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Post by Admin on Nov 18, 2017 19:00:54 GMT
Malcolm Young, guitarist and co-founder of AC/DC, died Saturday at the age of 64. Young had been suffering with dementia for the past three years, an illness that forced his retirement from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band he founded with his brother Angus Young in 1973. "Today it is with deep heartfelt sadness that AC/DC has to announce the passing of Malcolm Young," AC/DC wrote in a statement. "Malcolm, along with Angus, was the founder and creator of AC/DC. With enormous dedication and commitment he was the driving force behind the band. As a guitarist, songwriter and visionary he was a perfectionist and a unique man. He always stuck to his guns and did and said exactly what he wanted. He took great pride in all that he endeavored. His loyalty to the fans was unsurpassed." Angus Young added, "As his brother it is hard to express in words what he has meant to me during my life, the bond we had was unique and very special. He leaves behind an enormous legacy that will live on forever. Malcolm, job well done."
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Post by Admin on Nov 19, 2017 19:05:20 GMT
Malcolm, who founded AC/DC with his younger brother Angus, in 1973, died on Saturday at the age of sixty-four, succumbing to the dementia that had first manifested nearly a decade ago. He had not performed with the band since 2014, when the condition became so disabling that he was no longer able to play the immaculate hard-rock songs he had helped to write. (His nephew Stevie Young replaced him on the road.) Malcolm’s passing comes a month after the death of his older brother George, a member of the nineteen-sixties Australian hitmaker the Easybeats. In addition to mentoring Malcolm and Angus in the art of songwriting, George helped foster in them a distrust of the business side of the music industry. AC/DC was a notoriously insular family enterprise, one whose inner workings often seemed veiled and capricious. But there is no questioning the brilliance of the formula that George and his longtime songwriting partner, Harry Vanda, helped nurture in Malcolm and Angus: a rigorous fidelity to the musical tradition established by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, coupled with the volume and propulsive force of hard rock. The hybrid resulted in sales of more than two hundred million albums and a decades-long career as a top-grossing live act. Many bands tried to emulate AC/DC; few came close to equalling them, in part because few could match the sheer musicianship that the Youngs brought to the task. “It’s harder than it looks,” sang Bon Scott in “It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll),” and the Youngs always made it look easy. For his part, Malcolm saw the members of the Rolling Stones as his only true peers. Mark Evans, who played bass for AC/DC in the nineteen-seventies, once wrote that Malcolm was “the driven one . . . the planner, the schemer, the ‘behind the scenes guy,’ ruthless and astute.” There was a dogged consistency to AC/DC’s songwriting, which stemmed directly from Malcolm’s stated unwillingness to change. This spared the band’s fans from having to put up with the experiments that other groups engaged in—collaborations with classical musicians, or investigations of music from other cultures. You knew what to expect, and AC/DC always delivered. But, as the members of the group aged (with Brian Johnson replacing Scott as vocalist), the roguish, rebellious songs that formed the core of their legacy—songs with titles such as “Problem Child,” “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be,” “Riff Raff,” and “You Shook Me All Night Long”—came to seem more and more removed from the graying men who sang them.
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