If You Want Blood You've Got It

''If You Want Blood You've Got It'' (written as just ''If You Want Blood'') is the first live album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, and their only live album released during Bon Scott's lifetime. It was originally released in the UK and Europe on 13 October 1978, in the US on 21 November 1978, and in Australia on 27 November 1978. The album was re-released in 1994 on Atco Records and in 2003 as part of the ''AC/DC Remasters'' series.

Background

The album was released six months after the band's previous studio album '' Powerage''. A 'best-of' package called ''12 of the Best'' had been in the works, but the project was scrapped in favour of a live album. It was recorded during the 1978 ''Powerage'' tour and contains songs from '' T.N.T.'', ''Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'', '' Let There Be Rock'', and '' Powerage''. It is the last Bon Scott-era AC/DC album produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, who also produced the band's first five studio releases.

In his 1994 Bon Scott memoir ''Highway to Hell'', author Clinton Walker observes, "Live albums, which tended to be double or triple sets in which songs short in their studio versions were stretched out into extended tedium, were for some reason popular in the seventies. ''If You Want Blood'' reversed this tradition... it boasted a blunt ten tracks and, allowing nothing extraneous, got straight to the point, that being raging AC/DC rock and roll."

A concert at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 April 1978 was used for the live tracks. The concert is also remembered for the encore, when AC/DC came back on stage dressed in the Scottish football strip, paying homage to Scott's and the Young brothers' homeland.

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" Dog Eat Dog", performed on the night, was removed from the album release, while the encore – "Fling Thing/Rocker" – was edited, removing "Fling Thing" and cutting out Angus's extended solo, as he did a walk around the audience (with an early version of a wireless guitar lead). This part of the band's concert theatrics later accompanied "Let There Be Rock"; "Rocker" has been performed only a few times since Bon Scott's passing in 1980. The live "Dog Eat Dog" was released as the b-side of the single "Whole Lotta Rosie" in November 1978, but only in Australia. It was rereleased worldwide in 2009 on the two (standard) and three (collectors) CD boxed set compilation '' Backtracks'', featuring Australian-only songs not released internationally at the time, and live b-Sides from 7" and 12" singles. The encores "Fling Thing" and "Rocker" (with a complete guitar solo) appeared only on footage of the concert by a Dutch TV station played at the time, but were eventually released on the ''Family Jewels'' DVD.

According to the 2006 book ''AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll'', the album title was an extension of Scott's response – at the Day on the Green festival in July 1978 – when a journalist asked what they could expect from the band. The singer replied, "Blood." The cover art is from a shoot with Atlantic Records' staff photographer Jim Houghton after the show at Boston's Paradise Theater on 21st August 1978, the idea for which came from Atlantic's art director Bob Defrin. The front cover depicts Angus Young being impaled on stage with a guitar during a performance, while the back depicts a bloodied Young lying facedown on the same stage, though deserted.

A song titled "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" appeared on the next album: the band's US chart breakthrough, '' Highway to Hell''.

Reception

The album was listed at #2 on ''Classic Rock'' magazine's readers' poll of "50 Greatest Live Albums Ever". In a 1992 interview with ''Metal Hammer'' at the time of the band's second live release, Malcolm Young admitted, "I personally still prefer the old album. We were young, fresh, vital and kicking ass." Greg Prato of AllMusic notes, "While most other rock bands of the era were busy experimenting with disco or creating studio-perfected epics, AC/DC was one of the few specializing in raw and bluesy hard rock, as evidenced by 1978's live set, If You Want Blood You've Got It." Eduardo Rivadavia of ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' enthuses, "Other concert records may boast more songs, more Top 40 hits or even more crowd-pleasing gimmicks. But very few can challenge the sheer excitement and reckless abandon captured on AC/DC’s terrific concert document." Carlo Twist of ''Blender'' magazine praised the album, saying that "They were always a mighty live act, and this is the sound of AC/DC in Europe just prior to 1979's U.S. breakthrough. The audience's hysteria regularly cuts through the amps, as they howl along to singer Bon Scott's tale of sexually transmitted disease ("The Jack") and punctuate guitarist Angus Young's staccato riffing on "Whole Lotta Rosie." Imagine a punk-rock Chuck Berry played at nosebleed volume."

Concert footage

The entire Glasgow concert was filmed but the complete footage has never been released. Eventually, " Riff Raff" and "Fling Thing/Rocker" segments were made available on the DVD '' AC/DC Family Jewels'', released in 2005. Video footage was also used from the show on ''Family Jewels'' using the "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" studio version audio track promotional clip. Segments from the concert (the songs "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation", "Dog Eat Dog" and "Let There Be Rock") were made available on the DVD '' Plug Me In'', released in 2007 (the latter 2 were also released on YouTube in 2013)). " Bad Boy Boogie" was included on the bonus disc on the three-disc edition of ''Plug Me In''.

Track listing

Original concert setlist

All songs written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Bon Scott except "Fling Thing", which is a Scottish traditional song.

Notes
* The song "Gimme a Bullet" was played during sound-check, according to the Official Apollo Theatre website setlist for the show.
* "Fling Thing" is the b-side to the original Australian only single of " Jailbreak", but is actually the traditional Scottish folk song " The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The band played it live in Australia and Scotland as a staple part of the encores in the early years, and is replayed on the 1991 album '' AC/DC Live'' 2 CD Collectors edition from the Glasgow concert on the Razors Edge World Tour (though this time it is just called "Bonny") and it was re-released in its original form, for the first time since 1976, on the '' Backtracks'' boxed set.
* This version of "Fling Thing / Rocker (reprise)" - as it was the encore for the concert - is on the '' Family Jewels'' DVD, with some of the other songs from this concert, but the entire show has never been seen in its entirety since an original broadcast by a Dutch TV station around the same era.

Personnel

*Bon Scott – lead vocals
*Angus Young – lead guitar
*Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
*Cliff Williams – bass guitar, backing vocals
* Phil Rudd – drums

Production
*Producers: Harry Vanda, George Young
*Sound: Mike Scarfe (MHA AUDIO)

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

Lyrics
on AC/DC's official website

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1978 live albums
Albums produced by George Young (rock musician)
Albums produced by Harry Vanda
AC/DC live albums
Atlantic Records live albums