REVIEW: AC/DC, Bonfire (Elektra)
- Chris Candreva
AC/DC has released Bonfire, a 5 CD box set retrospective dedicated to their late singer Bon Scott. The set includes 3 CDs of live material, one of unreleased cuts and band picks, and a digitally remastered Back In Black, the first album released after Scott's passing.
The first and strongest disk contains an 8 song radio concert, recorded live at Atlantic Studios in New York. Possibly due to the time restrictions, this is a tight, high-energy show. The other two disks of live material are from Let There Be Rock (The Movie), recorded live in Paris. These contain drawn out sections that probably go great with the antics Bon was known for on stage. Without the visuals, things start to drag by the third disk.
Disc 4 , called Volts, contains five alternate lyrics, riffs and takes of well known songs, along with five favorite picks of the band ("Sin City", "She's Got Balls", "School Days", "It's a Long Way To The Top", and "Ride On"). No surprises here: AC/DC mixes and matches so much, you feel like you've heard these all before, and you probably have under a different title.
A twenty page biography of Bon Scott and AC/DC was included with our review copy. The final version is slated to include a collectors' reproduction of the original Back in Black artwork, Deluxe color book featuring many "rare and never seen" photos, and "A bunch of other goodies Bon would'be wanted you to have."
This set will most likely be appreciated by serious AC/DC fans, if only for the live material. However, the prohibitive cost of a 5 disc set may not be worth it to some followers of the band. Frankly, I would have liked to have seen this as a 3 CD set, or possibly 1 single CD of the Atlantic session, and a 2 disc set of the Paris show. Most anyone with a passing interest in AC/DC will already own Back In Black, and there was probably a good reason Bon rewrote those other tracks instead of releasing them as-is.
The printed material is by no means in-depth, but paints an honest picutre. Bon Scott liked booze, drugs, women, and rock-n-roll. He partied hard - and it killed him. No moralizing or posturing, this is what he was. Angus Young does admit, however "I think after Bon I felt horribly grown up in a way. When you're young you always think you're immortal and that time really spun me around."
There's no Beatles: Anthology newness here. It's AC/DC being AC/DC. If you want five discs worth of that, get it all in one box.
