Forever Young...
(Photo: Paul Natkin)
Today we would like to pay tribute to one of our favorite guitarists Angus Young, with some interesting facts:
1. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland on March 31, 1955.
2. He has seven other brothers and sisters, including Malcolm Young who was born two years before him and founded "AC/DC" with him.
3. The five boys in the family were involved in music. The elder, Stevie, played accordion and saxophone, Alex and John were the first to play guitar. Alex also formed the band "Grapefruit". George followed them and became a member of "The Easybeats". Malcolm and Angus were influenced by George and also chose the guitar.
4. In June 1963, after a very hard and snowy winter, Angus' extended family emigrated to Australia.
5. He dropped out of school at age 15 and started working in a soft porn magazine "Ribald".
6. The first instrument he played was a banjo, he arranged it so that it would have six strings.
7. Later his mother bought him a second-hand old and battered classical guitar.
8. He bought his first "Gibson SG" guitar in 1970. It was also a second-hand guitar. Angus still owns it and it is one of his favorites.
9. He did not always play on "Gibson SG". He started with Gibson Les Paul and he also has a Fender Telecaster in his arsenal ...
10. His favorite musicians as a child were Chuck Berry and Louis Armstrong. He loves jazz and has repeatedly noted that Armstrong is one of the greatest musicians of all time.
11. Chuck Berry was also the one who inspired Angus' "Duck Walk" on stage.
12. His first band was "Kantuckee". He later went on to make a different variation of the band called "Tantrum".
13. The first album Angus played with Malcolm, even before the formation of "AC/DC", was "Tales of Old Grand-Daddy", by the band "Marcus Hook Roll Band".
14. The band was formed by their younger brother George Young, who played bass and piano, and George Vanda, who was George's friend who played the lead guitar. The band also included Angus' older brother, Alex Young, on saxophone.
15. In 1973, Angus and his brother Malcolm Young formed "AC/DC". He was 18 and Malcolm was 20.
16. He chose the band name along with Malcolm after his sister Margaret saw the words "AC/DC" embedded on the back of her sewing machine.
17. The band's first album "High Voltage", was released in 1975, in Australia only.
18. The album was produced by George Young and his friend Harry Vanda, who were the two main songwriters for the "Easybeats", and among other things wrote its biggest hit "Friday on My Mind".
19. George and Harry will assist and later produce all of the band's albums up to 1979.
20. The idea to wear schoolboy clothes was given to Angus by his sister Margaret, since Angus used to play the guitar as soon as he returned from school and even before he took off his school uniform.
21. Before receiving his sister's advice, Angus appeared on stage dressed as Spider-Man, Zoro, Gorilla, or Superman which received the nickname - "Super-Ang".
22. In the first publications about the band, Angus was introduced as born in 1959 and not 1955, to add to the image of his schoolboy.
(Photo: Michael Putland)
23. Beyond the famous duck walk Young used to take off the top of his school uniform during the show, put his fingers over his head as an image of a devil with horns, and sometimes show his butt to the audience.
24. During the filming of the song "Who Made Who" Angus discovered that he suffers from a fear of heights. It happened when the director asked to tie him with a rope and lower him from a great height to the stage.
25. Angus was a good friend of the well-known virtuoso keyboardist Keith Emerson from the Progressive rock supergroup "ELP". Emerson supported and encouraged Angus and his friends during their difficult time after Bon Scott's death.
26. Angus does not drink alcohol, he is more likely to be caught drinking milk, he swallowed gallons of it when he was young and loves it to this day.
27. He is responsible for quite a bit for the band's unique sound and was a major part of writing a significant portion of its songs and immortal riffs. His energetic playing style has influenced many guitar players.
28. Angus usually plays through a Marshall amplifier without any guitar effects.
29. He probably influenced "Green Day" because he appears on the album cover of "Dookie" on the right side on the roof, playing the guitar.
30. His favorite song to play from the band's repertoire is "Back In Black".
31. He was inducted into the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" along with "AC/DC" in 2003.
32. That same year, on June 13, the newsletter CMU UNLIMITED MEDIA mistakenly announced that Angus had passed away at the age of 48.
33. Angus released along with "AC/DC" 17 studio albums, 4 live albums, and one EP.
34. "AC/DC" has sold over 200 million albums worldwide making it one of the best-selling bands in the world.
35. The album "Back In Black" alone has sold about 50 million copies worldwide and is in second place in the list of best-selling albums of all time.