Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

I had become a die hard AC/DC fan that wonderful day in '81 when my friend introduced me to Back in Black.    Shortly after, a "new" album for the Australian bad boys was released, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.  It was an immediate success, and South Florida's K-102 FM played the heck out of it, just about every track.  I was smitten, even when I learned that the album was five years old, only now reaching American shores.  

I was already enjoying the late Bon Scott's vocals on earlier albums like Highway to Hell and High Voltage.  Atlantic had released those here shortly after their recordings, but for some reason felt Dirty Deeds wasn't up to snuff.   To me, Bon, Angus, Malcolm, Mark, and Phil were as tight as ever.   Maybe the material was too dark and scandalous.  Songs about hired killers and possibly unwilling virgins, to say nothing of, uh, ballrooms.  A few songs had the "f" word.  Some, like "Problem Child" and "Rocker" had appeared on earlier albums.  So confusing.

I had the vinyl. The album cover, different than the original, was intriguing and dangerous looking to a twelve year old.  I conjured all sorts of lurid stories for this disparate group, their eyes hidden to protect the guilty.  Of what?  No accident that they're in front of a motel.  Like my own little forbidden movie I somehow got to see.  The entire album feels that way.

I absorbed the songs quickly with endless listens under my Koss headphones.  I even had the patience for the nearly seven minute "Ain't No Fun (Waiting 'Round to be a Millionaire)", a song that still comes up on my playlist.   Another of those struggling musician laments, with at least one line of good old fashioned male chauvinism, or "toxic masculinity" as they like to call it these days.   Such is also to be found in "Squealer", quite sinister.  The bluesy "Ride On" has a nice closing time/after hours vibe. 

"Love at First Feel", pretty self explanatory, was not included on the original Australian release.  "Dirty Deeds" became a hit, and Scott's growly vocals suit the mean business perfectly.  Joan Jett did a decent cover in 1990.  And then there's the infamous "Big Balls", which to call unsubtle in its innuendoes is a gross understatement ("I'm just itching to tell you about them!").  How often we sang this one, barely making it through spasms of laughter, at school.  I made sure to include it on my mixtapes for friends, who invariably rushed to report how doubled over they were. 

Brian Johnson rose to the mic after Scott's death in 1980 and took the band to the stratosphere.  But those '70s albums are undisputed classics.  Including Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, kinda the dark horse oddball in the AC/DC discography.