AC/DC : LIVE

Disc One (70:31)

  1. Thunderstruck
  2. Shoot to Thrill
  3. Back in Black
  4. sin city
  5. who Made Who
  6. Heatseeker
  7. fire your guns
  8. Moneytalks
  9. jailbreak
  10. the jack
  11. the razor's edge
  12. dirty deeds done dirt cheap
  13. moneytalks

Disc Two (61:53)

  1. hells bells
  2. are you ready
  3. that's the way i wanna rock 'n' roll
  4. high voltage
  5. you shook me all night long
  6. whole lotta rosie
  7. let there be rock
  8. bonny
  9. highway to hell
  10. t.N.T.
  11. for those about to rock (We salute you)

Label : Epic

Release Year : 1992

Venue : various

Recording Date : 1992

Review (AllMusic) : Despite the fact that the band's best days were obviously behind them, a live album for AC/DC was all but completely necessary. After all, the group's first live release, If You Want Blood You've Got It, was recorded at a time when AC/DC was nothing more than a cult act that had yet to produce many of its future rock staples. Though recorded well into their career on the Razor's Edge 1991 tour, AC/DC Live surprisingly captures the hype and excitement that made AC/DC such a hit in their heyday. The set list wisely overlooks the songs from the band's mid-'80s slump and concentrates on hard rock hits such as "Hells Bells," "Back in Black," "Highway to Hell," and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap." Brian Johnson's voice may not be as strong as in the early '80s, but he still sounds competent in his role. All too often, a live album is a cheaply made, rushed recording that only serves as a testament to a band's decline. AC/DC Live, however, shows what makes this band different from their peers -- here they are still entirely capable of pulling off a great live show. This ranks among the best live metal albums of the '90s. In February 2003, the American distribution rights to AC/DC's back catalog transferred over to Epic, their new label. Epic reissued the band's catalog as remastered digipacks containing lavish, expanded booklets with plenty of rare photographs, memorabilia, and notes. Although the digipacks may wear a little too easy, the sound is terrific - clean and muscular, enhancing the raw qualities of the original record -- and the packaging is loving, making the reissues necessary for collectors.

Review (Wikipedia) : AC/DC Live is a 1992 live album by Australian hard rock band, AC/DC. It was released both as a single album and as a double album (known as AC/DC Live: 2 CD Collector's Edition). The album has been considered the closest thing to a greatest hits album in the AC/DC catalogue. AC/DC Live: 2 CD Collector's Edition was released a month after the single-disc version, in a slipcased two-disc "book" (similar in shape to old CD longboxes) and containing an AC/DC dollar note. The album was re-released in 2003 as part of the AC/DC remasters series.

Review (Only Solitaire Blogspot) : This memento of the Razor's Edge tour exists in two versions - single-disc and a «deluxe» two-disc variant - and if you care about the band at all, there is no reason not to go for the double CD version, giving a much more precise and detailed impression of a late-period AC/DC show. Culled from various venues, it is very «honest» in that the sound fades out after each track, but on practice this constant fade-in/fade-out is annoying and gives the impression one normally gets from cheap Greatest Hits Live packages, even though the album is actually quite representative of the true AC/DC live set of the period, big hits, fresh numbers from the last two albums, and occasional rarities and oddities interspersed. Arguably, The Razor's Edge tour was the last time the band rocked on stage with the usual amount of juvenile delight - during their subsequent live shows, old age started biting at their heels, which is particularly well visible on video (Angus being a little more restrained and less psychotic), but is subtly reflected in the overall sound as well. On Live, there is no such thing - the band rocks like crazy, which makes it all the more sad to see the further deterioration of John­son's voice, particularly showing on the old Back In Black hits. Of course, he tries to compensate by fini­shing the announcement of each song's title with a beastly roar ("this one's called... 'Sin City', YYAARGGH!"), but this schtick gets fairly obnoxious second time around, not to mention third, fourth, and forty-fourth. Poor guy. Apart from the voice problem, the only other question is the same I have already asked about If You Want Blood: what's the point of an AC/DC live album in the first place? That previous live record made good mainly on the strength of Bon and Angus. This live record, on the contrary, succeeds despite Brian Johnson rather than because of him, leaving Angus as the only undisputed hero, but even Angus cannot make all of the tracks special, and the recent ones, in particular, are played very much by the book ('Thunderstruck'), meaning you have to pay for more or less the same thing twice. So, what's actually different? Well, some things. You get to hear a less squeaky clean production of 'Who Made Who', without the electronic effects on the drums. You get to hear 'Heatseeker' be­gin with a few bars from 'Rocker' (a song that Brian only performed briefly with the band at the start of his tenure - it was too much of a personalized Bon vehicle for him to hold on to it). You get to hear 'The Jack' with Bon Scott's original «uncensored» lyrics - much less interesting than the double-entendre version, if you ask me (see how censorship rules?). You get to hear Angus play a little bit of Scottish folk music ('The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond') as a happy crowd of Scots actually sings the words. And, most importantly, you get to hear heavily extended versions of 'Jailbreak' (as Angus masturbates - figuratively - and strips - literally), 'High Voltage' (Brian's bit of audience participation), and 'Let There Be Rock' (which spends the last five mi­nutes or so desperately trying to stop, but always failing). None of this is essential, but little is disappointing (I would recommend to skip 'Hells Bells', a song that Brian never managed to get right onstage even in the early days, much less now when the pearly gates to the required high notes have been sealed with nicotine and alcohol), and, be­sides, this is the last young AC/DC album you are ever going to hear. Three years later, they would officially change their names to Angus and Malcolm Old, and the world would never be the same. So, thumbs up for now.