If You Want Blood You've Got It

If You Want Blood You've Got It
Live album by AC/DC
Released 13 October 1978 (Europe)
21 November 1978 (North America)
27 November 1978 (Australia & New Zealand)
Recorded 30 April 1978 at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland
Genre Hard rock, blues rock
Length 52:42
Label Atlantic Records
Producer Harry Vanda, George Young
AC/DC chronology
Powerage
(1978)Powerage1978		 If You Want Blood
(1978)		 Highway to Hell
(1979)Highway to Hell1979
Singles from If You Want Blood
  1. "Whole Lotta Rosie (Live)"
    Released: 1978
Music video
"If You Want Blood (You Got It)" on YouTube

If You Want Blood (You've Got it) is the first live album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, originally released in the UK and Europe on 13 October 1978, in the US on 21 November 1978, and in Australia on 27 November 1978. The album was re-released in 1994 on Atco Records and in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series.

Background

The album was released a mere six months after the band's previous studio album Powerage. Originally, a greatest hits package had been in the works called 12 of the Best but the project was scrapped in favor of a live album. It was recorded during the 1978 Powerage tour and contains songs from T.N.T., Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, and Powerage. It is the last Bon Scott-era AC/DC album produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, who also produced the band's first five studio releases. In his 1994 Bon Scott memoir Highway to Hell, author Clinton Walker observes, "Live albums, which tended to be double or triple sets in which songs short in their studio versions were stretched out into extended tedium, were for some reason popular in the seventies. If You Want Blood reversed this tradition...it boasted a blunt ten tracks and, allowing nothing extraneous, got straight to the point, that being raging AC/DC rock and roll."[1]

AC/DC's concert at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 April 1978 was used for the live tracks (it has never been confirmed if any other concert tracks from this tour are used also) that appeared on the album, as it can be clearly heard during "The Jack" Scott exclaiming "Any virgins in Glasgow?" as proof of some songs' concert location. This concert will also be remembered for the encore when AC/DC came back on stage dressed in the Scottish Football strip, paying homage to Scott's and the Young brothers' homeland. A song with the same title of "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" appeared on the next album, and the band's US album charts breakthrough, Highway to Hell.

The song "Dog Eat Dog" performed on the night was eventually removed from the album release, and the encore "Fling Thing/Rocker", was edited for the album, removing Fling Thing and cutting out the extended Angus guitar solo, as he does his now notable walk around the audience (with an early version of a wireless guitar lead). This part of the band's future concert theatrics would be replaced with the 1977 album title track "Let There Be Rock", as they haven't played the song "Rocker" more than a few times since the passing of Bon Scott in 1980. The live rendition of "Dog Eat Dog" from the concert was initially released as the B-side of the single Whole Lotta Rosie in November 1978, later that same year but only in Australia. It was later re-released worldwide in 2009 on the two (standard) & three (collectors) CD boxed set compilation Backtracks, featuring the Australian album only songs not released internationally at the time and the live B-Sides from their 7" & 12" singles over the years that are not easily found any more. The encore songs "Fling Thing" and "Rocker" (with its complete guitar solo) have appeared only on video footage of the concert by a Dutch TV station played at the time but were eventually released on the Family Jewels DVD.

According to the 2006 book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, the album title was an extension of Scott's response to a journalist at the Day on the Green festival in July 1978 who asked what they could expect from the band and Scott replied, "Blood." The cover art is from a shoot done with Atlantic Records' staff photographer Jim Houghton before a show at Boston's Paradise Theater, the idea for which came from Atlantic's art director, Bob Defrin.

Reception

In a 1992 interview with Metal Hammer at the time of the band's second live release, Malcolm Young admitted, "I personally still prefer the old album. We were young, fresh, vital and kicking ass." Greg Prato of AllMusic notes, "While most other rock bands of the era were busy experimenting with disco or creating studio-perfected epics, AC/DC was one of the few specializing in raw and bluesy hard rock, as evidenced by 1978's live set, If You Want Blood You've Got It."[2] Eduardo Rivadavia of Ultimate Classic Rock enthuses, "Other concert records may boast more songs, more Top 40 hits or even more crowd-pleasing gimmicks. But very few can challenge the sheer excitement and reckless abandon captured on AC/DC’s terrific concert document." The album was listed at #2 on Classic Rock magazine's readers' poll of "50 Greatest Live Albums Ever".[3]

Concert footage

The entire Glasgow concert was filmed but the complete footage has never been released. Eventually, "Riff Raff" and "Fling Thing/Rocker" segments were made available on the AC/DC Family Jewels DVD. Footage was also used on the "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" promotional clip also available in Family Jewels. Segments from the concert (the songs "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation", "Dog Eat Dog" and "Let There Be Rock") were made available on the DVD Plug Me In, released in 2007. The segment "Bad Boy Boogie" was included on the bonus disc on the three-disc edition of the DVD.

Track listing of the 1978 Album

All tracks written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Riff Raff" (from Powerage)5:59
2."Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be" (from Let There Be Rock)4:10
3."Bad Boy Boogie" (from Let There Be Rock)7:29
4."The Jack" (from T.N.T.)5:48
5."Problem Child" (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap)4:40
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Whole Lotta Rosie" (from Let There Be Rock)4:05
7."Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" (from Powerage)3:41
8."High Voltage" (from T.N.T.)5:05
9."Let There Be Rock" (from Let There Be Rock)8:33
10."Rocker" (from T.N.T.)3:24
Total length:52:44


Complete Concert from the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow 30 April 1978

All songs written by Young/Young/Scott except 'Fling Thing (Scottish trad.)

No.TitleLength
1."Riff Raff" 
2."Problem Child" 
3."Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be" 
4."Rock n Roll Damnation" 
5."Bad Boy Boogie" 
6."Dog Eat Dog" 
7."The Jack" 
8."High Voltage" 
9."Whole Lotta Rosie" 
10."Let There Be Rock" 
11."Fling Thing" 
12."Rocker" 
  • The song "Gimme A Bullet" was played during sound-check, according to the Official Apollo Theatre website setlist for the show.[4]
  • "Fling Thing" is the b-side to the original Australian only single of "Jailbreak", but is actually the traditional Scottish folk song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The band played it live in Australia and Scotland as a staple part of the encores in the early years, and is replayed on the 1991 album AC/DC Live 2 CD Collectors edition from the Glasgow concert on the Razors Edge World Tour (though this time it is just called "Bonny") and it was re-released in its original form, for the first time since 1976, on the Backtracks boxed set.
  • This version of "Fling Thing / Rocker (reprise)" - as it was the encore for the concert - is on the Family Jewels DVD, with some of the other songs from this concert, but the entire show has never been seen in its entirety since an original broadcast by a Dutch TV station around the same era.[5][6]
  • In South America the record was released with the record title and all song titles translated into Spanish, with sometimes funny results. Therefore, the record title is "Si Tu Quieres Sangre, La Conseguiste". Song titles became:
  1. Riff Raff
  2. El Infierno no es un mal lugar para estar (Hell ain't a bad place to be)
  3. Boogie del Muchacho Malo (Bad Boy Boogie)
  4. El Mozo (The Jack)
  5. Problema Infantil (Problem Child)
  6. Cuantas Cosas de Color de Rosa (Whole Lotta Rosie)
  7. Maldicion de Rock n Roll (Rock n Roll Damnation)
  8. Alto Voltaje (High Voltage)
  9. Deja que haya Rock (Let There be Rock)
  10. Rockero (Rocker)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic link
Blender link
The Rolling Stone Album Guide link

Personnel

Production

Charts

YearChartPeak Position
1978Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart
37
1978UK Pop Albums
13[7]

References

  1. ↑ "How AC/DC Elevated Their Career With the Live 'If You Want Blood, You've Got It'". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ "Rocklist.net...Steve Parker...Classic Rock Lists". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-02-24.
  4. ↑ "AC/DC at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland". glasgowapollo.com. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  5. ↑ "Glasgow Apollo / Who Played". www.glasgowapollo.com. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  6. ↑ Glasgow Apollo / The Apollo Years
  7. ↑ everyHit.com - UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts Archived 17 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  • Lyrics on AC/DC's official website
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