Monday, July 18, 2011

You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC

While I am not the biggest fan of AC/DC (or this song for that matter; way overplayed), You Shook Me All Night Long does bring back a certain fond memory. When I was 15-16 years old, we used to go to place called Bailey's which for most of the week was a regular bar, but on one night, there was an under 18 night. Back then I had longer hair and wore the skin tight jeans with my leather jacket (it was the late 80's after all). I didn't drive, so my older friend Brian would get us there before it opened so we could get in the line and wait to get in. If you got there too late you did not get in. Once we were in we staked out a table and threw our stuff down and waited for the girls to fill in. The other thing that my older friend could get was beer so there several times we went there already buzzed up. Within an hour, the entire place was packed and things started to heat up. You heard the same songs every week but we didn't care, we thought we were cool for being in a bar. The place got so hot, all the mirrors on the wall fogged up and you would sweat like a pig. But the highlight of the night for us headbangers was when they placed You Shook Me All Night Long. It was one of only a handful of rock tunes they played all night and Brian and I would go up to the top part of the dancing stage and head bang with our mullets (oh yeah). There were usually only about 8-10 of us that did this so it was our little time to shine. Everyone else used it as a reason to take a break. By the end of the song my neck hurt pretty bad and took a few days to recover from but it was all worth it. We had a lot of fun at that place. It was one of only 2 places where teens could go to dance and have fun. It was eventually closed and was torn down to be replaced by a strip mall that does not fit in that space. 

Do you have any memories for this song? Please let me know.

6 comments:

  1. I agree that this song was way over played. Some of my friends would always play this song and I got so sick of it. I told them if they played it one more time I was going to break the album on them. They would play that because they thought the group was number one. I told them to get a life that is not the best group. So the next time I went to see them I brought my Rush and Zeppelin and told them to play this. I told them these groups are a hell of a lot better.

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  2. We had a lot of fun while there with that song. But if I ever hear on the radio (which seems like all the time), I turn it off quickly. I could not agree more about Rush and Zeppelin, way freaking better. AC/DC has its place, but it is not very high on my list. Thanks.

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  3. I agree with Tender Heart with the fact the tune was a bit overplayed. Then again, at the time it was the only tune from AC/DC I even liked. Admittedly, I hated AC/DC vehemently at first, casting them off as KISS rejects for being simple and crude.

    Years later, slowly and assuredly I've finally accepted AC/DC's classic rock status and started to like them a bit. Some tunes like "It's a Long Way to the Top (if You Want Rock n Roll) started to rock my world. But still today, I can't stomach some of their tunes.

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  4. drewzepmeister, I went through a VERY small AC/DC phase when I was ~15-16. That was it. Once I started playing drums I just thought they were the most boring thing in the world compared to the likes of Deep Purple and Zeppelin. I still like a few of their tunes (Ride On, For Those About... and one of my favorites: Let's Get It Up) For the most part each song sounds the same. In all fairness, they do seem put on a pretty good show from what I have seen in videos. But I would not pay to go see them. Thanks.

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  5. For some reason I always associate this song with KISS's Rock and Roll All Night. To me the 2 songs just kind of go together (kind of like Queen's We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You).

    The song is fun and catchy, but yes way overplayed. I prefer Bon Scott era AC/DC but much of that didn't get released stateside until after Scott had died and AC/DC had made it big with Brian Johnson.

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  6. You have a good point, those 2 songs do kind of go together don't they... One thing I find funny is that over the years I have found that I can actually sing Bon Scott songs decently but Brian Johnson songs, not so much. I do a mean Big Balls with the accent and everything. When I do listen to AC/DC (which admittedly isn't very often), I too gravitate toward the Bon Scott stuff (love singing Ride On).

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