AC/DC - Fly On The Wall
1985 Atlantic

Track Listing:
1.  Fly On The Wall
2.  Shake Your Foundations
3.  First Blood
4.  Danger
5.  Sink The Pink
6.  Playing With Girls
7.  Stand Up
8.  Hell Or High Water
9.  Back In Business
10. Send For The Man

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Brian Johnson
Guitars:  Angus Young, Malcom Young
Bass:  Cliff Williams
Drums:  Simon Wright

Website:  www.ac-dc.net

Horatio's Rating:  A
Overall Rating:  A

Also be sure to read:
AC/DC - Ballbreaker by Horatio
AC/DC - Flick Of The Switch by Horatio

Horatio's Review:
Listen to most ponces with an opinion on AC/DC and they'll tell you the 1983-88 period was the band's worst.  On the contrary squire it happened to be among their best, rivaling the vintage Bon Scott years for unequaled riffs and mind boggling lyrics.  1983's 'Flick Of The Switch' was the band's heaviest album to that point, but commercially didn't fare as well as relative borefests like 'Back In Black' and 'For Those About To Rock'.  A typical situation.  Can anyone tell me why 'Hell's Bells' surpasses 'Brainshake' for any particular reason?  Or 'Guns For Hire'?  Bloody classic.  Two years later the band was back, with Simon Wright behind the kit as a fully fledged member, Phil Rudd giving his marching orders for sleeping around with a bandmates old lady.

This album is as forgotten as 'Flick Of The Switch' and in many regards almost matches it.  The sound is considerably different, with production handled by the Young brothers themselves.  It has the same atmosphere as the toughest Rose Tattoo material, hard rock as heavy and aggressive as the genre could reach.  Classics abound in memorable fashion through the title track, 'Shake Your Foundation', 'First Blood', 'Danger', 'Sink The Pink', 'Playing With Girls', bloody all of it actually.  The riffs are rock solid as always, as the band maintained a straight ahead hard rock approach that they first adopted on 'Back In Black'.  You'll catch me listening to this before 'Dirty Deeds' any day.  Mind you I don't own a copy of that album presently.  'Fly On The Wall' was met indifferently by most, bugger them.  The band continued to match each release with 1988's 'Blow Up Your Video' another worthy effort.  How rude is 'Fly On The Wall'?  How about this: 'she make you break the rules, gonna get a shot, hit the spot, then she gonna rack em' up, get it hot'.  Even Bon would have been proud of that.

Song summaries include...

Fly On The Wall - Up there as one of the band's heaviest tracks.  The riffs are a wall of noise and old Brian's sounding good and scratchy.  Angus once said they were asked by a fan to play this live on the 'Ballbreaker' tour, but he feared it might be too obscure.  They played it anyway and the reception was positive from the whole arena.  Why don't they crank it out more often?  Who wants to keep hearing 'T.N.T.', 'The Jack' or 'Highway To Hell'?  Mix it up a bit before you die lads.  Times running out.  A+
Shake Your Foundations - There's a uniquely Australian tone to this album, sounding like the lads recorded it in downtown Paramatta, rather than Montreaux, Switzerland.  It's the 'Aye, aye oh' chant that does the trick here.  Comes off like your average Aussie yob at a Benson and Hedges World Series Cricket match in 85'.  Alan Borders bum fluff, will we ever forget?  B+
First Blood - Brian takes an underage girl's virginity and leaves her bloody in her parents bed.  'Maybe wrong, maybe right, but I like it every night' he explains.  'Some like it hot. Some like it not so hot' he goes on to rationalize.  Hot chorus, instant classic.  A
Danger - Opens with a crude boomerang effect which earns credibility immediately.  Brian's enjoying a night on the town, sipping his brandy and causing a ruckus before the cops take him away.  Unfortunately for Beano, the boys in blue fail to 'appreciate his natural charm' and he is found hanging in his cell the next morning in a supposed suicide.  A
Sink The Pink - I suspect many of you have seen the rather disgusting video for this track, where some dyke beats a greasy Greek dude in a pool match before they do a rude jig as AC/DC play in the bar.  Horrible, especially Angus sinking the pink with his guitar.  Why couldn't they play to the song title's double entendre and show Brian sinking the pink to the floozy with the 'Dallas eyes'.  B+
Playing With Girls - The key track, loud and all muscle.  The opening riff's one of the most dangerous ever heard and Brian belts out the lyrics like a filthy pervert.  Brian's living it up as he looks for the 'good time girls in their black nylon tights, over the barrel bottoms up'.  But he 's not done.  Brian likes 'tall girls and I'll take em' small. I want 'em all up front, I like 'em all!'  You see that's where you'll find Brian 'standing proud'.  'I want all the women in the world!' is his parting shot.  Don't we all mate.  A+
Stand Up - Guess what, Brian's out on the loose again and getting undercover with some tart who he doesn't know!  But he wants it that way.  He's not as stupid as he looks.  B
Hell Or High Water - Brian's devoted to rock and roll, even though his mama and papa told him it was evil.  He's going to make the grade no matter what they say! 'Papa don' scold me, rock 'n' rolled me' sings Brian in an incomprehensible line.  Beautiful.  A
Back In Business - All these shenanigans have landed Brian in the big house in Glasgow, but he's out now and looking for trouble.  He's a 'wreckin' ball, a stingin' knife' and he's going to 'steal your money, gonna take your life'.  Brian's eager to reestablish his position in the firm and murder and mayhem is all he knows.  After all he's a 'cannonball goin' down the track'.  The very definition of rudeness in ever manner is this track.  So much so I'm having trouble believing it's real.  A+
Send For The Man - Looking for a back door man?  Looking for a dude with a bad reputation who's not afraid to get down and dirty?  Guess who your man is.  Cliff Williams of course!  Oh, to those interested, the band's 'Fly On The Wall' video will be available summer of 85' at select video and music retailers.  Available on VHS and Beta Max HiFi.  B+
Horatio's Rating:  A

Discography (last updated 7.20.06):
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - 1976
High Voltage - 1976
Let There Be Rock - 1977
If You Want Blood - 1978
Powerage - 1978
Highway To Hell - 1979
Back In Black - 1980
For Those About To Rock - 1981
Flick Of The Switch - 1983
'74 Jailbreak - 1984
Fly On The Wall - 1985
Who Made Who - 1986
Blow Up Your Video - 1988
The Razor's Edge - 1990
Live - 1992
Ballbreaker - 1995
Bonfire box - 1997
Stiff Upper Lip - 2000
Stiff Upper Lip EP - 2001
AC/DC Vinyl Box - 2003