On 13 October 1978, AC/DC released their seminal live album, If you want lood, you’ve got it. Recorded in April 1978 at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland, the album captured the band at their military best. Young, ambitious, hard rock blues.
Bon Scott sang as though his balls were in a vice, a rasping, breathless screech. Despite being live, the synchronicity between Bon and Angus Young is obvious. Malcolm Young drove the rhythm with percussive intent. Angus’s extended solos on Let there be Rock and Bad Boy Boogie remain unbelievable.
Whole lotta Rosie was pressed as the single, with Dog eat Dog on the B-side. The record quickly went platinum and is still considered to be one of the best live rock albums.
The title, If you want blood, was turned into a mesmerising song on Highway to hell, the album that broke AC/DC in America. The song was equally the band’s lament and determination to give their fans everything during live performances. If you want blood, you’ve got it.
In 1984 I was 13, and fast becoming an AC/DC fan. I owned two albums, Back in Black and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. My mate Adam had more AC/DC records. His parents had a stereo with huge speakers. The amplifier could record to cassette, so I recorded his albums to tape.
One Saturday, he invited me over to listen to his new record, If you want blood, you’ve got it. Unaware it was a live recording, I listened intently while recording it to cassette. I’d never heard anything like it.
At home, I retreated to the bedroom I shared with my brother and played the tape in a silver Sanyo 2-in-1. As the songs wound on, the volume went up to 5. The raw performance had me captivated, singing along and playing guitar on a cricket bat.
The bedroom was at the front of the house, a long way from the lounge. The volume went up to 7. Cue my father Bill, standing in the doorway, eyes impassive, just as High Voltage started. Striding across the floor, he reached for the volume control and turned it all the way down. ‘What are you doing,’ he growled. ‘That’s not how to listen to AC/DC.’
At that point, my eyes switched from his frown to his fingers. I figured he couldn’t hear the news and was about to turn the rock-box off. Instead, Bill turned it up to 9, vibrating the speakers, and sat on my brother’s bed. ‘That’s how to listen to AC/DC,’ he said.
I grinned madly. Months of listening to AC/DC had finally turned my father. What’s not to like?
Across two years, until Adam moved to Perth, we spent hours listening to AC/DC together. I remember an afternoon in the bungalow at his house, listening to If you want blood, when the live version of Whole lotta Rosie blasted out. ‘Bon’s voice is different to the other songs,’ I said. ‘He’s not yelling.’
‘Maybe it was the first song of the concert,’ Adam said. ‘When he wasn’t tired.’
At 14, that sounded plausible. Over the years, I’ve listened to the live version of Rosie countless times. Beyond that teenage question, I never doubted Rosie’s authenticity as a live recording.
During Brisbane’s Covid-19 shutdown, I went for a therapeutic run. Whenever I run, I listen to music. That afternoon, the live version of Rosie played out. Later that night, I searched YouTube, thinking if Rosie was issued as a single, there would be a live film clip.
Nope. No live film clip.
The available clips feature Rosie playing to a photo of the If you want blood album cover, a bloodied Angus impaled by a guitar while Bon sings in his ear.
In the comments, a couple of people alleged it wasn’t a live recording. Those comments took me back to Adam’s bungalow when I was 14, and noticing the difference in Bon’s voice on Rosie compared to the album’s other songs.
I followed two links in the comments section (they have been subsequently removed – but I kept them). One took me to a website called SoloDallas, where Dallas wrote a 2012 story about the guitars being studio recorded on the live version of Rosie.
To compare the guitar between Rosie’s live and studio versions, Dallas analysed the technical specifics of Neve consoles, Universal Audio 710 preamps, something called a Neumann U47 FET, an SM57 and Sennheiser MD421.
Technical stuff like this:
Both rhythm and solos on both guitars of that album used – in fact – extreme preamp levels on the Neve console… That is precisely the sound of a Neve 1073 Pre/EQ module brought to its extremes and that is pretty much the sonic character that Universal Audio was able to emulate (how? By painstakingly replicating every single circuit and electric/electronic component of such module in software form thanks to mathematic algorithms; these are so much CPU intensive that Universal Audio plugins require their own hardware in the form of UAD-2 DPS Accelerators).
What???
Dallas embedded links in his story, allegedly proving the guitars were studio recorded. None of them worked. The video he posted would not play in Australia. Amid the confounding technicality, I found nothing that proved Bon’s voice was lifted from the studio.
The other link was a story on the same website written by Jaiminho Pagina in April 2012. Pagina claimed Rosie was ‘obviously patched up’ and embedded links (none of them worked) to show the guitar intro on the live version was the same as the studio version.
‘Note how the final A of the riff second time around is longer and then the third run of the riff is stiffer on both versions,’ Pagina wrote. ‘More importantly: The guitar tone is EXACTLY THE SAME.’
Pagina compared the solos on the two versions, claiming the tone of Angus’s guitar is ‘also 100% the same. It’s even scary. It is that very same overloaded mic preamp sound.’
I can’t tell an A from a B when I listen to AC/DC. My ears aren’t attuned to the overloaded mic preamp sound. Reading on, Pagina hit on an element of the lyric I loved, when Bon lets go and screams you can say she’s got it alllll…
‘That line also matches the studio version 100%,’ Pagina wrote. ‘The first assumption we can make is that, most probably, the vocal track of Rosie was especially recorded for this version. Another possibility is that the vocals could be Let there be Rock session outtakes.’
Those claims got me onto YouTube, listening to Rosie’s live and studio versions. Thirty-five years on from my initial question, I figured Bon’s voice was different on the live version of Rosie, because he allegedly wasn’t live.
The band were living at the Freeway Gardens Motel in North Melbourne. Rosie, a Tasmanian woman, weighed about 120kg. One night she offered Bon and Malcolm dinner. After dinner, as they tried to leave, Rosie grabbed Bon. Malcolm fled. Bon tried to get away and Rosie closed the door on him, wanting a favour for dinner.
A small man, Bon gave up a lot of weight. In the morning, Bon woke up pinned against the wall and made his way out.
‘When he came back and told us, I said we’ve got to get a song out of this one,’ Malcolm said. ‘So he came up with Whole Lotta Rosie.’
Of the encounter, Bon gave an apologetic explanation. ‘Rosie’s become quite famous because of that song,’ he said. ‘She’s just a woman I knew back in Australia. She was, and I tell the truth here, 19-stone 12-pound, red curly hair and freckles. And very lusty. She was so big, she sort of closed the door and put it on your body, and she was too big to say no to. So I had to succumb. I had to do it. My god. I wish I hadn’t.’
Bon delivered on Malcolm’s request. Rosie is a great song.
As Rosie starts, the crowd chants Angus, Angus, Angus, in tune to the music. There is no doubt it sounds like a live version. The riff hammers out. Then Bon, in his purest, lustful voice:
Wanna tell you a story
About woman I know
When it comes to lovin’
She steals the show
She ain’t exactly pretty
Ain’t exactly small
42 39 56
YOU COULD SAY SHE’S GOT IT ALLLLL….
Throughout the song, Bon sings into the words and shapes them, rather than screaming to be heard over the band or crowd. There is an obvious difference between Bon’s voice on Rosie and other songs from If you want blood, you’ve got it.
Midway through the song, as the riff plays out, the crowd noise seems to disappear during the switches between Angus’s colour and Malcom’s driving rhythm.
The original Rosie is 5:34 long. The live version is 4:06. Given it was released as a single to support If you want blood, it makes sense to cut out the last, extended solo to generate airplay.
To further support the conspiracy, the entire Glasgow concert was apparently filmed but the complete footage has never been released. Perhaps that is why there is no live film clip for Rosie. Of the available live clips from the album, I cannot hear any tinkering with the guitars or Bon’s voice.
Anecdotally, most bands and artists touch up live recordings before releasing a live album. The sound has to be produced and engineered in a studio. There is too much temptation and pride at stake to let missed chords or screechy vocals slip onto an album.
Polishing a live recording is industry practice, but I’ve never heard of an entire studio-generated song allegedly being plonked onto a live album.
Allegedly is the operative word. There is no proof AC/DC actually did it. Bon is dead. George Young, one of the producers, is dead. Malcolm is dead. And it’s unlikely the living members of the band, their co-producer Harry Vanda or the record label would admit it.
It remains a fan-driven conspiracy. As a fan, Bon’s vocal on the live version of Rosie tells the story.
In the Arden Street Bar (aka my garage), there are posters of AC/DC on the walls. I proudly wear AC/DC t-shirts, drink coffee from AC/DC mugs and shoot pool with an AC/DC cue. When I run, drive, write or ride the train to work, I listen to AC/DC. I have AC/DC books, DVDs and countless CDs and LPs.
So I’m a fan…
Recently, I discussed the conspiracy with Adam. He did what any fan would do and listened to both versions. A few weeks ago, in the Arden Street Bar, I put the live version of Rosie on. ‘Listen to the vocal,’ I said. ‘Bon doesn’t sound live.’
‘He doesn’t sound live because he’s not live,’ Adam said. ‘He’s in the studio.’
That’s what we think. We could be wrong.
If you’re a doubtful AC/DC fan, listen to If you want blood in its entirety. The difference in Bon’s vocal between Rosie and the rest of the songs is clear. If you’re still demurring, compare the studio and live version, particularly when Bon sings you could say she’s got it alllll. The vocal on both versions is suspiciously similar.
Despite my question at 14, the realisation Rosie may have been doctored doesn’t leave me feeling cheated. I’m beyond that.
Instead, I listen to the track, loving Bon’s voice and the energy he gave it. Wishing the vocal was used for Rosie on Let there be Rock, because it is better. Bon sings like he’s in love with Rosie.
A man who can sing like that, live or not, needs to be listened to.
The link below is the studio version of Whole Lotta Rosie:
This link below is the live version of Rosie:
For the guitar techs or recording studio engineers, the links below may help you understand the technicalities, but bear in mind, the embedded links and video do not work…
https://solodallas.com/acdcs-whole-lotta-rosie-from-live-album-if-you-want-blood-1978
https://solodallas.com/iywb-live-album-content-overdubs-and-studio-tricks
What a great read Matt!
And what a song. It’s an absolute belter – if you can’t listen to it loud then forget it, you won’t get it!
Which is my fave? That’s a hard one. If you had twins, which would you love more!
The IYWB version definitely starts better with Bon’s vocals. But the LTBR version has a longer smoking (literally) guitar solo.
If I could take Bon’s vocals from the start of the live* version and tack them to the start of the original, I’d give that a go.
But in the meantime, I’ll just listen to both versions, bloody loud and preferably, one after the other (as I’ve just done)!
Cheers Adam
RIP Bon, Mal and George.
Hey Matt, I have a query regarding your domain name.
Would be great if you could contact me:
finnianjkinsella@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/finn.kinsella.5
Cheers!
It’s certainly a tough job comparing them. But I’d almost say without a shadow of a doubt the “You can say she got it alllll!” is dubbed in from the album track.
