19 Songs From When I Was 19: Highway to Hell (#18)

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The allergist gave me some medication that has really busted through the allergy issues. Hooray! With marginally improving sinuses I present to you another song that was popular when I was 19. And, ya know, you’re still listening to it! #18: Highway to Hell - AC/DC One of the fundamentalists’ favorites to rag on. It ranks right up there with “Hotel California” (“Hell is the only place I know you can check out of but never leave,” one scare-tactic minister wrote....obviously he’s never lived ). Let’s all say it together, kids: “Metaphor.” There’s a quote on Picky Wedia about this song from Angus Young: “When you’re sleeping with the singer’s socks two inches from your nose, that’s pretty close to hell.” Well, yeah. We think of every musician on tour in terms of Led Zeppelin with their private planes, limos, renting out entire hotels (and paying when the hotel gets trashed). No. Most touring musicians don’t rate that highly. I have a friend who toured in an old car that was so overloaded that, when I took him on a tour of the music spots in Cincinnati, we had to go in my car. Other friends toured extensively in their car, just a guitar and a mandolin. And forget that stack of guitars on the side of the stage with a group of roadies to hand off between songs. I did a countdown of my favorite songs about touring musicians. A lot of them are not happy tunes. It isn’t a happy life for the vast majority of the musicians out there. Lead singer Bon Scott lived this a little too literally: just over six months after this album came out, he was dead. He never got to see AC/DC’s trip “to the promised land” of superstardom. Highway to Hell Written by Angus Young, Bon Scott, and Malcolm Young Recorded by AC/DC From Highway to Hell, 1979 Livin’ easy: