High Voltage (U.S., 1976)

High Voltage (U.S., 1976)

AC/DC made their international debut with an album called High Voltage, but it had only two tracks in common with its Australian namesake: “Little Lover” and “She’s Got Balls.” The other seven songs — “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll),” “Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer,” “The Jack,” “Live Wire,” “T.N.T.,” “Can I Sit Next To You Girl” and, oddly, “High Voltage” — were all culled from T.N.T. It sort of makes you wonder why Atlantic Records didn’t just put out T.N.T. internationally; after all, “Little Lover” and “She’s Got Balls” aren’t exactly classics of the band’s catalog. “Rocker” is better than either of them. (The cover of Chuck Berry’s “School Days” that ends that album is still pretty terrible, though.)

Anyway, this is the album that most of the world believes to be AC/DC’s debut, and it’s a solid slab of aggressive boogie, with hints at the dark misanthropy underpinning a lot of their Bon Scott-era material. (When Brian Johnson came on board, this lyrical tendency would disappear almost entirely, something that we’ll talk about when discussing Back In Black.)