You certainly can’t argue with the quality of such now-classic AC/DC studio albums as “High Voltage”, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”, “Let There Be Rock”, and “Powerage”. But they are certainly rawer and more in your face than the sound of the two albums that broke them internationally, the more radio-friendly produced “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black”.
And the reason for this was an obvious one: AC/DC had employed the production team of Harry Vanda and George Young for their earlier studio offerings, before enlisting a then-largely unknown Mutt Lange to oversee the recording of their LP’s from 1979 through 1981.
Author Chris Sutton, who penned the book “AC/DC: Every Album, Every Song”, discussed this noticeable sonic adjustment during a chat on the Booked on Rock Podcast (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).
“If you listen to ‘Let There Be Rock’, the guitars are quite out of tune on there. One of the things I think [Def Leppard’s] Joe Elliott said about Mutt Lange was when he comes in, was one of the differences he makes was he got the guitars in tune for a start.”
Additionally, Sutton specifically pointed out which areas of AC/DC’s studio noticeably changed with Lange behind the board.
“The choruses are so strong with Lange. The backing vocals are so tuneful. And every AC/DC album has these big backing vocals on the chorus, when you see Malcolm [Young] and Cliff [Williams] come forward on stage to do the vocals. And if you go before this album [‘Highway to Hell’], that’s not really the case. There’s moments when they get these big gang backing vocals, but it becomes a massive feature of the sound from ‘Highway to Hell’ onwards.”
“The title song itself you can almost hear them walking up to hit those backing vocals when they come to the chorus in your head. And that’s the difference. He certainly sweetens the sound a little bit, not too much I would say. I think for me, ‘Highway’ is a little bit of a ‘hybrid album.’ I don’t think Lange goes as far with the sound as he does on ‘Back in Black.'”
Lastly, Sutton also discussed how the producer helped AC/DC expand their “core audience.”
“What Lange does do is to give AC/DC kind of a spit and a polish, and make them more radio friendly and acceptable to a wider audience. Now, what I’m talking about is bands like AC/DC, Van Halen, you have a core audience which is people like me and you, we buy everything and we’re there. And then you pull in all these other people who aren’t so bothered, they’ll hear the single on the radio or whatever. Like, casual. But they’ll fill in all those millions of people who buy their records, but they won’t go back and buy the other six or seven albums before it probably.”
