POWER LOAD

If you lived in the USA in the second half of the 1970s—or, for that matter, in other parts of the world that aren’t Australia—then the AC/DC album pictured was most likely your first exposure to the Aussie rock legends.

The band’s debut was called High Voltage and was released in Australia in February 1975 on the Albert label. Confusingly, this international release was given the same name. Yet it is not the iconic LP with the dog lifting its leg on an electrical transformer. Nor is it the second Australian LP, T.N.T., released in December of that same busy year. This "other" High Voltage is mostly T.N.T. with a couple of tracks from the Australian debut subbed in. It went like this…

High Voltage (AUS, Albert 1975)

OUT: Everything except "Little Lover" and "She’s got balls"

T.N.T. (AUS, Albert 1975)

OUT: "Rocker", "School Days"

IN: Everything else.

The result was a hybrid album that for millions around the world was the AC/DC debut. Rolling Stone magazine hated it, dismissing the band as "gross-out champions," but fans loved the pants off it. Though a slow starter it eventually notched up over 3 million sales. Not too shabby.

High Voltage (USA, Atco 1976) has the following tracks:

Side 1

It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)

Rock ’n' Roll Singer

The Jack

Live Wire

Side 2

T.N.T.

Can I Sit Next To You Girl

Little Lover

She’s Got Balls

High Voltage

Any album opening with "It’s A Long Way To The Top" is gonna be a blast, and this certainly is. A burst of sun-grilled rock and roll that explodes with energy half a century later. From the moment an electric guitar starts up a riff in the left channel and another chucks in an invitational fill on the right, you know that whatever this LP lacks in sophistication it makes up for in sheer bare-faced cheek. When the bagpipes kick in at 1:23 it is so demented and perfect you’ll find yourself dancing down to your local Sharpie-shop in a sausage roll-hunting daze, totally surrendering to Acca Dacca’s electric boogie. "Rock ’n’ Roll Singer" lays out the band’s mission, and if it owes some DNA to the Easybeats "Good Times", well that’s just the Young family genes kicking in.

Well, you can stick your nine-to-five livin'

And your collar and your tie

You can stick your moral standards

'Cause it's all a dirty lie

You can stick your golden handshake

And you can stick your silly rules

And all the other shit that you teach to kids in school

'Cos I ain’t no fool

You want sleaze? You got it. "The Jack" oozes debauchery but notes some of the unfortunate consequences, while "She’s got Balls" suggests Bon’s partner is a force to be reckoned with no matter what the calisthenics are involved.

Side two explodes with "T.N.T." squirting tomato sauce all over the blues meat pie of boastful male sausage swinging. AC/DC’s records became better produced and much heavier in terms of sonic density, but they certainly never got more fun.

T.N.T. I’m a power load

T.N.T. Watch me explode!

The LP closes with "High Voltage" and you wouldn’t have it any other way. A killer riff that settles into their trademark boogie, it doesn’t have many words and doesn’t need 'em. It’s  all in the title, friends. AC/DC play high voltage rock ’n' roll. Flick the switch.

© Bruce Jenkins—October 2025