If You Want Blood You've Got It

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If You Want Blood
Acdc If You Want Blood You've Got It.JPG
Live album by AC/DC
Released 13 October 1978
Recorded 30 April 1978 at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland
Genre Hard rock, blues rock
Length 52:42
Label Atlantic
Producer Harry Vanda, George Young
AC/DC chronology
Powerage
(1978)Powerage1978		 If You Want Blood
(1978)		 Highway to Hell
(1979)Highway to Hell1979
Singles from If You Want Blood
  1. "Whole Lotta Rosie (Live)"
    Released: 1978

If You Want Blood is the first live album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, originally released in the UK and Europe on 13 October 1978, in the US on 21 November 1978, and in Australia on 27 November 1978. All songs were written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott. The album was re-released in 1994 on Atco Records and in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series.

Background

If You Want Blood You've Got It was released a mere six months after the band's previous studio album Powerage. Originally, a greatest hits package had been in the works called 12 of the Best but the project was scrapped in favor of a live album. It was recorded during the 1978 Powerage tour and contains songs from T.N.T., Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, and Powerage. It is the last Bon Scott-era AC/DC album produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, who also produced the band's first five studio releases. In his 1994 Bon Scott memoir Highway to Hell, author Clinton Walker observes, "Live albums, which tended to be double or triple sets in which songs short in their studio versions were stretched out into extended tedium, were for some reason popular in the seventies. If You Want Blood reversed this tradition...it boasted a blunt ten tracks and, allowing nothing extraneous, got straight to the point, that being raging AC/DC rock and roll."

AC/DC's concert at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 April 1978, was used for the bulk of the recorded material that appeared on the album. It can be clearly heard during "The Jack" when Scott exclaimed "Any virgins in Glasgow?" This concert will also be remembered for the encore when AC/DC came back on stage dressed in the Scottish Football strip, paying homage to Scott and the Young brothers' home land.[1] A song with the same title, "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)," appeared on AC/DC's next album, Highway to Hell, and later on their soundtrack collaboration for the film Iron Man 2. It was also featured in the 2011 horror film Final Destination 5. The songs "Dog Eat Dog", the encore "Fling Thing" and the final part of the concert (the reprise of "Rocker") were also performed during the night of the concert but eventually removed from the album. The live rendition of "Dog Eat Dog" was released as the B-side of the single "Whole Lotta Rosie/Dog Eat Dog" in November 1978. It was later released worldwide on the 2009 box set Backtracks. The songs "Fling Thing" and "Rocker" (with its complete guitar solo) appeared only on video releases.

According to the 2006 book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, the album title was an extension of Bon's response to a journalist at the Day on the Green festival in July 1978 who asked what they could expect from the band and Scott replied, "Blood." The cover art is from a shoot done with Atlantic Records' staff photographer Jim Houghton before a show at Boston's Paradise Theater, the idea for which came from Atlantic's art director, Bob Defrin.

Reception

If You Want Blood You've Got It is generally considered to be one of the greatest live hard rock albums of all time. In a 1992 interview with Metal Hammer at the time of the band's second live release, Malcolm Young admitted, "I personally still prefer the old album. We were young, fresh, vital and kicking ass." Greg Prato of AllMusic notes, "While most other rock bands of the era were busy experimenting with disco or creating studio-perfected epics, AC/DC was one of the few specializing in raw and bluesy hard rock, as evidenced by 1978's live set, If You Want Blood You've Got It." Eduardo Rivadavia of Ultimate Classic Rock enthuses, "Other concert records may boast more songs, more Top 40 hits or even more crowd-pleasing gimmicks. But very few can challenge the sheer excitement and reckless abandon captured on AC/DC’s terrific concert document." The album was listed at #2 on Classic Rock magazine's readers' poll of "50 Greatest Live Albums Ever".[2]

Concert footage

The entire Glasgow concert was filmed but the complete footage has never been released. Eventually, "Riff Raff" and "Fling Thing/Rocker" segments were made available on the AC/DC Family Jewels DVD. Footage was also used on the "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" promotional clip also available in Family Jewels. Also more concert footage was later made available on the Highway to Hell Live Concert DVD. More segments from the concert (the songs "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation", "Dog Eat Dog" and "Let There Be Rock") were made available on the DVD Plug Me In, released in 2007, a couple of months after the previously mentioned Highway to Hell DVD. The segment "Bad Boy Boogie" was included on the bonus disc on the three-disc edition of the DVD.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 3.5/5 stars link
Blender 5/5 stars link[dead link]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 3/5 stars link

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott. 

No. Title Length
1. "Riff Raff" (from Powerage) 5:59
2. "Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be" (from Let There Be Rock) 4:10
3. "Bad Boy Boogie" (from Let There Be Rock) 7:29
4. "The Jack" (from T.N.T.) 5:48
5. "Problem Child" (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap) 4:40
6. "Whole Lotta Rosie" (from Let There Be Rock) 4:05
7. "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" (from Powerage) 3:41
8. "High Voltage" (from T.N.T.) 5:05
9. "Let There Be Rock" (from Let There Be Rock) 8:33
10. "Rocker" (from T.N.T.) 3:24

Personnel

Production

Charts

Year Chart Peak Position
1978 Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart
37
1978 UK Pop Albums
13[3]

References

  1. ↑ Glasgow Apollo / The Apollo Years
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ everyHit.com - UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts

External links

  • Lyrics on AC/DC's official website
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