Farewell to Malcolm Young, the Mastermind of AC/DC | The New Yorker

Farewell to Malcolm Young, the Mastermind of AC/DC | The New Yorker



The interplay of Malcolm’s and Angus’s guitars is the essence of AC/DC’s
sound. You can hear it if you listen closely to almost any of their
songs. A favorite of mine is
“Overdose,” from “Let
There Be Rock,” released in 1977. The song opens with a series of
arpeggios played on a single guitar, almost like a warm-up exercise.
(It’s uncharacteristic of the band to have left such a rough intro in
the final edit.) Drums soon arrive, adding some structure, followed by a
thrumming bass line, and then the second guitar, with a striking,
unforgettable riff. The other guitar shifts to playing open chords
before finally locking in on the riff with the first. Lars Ulrich, of
Metallica, singled the song out earlier this
year, noting that AC/DC almost never performs “Overdose” live. Thus, it’s hard
to know which brother plays which part of that intro. One thing’s for
sure, though: the song, like the band, wouldn’t work with only one of
them.