Flick of the Switch
Flick of the Switch | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 19 August 1983[1] | |||
Recorded | April – May 1983[1] | |||
Studio | Compass Point (Nassau) | |||
Genre | Hard rock | |||
Length | 37:02 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | AC/DC | |||
AC/DC chronology | ||||
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Singles from Flick of The Switch | ||||
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Flick of the Switch is the ninth studio album by Australian
Recording
AC/DC returned to
There was a genuine desire to get back to the basics with Flick of the Switch. There was a general kind of consensus that we needed to find some way of moving on a little bit. You know the Johnny Winter version of Muddy Waters' 'Mannish Boy?' Where they're all shouting in the background? Basically what Mal had said was that he wanted to try and get that feeling of being in a room with it all happening. I don't think it really worked entirely.
The album is notable for its "dry" sound, with very little of the polish that is evident on their previous effort For Those About to Rock We Salute You. In a 1984 interview, Angus Young said of the LP, "We wanted this one as raw as possible. We wanted a natural, but big, sound for the guitars. We didn't want echoes and reverb going everywhere and noise eliminators and noise extractors."[4]
However, the album's birth was a troubled one; after having problems with Malcolm as well as drugs and alcohol,
The songs on Flick of the Switch contain much of the outlaw bravado ("Guns For Hire," "Badlands") and sexual innuendo ("Rising Power," "Deep in the Hole") that fans had come to expect from the Australian rockers. The song "Bedlam in Belgium" was inspired by the band's appearance at Kontich when a riot nearly broke out when police tried to close down the show after the band allegedly ignored a strict 11 p.m. curfew.[10] On tour in support of the album, "Guns For Hire" was the set opener. The tour resulted in more upheaval in the band's inner circle when Malcolm, frustrated by mixed reviews for Flick of the Switch and dwindling audience numbers in certain cities, fired tour manager Ian Jeffrey. In his Bon Scott memoir Highway to Hell, author Clinton Walker observes:
...when the band reemerged in August 1983, with the album Flick of the Switch, they found they weren't able to just pick up where they'd left off. The production credit the album bore, to Malcolm and Angus themselves, was merely the tip of the iceberg of a purging the pair had effected throughout the entire band and its infrastructure. It's a classic syndrome: the successful campaigner who fears his own troops. But Malcolm and Angus never trusted anyone anyway. They sacked practically everybody: Mutt Lange, who had artistically engineered their breakthrough; drummer Phil Rudd; Peter Mensch, who had himself usurped Michael Browning, even de-facto photographer Robert Ellis was ousted. The replacement of Rudd by Englishman Simon Wright meant that there wasn't an Australian-born member left in the band.
Album cover
The Flick of the Switch cover is a simple, pencil-drawn picture of Angus Young hanging from a giant power switch, illustrated by artist Brent Richardson, that Young had sketched out to reflect the simple, raw approach of the album. Atlantic Records hated it. Angus had wanted the album graphics to be embossed the same way that Back in Black had been but, according to Ian Jeffrey, Atlantic did not want to spend the money because they believed the album contained no hit singles.[11]
Reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [12] |
Blender | [13] |
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 10/10[14] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [15] |
Rolling Stone | [16] |
Recorded shortly after their 1982 European tour at the beginning of 1983, the album was originally released with little promotion in the US on 19 August 1983. The album reached No. 4 in UK and No. 15 in the US, and has been certified platinum by the RIAA.[17] In his original Rolling Stone review, David Fricke noted, "Produced by the band, Flick of the Switch isn't quite the monster blowout that 1980's Back in Black was, and the Youngs' retooling of old riffs for new hits also teeters on self-plagiarism at times." Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considered the album "the blinding furious peak of the Brian Johnson era", where AC/DC recaptured "the raw edge lost during the Mutt Lange years... even if the songs were starting to relive past glories".[14] Steve Huey of AllMusic was of the same opinion, writing that "as perhaps indicated by the record's idiotic original title, the utterly generic I Like to Rock, AC/DC seemed to be running out of ideas at an alarming rate, and their record sales began to reflect that fact."[12] Malcolm Young later said of the LP, "It was thrown together real quick. I wouldn't say it's a great album..."[11]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Brian Johnson.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Rising Power" | 3:43 |
2. | "This House Is on Fire" | 3:23 |
3. | "Flick of the Switch" | 3:13 |
4. | "Nervous Shakedown" | 4:27 |
5. | "Landslide" | 3:57 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
6. | "Guns for Hire" | 3:24 |
7. | "Deep in the Hole" | 3:19 |
8. | "Bedlam in Belgium" | 3:52 |
9. | "Badlands" | 3:38 |
10. | "Brain Shake" | 4:00 |
Total length: | 37:02 |
Personnel
- AC/DC
- Brian Johnson – lead vocals
- Angus Young – lead guitar
- Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Cliff Williams – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Phil Rudd – drums
- Production
- Tony Platt – engineer, mixing
- Barry Harris, Benjamin Armbrister, Gary Helman – assistant engineers
- Bob Ludwig – mastering at Masterdisk, New York
Charts
Chart (1983) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[19] | 3 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[20] | 9 |
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[21] | 12 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[22] | 10 |
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[23] | 3 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[24] | 6 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[25] | 8 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[26] | 4 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[27] | 8 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[28] | 28 |
UK Albums (OCC)[29] | 4 |
US Billboard 200[30] | 15 |
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[31] | 3× Platinum | 210,000^ |
France ( SNEP)[32]
|
Gold | 100,000* |
Germany (BVMI)[33] | Gold | 250,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI)[34] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA)[17] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
References
- ^ a b "Flick of the Switch turns 40 this month! Released on August 19, 1983, the album was recorded in April/May 1983 at Compass Point Studios. It was the 1st album self-produced by the band, and was mixed at Electric Lady Studios in New York. It reached #15 in the US & #4 on UK charts". X. 1 August 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
- ISBN 9780862415419.
- ^ Malcolm and Angus, Live At Donington DVD, Flick Of the Switch Review
- ^ Rosen, Steven (31 March 2022). "AC/DC's Angus Young: "I liked the SGs because they were light. I tried Fenders but they were too heavy and they just didn't have the balls"". Guitar World. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
- ISBN 0-7322-8383-3.
- ^ ISBN 0-7322-8383-3.
- ISBN 9781742759791.
- ISBN 0-7322-8383-3.
- ^ Flick of the Switch and Nervous Shakedown Videos, Family Jewels DVD, 2005
- ISBN 0-7322-8383-3.
- ^ ISBN 0-7322-8383-3.
- ^ All Media Network. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "Flick of the Switch - Blender". 13 May 2009. Archived from the original on 13 May 2009. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ ISBN 978-1894959315.
- ISBN 978-1-84609-856-7.
- ^ "Flick of the Switch". rollingstone.com. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
- ^ a b "American album certifications – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch". Recording Industry Association of America.
- ^ "Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 17 December 1983. p. 7. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
- ISBN 0-646-11917-6. n.b. The Kent Report chart was licensed by Australian Recording Industry Association(ARIA) from mid-1983 until 19 June 1988.
- ^ "Austriancharts.at – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 2690". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ Pennanen, Timo (2021). "AC/DC". Sisältää hitin - 2. laitos Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla 1.1.1960–30.6.2021 (PDF) (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 9. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
- GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "Charts.nz – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "Swedishcharts.com – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "Swisscharts.com – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch". Hung Medien. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "AC/DC Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2013 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association.
- Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
- ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (AC/DC; 'Flick of the Switch')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
- ^ "British album certifications – AC/DC – Flick of the Switch". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
External links
- Lyrics on AC/DC's official website