AC/DC's Highway to Hell

<div>Released in 1979, AC/DC's <i>Highway To Hell</i> was the infamous last album recorded with singer Bon Scott, who died of alcohol poisoning in London in February of 1980.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Officially chalked up to "Death by Misadventure," Scott's demise has forever secured the album's reputation as a partying primer and a bible for lethal behavior, branding the album with the fun chaos of alcoholic excess and its flip side, early death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The best songs on <i>Highway To Hell</i> achieve Sonic Platonism, translating rock & roll's transcendent ideals in stomping, dual-guitar and eighth-note bass riffing, a Paleolithic drum bed, and insanely, recklessly odd but fun vocals. <br/><p class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Joe Bonomo strikes a three-chord essay on the power of adolescence, the durability of rock & roll fandom, and the transformative properties of memory. Why does <i>Highway To Hell</i> matter to anyone beyond non-ironic teenagers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Blending interviews, analysis, and memoir with a fan's perspective, <i>Highway To Hell</i> dramatizes and celebrates a timeless album that one critic said makes "disaster sound like the best fun in the world."</p></div>>

Joe Bonomo teaches in the English Department of Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America's Garage Band (Continuum 2007), and Installations (Penguin), a collection of prose poems. His personal essays and prose poems have appeared in numerous literary journals.