Angus McKinnon Young (AC/DC)

Biography

Angus Young was brought up in Cranhill, Glasgow along with older brothers Malcolm, George and Alex, who all became musicians. Angus started playing guitar when he was five years old — a local child had one and Angus would play it during visits. He got his own guitar by taking a banjo his family had lying around the house and re-stringing it like a guitar.

Early years

Young did not get into guitar-playing seriously until his early teens, after the Young family moved from Scotland to Australia in 1963. He got his first guitar, a Gibson SG, after seeing it in a friend's catalogue. Until then, he had been playing on an old Höfner guitar he inherited from his brother Malcolm. Malcolm's brother George (of The Easybeats) gave both Angus and Malcolm guitar lessons when he would come home during breaks from touring.

Prior to joining AC/DC, Young played in a local group called, Kantuckee. Kantuckee's lineup included Bob McGlynn (vocals), Angus Young (guitar),Jon Stevens (bass) & Trevor James (drums). This was the first band to record the music for Stevie Wrights classic "Evie" at the request of George Young. The band split and was later called Tantrum with the following line up Mark Sneddon (vocals-guitar), Angus Young (guitar), Jon Stevens (bass) and Trevor James (drums)

Formation of AC/DC

Angus and Malcolm Young formed AC/DC in 1973. The first lineup included Angus Young on lead guitar, Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, Colin Burgess on drums, Larry Van Kriedt on bass guitar and Dave Evans singing.

After playing with the band for a while, Young developed his trademark schoolboy image. Before settling on the schoolboy costume, Angus had tried other costumes, such as Spiderman, Zorro, a gorilla, and a parody of Superman, named Super-Ang. The schoolboy costume became a signature trademark of Young. To match this image the press and public were told that Young was born in 1959, not 1955. The original uniform was reputedly from his secondary school, Ashfield Boys High School in Sydney. One rumour is that he did not have time to change between his school uniform and band practice, and simply wore the uniform; while such an event may have occurred years earlier, by 1973 Angus had long left school. His sister Margaret suggested he wear the uniform after Malcolm asked each band member to come up with their own gimmick, which was ironic as Angus very much disliked being at school. This was the era of glam rock, when costumes were common for pop and rock acts.

Recent events

Although Young prefers to keep his private life out of the media, it is known that he now lives in Sydney, Australia and also has a home in Aalten, Netherlands (because he has a home in the Netherlands, he is also on the Quote 500, the list of Holland's 500 richest people). It is also known that he married his wife Ellen in 1980 shortly before Bon Scott died.

On August 24, 2006, Young received magazine's Legend Award from the editor, Paul Brannigan. Brannigan called AC/DC "one of the most important and influential rock bands in history."

Equipment

Guitars

Angus Young has used Gibson SGs in various forms (his original, and the basis for his current signature model, was a 1968 SG) throughout his career. He is rarely seen with another guitar. However, he also owns Telecasters, Gibson Firebirds and ES335s. When AC/DC played a jam of "Rock me Baby" with the Rolling Stones in 2003, he played a Gibson ES-335, perhaps one of the only times he was without an SG onstage. Young's legendary 1968 SG has T Top pickups. Another 1964 SG that he used on the recording of Ballbreaker, has patent # pickups. All of these are low to medium output Alnico 5 pickups with matched coils.

Young recently released a signature guitar thanks to the Gibson Guitar Corporation. This solid guitar features a humbucker pickup designed by Young himself (the Angus Signature Humbucker) in the bridge, and a '57 Classic Humbucker in the neck. Also features a vibrola ABR tailpiece, worn cherry finish, black pickguard, 22 frets, 2 tone and 2 volume controls with a three-way selector switch, and a devil icon on the headstock. Young himself, like many other artists with a signature guitar series, plays his signature series guitar neither on stage nor in the studio.

Amplifiers

Young's amps have been plexi Marshalls: JTM45s, JTM50s, JMP50s and Superleads (plus a few Wizard amplifiers). His main amp is his JTM45, which he uses both live and in the studio. When Young plays live, he runs this through an isolation speaker box that sits under the stage and feeds directly into the PA system. In the studio, Angus has often used a 100w plexi for riffs and a smaller plexi (jmp50, jtm50, or jtm45) for solos. Speaker cabinets he has used have been Marshall 4x12"s (model 1982 and 1960, mostly B models) with Celestion G12H 30 watt (on old recordings), Vintage 30s (on newer recordings) and G12M 25 watt speakers (on solos/overdubs on newer recordings). Malcolm has used Mesa Boogie Cabs before as seen on AC/DC's 1992 live album, Live.

Influence

Angus Young's energetic guitar style has been an influence on many young hard rock guitarists. His work with AC/DC has been an influence on bands ranging from Guns N' Roses and Def Leppard to newer artists like Jet and You Am I. Young cites his own influences as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and other blues/rock and roll players.

Style

Angus Young's playing style is very straight blues, playing in the minor pentatonic blues scale. His style is spiced by additional non-blues tricks. In AC/DC's earlier recordings, power chords can be heard in songs such as "T.N.T." and "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)". He also utilises touches of Scottish folk in his playing and also pull-off arpeggios (pull-offs, played one-handed) are a popular trick, appearing in songs such as "Thunderstruck," "Baby, Please Don't Go" and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" (though in the studio recording of "Thunderstruck", the guitar riff was played with a plectrum or pick). In 1976, the band recorded an instrumental arrangement of the Scottish traditional song "My Bonny", retitled "Fling Thing", which has appeared in their stage act over the years. The title refers to the Highland Fling. Young was ranked #96 on the "Rolling Stones Top 100 Greatest Guitar Players of all Time".

He is especially noted for his vibrato, his intricate improvisation in live shows, and his stripped down approach to the guitar, with regard to amp-provided effects and guitar accessories i.e. wah-wah pedal, wammie bar, etc.

He often receives criticism from the music press, many of his critics stating that AC/DC's songs sound too similar, focusing on the same handful of chords. However, as Young stated in an interview with the Atlanta Gazette in 1979:

"It's just rock and roll. A lot of times we get criticised for it. A lot of music papers come out with: 'When are they going to stop playing these three chords?' If you believe you shouldn't play just three chords it's pretty silly on their part. To us, the simpler a song is, the better, 'cause it's more in line with what the person on the street is."

For the most part, each song has a simple chord progression, a chorus, repeat, a solo, and ends with the chorus one more time, sometimes with a solo played over while Malcolm plays the chorus regularly.

Stage antics

Angus Young is notorious for his wild onstage antics. He entertains audiences with his intense jumps onstage and with his running back and forth across the stage while playing his guitar. When singer Bon Scott was still with the band (before his death in 1980), Young would clamber on to Scott's shoulders during concerts and they would make their way through the audience with smoke streaming from a satchel on his back, whilst he played an extended guitar solo, usually during the song "Rocker". In some of his concert videos, he would raise his foot and bring it back down to the front of his other foot like a zig-zag on stage while keeping the same rhythm on the guitar as he played.

In later years, Young performed moves such as his own version of the Duck Walk, which was inspired by his idol Chuck Berry, and his "spasm", during which he throws himself to the ground, kicking, shaking, and spinning in circles, while playing the guitar. Both moves can be seen on various videos, such as "Live At Donington". Young developed the "spasm" while he was playing live in a small club in Australia, after he accidentally tripped over a cable on stage while playing his solo. He covered it up by having a seizure-like "spasm" on stage to make it seem like part of the act. It has been a trademark of his ever since.

Other gimmicks employed by Young include his strip act, which can be seen during "Bad Boy Boogie" on the most definitive live concert footage Let There Be Rock (1980). It is also viewable in during "Jailbreak" on the 1992 Live at Donington DVD, during "Boogie Man" on No Bull, and during "Bad Boy Boogie" on Stiff Upper Lip Live. Sometimes he would use his fingers to perform his devil horns act -- usually before playing "Highway to Hell" -- whether being on stage or having his picture taken by the press.

Trivia

Maxim recently ranked Young (5 feet, 2 inches tall) as number one on their list of the "25 Greatest Short Dudes Of All Time", ahead of other well-known "short dudes" such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Jon Stewart, Martin Scorsese, and Yoda.

Young's older brother, George Young, was the rhythm guitarist and co-songwriter for the popular Australian rock and roll band, The Easybeats (and also the producer of many of AC/DC's albums). Another older brother of Young was George Alexander (b. Alexander Young) who was the founding member and bassist of the London-based Beatles-esque band, Grapefruit.

A caricature of Angus Young can be seen on the cover of the 1994 Green Day album, Dookie. The image of Angus is located on the right-hand side of the cover. Young is standing on the roof of the building, holding the same pose that he is on the Let There Be Rock album cover.

In the Tenacious D movie The Pick Of Destiny, JB and Kyle have to steal the pick of destiny, which currently rests with Angus' guitar in the "Rock Museum".