thePULSEBy R. Peltier
Former AC/DC bassist Mark Evans ~ who joined the band when it was just a local act in Australia in 1975 and remained part of the classic lineup through several international tours and multi-platinum records ~ has written Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside AC/DC, the first insider account of the Bon Scott era of the band. This “honest and comical look at AC/DC’s rise to the upper echelons of hard rock” is published by Bazillion Points Books (“America’s smallest but heaviest book publisher”).
The young AC/DC’s merciless approach to playing rock ‘n roll music is laid bare during the making of 1977’s Let There Be Rock LP, as Evans writes: “Recording what was to become Let There Be Rock necessitated the same “hothouse” conditions as T.N.T. and Dirty Deeds: get in there and get it done, today. As with all the AC/DC recordings with which I was involved, we were working to a tight schedule. Two weeks to write, arrange and record an album. It was a mammoth effort by Bon Scott and Malcolm and Angus Young to put the material together in such a short time. We had a week and a bit to get the backing tracks down, the same time for the vocals, solos and any patching up that was necessary. The studio drill was really an extension of the band live: cut the crap and get on with it. I was bloody lucky. I was getting an amazing inside view on how to put a rock-and-roll record together, and in a f-ckin’ hurry, too.”
He continues, “The high point of the recording was the title track, ‘Let There Be Rock.’ That’s an epic, with drummer Phil Rudd going flat to the boards for the entire six-plus minutes. Watching him cut that one in the studio was amazing…We did a couple of takes in a row, with just a quick breather between the two, a minute at the most, and away we went again. It’s my recollection that we used the second of those two takes. The pressure was really on to deliver a great AC/DC album. And Let There Be Rock was the sound of us stepping up. A hell of a lot had happened to AC/DC since recording Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. All that touring had changed us. Our new back line of Marshall gear gave the band more muscle; we sounded more aggressive, meaner ~ and definitely louder…it was a bigger, badder AC/DC. It’s still one of my favorite AC/DC albums, just behind Powerage and my all-time favorite, Highway to Hell.”
Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC, is the first bio written by a band insider during AC/DC’s early years, a true-to-life storybook of the struggles and friendships that fueled the rise of hard rock’s most successful group. Mark Evans provides a down-to-earth, street-level view of Malcolm Young, Angus Young, Phil Rudd, and the late Bon Scott through stories involving such rock and roll icons as George Harrison, Gene Simmons, Phil Lynott, Black Sabbath, Rose Tattoo, Ahmet Ertegun, and Metallica.
To this day, controversy surrounds the popular bassist’s exclusion from AC/DC’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Towards the end of the memoir, Evans addresses the confounding experience of being an announced “foundation inductee” of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2002 and then in short order being disinvited six weeks later, prevented from joining the group of past and present band members honored.
Evans addresses the events in detail in Dirty Deeds: “At first, the Hall of Fame was full of positive signs: I was given dates, details of the induction at the Waldorf Astoria, the arrangements to be made. They said they’d be in contact and get the information to me. But then the temperature turned chilly. When we did get a reply, it was simply to announce that the Hall of Fame had seen fit to review the nomination and had come to the conclusion that I didn’t qualify. I was out.
Let me just say that the band richly deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. It was way overdue. Bon had to be included, of course, as well as the current lineup. And I had absolutely no problem with not being included; in the AC/DC timeline I was there for only a brief time-an important time in my opinion, but a heartbeat by comparison with Cliff Williams’s thirty-year-plus tenure. What I found galling was the Hall of Fame’s attitude. If a mistake was made, fine, then they should have dealt with it. A simple apology or at least an explanation would have been appreciated.”
For more information, and to order, visit www.dirtydeedsbook.com
