FREE HIGHWAY TO HELL: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AC/DC LEGEND BON SCOTT PDF

Clinton Walker | 312 pages | 25 Sep 2008 | Puncture Publications | 9781891241239 | English | Portland, United States Highway to Hell: The Life and Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott

Scott was born in ForfarScotland, and spent his early years in Kirriemuir. He moved to Australia with his family in at the age of six, living in Melbourne for four years before settling in Fremantle, Western Australia. Scott formed his first band, The Spektorsin and became the band's drummer and occasional lead vocalist. Their Highway to Hell reached the top 20 in the United States, and the band seemed on the verge of a commercial breakthrough. However, on 19 FebruaryScott died after a night out in London. It went on to become the second-best-selling album in history. He grew up in Kirriemuir and was his parents' second child; the first-born was a boy, Sandy, who died shortly after birth. Inthe family moved to Fremantle. Scott joined the associated Fremantle Scots Pipe Bandlearning the drums. He subsequently worked as a farmhand and a crayfisherman, and was later a trainee weighing-machine mechanic. Scott's vocals were inspired by his idol, Little Richard. Scott moved to Adelaide in and joined the band Fraternity. Injust after returning to Australia from the tour of the UK, Fraternity went on hiatus. During this time, Head also helped Scott with his original compositions. Vince Lovegrove said, "Bon would go to Peter's home after a day of literally shovelling shit, and show him musical ideas he had had during his day's work. Bon's knowledge of the guitar was limited, Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott Peter began teaching him how to bridge chords and construct a song. One of the songs from these sessions was a ballad called 'Clarissa', about a local Adelaide girl. Another was the country-tinged Bin Up in the Hills Too Long, which for me was a sign of things to come with Bon's lyrics; simple, clever, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek Long out of print, and massively bootlegged, this EP finally got an official digital release in June Scott stormed out of the venue, threw a bottle of Jack Daniel's on to the ground, then sped off on his Suzuki GT motorbike. I immediately told him that the best guy for the job was Bon. George responded by saying Bon's accident would not allow him to perform, and that maybe he was too old. Nevertheless I had a meeting with Malcolm and Angus, and suggested Bon as their new singer. They asked me to bring him out to the Pooraka Hotel that night, and to come backstage after the show. When he watched the band, Bon was impressed, and he immediately wanted to join them, but thought they may be a bit too inexperienced and too young. After the show, backstage, Bon expressed his doubts about them being "able to rock". The two Young brothers told Bon he was "too old to rock". And Bon had found a new band. Fraternity later reformed and replaced Scott with Jimmy Barnes. The band didn't have a singer that night; they were playing instrumental versions of old rock 'n' roll standards. The boys ripped through all these classic numbers and then finally, with enough pressure from Vince, Bon climbed onto the stage. Like Bon, the Youngs were Scottish, so there was an instant bond. Another studio album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheapwas released in September of the same year, but only in Australia; the international version of the album was released in December with a different track listing. The album was not released in the US until March The release of Powerage marked the debut of bassist Cliff Williams who had replaced Mark Evansand with its harder riffsfollowed the blueprint set by Let There Be Rock. Scott met Adelaide girl Irene Thornton in while he was singer with Fraternity. They married in Browning claimed "Bon was bragging to me the last time he was in that hospital he was visiting two separate girls, both unknown to each other, who were both giving birth to his kids at the same time. So there's at least two of Bon Scott's children out there, or at least two I can vouch for. During this visit, the musicians did a jam session of " Ride On Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott. This improvised session was Scott's last recording. Some time during the late evening of 18 February and early morning of 19 February, Scott passed out and died at the age of Scott was taken to King's Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott Hospital in Camberwellwhere he was pronounced dead on arrival. Kinnear said he found Scott in the evening. Chapman claims Scott and Fury were with him the previous evening of 18 February and Scott left his apartment to buy heroin, never to return. Fink's book also reveals Scott and Kinnear were not alone in East Dulwich but with a third person, Zena Kakoulli, Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott stayed over at Kinnear's apartment while Scott remained in the parked Renault. An updated edition of Fink's book released in produces new evidence that a fourth individual, Kakoulli's husband the rock musician Peter Perrettwas also with Scott, Kinnear and Kakoulli. As part of the funeral arrangements, Scott's body was embalmed by Desmond Henley ; [32] it was later cremated and Scott's ashes were interred by his family at Fremantle Cemetery in Fremantle. Additionally, Scott was asthmatic. While it has long been believed that the temperature was below freezing on the morning of his death, raising the possibility of hypothermia, [34] Fink's book reveals figures from the Met Office National Meteorological Archive showing that temperatures were, in fact, above average for that month and not freezing. The issue of whether Scott's lyrics were used, uncredited, on the album remains an enduring topic of debate. It contains four ; a remastered version of Back in Black ; a "rarities" album with alternate takes, outtakes, and stray live cuts, Volts ; and two live albums, Live from the Atlantic Studios and Let There Be Rock: The Movie. His grave site has become a cultural landmark; more than 28 years after Scott's death, the National Trust of Australia declared his grave important enough to be included on the list of classified heritage places. Let us rock. The lane contains a rock 'n' roll nightclub called the Cherry Bar. On 6 Maythe town of Kirriemuir in Scotland held a service and unveiled a Caithness stone slab commemorating the singer. The thing I loved most about Bon Scott, was his almost unique self honesty. What you saw was what you got, he was a real person and as honest as the day is long. To my mind he was the street poet of my generations and of the generations that followed. It was originally held in July on the weekend closest to his birthday but moved to May because of other events in the local area during July. On 19 Februarythe 25th anniversary of Scott's death, thrash metal band Megadeth performed a cover of "Problem Child" as a Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott. Singer and guitarist Dave Mustaine Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott about how much Scott had influenced him. Fink's book claims that Scott died of a heroin overdose, while Walker backs the coroner's finding of alcohol poisoning. The controversial point that he and Walker both agree on is that a lot of Bon's lyrics were co-opted, uncredited, into Back in Black. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Australian musician London: Orion Publishing group. Classic Rock July Up the Downstair. Archived from the original on 24 March Retrieved 11 August Retrieved 16 September Archived from the original on 19 September Retrieved 7 August Bon Scott fans. Archived from the original on 3 April Retrieved 20 July Adelaide Now. Archived from the original on 5 December Retrieved 20 November Retrieved 27 February Archived from the original on 26 March Retrieved 7 May New York: Eastwest Records America. Archived from the original on 28 November Bon: The Last Highway. Penguin Random House Australia. The Guardian. Christopher Henley Limited - Archived from the original on 14 September Retrieved 8 March Metropolitan Cemeteries Board. Archived from the original on 16 November Canoe JAM! New York: Harper Collins. Archived from the original on 28 July The West Australian. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 May Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott - Clinton Walker - Google книги

But Bon himself was a veteran, the self-confessed old man of the band, a year-old who had already been around the block twice since the sixties. When he was pronounced dead on arrival at Kings College Hospital, the cumulative grind of nearly 20 years on the road had finally caught up with him. Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott Scott was a man who lived for the moment. And when those moments had run out, his reputation solidified into legend—this was indeed one of the last true Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott men of rock. Dead rock stars are often deified on the basis of martyrdom alone, however senseless. But Bon Scott was a working-class hero in life, and he became an icon in death. But beyond the shiny garlands and concrete monuments, beyond his musical legacy, beyond even the timeless appeal he exerts on successive generations, Bon has an iconic status which is intangible, a given in our popular cultural heritage. Nor is he a still photograph, even for all the forceful motion it might capture—as so many indelible images of Elvis do. No, we are more likely to remember Bon fleetingly, flashlike, mercurial. He will be a splay of elbows and skin and tattoos, grinning with evil intent, grabbing at the microphone, screeching in his inimitable fashion, the center of a driving storm of volume, rhythm and blues that enveloped everything, that simply lodged itself in the atmosphere as part of the air you breathed and so to which reaction was involuntary, the body jerking in tandem motion. This was rebellion and release superior to any other available in spiritually bereft suburbia. And Bon was its advocate, a denim-clad Pied Piper with a bottle in his hand, a lady in waiting and the hellhounds on his trail. Bon updated the Australian larrikin archetype. But his immortality is not the result of nostalgic yearning. Even after his death Bon remains potent, the brute poet of the inarticulate underclass, a spokesman for not a generation but a class, a class with little influence or barely even so much as a voice. Break free! Find out for yourself! Live life! Like Elvis, Bon loved and respected his parents; it was just that he rejected their way of life, as he saw it, the slow quiet suburban death of stolid conformity and insincere gestures. No gesture was ever so sincere as the finger Bon gave to all of this—to polite society, the silent majority, which, with its blinkeredness and apathy, was to Bon the antithesis of what life was all about. He could play drums, as he did with his father in the Fremantle Pipe Band. But leaving school at 15, he hardly had any grand plans. It would probably have been enough that he stayed out of trouble. His brilliance was that you believed in him; that, as they say, he could sell a song. Maybe it was his refusal to take anything, himself especially, too seriously—maybe it was just his impishness—but there was something conspiratorial in his grin that encouraged people who might otherwise never have stepped out of line to join with him in giving the finger to everything dull and constraining. Something touched a nerve, made a connection. She was marvelous because she was so dreadful, so much animal energy and so little art. Fame and riches, in themselves, are empty. Off the road. He had always been so busy chasing his dream that he never stopped running. His only refuge was in alcohol and sex. When late in the piece he did find the space and time to glance over his shoulder, or stop at a byway and look at his life, at life in general, he realized what he was missing: a home. Bon really was a sweet man. He was warm, friendly and uncommonly funny. He did not breathe fire, pluck wings off flies or eat children whole. And while his daunting stage persona was by no means fraudulent, it was most certainly a professional cloak that could be worn at convenient moments. Nobody who knew Bon can find a bad word for him. He had great generosity of spirit, perhaps too much. But while he was a consummate professional, as everyone who worked with him testifies, he always leaned heavily on the bottle. The monotony of life on the road ensured it was so. Alcoholic death crept up on him. Bon got married during the heady early seventies. Bon was torn during those days, to a point where, literally, he almost killed himself. Bon, however, was a quite different type of person to any of the Youngs. Just as nobody can find a bad word for Bon, few people who have had dealings with the Youngs can find a good word for them. But Bon was united with Malcolm, Angus and George because they let him in, as they did so few others, and they shared a common goal—the music—and if nothing else, a ribald sense of humor. Gradually, though, as the band became more successful and the mood within it more businesslike if not downright venaland as everyone cultivated their own individual personal lives, Bon found himself more alone than ever. In the end, he really did have nowhere to go. At the time the band was making those records, however, there was nothing else that sounded like them; that so much sounds like them now is testimony to their greatness. Critics were slow to acknowledge all this. If Bon fails to fit the orthodox Dylanesque measure Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott a great rock lyricist, Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott more power to him. The real point is a matter of attitude, tone, and honesty. Few heavy metal bands have a sense of humor, to start with. Make the guitar parts more rhythmic. There is something uniquely Australian about this. He drew his art from life, the rampant fornicator stripped bare. The classic bluesmen addressed many of the same issues, only with more finesse—as does a contemporary black artist like Prince—but Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott, free of all artifice and pretension, talked plain to such a point that it went under the heads of Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott. Torn by ambition, paranoia and betrayal, the band had become big business. Both Malcolm and Angus were buying houses and had girlfriends, whom they would eventually marry. Bon meanwhile, on a return trip to Australia, bought a motorcycle. But in reality, unimpressed by all the glittery excess and phoniness of stardom, and, if nothing else, just plain tired—or maybe, just finally starting to become a little jaded—he was determinedly trying to remain in touch with his roots, with the old friends he had who he knew were true friends. That he lacked the soul mate he so desired ate away at him. He was working on new material for an album he knew would be as huge as Back in Black turned out. He was excited at the prospects. But then, suddenly, surprisingly, his life, his body, demanded its own back. To try to pass off as art what was merely drunk and disorderly is to mislead the young. There are times when to speak ill of the dead is not to do a disservice, but to endow a wastrel existence with a certain significance—a cautionary memento mori to would-be disciples. In other words, what comfort is Southern Comfort when it contributes to the early end of a foolish little girl? Sometimes the young are very stupid. Bon Scott - Wikipedia

Nothing seemed particularly off the night previous. A mate of his, Alistair Kinnearwas driving him home when he noticed Scott had fallen asleep, not surprising since they had been drinking. So, he called Silver Smith and they lowered the seat so that Scott could sleep on his back. In the morning, Kinnear found Scott still asleep, brought him to the hospital in a panic, and learned he was already dead shortly after. A successful promotional tour had just ended Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott Malcolm and Angus Young were just beginning to play around with songs for the next album. Scott was supposed to start singing the next day. The idea that seven double whiskeys would put him in the ground seems a strange notion. Though Scott was debating about what direction he wanted to take inhe was set to record Back in Black. After his death, though, the band were at a loss, as Angus Young describes : "For us, it was like losing a member of your family. It's very, very difficult to go through something like that. Not only is it your friend, it's also somebody you've been working with all that time. However, Scott's parents asked them to continue, Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott they sought out Brian Johnsona singer Bon Scott had compared to his idol Little Richard. They proceeded to record Back in Black as a tribute to Scott, per Ultimate Classic Rock : "We wouldn't have even done him justice in words. Even the bell in the beginning of 'Hell's Bells' was our little tribute. But due to the fact that Scott was supposed to sing in the studio the next day, rumors have always circulated around the fan base that either he had written the songs, which are all credited to Brian Johnson and the brothers Young, or that there is some vault of Scott vocal recordings for the album. No concrete evidence for either of these theories exists. All rights reserved.