AC/DC’s Malcolm Young, “The Human Metronome”

The tributes started flooding in minutes after AC/DC posted on their website that Malcolm Young succumbed to his five year battle with dementia yesterday in Sydney. He was 64.

Tom Morello: “#1 greatest rhythm guitarist in the entire history of rock n roll.”

Slash: “A monumentally sad day in Rock n Roll. Take a moment of silence in his memory.”

Eddie Van Halen: “It is a sad day in rock and roll. Malcolm Young was my friend and the heart and soul of AC/DC. I had some of the best times of my life with him on our 1984 European tour.”

Paul Stanley: “The driving engine of AC/DC has died. A tragic end for a sometimes unsung icon. One of the true greats. RIP.”

Malcolm Young was not the “co-founder” of AC/DC. It was his band, his vision, and he ruled it with an iron hand..

Members came and went because they either failed to live up to his musical expectations … or just plain pissed him off as people.

“It was Malcolm who had the vision of what the band should be,” Angus Young agreed. “He said, ‘We’re going to play the only music worth playing: rock ’n’ roll. And we’re going to play it hard.’

On the way he routed the band through the deaths of singers and ill-health (including his own) from a hard living rock lifestyle.

Malcolm’s in-built anger, drive and individuality came from the family’s circumstances in Glasgow. There were eight children, he was the second youngest.

The blue collar worker father William couldn’t get a job so he moved his wife Margaret and seven of the eight kids (older brother Alex stayed in Glasgow and joined the band Grapefruit) in 1963. Eldest brother Stephen fathered Steve who now plays in AC/DC

Malcolm would say that the alienation he felt after moving to the new country (not helped by their strong Scottish accents) was given voice in the blues records elder brother John played him.

Then, of course, there was the anger and rebellion inherent n in Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Rolling Stones records.

Within five years of the family’s arrival, brother George was sitting on top of the world’s charts with The Easybeats’ ‘Friday On My Mind’.

Malcolm would say that AC/DC’s original ideawas to play simple rock that had everyone in the clubs dancing and having a good time.

If it meant dressing his younger brother in a gorilla suit or a schoolboy uniform, so be it.

“Everything else was a bonus,” Malcolm would insist.

That “bonus”, driven by the hard-bitten resolve of any migrant kid never to undergo the problems faced in the old country, saw the band achieve more than even he envisioned.

With AC/DC Malcolm sold 200 million records, including the second biggest album ever, Back In Black, after Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

In the past 17 years, AC/DC was grossing an average of $2.39 million per show. Their total live earnings from the US alone were $597.9 million.

“He was small built but incredibly tenacious”, relates Sydney heavy metal scribe Murray Engleheart who wrote the AC/DC best selling book Maximum Rock’n’Roll.

“ You didn’t fuck with Malcolm. In 1978 in Detroit, the venue manager pulled the plug because he thought they were playing too loud. Malcolm punched him out.

But, he adds, “Malcolm was also the band’s conscience. When sponsors from around the world sent him free guitars, he’d give them away to local kids.

“He had a close connection to their fans. Their early views on not getting involved in sponsorship, films and streaming came directly from him.”

Angus too would admit that when he was rushing around on stage, even in the middle of a 2½ hour maelstrom he’d always look at his brother’s face to get an indication if he was playing well or not.

Malcolm actually started out as AC/DC’s lead guitarist but decided Angus would do it while he stayed in the background.

Controlling the live show virtually hidden in the shadows, he’d deliver those chunky skull-crunching power chords to ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, ‘‘Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution’,’ Hells Bells” and what Angus considers the best track to capture Malcolm’s style, ‘Dog Eat Dog’.

Angus once said in an 80s interview: “Malcolm’s really underrated. He makes the band sound so full, and I couldn’t ask for a better rhythm player.

“Sometimes I look at Malcolm while he’s playing, and I’m completely awestruck by the sheer power of it.

“He’s doing something much more unique than what I do—with that raw, natural sound of his.”

He added, “And what’s more, he actually plays rhythms. He just doesn’t make a noise; he works them out, and he knows when not to play.

“He’s like a friggin’ human metronome. It’s all in his right wrist, y’know!”