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...
, and
Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...
.


Recording and release

The sessions for ''Fly on the Wall'' took place at
Mountain Studios Mountain Studios was a commercial recording studio founded by American singer and composer Anita Kerr and husband Alex Grob in 1975 within the Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. The studio was under the ownership of Queen and then long ...
in
Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...
,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in late October 1984. Released on 28 June 1985, it was AC/DC's first album since the Australian release of ''T.N.T.'' not to include 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 ...
, who was replaced by Simon Wright (although Wright appeared in music videos for ''Flick of the Switch'' tracks), making it the first AC/DC album with all band members born in the UK. It was the second and last album to be produced by band members. But in contrast to the preceding ''Flick of the Switch'' – produced by the band as a whole – ''Fly on the Wall'' was produced by guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young, who hoped to capture the rawness and simplicity of their early work in a time when pop-oriented
glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam r ...
had become popular. In a 1985 interview with Sky Channel for the
Monsters of Rock Monsters of Rock was an annual hard rock and heavy metal music festival held in Castle Donington, England, from 1980 to 1996, taking place every year except 1989 and 1993. It later branched into other locations such as the Netherlands, Poland, ...
show, Brian Johnson explained: "In my experience, the lads went in with a producer, but they were still really telling the lad what they wanted, so in a round-about way all it is an extra pair of ears. An expensive extra pair of ears." The album was not well received by critics and its one million US sales paled beside those of ''
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 of ...
'' and ''
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 ...
''. The singles "
Shake Your Foundations "Shake Your Foundations" is a song and single by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, written by Angus and Malcolm Young and Brian Johnson. The single was released in November 1985, taken from their 1985 album ''Fly on the Wall''. The track was ...
" and "Sink the Pink" are seen as standouts; both were later included on the band's soundtrack album ''
Who Made Who ''Who Made Who'' is a soundtrack album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. Released on 26 May 1986, the album is the soundtrack to the Stephen King film ''Maximum Overdrive''. The album was re-released in 2003 as part of the ''AC/DC Remasters' ...
'' for Stephen King's film ''
Maximum Overdrive ''Maximum Overdrive'' is a 1986 American comedy horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short ...
''. The song "Danger" fell flat in concert and was banished from the set. Some critics also complained that Johnson's vocals were difficult to decipher, and the band would indeed raise them in the mix for ''Who Made Who''. The album does, however, have at least one high-profile fan: singer/songwriter
Ryan Adams David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, artist, and poet. He has released 23 albums, as well as three studio albums as a former member of alt-country band Whiskeytown. In 2000, Adams left ...
, who said "I had an epiphany while I was running and some songs from ''Fly on the Wall'' came on. That's a record I could always put on my run mix and I don't have to leave any songs off." A home video of AC/DC performing five songs from the album was released in the summer of 1985. Also titled ''Fly on the Wall'', it features the band playing "Fly on the Wall", "Danger", "Sink the Pink", "Stand Up", and "Shake Your Foundations" at a small bar in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
named The Crystal Ballroom. At the bar, a photographer attempts to sneak in to take pictures of the band. New characters are introduced during each song, including three suit-clad men and two women during "Stand Up", and a lady dressed in pink during "Sink the Pink". The cartoon fly depicted on the album cover is also seen. If nothing else, the video demonstrated the band's new commitment to the now powerful
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
by going beyond performance-based videos. The Fly on the Wall Tour was marred by bad publicity when serial killer
Richard Ramirez Ricardo "Richard" Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), dubbed the Night Stalker, the Valley Intruder (as his attacks were first clustered in the San Gabriel Valley), and the Walk-in Killer was an American serial kill ...
was arrested. Ramirez, nicknamed the "Night Stalker" by the press, told police that " Night Prowler" from the 1979 ''
Highway to Hell ''Highway to Hell'' is the sixth studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released on 27 July 1979. It was the last album featuring lead singer Bon Scott, who would die early the following year on 19 February 1980. Background By 1978 ...
'' album had driven him to commit murder. Police also claimed that Ramirez was wearing an AC/DC shirt and left an AC/DC hat at one of the crime scenes. As Murray Engelheart observes in his book ''AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll'', "It was just what the band's detractors had been waiting for and the media, especially in America, immediately seized on the case. Wild accusations that AC/DC were, in fact, devil worshippers were bandied about... The lyrics of 'Night Prowler' were carefully analysed and some newspapers attempted to link Ramirez's Satanism with AC/DC's name, somehow arriving at the conclusion that AC/DC actually stood for Anti-Christ, Devil's Child." The band maintained that the song had been given a murderous connotation by Ramírez, but is actually about a boy sneaking into his girlfriend's bedroom at night while her parents are asleep. In a 2000 interview for the
MuchMoreMusic M3 was a Canadian English language Category A cable and satellite specialty channel owned by Bell Media. Established in 1998 as MuchMoreMusic, the network began as a spin-off of the youth-oriented MuchMusic, targeting an older demographic with ...
documentary ''The Story of AC/DC'', Angus says wryly, "I can't remember the last black mass I attended."


Reception

In the original ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' review of the album, Tim Holmes wrote, "You'd never guess how sexist and politically incorrect all this is if you didn't read the lyric sheet, because you sure can't make out a single word coming out of the dentist's-drill glottis of Brian Johnson (except maybe the song titles, which tend to be repeated like mantras). Angus Young is also in great form, playing the dumbest, most irresistibly repetitive chords in the lexicon." According to 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 databas ...
, "''Fly on the Wall'' continues AC/DC's descent into cookie-cutter mediocrity, with the leering humor of past glories seeming forced and uninspired, and the music remaining somewhat underdeveloped and directionless." In his 1994
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, Scotland, ...
biography ''Highway to Hell'', author Clinton Walker calls the album a "disaster".
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 additionally ...
observed how ''Fly on the Wall'' "tries desperately to recapture wasted youth, yet the material for the most part is cookie-cutter AC/DC" and remarked Brian Johnson's awkward vocals "mixed quite far back, possibly because he's sounding raspier and more incoherent than ever". US gossip magazine ''
People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'' picked the LP as best album of 1985.


Track listing


Personnel

*
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, school ...
– lead guitar *
Malcolm Young Malcolm Mitchell Young (6 January 1953 – 18 November 2017) was an Australian musician who was the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter of AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was with the band from its beginn ...
– 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 g ...
– bass guitar, backing vocals * Simon Wright – drums, percussion


Production

*Produced by Angus and Malcolm Young *Mark Dearnley – engineer *Bob Defrin – art director *
Todd Schorr Todd Schorr (born January 9, 1954) is an American artist and member of the " Lowbrow" art movement or pop surrealism. Combining a cartoon influenced visual vocabulary with a highly polished technical ability, based on the exacting painting met ...
– cover illustration *SMAY Vision – booklet design (reissue) *Ebet Roberts, George Bodnar, Barry Plummer – photography


Charts


Weekly chart


Certifications


References


External links


Lyrics
on AC/DC's official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Fly on the Wall (AC DC album) 1985 albums AC/DC albums Atlantic Records albums Albert Productions albums