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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGUS YOUNG (AC/DC) & MICK RALPHS (MOTT THE HOOPLE/BAD COMPANY) – TIMH

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Whoa Nellie's picture
March 31, 2016 at 7:11am
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The Glasgow, Scotland-born AC/DC lead guitarist and perpetual schoolboy, Angus McKinnon Young, celebrates his 61st birthday today. His nickname, A-Bomb, fits him well – a big explosion from a diminutive package. Angus has been wearing his signature schoolboy outfit and duck-walking his Gibson SG across rock stages for 40+ years now. We wrote a little bit about the band’s earliest days in the February 17, 2016 installment of TIMH. It seems like a good time to flesh out the story (innuendo intended, for fans of AC/DC’s bawdy lyrics).

The Youngs moved to Sydney, Australia, when Angus was 8 (1963). Inspired by their older brother George’s success as a member of The Easybeats, Angus and Malcolm began playing the guitar. Angus began picking away at a 6-string banjo when he was 5 or 6 and infatuated with the sounds of Little Richard. He moved on to his brother’s guitars until his mum bought him a cheap secondhand acoustic. Angus studied a tutorial course when he was around 11, but much preferred working things out on his own, imitating Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, The Who and the Rolling Stones. An indifferent student, Angus dropped out of school at 14, by which time he was spending most of his time playing the guitar and working part-time doing sewing machine maintenance. Angus' first full-time job after quitting school was as a typesetter for a soft-core men’s magazine, Ribald. At 16, he bought his first “real guitar,” a late-60s, used Gibson SG that he still owns today. Angus’ first band was called Kantuckee, changing names to Tantrum. When Angus was 18, Malcolm shocked him by asking him to join the band he was forming.

“In the beginning, we never used to play together, even at home,” Angus told Guitar, in 1992. “Malcolm would be in one room with his tape recorder putting tunes together, and I would be in the other room pretending I was Jimi Hendrix. When I’d walk in to see what he was up to, he’d go, ‘Get out!’ I was amazed when he asked me to come down to a rehearsal and play.”

The group explored a number of gimmicky costumes, and Angus’ outfit was his sister’s suggestion and handiwork. She is also credited with naming the band, taken from a tag on the back of her sewing machine. The allusion to electricity and power was just what the group wanted – they knew nothing of AC/DC’s sexual connotation.

AC/DC started life as a blues rock band, but soon morphed into a glam look. They turned into a straight-ahead hard rock band when they ditched their original singer for Bon Scott. AC/DC owned the rest of the 70s, and quickly recovered from Scott’s death from alcohol poisoning in 1980, dedicating the in-progress album Back In Black to him. It became the group’s biggest seller, over 50 million of their 200 million total units sold.

Angus has always been a teetotaler and expects to lead AC/DC for another decade. He’ll do it without brother Malcolm, who retired in 2014 due to dementia. Malcolm’s rhythm guitar slot has been filled by nephew Stevie Young.

Happy Birthday to Angus Young!

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Today is also the birthday of Mick Ralphs, founding member, guitarist and songwriter of punk-precursor Mott the Hoople, and hard rockers Bad Company. Michael Geoffrey Ralphs was born in Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire, England, in 1944. A relative late-bloomer, Mick didn’t start playing guitar until he was 18. His influences included Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Buffalo Springfield and Leslie West of Mountain. He progressed rapidly and was playing in bands almost immediately, first the Mighty Atom Dance Band, then the Melody Makers.

In 1964, Mick joined a solid working band called the Buddies. They played in England and in Europe (using different names to avoid work permit issues), and eventually became Silence. In 1969, Silence was signed to a contract with Island Records, and set about finding a lead singer. Ian Hunter responded to their ad and was hired as front man and keyboard player. The band changed its name to Mott the Hoople. In the next 2 years, they recorded 4 albums and played to enthusiastic audiences, but didn't have a hit record and were on the verge of packing it in.

Mott the Hoople

David Bowie was a friend of bassist Pete Overend Watts and wrote him a letter saying he loved the band and hoped they wouldn’t break up, and asking if they’d record a song he’d written. Enclosed was a tape reel with “All the Young Dudes” and “Suffragette City.” Bowie saved the band with that act of kindness. He and his guitarist Mick Ronson produced the hit single and the All the Young Dudes album. Mott had their breakthrough. 

Mick Ralphs would work on the next album, Mott, but was unhappy with the glam rock direction the band was taking. He left the band at the end of 1973, remaining on good terms with everyone, and joined Paul Rodgers in forming Bad Company. We featured Bad Company’s emergence in this TIMH article.

 

Bad Company

Mick remained with Bad Company for 25 years, writing many of their greatest hits. His songwriting credits include these notables:

  • "Ready For Love"
  • "Can't Get Enough"
  • "Good Lovin' Gone Bad"
  • "Movin' On"
  • "One of the Boys" with Ian Hunter
  • "Feel Like Making Love" with Paul Rodgers
  • "Flying Hour" with George Harrison
  • "Oh, Atlanta" (recorded originally by Bad Company on the album Desolation Angels; but covered more recently by Alison Krauss)

When Bad Company broke up in 1982, Mick began a solo career, collaborations with various artists, and in 1984, toured with neighbor and friend David Gilmour. Mick played through various Bad Company lineups from 1986 through 1999, when he retired from touring, in large part due to his morbid fear of flying. He played a one-off with the group in 2008, and performed at a 5-night Mott the Hoople reunion in London in 2009. In 2011, Mick started the Mick Ralphs Blues Band, with whom he motors around the English countryside becoming reacquainted with the blues (and avoiding airplanes).

Happy Birthday to Mick Ralphs!

 

 

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