AC/DC ♫ Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap ♫ Rare 1976 Atlantic Records US Original LP
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AC/DC ♫ Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap ♫ Rare 1976 Atlantic Records US Original LP:
$19.99
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Dirty Deeds Done Dirt CheapArtwork, designed byHipgnosis, for international releases, also used for later Australian and New Zealand releasesStudio albumbyAC/DCReleased20 September 1976RecordedDecember 1975–March 1976 at Albert Studios in Sydney, AustraliaGenreHard rock,blues rock,rock and rollLength42:24(Australia)
39:59 (International)LabelAlbertProducerHarry Vanda,George YoungAC/DCchronologyHigh Voltage
(1976)Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
(1976)Let There Be Rock
(1977)Alternative cover artArtwork for early Australian and New Zealand releasesSinglesfromDirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
- \"Jailbreak\"
Released: 14 June 1976 (AUS)
August 1976 (UK) - \"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap\"
Released: 8 October 1976 - \"Love at First Feel\"
Released: 10 January 1977 - \"Ride On\"
Released: 1977
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheapis an album by Australianhard rockbandAC/DC. It was the band\'s third LP released inAustraliaand inEuropein 1976 but was not released in the US until 1981, more than one year after Bon Scott\'s death. It is considered by many fans as the strongest and most definitive album of the Bon Scott era. All songs were written byAngus Young,Malcolm YoungandBon Scott.
AC/DC began recording what would becomeDirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheapin January 1976 atAlbert StudioswithHarry VandaandGeorge Young(older brother of guitarists Malcolm and Angus) producing. In April, the band went on their first tour of the U.K. where \"It\'s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock \'n\' Roll)\" was released as a single. According to the bookAC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, Vanda and Young traveled to the U.K. to record several songs with the band at Vineland Studios for a scheduledEP, which was eventually scrapped. One of these songs, \"Love at First Feel,\" would surface on the internationalDirty Deedsrelease while the others, \"Carry Me Home\" and \"Dirty Eyes,\" would remain unreleased, the latter being reworked into \"Whole Lotta Rosie\" on 1977\'sLet There Be Rock. A song titled \"I\'m a Rebel\" was recorded at Maschener Studios as well with music and lyrics written by Angus and Malcolm Young\'s older brother,Alex Young.This song was never released by AC/DC and remains inAlbert Productions\' vaults. German bandAcceptlater released it as a single and named theirsecond albumafter the song. In September,High Voltagewas released in theUnited Statesbut, hampered by visa problems and a disinterestedAtlantic Recordslabel in the United States, the band returned to Australia to finish their third album.
CompositionThe title track would become one of the band\'s most famous songs, with the narrator inviting people experiencing problems to either call him on36-24-36, an actual phone number in Australia in the 1960s, or visit him at his home, at which point he will perform assorted unsavoury acts to resolve said problems. Situations in which he offers assistance include those involving lewd high school headmasters and significant others who are either adulterous or who persistently find fault with their partners. The term \"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap\" is an homage to the cartoonBeany and Cecil, which Angus watched when he was a child. One of the cartoon\'s characters was named Dishonest John, and carried abusiness cardthat read, \"Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Special rates for Sundays and holidays.\" In 1981, after the album was released in the U.S., Norman and Marilyn White ofLibertyville, Illinoisfiled a $250,000lawsuitinLake County, IllinoisCircuit Court againstAtlantic Recordsand its distributors because, they alleged, their telephone number was included in the song, resulting in hundreds of prank phone calls. Their attorney told theChicago Tribunethat the song\'s 36-24-36 digits were followed by what to his clients sounded like an \"8,\" thus creating the couple\'s phone number.
Another fan-favorite from the album is \"Ride On\". Atypically for an AC/DC song, it has a sad, slow blues feel and features Scott\'s reflective lyrics and restrained, soulful delivery. The lyrics concern a man ruminating on the mistakes he has made in a relationship while drinking. It has frequently been cited as one of AC/DC\'s best songs.The track is also significant for Angus Young\'s guitar solo. AC/DC biographer Murray Engleheart observes in his 2006 band memoir, \"Overall,Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheapwas rougher thanT.N.T.and highlighted the difficulties of recording between increasingly demanding touring commitments. Songs like \'Ain\'t No Fun,\' \'RIP,\' \'Jailbreak,\' and particularly the lonely resignation of \'Ride On,\' were almost character studies of Bon and had a sense of impatience...breaking free and just plain loneliness.\" \"Ride On\" was covered by the French bandTruston their self-titled 1979 debut album after supporting AC/DC inParis, France in the fall of 1978. Bon Scott jammed the song with Trust at Scorpio Sound Studios inLondon, England on February 13, 1980, six days before his death. A recording of it would later surface on theBon Scott Forever Volume 1bootleg. In an interview with Anthony O\'Grady ofRAMin August, 1976, Scott stated that \"Ride On\" was \"about a guy who gets pissed around by chicks...can\'t find what he wants.\" In the same 1976RAMinterview, Scott revealed that \"Squealer\" was about a sexual encounter with a virgin. In concert, Scott would often introduce \"Problem Child\" as being about Angus. \"Ain\'t No Fun (Waiting \'Round to be a Millionaire)\" is one of the few AC/DC songs that has cursing, with Scott shouting on the fade, \"Hey Howard, how ya doin\', my next door neighbour? Get your fuckin\' jumbo jet off my airport!\"
International releasesA modified international edition was released on Atlantic Records on 17 December 1976, but Atlantic Records in America rejected it, unhappy with its vocals and production. According to bassistMark Evans, the band\'s manager Michael Browning told him he assumed Bon Scott would be fired as a result.As biographer Murray Engleheart observes in his bookAC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, the band had not even toured the States yet, a market the band longed to conquer:
The tough rock acts only got what little airwave attention they did because they\'d built up a fanbase through years on the road. AC/DC hadn\'t had the opportunity to marshal troops through touring the U.S., and at the time there was no way something as raw and gritty asDirty Deedswas going to make it onto American radio playlists by itself. It was a brutally simplecatch-22...Americans were said to have trouble understanding Bon, and if the people working with the band couldn\'t make out the lyrics, how was his voice going to work on the all-important U.S. radio networks?
In hindsight, these concerns seem preposterous, considering that the LP, finally released in the States in March 1981, would go on to become the second highest-selling Bon Scott album and is considered one of the band\'s classics. However, the release was also poorly timed, considering that AC/DC had just successfully reinvented itself with a new singer,Brian Johnson. In the bookThe Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC, former London-based Senior Vice President of Atlantic RecordsPhil Carsontells band biographer Jesse Fink that the release ofDirty Deedswas \"one of the most crass decisions ever made by a record-company executive,\"blaming A&R man Doug Morris and his New York cohorts:
At the time, Doug\'s argument was purely financial.Back in Blackhad already sold over five million copies. Because of those numbers, Doug told meDirty Deedswould sell at least 2 million. I told him he was right about that, but that it would also create a new sales plateau for AC/DC...God knows how many albumsFor Those About to Rockwould have sold had Doug waited for that to come out.
Following the American success ofHighway to Hellin late 1979, copies of the album began to appear as imports in the US. Some of these imports were the original Australian edition on Albert Productions; however, Atlantic also pressed the international version in Australia, and many of these copies were also exported to the US. Strong demand for both import versions (in the wake of the even greater success ofBack in Black) eventually led the US division of Atlantic to finally authorize an official US release in April 1981, which went straight to #3 on the Billboard album charts. The international release does contain significant alterations from the original album, however, with \"Jailbreak\" (which had preceded the LP\'s release in Australia and the U.K.) and \"R.I.P. (Rock in Peace)\" jettisoned in favor of \"Rocker\" (from the 1975 Australian albumT.N.T.) and \"Love at First Feel.\" \"Jailbreak\" did not see a release in the United States, Canada, and Japan until October 1984 as part of the international\'74 JailbreakEP. Apromo-only single, with \"Show Business\" as its B-side, was released to radio stations in the US at the time. \"Love at First Feel\" is one of only two tracks from international AC/DC albums not available on the band\'s Australian albums (the other is \"Cold Hearted Man\", released on European pressings ofPowerage); however, \"Love at First Feel\" was released in Australia as asinglein January 1977, with \"Problem Child\" as itsB-side, which peaked in theKent Music ReportSingles Chart Top100.[14]The international release ofDirty Deedsalso contains \"Big Balls,\" one of the band\'s most infamous compositions, that finds Scott, a deceptively clever lyricist, usingdouble entendresby usingballroomandcostume partiesto obviously reference his owntesticles. AC/DC had mined this territory before on \"The Jack\" and would again later on songs like \"Given the Dog a Bone\", but \"Big Balls\" could be their funniest attempt at sexual innuendo, although the song was controversial in its day and drew the ire of some critics who mistook the band\'s sense of humor for crude perversity.Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheapalso led to more AC/DC appearances on Australia\'sCountdownmusic program, following those in support ofHigh VoltageandT.N.T.These appearances included a live performance of the album\'s title track, as well as amusic videofor \"Jailbreak\".
Two songs on the international album were edited from the full-length versions on the original Australian album. The full-length \"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap\" has the title of the song chanted four times, starting at 3:09, but on the edited version the chant is heard only twice. \"Ain\'t No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)\" lasted 7:29 on the Australian album but was faded out early to 6:57 on the international version. This means they trim off theChuck Berrylicks and title chanting to the end; however, both these full-length versions were restored on the 1994Atco Recordsremastered CD of the international album. The most recent 2003 CD edition byEpic Recordsgoes back to the edited versions, as originally on the 1976 and 1981 international vinyl editions. The uncut versions of both songs were released on the 2009 box setBacktracks. On the original version of \"Rocker\", included on the AustralianT.N.T.album, the song lasts 2:55 and cuts out abruptly as the guitar riff hits its peak. Conversely, all international editions of the \"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap\" album have a slightly shorter version where the song fades out at 2:50 before the cut. \"Squealer\" appears to be longer by thirteen seconds on the international version; this is due to it having a bumper of silence at the end, as it is the final track on the record. \"Ride On\" has a four-second difference (longer on the international version) which appears to be from a minor speed issue, although the last guitar slide can be heard better on the shorter Australian version.
ReceptionDirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheaphas been certified 6x platinum both in Australia and in the US, selling at least six million copies, becoming the third-highest selling album by AC/DC in the US afterHighway to Hell(7x platinum) andBack in Black(22x platinum).Allmusicgives the album five out of five stars and proclaims \"it captured the seething malevolence of Bon Scott...encouraged by the maniacal riffs of Angus and Malcolm Young\" and that there was a \"real sense of danger to this record.\"Greg Kot ofRolling Stonestates: \"The guitars of brothers Angus and Malcolm Young bark at each other, Phil Rudd swings the beat even as he\'s pulverizing his kick drum, and Scott brings the raunch \'n\' wail. The subject matter is standard-issue rock rebellion; Scott pauses only once to briefly contemplate the consequences of his night stalking in \"Ride On.\'\"
Track listingAustralianAll tracks written byAngus Young,Malcolm Young,Bon Scott.
Side oneNo.TitleLength1.\"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap\"4:132.\"Ain\'t No Fun (Waiting \'Round to Be a Millionaire)\"7:313.\"There\'s Gonna Be Some Rockin\'\"3:174.\"Problem Child\"5:44Side Balls\"2:383.\"R.I.P. (Rock in Peace)\"3:364.\"Ride On\"5:535.\"Jailbreak\"4:41AC/DC ♫ Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap ♫ Rare 1976 Atlantic Records US Original LP:
$19.99