Hard As A Rock

Malcolm Young | 1953-2017

- David Cavanagh

Malcolm Young was never carried aloft on Bon Scott’s or Brian Johnson’s shoulders. The audience chanted his brother Angus’ name, not Malcolm's, in the intro to “Whole lotta Rosie”. Standing at the back with his long hair and his battle hardened Gretsch Jet Firebird, Malcolm seemed as peripheral to ac/Dc’s $450 million grossing live spectacle as cliff Williams, their bassist, symmetrically positioned on the other side of the drumkit. Yet it was Malcolm, AC/Dc’s rhythm guitarist, who gave them their groove, their boogie, their primal shake-and shimmy. While everyone watched Angus, what they were hearing was Malcolm.

Keith Richards, who championed ac/Dc in 1978 after falling under the spell of their Powerage album, paid tribute to a man he would have recognised as a confrère and a challenger. “Malcolm was one of the great riff masters and one of the greatest rhythm guitar players of all time,” he said. “We are all going to miss him dearly.” almost 40 years after Powerage was recorded, its sensational riffs – many of them written by Malcolm – continue to make it virtually the Bible of rhythm guitar.