Why Powerage is AC/DC's best album

What is the definitive AC/DC album? Most casual fans probably think Back In Black or Highway To Hell is their best. Purists, and especially those who consider Bon Scott era the best vintage, will tell you that Powerage is the winner.

And they'd be right.

All the great rock bands reach a point where they are locked in tight and rocking at their majestic best - but it doesn’t last forever. It may not even coincide with their most successful period commercially.

Powerage came out in 1978, just as AC/DC had their first big hit single in the UK, Rock n Roll Damnation. I bought the 12” single and found I preferred the b-side, Sin City. It led me to one of the greatest rock albums ever.

I got Powerage when it came out and instantly fell in love with its perfect mix of riff-rockin boogie and tall tales from the pen of legendary singer Bon Scott. As a collection of songs, especially the UK vinyl version that kicks off with Gimme A Bullet, it is programmed to perfection. (see my recent Nick Drake piece for more on album track sequencing).

Powerage was the last AC/DC album produced by Vanda and Young and marks the point at which the marketing people at Atlantic Records started to really push them, getting them on Top Of The Pops to promote their hit single and making plans to hire a top name producer for their next album.

The weekly music paper 'Sounds' (was it Sylvie Simmons?) gave Powerage a 5-star review, hailing it as the point at which AC/DC had hit the nail firmly on the head.

As a rock album, it has just the right combination of ballsy energy and production values - not quite as polished as Highway or BIB but with better quality material over the entire album. And the band are tight, almost funky at times on this. With new bass player Cliff Williams and the great Phil Rudd on drums, the band moved up several notches in the quality of their delivery.

Later versions of the album put Rock N Roll Damnation as the lead-off track. But the first pressings of Powerage in the UK, the core market for AC/DC as they were breaking through, led with Gimme A Bullet, followed by Downpayment Blues, Gone Shootin' and Riff Raff. Side two was Sin City, Up To My Neck in You, What's Next To The Moon, Cold-hearted Man and Kicked In The Teeth.

It's a rocking album from first to last, but with just a hint of blues, a bounce from the rhythm section and a real step-up in the lyrics front from Bon.

It wasn’t as successful sales-wise as the following albums and was rather unfairly dismissed for years because of the subsequent success of Highway to Hell and Back in Black. But if you want to hear that point where AC/DC are at their majestic best, give Powerage a listen. From beginning to end, it just rocks.