This has been a miserable year. The pandemic. Planet-wide economic ruin. The crazy US election, which featured an impeached president. Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash. The death of George Floyd. Murder hornets. Swarms of locusts descended on Africa. There were so many hurricanes that they ran out of names. The Olympics were postponed. Out of control wildfires in both North American and Australia.
And we lost more musicians. Neil Peart. Eddie Van Halen. Spencer Davis. And many, many more.
So yeah, it’s been rough. What we need is something to remind us of The Before Times, the better times, days when we could count on certain things always being there. A time when we could just turn it up, rock out, and forget all the bad stuff.
If I may make a suggestion, that something has arrived. It’s an event that not only reminds of when things were normal but also provides hope. When it looked utterly hopeless for them–dementia, death, deafness, depression–they were able to turn it around. This is a band that was DONE. Until they weren’t. It’s the return of AC/DC.
This is a special extra edition of The Ongoing History of New Music, complete with my interview with Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams.
Songs heard on this show (all by AC/DC, of course):
- Back in Black
- Shot in the Dark
- Realize
- Thunderstruck
- Rejection
- Through the Mists of Time
- Kick You When You’re Down
- You Shook Me All Night Long
This special edition will be heard on Q107/Toronto, FM96/London, Y108/Hamilton, and other rock stations across the country beginning Friday, November 13, the day the new album, Power Up, is released. (Oh, and the album is VERY good.)