RIP Malcolm Young

[Georgy Zhukov]

Angus said he learned everything from his brother and felt Malcolm was the better of the two. He will be missed.

[zeppelinrocksnexttognr]

I just read about this! Really a shitty day for music fans all over! My brother was a huge fan of the band. The man's legacy will last forever! R.I.P. Malcom young!!

[-W.A.R-]

RIP

[Gibson87]

RIP Malcolm. We salute you! \m/

[The Real McCoy]

[starlight]

RIP  Malcolm  Sad day for the music.

[Zeppelin]

Really sad news. I've had two family members pass after being diagnosed with dementia, and it's pretty awful. 

R.I.P. Malcolm.

[Tourettes2400]

5 hours ago, Bansidhe said:

He's had it a long time but it seems it's more recent years that it's really worsened.

On the Black Ice tour he had chord charts for the songs so that he'd remember.

Granted, at the show you couldn't tell as his playing was bang on.

 

4 hours ago, fanfzero said:

Not so quickly, apparently the first symptoms appeared in 2007

 

I didn't realize it had gone back that far and they knew for so long about it. Still sad and a very shit way to go.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Tourettes2400

[dontdamnmeuyi2015]

RIP Malcolm. Again another rock musician gone before his time.

He had dementia and cancer. Well, this sucks.

[Powerage5]

1 hour ago, Tourettes2400 said:

 

 

I didn't realize it had gone back that far and they knew for so long about it. Still sad and a very shit way to go.

Yeah - supposedly the onset had a bit to do with the really stale setlist on the Black Ice Tour. 

 

This is one really hurts - AC/DC was my first favorite band, and still are one of my favorites. Malcolm was a machine - the definition of a rhythm guitarist, and there’s serious beauty in his simplicity at times. Rock In Peace, Mal  

[dgnr]

RIP, Malcolm! One of the best rhythm guitarists to ever step on a stage 

Slash said some words to Rolling Stone : Guns N' Roses' Slash told Rolling Stone, "Malcolm Young was one of the best ever rhythm guitarists in Rock n Roll. He was a fantastic songwriter and he had a great work ethic too. I toured with AC/DC on their 'Stiff Upper Lip' tour. I found Malcolm to be a really cool, down to earth fellow. The entire rock n roll community is heartbroken by his passing."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/malcolm-young-acdc-guitarist-and-co-founder-dead-at-64-w512164 

[Sydney Fan]

The best rhythm guitarist and like angus inspired so many to pick up a guitar and learn to play. Let there be rock and Powerage will be blasting at my place this evening.

[ludurigan]

13 hours ago, Bansidhe said:

Shite news though not entirerly unexpected.

One of the best right hands in the business.

and for rhythm its all about the right hand

what can i say thanks malcom -- and izzy and keith and all the right hand masters -- for so much amazing rock n rollling

[NicDwolfwood]

Probably The greatest Right Hand ever In Rock n Roll along with Keith. May he Rest in peace.

 

Dementia fucking sucks. took my Grandfather as well.

[Fitha_whiskey]

Very sad to hear. I’m just hearing it now. Crazy thing is I was working all day doing shit and not connected to the world. When I finally got done I slammed some beer and cranked AC/DC and only them tonight. High Voltage, Highway, LTBR, 74 Jailbreak... On Powerage right now when I read this news.

🤘 Rest in Power. Whoever said that was fuckin right.

[Graeme]

AC/DC absolutely spellbound me as a teenager, they were my gateway to rock and metal. Glad I got to see them with Malcolm, it was clear despite the fact he didn't try to take the limelight from his bandmates that he was the rock to which the whole thing was anchored.

Goodnight, son of Glasgow. 

[AxlRoseCDII]

It’s unfortunate we find ourselves at yet another thread of a death of a legend. Malcom has inspired so many when it comes to the genre of Rock n’ Roll and helped bring AC/DC to the stature of what it deserved. May he rest in peace and may his family take care and grieve privately in this unfortunate time.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Terrible time for Angus. Losing two brothers in just a span of 3 weeks.

[Teroz]

I have never respected any band more than AC/DC. I have never respected any musician more  than Malcolm Young. He has really meant a lot to me.

 

Thank you Malcolm Young. Thank you. 

[highvoltage]

RIP - the greatest rhythm guitarist rock n roll has ever produced. Malcolm Young, human metronome.

Just gutted. I tried playing a couple of AC/DC tunes but it's just making me sad.

[downzy]

Words by Bob Lefsetz:

"You Shook Me All Night Long."

We don't have records like this anymore, from unheralded acts that end up being ubiquitous, liked by everyone, living forever.

Well, maybe "Despacito" fits this bill, Luis Fonsi has been working in the trenches forever and a lot of people know it and maybe it's a harbinger of what's to come, Latin music, then again although AC/DC heralded a resurgence of hard rock, the band was singular, almost no one else sounded like them.

The average bloke didn't think about Malcolm. He was just another short guy on stage if they knew what the band looked like at all. But they knew the music, everybody knows "You Shook Me All Night Long," which implored you to buy the album "Back In Black," whereupon you went through the looking glass into a sound that felt so good you could not lift the needle from the LP, unless it was to start it all over again.

It was the black cover. It was the gong at the beginning. It was the indelible riff that had you nodding your head in hypnotic rhythm, and that's what Malcolm played, rhythm, and a minute into "Hells Bells" he started to chug, it was like a freight train leaving the station and onboard you could not think about anything else, texting a friend, you were along for the ride and you didn't want to get off.

And then the track segued into "Shoot To Thrill." It's like that train turned into a roller coaster and you'd been going up the hill, slowly, pulled forward by the chain, and now you were set free, going downhill, defying gravity. Back when albums were just that, a compilation of tunes that was rarely cherry-picked.

And the second side began with the title track, "Back In Black," just as powerful as the opener on the other side, with its sing-songy chorus that kept your head moving with the devil horns thrust in the air. This is where the tribes diverged, before we were all listening to the same sounds, but now new acts got harder and appealed to a more blue collar audience and the new metal was not for everybody, but AC/DC was, a new kind of Beatles, less comprehensive, more one note, but testing limits and pushing their way into our hearts nevertheless.

But by this time there was a different lead singer and a new producer. Mutt Lange worked his magic first with AC/DC, before he moved on to Def Leppard. But AC/DC had success before him, most prominently with "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll), which featured a bagpipe, but was built upon the aforementioned rhythm guitar, chunking along, making you feel so good, and that's what rock music should do, elate you and make you feel powerful, that the rest of life does not matter.

The building blocks were there before Mutt, he just pushed it over the top.

Let there be rock, that's what AC/DC declared. And like every Aussie band they were road-tested, so when you went to see them live you were not disappointed, it was an aural assault, overcoming you with pure sound, no trappings were necessary.

And the funny thing is, after the relationship with Mutt went sour, when the band was on the verge of becoming an oldies act, "Who Made Who" emerged from the speakers, and although the twitching lead is indelible, once again it's the rhythm guitar that sets the pace, that locks you into the groove, the way bass and drums do in most bands, but in AC/DC it was Malcolm who was most essential, who was irreplaceable.

And the formula was ultimately repeated with "Thunderstruck," proving the band was not a studio concoction, that it could do it all by its lonesome.

And when you went to see the band live it was not nostalgia, not a convention of denizens from the suburbs experiencing a nice night out, rather it was still dangerous, you didn't see AC/DC in the tabloids, it's almost like the members didn't exist outside the band, there were no charity dinners, no jet-setting with models, just the music.

And that's what we lament, the loss of this ethos. So simple, yet seemingly unattainable today, when every act is looking to the trappings and willing to do anything to achieve them. AC/DC always led with its music, it fought in the trenches, experienced the highway to hell, and then suddenly emerged the biggest band on earth. I'd call it artist development, but it was something different. The sound was always the same, it was just refined, it was like an adolescent turning into an adult. It was always the same person underneath, no matter who the band worked with, it sounded like them.

And now there's still a band plying the boards with that name, that does boffo at the b.o., testimony to our infection with its sound, but every original member other than Angus is gone.

And you can laugh about this, talk about how the Eagles are still touring without Glenn Frey, but these are musicians, they don't know what else to do, and the music means just that much to us, we go and are reminded of who we once were, how the tunes greased the skids of our lives, how this wasn't entertainment, but life itself.

So now Malcolm Young is gone. Not only the player of that rhythm guitar, but the cowriter of the songs. But honestly, this is not a surprise. He had dementia, he had to retire from the road. This is not sudden like Bowie or Prince, we'd already waved goodbye to Malcolm.

But not to rock music. Not to ourselves.

Today's rock music is not for everybody. It's niche. To its detriment. It's hard to get into and hard to convince others to partake of. Whereas one listen to "You Shook Me All Night Long" closed you.

And Malcolm Young was only 64.

Hey, that's my age!

And I hope I get a couple more decades, maybe not.  But now my generation is passing. Not through misadventure, but life itself, the twists and turns, one minute you're drinking a beer and staying up all night with the music cranked, the next you're in the doctor's office with a pain being explained that you've got this ailment that could not only waylay you, but kill you.

It's the nature of life.

But we thought we were gonna live forever. The music too.

And the thing is so much of the music has been forgotten. The younger generation knows the Beatles, but the Stones more by legend, as for their compatriots...most of today's generation has never even heard the names.

But they know AC/DC.

The records live on in jukeboxes. They're beloved by hipsters and hicks. Those on the coast and the heartlands. Those rich and poor. They're so basic, sans trappings, you need to bring nothing to the party, the music provides it all.

And it still does.

Which is why Axl wants to sing with the band. Why we still play the records. We want to get closer to this glorious noise, it makes us feel so good, it makes us feel alive.

But Malcolm Young is dead.

But the sound he helped architect lives on.

You're out on a lark. You think it's about now. A momentary diversion. You're not thinking about legacy, you just want to get paid, you just want to continue doing it, and then the heavens open and you're anointed and you become a rock god.

Malcolm Young was one of them. He's anchoring the band in heaven, strumming the strings of that Gretsch as we sit here.

Can you hear it?

Oh, maybe it's coming from below, shaking the ground we're standing upon.

Those are hells bells.

[Tom2112]

The best musicians are usually the ones that you don't normally think about. That's because they do their job so damn well you almost take them for granted. Malcolm was one of those players, absolutely solid as a rock throughout the years with AC/DC. I love his playing style, and I learned a lot from playing to his riffs and Angus's solos. It's an absolute shame, but at least it wasn't an even longer drawn out cause of death, and it was of natural causes.

So, so glad to have had the chance to see AC/DC on the black ice tour with the full line up, Mal, Brian, Phil, Cliff and Angus. One of the best live bands I've ever seen. 

[Mansin Humanity]

Man, this one has taken me a few days to process and I'm not sure if I quite have yet. As others have said, AC/DC was the gateway drug to the rest of music for me. It's not far-fetched to say that I wouldn't be nearly the person I am if it hadn't been for AC/DC kicking off an absolute obsession with music. Even though they're not a band I listen to a lot now, every now and again I'd put some on and it would be as amazing as it was the first time I listened to them. Malcolm was a big part of that. Sometimes I'd (and still do) go listen to Jailbreak, High Voltage, and Let There Be Rock from AC/DC Live just to hear Malcolm's rhythm guitar during the extended solos. I don't know what caused it, but my appreciation of Malcolm's role in the band has absolutely increased in recent years. Younger me was drawn to Angus's leads and now, later in life, I find I'm listening more to the background - what's constructing the song in the first place.

Angus's statement was perfect. I can't imagine what he's going through right now with both George and Malcolm. Reading his words regarding Malcolm end with "job well done" is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. That's what AC/DC always has been and always will be about - going to work and getting the job done.

Rest in peace.

[highvoltage]

1 hour ago, Mansin Humanity said:

Man, this one has taken me a few days to process and I'm not sure if I quite have yet. As others have said, AC/DC was the gateway drug to the rest of music for me. It's not far-fetched to say that I wouldn't be nearly the person I am if it hadn't been for AC/DC kicking off an absolute obsession with music. Even though they're not a band I listen to a lot now, every now and again I'd put some on and it would be as amazing as it was the first time I listened to them. Malcolm was a big part of that. Sometimes I'd (and still do) go listen to Jailbreak, High Voltage, and Let There Be Rock from AC/DC Live just to hear Malcolm's rhythm guitar during the extended solos. I don't know what caused it, but my appreciation of Malcolm's role in the band has absolutely increased in recent years. Younger me was drawn to Angus's leads and now, later in life, I find I'm listening more to the background - what's constructing the song in the first place.

Angus's statement was perfect. I can't imagine what he's going through right now with both George and Malcolm. Reading his words regarding Malcolm end with "job well done" is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. That's what AC/DC always has been and always will be about - going to work and getting the job done.

Rest in peace.

I really relate to your words here. Thankyou.

[Powerage5]

10 hours ago, Mansin Humanity said:

Man, this one has taken me a few days to process and I'm not sure if I quite have yet. As others have said, AC/DC was the gateway drug to the rest of music for me. It's not far-fetched to say that I wouldn't be nearly the person I am if it hadn't been for AC/DC kicking off an absolute obsession with music. Even though they're not a band I listen to a lot now, every now and again I'd put some on and it would be as amazing as it was the first time I listened to them. Malcolm was a big part of that. Sometimes I'd (and still do) go listen to Jailbreak, High Voltage, and Let There Be Rock from AC/DC Live just to hear Malcolm's rhythm guitar during the extended solos. I don't know what caused it, but my appreciation of Malcolm's role in the band has absolutely increased in recent years. Younger me was drawn to Angus's leads and now, later in life, I find I'm listening more to the background - what's constructing the song in the first place.

Angus's statement was perfect. I can't imagine what he's going through right now with both George and Malcolm. Reading his words regarding Malcolm end with "job well done" is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. That's what AC/DC always has been and always will be about - going to work and getting the job done.

Rest in peace.

You fucking nailed it man. It's amazing how many of us on here were first drawn to AC/DC before anything else. Hell, it's amazing how many of us used to post on the old AC/DC forums together. I wouldn't be on here today if @highvoltage didn't convince me to come on over when CD songs started leaking in 2006. 

 

AC/DC is such an amazing band. The rhythm section seems so simplistic at face value - three chords, chugging eighth note basslines, and a standard four beat with no fills.But when you actually dissect it, and look at all the components it really is incredible how intricate it all is. Perfect example is I remember in some thread relating to Phil vs. Chris, we managed to have a serious discussion about the merits of each drummer in AC/DC and how they have little things that differ from each other and how they drive the songs differently. It really says something about the importance of rhythm in AC/DC that we can have a discussion like that about a fucking four beat.