Jake Brown - AC/DC in the Studio. The Stories Behind Every Album

F rom 1975 to 1977, AC/DC was the hardest-working band in rock n roll, releasing four studio albums in two years: High Voltage (1975), T.N.T. (1975), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976) and Let There Be Rock (1977).

All four were recorded at Albert Studios in Sydney, Australia and produced by former Easybeats members Harry Vanda and George Young. According to their official website, this writing and production partnership created one of the great rock n roll bands of the 1960s The Easybeats and wrote a string of classic hits that have stood the test of time The Easys stormed to No. 1 in Australia in May 1965 and the ferocious phenomenon of Easyfever spiralled With their vital, urgent sound the Easybeats gave Australian music a new identity and confidence. The hits came in ceaseless cascade and overnight Australian pop and rock shifted from derivation and imitation to innovation.

The song that still stands as the teams most admired, acclaimed and recorded piece, the working-class anthem, Friday on my Mind a global hit for them gave them the clout to begin writing and recording songs of sometimes extraordinary grandeur Returning to Australia they put to use all they had learned In a new state-of-the-art recording studio in King Street, Sydney they began a blitzkrieg of Australian popular music in a manner that has not been experienced since.

As Angus Young, who grew up in the shadow of his older brother Georges success, recalled in an interview with Guitar Player magazine, the Easybeats were definitely an inspiration. There was a hell of a lot that came from that band; they were the forerunners of a lot of things. They were at the time of the early stages, when people didnt know how to react.

Brother Malcolm Young told Mojo magazine that all the males in our family played. Stevie, the oldest, played accordion. Alex and John were the first couple to play guitar, and being older it was sort of passed down to George, then myself, then Angus like when youre kids and you get all your brothers and sisters hand-me-downs. We never realised that we were learning guitars they were always just there. We thought that everyone was like that. Me and Angus would just fiddle 12-bars mainly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis.

Elaborating on some of their musical influences as they began to develop as guitar players, Angus recalled in an interview with Guitar World magazine that my sister took me to see Louis Armstrong when I was a kid, and I still think he was one of the greatest musicians of all time. Especially when you listen to his old records, like Basin Street Blues and St James Infirmary, and hear the incredible musicianship and emotion coming out of his horn. And the technology in those days was almost nonexistent all the tracks had to be done in one take. I can picture him in that big football stadium where I saw him. He wasnt a big man, but when he played, he seemed bigger than the stadium itself!