The video was uploaded to YouTube on May 24, 2010, and it amassed over 38 million views. It featured the band and the members of the Rats of Tobruk Pipe band on the back of a flatbed truck travelling on Swanston Street in Melbourne. The music video for "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)", was filmed on 23 February 1976 for the Australian music television program Countdown. Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, backing vocals.Subsequent (relatively rare) live performances employed a recording of the song's bagpipe track or an extended guitar solo by Angus Young. The last occasion was in 1976, following an incident where Scott set down the pipe-set at the corner of a stage during a concert at St Albans High School in St Albans, Victoria, Australia and they were destroyed by fans. Thus the song, though iconic of the band's early repertoire, was probably played live no more than 30 times. However, playing the song live was made difficult by the fact that the whole band would have to tune to the drone pipe. Nonetheless, Scott taught himself to play well enough to record and perform the song (initially with the help of tape loops). Simply putting the pipe-set together proved tricky, and it became apparent Scott had never played the instrument before, having in fact been a drummer in the aforementioned pipe band. Bassist Mark Evans would later muse that the amount “would have bought two Strats”. Scott left the studio that day and returned with a set of bagpipes purchased at a Park Street music store at what was an extortionately high price (AU$479) at the time. While jamming on new songs in the studio, co-producer George Young (the older brother of Angus and Malcolm) recalled that Bon Scott had once been in a pipe band and encouraged the band to experiment with incorporating bagpipes into the song. However, the band accepts these hardships as natural on the path to stardom, saying that "It's a long way to the top/If you wanna rock 'n' roll". The song chronicles the hardships endured by a rock band on tour, such as being robbed, assaulted, stoned and cheated by a greedy agent.
Problems playing this file? See media help. The second single of High Voltage demonstrates a combination of the bagpipes with more traditional rock instruments while the lyrics discuss the perils of being in a rock band. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" was ranked number 5. Brian Johnson, who replaced Scott as AC/DC's lead vocalist after Scott's death in 1980, does not perform it, out of respect for his predecessor.
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The full version of the song is also on the Volts CD of the Bonfire box set, released in 1997. The song is also the first track on the internationally released High Voltage (May 1976). The original recording is in B-flat major, but it was played live in A major. The song combines bagpipes with hard rock instrumentation in the middle section of the song there is a call and response between the bagpipes and guitar. It is the first track of the group's second album T.N.T., released only in Australia and New Zealand on 8 December 1975, and was written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott.
" It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. " It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)"