Touch Too Much Walk All Over You Ride On ACDC

Touch Too Much Album: Highway To Hell (1979)
Walk All Over You Album: Highway To Hell (1979)
Ride On Album: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976)
by AC/DC

Touch Too Much is about the dangers of excess, which the band was quite familiar with. They were notorious for their wild parties, girls, and drinking. Lead singer Bon Scott drank himself to death six months after this was released.

Touch Too Much was released as a single. It became just the second AC/DC song to chart in the UK, following "Rock 'N' Roll Damnation," which made #24.

Bon Scott's last performance was when he lip-synched Touch Too Much when the band performed it on Top of the Pops, a popular British music show. The show aired February 7, 1980; Scott died 12 days later.

Considering how many of their songs are about drinking, it is surprising that AC/DC guitarist Angus Young didn't touch the stuff. When he was young, a bad encounter with Bond 7 Australian whiskey turned him off from alcohol.

Brian Johnson never sang this one live. The last time the band performed it in concert with Bon Scott was on December 14, 1979 in Nice, France. The next time the band played it in concert was on May 22, 2016 during their concert in Prague, Czech Republic, with Axl Rose singing lead. The Guns N' Roses frontman toured with the band because Johnson was at risk for total hearing loss if he played large venues.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Side 2 Track 8 "Ride On".

Dirty Deeds originally was released only in Europe, Australia and New Zealand in 1976. The album was not released in the United States until 1981, more than one year after lead singer Bon Scott's death. This was also AC/DC's first album in its entirety to be recorded with the same lineup, rather than including at least one track recorded with a different bassist or drummer.

AC/DC began recording Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap in December 1975 at Albert Studios with Harry Vanda and George Young (elder brother of guitarists Malcolm and Angus) producing. In April 1976, the band went on their first tour of the UK, where "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" was released as a single. According to the book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, Vanda and Young travelled to the UK to record several songs with the band at Vineland Studios for a scheduled EP, which was eventually scrapped. "Carry Me Home" later appeared in 1977 as a B-side to "Dog Eat Dog", while "Dirty Eyes" remained unreleased and was later reworked into "Whole Lotta Rosie" for 1977's Let There Be Rock. Only "Love at First Feel" was used for Dirty Deeds, but not for the Australian release. A song titled "I'm a Rebel" was recorded at Maschener Studios as well, with music and lyrics written by another elder Young brother, Alex Young. This song was never released by AC/DC, and remains in Albert Productions' vaults. German band Accept later released it as a single, and named their second album after it. High Voltage was released in the United States in 1976. However, hampered by visa problems and a lack of interest from Atlantic Records in the US, the band returned to Australia to finish their third album.

Also according to AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, years later, Stephen King convinced the band to do the soundtrack for his film Maximum Overdrive (the soundtrack released as Who Made Who) by putting "Ain't No Fun" on the record player and singing along to the entire song line-for-line in order to prove how much of a fan he was of their music.

A fan favorite from the album is "Ride On". Atypically for an AC/DC song, it has a sad, slow blues feel and features Bon Scott's reflective lyrics and restrained, soulful delivery. The lyrics concern a man remembering the mistakes he has made in a relationship while drinking. It has frequently been cited as one of AC/DC's best songs. The track is also significant for Angus Young's guitar solo.

AC/DC biographer Murray Engleheart observes in his 2006 band memoir: "Overall, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was rougher than T.N.T. and highlighted the difficulties of recording between increasingly demanding touring commitments. Songs like 'Ain't No Fun,' 'RIP,' 'Jailbreak,' and particularly the lonely resignation of 'Ride On,' were almost character studies of Bon and had a sense of impatience...breaking free and just plain loneliness."

"Ride On" was covered by the French band Trust on their self-titled 1979 debut album, after they supported AC/DC live in Paris in the autumn of 1978. Scott jammed the song with Trust at Scorpio Sound Studios in London on 13 February 1980, six days before his death in that city. A recording of this later surfaced on the Bon Scott Forever Volume 1 bootleg. In an interview with Anthony O'Grady of RAM in August 1976, Scott stated that "Ride On" was "about a guy who gets pissed around by chicks...can't find what he wants." In the same 1976 RAM interview, Scott revealed that "Squealer" was about a sexual encounter with a virgin. In concert, Scott would often introduce "Problem Child" as being about Angus.