Angus Young
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Angus McKinnon Young (born March 31 1955 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a rock guitarist who has been the lead guitarist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC since the group was formed in 1973. Angus is known for his hard-edge blues style lead (and signature vibrato), wild stage energy, and schoolboy clothing style. Image:Angus Young.jpg
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Early Years
Angus started playing guitar when he was about five. A neighbourhood kid had one and Angus would play with it during visits. He got his own "guitar" by taking a banjo his family had lying around the house and re-stringing it like a guitar. He didn't really get into guitar playing seriously until his early teens. He got his first Gibson SG after seeing it in a friend's catalogue. Until then, he had been playing on an old Hofner guitar he inherited from his brother Malcolm after he got a new Gretsch Jet Firebird.Template:Fact Angus and Malcolm's brother George(of The Easybeats) would give them guitar lessons when he would come home during breaks from touring.
Prior to AC/DC Angus worked a part time job for an Australian soft-core pornographic magazine titled Ribald.[1]
Angus Young with AC/DC
Angus Young practiced with his band, AC/DC, which was just developing at the time. Angus had developed a trademark 'schoolboy' style in the band. One rumour is that he did not have time to change between his school uniform and band practise, and simply wore the uniform. The truth is, though, that his sister suggested he do it as a gimmick. The schoolboy costume became a signature trademark of the entire band.
Angus Young is notorious for his wild onstage antics. He entertains audiences with his intense moves and jumps onstage and with his running back and forth across the stage while playing the electric guitar. During live shows, Angus would clamber on singer Bon Scott's shoulders and they would make their way through the audience with smoke streaming from a satchel on his back while he played an extended solo.
Image:Angus Young's SG.jpg In later years, Angus performed moves such as his own version of the Duck Walk, which was inspired by his idol Chuck Berry, and his "spasm", during which he throws himself to the ground, kicking, shaking, and spinning in circles, while playing the guitar, of course; both can be seen in the "Who Made Who" video.[2] Angus developed the "spasm" while playing live in a small club in Australia when he tripped over a cable onstage, while playing his solo. He made it into part of his act by having a seizure-like "spasm" onstage to make it seem as part of the act. It has grown ever since. Other gimmicks employed by Angus include his strip act, which is viewable on three AC/DC DVDs: during "Jailbreak" on Live At Donington DVD, during "The Boogie Man" on No Bull, and during "Bad Boy Boogie" on Stiff Upper Lip Live.
Angus Young energetic guitar style has been an influence on an entire generation of young Hard rock guitarists.Template:Fact His work with AC/DC has been an influence on bands ranging from Guns N' Roses and Def Leppard to newer artists like Buckcherry and Nashville Pussy. Angus cites his own influences as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and other blues/early rock players.[3]
"I didn't join a rock band to be famous," he said in 2001, "I joined a rock band to play my guitar."
Although Angus Young keeps his private life out of the media it is known that he now lives in Sydney, Australia and Aalten, Netherlands. It is also known that he married his wife Ellen in 1980 right before Bon Scott died.Template:Fact
Maxim recently ranked the diminuitive Angus (5 feet, 2 inches tall) as tops on their list, "25 Greatest Short Dudes Of All Time," ahead of such notable "short dudes" as Napoleon Bonaparte, Martin Scorsese and Yoda.[4]
Angus is ranked #96 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Guitars And Style
Angus had used Gibson SGs in various forms (his original and the basis on his current signature model, was a 1968 SG) throughout his career. He is almost never seen without another guitar. However, he owns telecasters and gibson firebirds and ES335s.
His amps have been plexi marshalls: jtm45s, jtm50s, jmp50s and superleads (plus a few Wizard amplifiers). Speaker cabinets have been marshall 4x12"s (model 1982 and 1960, mostly B models) with celestion G12H 30watt (on old recordings), Vintage 30s (on newer recordings) and G12M 25watt speakers (on solos/overdubs on newer recordings).
Angus's playing style is very straight blues. He plays in the penatonic blues scale. His style is spiced by additional non-blues tricks. He also utilizes touches of Scottish folk in his playing and pull-off apreggios (pull-offs are played one-handed) are a popular trick, appearing in songs such as "Thunderstruck," "Baby, Please Don't Go" and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap." In 1976, the band recorded an arrangement of the Scottish song "Bonny," retitled "Fling Thing," which has appeared in their stage act over the years.
References
- Guitar Legends magazine issue #78 - AC/DC: We Salute You!
External links
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