Review Summary: AC/DC comes back swinging with a good enough album packed with power chords, furious drumming, groovy basslines, and a thunderous singer, yet lacks what the previous release had.
After two (or three counting the international
"High Voltage"), hard rock band
AC/DC began work on their third album
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" in December of 1975 at Albert Studios. The album was, according to Malcolm and Angus Young in concept based as a Bogartian mystery scenario, backed by Dave Rubin who states in his book
Inside Rock Guitar: Four Decades of The Greatest Electric Rock Guitarists that Bogart's movies were an inspiration to this album.
This album would not release until 1981 in the U.S due to Atlantic Records' dissatisfaction with it, which was a year after Bon Scott's death. This album already finds the band embracing the Hard Rock sound blueprint they work best with; Bon Scott howls the rebellion and raunch of a typical AC/DC album here only contemplating once on fan-favorite
"Ride On", the guitars of Angus and Malcolm rip at one another blasting out volts of high voltage electricity with each hard-hitting Riff, and Phil Rudd beats the hell out of his kick drum and swings the beat.
The previous album saw the band embrace the strengths that mark them upon Rock's legendary pedestal but here the band starts to slip a bit. The production is still quite raw yet fits very well with what the band was going for at the time and sounds quite good allowing you to absorb every last bit of those sweet guitar riffs and amazing swinging drumbeat of Phil Rudd, as Bon's vocals are clear and in your ear. But the lyricism on this album is a noticeable step down from what came before, as Bon struggles on some songs.
The title track has slithered it's way into rocks most known songs of the genre and one of the band's most known songs, and it definitely deserves it, it's amazing. The narrator urges people with problems to call him on 36-24-36, or to visit him at his home to perform Dirty acts to resolve them. The term itself is a homage to Beany and Cecil, and a business card on the show was what inspired Scott to write the lyrics. Featuring a catchy chorus, and dirty mean, mighty unclean lyrics of a hitman promoting his budget services to girls, while taking use of names of previous songs off the previous album in neat references to them. A funny incident was in 1981 after the album released in the U.S, Norman and Marilyn White filed a lawsuit due to them alleging their number was in the song resulting in hundreds of prank calls, as people misheard the "36-24-36- HEY!" as "Eight".
The next song that follows is the best on the album,
"Ain't No Fun (Waiting Round To Be A Millionaire)" which has some of Bon's best lyrics to date and a blues-infused guitar riff from Malcolm and vocal style by Scott. The song in itself chronicles the life of an ordinary man joining a Rock N Roll band and lamenting the hardships while declaring that no matter how rough the ride is, he won't stop. The lyricism here is great and let's us in on the greatness of Bon's storytelling, the drumbeat is explosive and in-your-face as Phil swings and pulverizes his kickdrum.
Unfortunately; the album loses a bit of steam on the next track, this song being
"There's Gonna Be Some Rockin'" with a chorus that's extremely repetitive and gets stuck in your head in a bad way due to the short verses of simplistic pop rhyme scheme and the song itself doesn't have much of a direction. It's pure filler and the instrumental has the guitars sounding blank and repetitive, melody stolen from
"The Seventh Son" by Willie Dixon
The next song is the concert staple
"Problem Child" which Scott would introduce as being a song he wrote about Angus. A bad boy anthem that oozes with pure rebellion, The guitar riff here is extremely memorable and a great example of Angus' guitar solo skills. Malcolm's rhythm work is filled with fury and Rudd's drumming as menacing as ever. While
"Squealer" opens side two with a bang, instrumentally a rework of
"Soul Stripper" from the band's debut album, the bassline is funk-based and showcases Mark Evans' talent at the instrument, complete with soft vocals from Bon Scott as he describes the fantasy of taking the virginity of a virgin, oozing with sleaze and booze and before tearing through the speakers, and one of Angus' best solos to date. The bassline from Evans perfectly showing the band is more than capable of just doing plain hard rock.
"Big Balls" is a decent track upon the first few listens with classic Scott double entendre but in all honesty isn't that clever lyrically, using the most basic of double meanings and not really disguising the sexual bravado of the song. It disrupts the flow of the album overall, and breaks you out of the engagement. The riff is repetitive, the more listens the more irritating it gets. While
"R.I.P. (Rock In Peace)" is not much better using a, once again, repetitive chorus that takes up most of the song and the verses not having much substance to them. The guitar work here is trying to go for a 50s-esque rocker yet fails greatly and is just boring and long and drawn out, cutting this song wouldn't affect much and thankfully on the international release, they did so.
Luckily the band swoops in and saves us with
"Ride On". a fan-favorite and a song that's widely recognized as being among the bands best, it is a blues ballad about a ruined relationship from alcoholic issues, featuring a beautiful slow blues guitar lick from Malcolm, and a soft solo done on electric guitar by Angus. The lyricism is genius here, comparing it to being with a "One way ticket", and going the wrong way with it, using traffic references and being stuck in a red-light nightmare as if you are stuck in one place due to your own actions that leave you standing there, despite trying to change making the same old mistakes.
The Australian version ends with
"Jailbreak" which uses the melody of traditional song
"Gloria", featuring a bridge where, like a work of art, Angus' guitar mimics sirens and gunshots when Bon sings those parts (Spotlights! Sirens! Rifles Firin'!), and Phil mimicking the sound of a heartbeat as Bon details the criminals heartbeat racing in a tale of breaking out of jail. The music video features the band as cops and inmates, featuring some of the earliest use of explosions in a music video. This song encapsulates some genius storytelling lyrics and use of suspense in the bridge from Bon! Mark Evan's bassline here is deliciously funky and full of groove. While the international version has
"Rocker" and
"Love at First Feel" both of which are alright songs.
This album isn't as good as the previous release, and isn't a outstanding album overall, but it's worth noting that this is their third best-selling album of the bands discography, and despite being quite inconsistent and uneven, is still a good record. And I'm sure Hard Rock fans will find some enjoyment.
Rating: 3/5
