but this is a good record. It's dynamic. "Dirty Deeds" & "Ride On" are my favorites. AC/DC [like most bands] was better when they were young. Bon Scott had a firmer grasp on the human condition than Brian Johnson, though both wrote a lot of songs about poon, ballzzz, getting drunk, & not being nice all the time. Back in Black and DDDDC are the only AC/DC records I can listen to... both have just enough soul and hooks to keep me interested. DDDDC is Angus's best work.

The original version of this brilliant album came out in Australia in 1976. I was just a nipper living in Melbourne Australia, where AC/DC were based at the time, when i first heard this album. I use to see and hear AC/DC alot on music shows like Countdown and even in the news as they were causing a furore in Australia. They were not a punk band and they never will be a punk band but i can see why, at the time this album came out, that they were mistaken for being a punk band. This album is raw and dirty rock`n`roll at its best and some songs were banned from the radio down here (Big Balls, Ain`t no fun). Believe it or not but the same outrage that the Sex Pistols were causing in England, AC/DC was causing the same outrage here in Australia. They were making headlines in our mainstream media like "the dirtiest group in town" and a headline from a newspaper from 1975 saying "Australia has punk bands too." Yes, from 1975. The band would travel from town to town in Country Victoria only to be met with protests from outraged parents not wanting them to play in they town. They had the media and police constanly follow them. And many complaints were called into television staions when AC/DC were aired. Despite all this the Australians loved them and AC/DC soon became a monster in Australia. They out grew this country and the whole world deserved to see and hear this talent from Australia. Unfortunately some mindless idiot/s from their American record label, Atlantic, didn`t like this classic album and they decided not to release it. Had this album been released in America when it first came out AC/DC`s success would have come alot sooner than 1979 (highway to hell), and maybe Bon might still be alive today as the band had to then work alot harder and longer to obtain their world wide success. This would have obviously cause alot of strain and stress on Bon and the band. Bon, i think, needed a bit of a break after the highway to hell tour to sort out his problems. But, unfortunately, the music industry, especially in America, is a tough market to crack and they want up and coming bands to constantly work towards their success. This version of Dirty Deeds is different to the Australian version. For some reason this version hasn`t got "Jailbreak" on it and Jailbeak`s arguably AC/DC`s best song. There is a different song on this release too, a song called "love at first feel" which was only released as a single here in Australia. Love at first feel wasn`t even recorded at the dirty deeds session. It was recorded, along with about 4 other songs, in between dirty deeds and Let there be Rock. Hopefully these songs will one day see the light of day. Some already have. Another song recorded from this love at first feel session was called Carry me Home and only ended up on the b-side of the single Dog Eat Dog, and only released in Australia. It`s a great song too so hopefully it will see the light of day again. Dirty Deeds is, i think one of AC/DC`s best album. It has everything an AC/DC fan loves. Loud chunky guitars, great guitar solos, brilliant and very clever lyrics by Bon (Big Balls comes to mind) and even something a bit different, a ballad called Ride on which is up there as one of AC/DC`s top ten best songs. Long live Bon Scott and long live AC/DC.

One thing that is great about Dirty Deeds and AC/DC in their early years is that they seemed more willing to try new things and most of the time it worked. The main reason I like this one the best is because not many(maybe 2) of the songs sound the same and they are all great. A little history here: thre original realease from 1976 contained only 7 of the 9 songs here while "Rocker" and "Love At First Feel" were not. "Rocker" ws from TNT and "Love At First Feel" was a studio leftover. They replaced "Jailbreak" and "R.I.P(Rock In Peace)" but with the later two on the album it is by far the best one. Oh, one more thing, its filled with the darkest stuff Bon Scott wrote.

4 and a HALF stars

"A CUSTOMER" pretty much hit the nail on the head, very good review. I would only like to add that the start of the editorial review is an insult: "While Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap sounds like every other AC/DC album..." yes there is some merit in this review but not a lot. This album does stand out as one of AC/DC's best ever for a few reasons:

Bon Scott is definitely the master of AC/DC legacy and Brian does not compare despite the great debut Back in Black. So, what work makes this stand out?

Bon started to mature as did the whole band and began to actually set themselves apart as having some diversity in their song writing and sound on this effort. While "A CUSTOMER" pretty much gave a great song for song review simply and straight the fact remains this album has NOTABLE distinction from song to song unlike their debut High Voltage which is raunchy and fun it is very sophomoric in not just the ridiculously misogynistic lyrics but also basic raunchy hard rock riffs that accompany them.

Dirty Deeds stands out as a great leap for the band in many ways for me; they have great memorable songs on this album even if not as well know today as they were 20 years ago but they are all distinctly different lyrically and musically even if Bon was still the overly macho man and often sexist-pig persona this was part of his act and he was living up to his image of a larger than life rock star and this never changed until the day he died. Nonetheless with the exception of the giant lyrical wart "Big Balls" which is not a bad song musically but certainly the worst on the album and maybe of the Bon Scott era but there are songs that have punch, emotion and more than anything a song that to me shows what AC/DC could have been had Bon lived longer on what to me is possibly their best (or at least most unique) song ever RIDE ON which is worth the money alone. Angus is a great guitar player and often overlooked as such but listen to this song and while the simplicity in musicianship is apparent so is the depth of emotion in his playing on this unmistakable blues song that is a huge departure from anything they ever did. Anytime anyone tells me AC/DC never did anything worthwhile I play this song for them which still gives me chills today and has since the first time I really listened to it after I started to play guitar myself and appreciate diversity in music as a mid-teen.

There are other great songs too making this the #1 AC/DC I would recommend to anyone curious or just wanting to get acquainted with the REAL AC/DC.

Long live the larger than life rocker Bon Scott who I loved growing up (even though I was six when this album was released)...Ride On Bon!

I used to own this title on cassette, years ago. The other week I bought a new cd for $10 and after listening to it, I was wondering why it didn't seem the great album I remembered it being. Having just looked up this album on Wikipedia, I now know the reason...one of the all time great AC/DC songs, "Jailbreak" is NOT on the US version of this album that I have. If those interfering American suits hadn't meddled with the track listing, and the cover art, this would be up there with the best albums by the band.

Anyway, without "Jailbreak" it's still a pretty solid, if now unspectacular album. It comes with a little booklet which includes the nice, original cartoon artwork for the cover of the album and some notes by a critic of some sort. He mentions that it was released in the US in the wake of the mega success of AC/DC's "Back in black" album, which was released after the lead singer from this album, Bon Scott, died in unfortunate circumstances. It apparently charted higher than "Back in black"...reaching #3 in the US albums chart, compared to #4 for "Back in black". In my opinion, "Back in black" would be a contender for the greatest pop/rock album of all time, and it is the second biggest selling album of all time, with over 40 million units sold so far, and still counting.

The songs I like best from this album are:

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap: a classic track with a classic riff. Bon is in his "bad boy" persona, lyrics wise. He'd have you believe he's the guy to call if you want somebody out of the way. Has some very nice fretwork by lead guitarist Angus Young and Bon lets out a great roar at the end of the song.

Big balls: this song makes me laugh out loud. It's really the kind of song a school-boy would write and it shows Bon at his cheeky best, lyrics and performance wise. Vocally, he puts on the dog-displaying a cheesy, upper-class English accent. Good sing along lyrics. The other week I reviewed an album by US band Moldy Peaches. They too could write funny, school-boy humoured lyrics.

Ride on: an extremely rare foray into a slower tempo style. It's a true blues song, lyrics wise, I think. Has a nice, gentle strumming guitar sound, for the most part. Angus provides a bluesy lead guitar part at times.

Squealer: listening to this song a second time, it's actually grown on me as a song. This is another rare AC/DC song in that it has a noticeable bass guitar throughout that is often the star of the song. Features teen-age boy type lyrics, again, a tight rhythm section, good lead guitar from Angus Young, a nice rock groove and the kind of blokey backing vocals you expect from this band.

Those are the songs that do it most for me from this album, though the following tracks are not without interest:

Ain't no fun (waiting around to be a millionaire): the intro presages some latter work by this band, it seems to me (e.g. "You shook me all night long")

There's gonna be some rockin': bluesy rock'n'roll. Reminded me of Status Quo, re guitar work/sound. "Rocker", like this song, also has a 50's rock'n'roll feel. That song also features on their album "T.N.T" which I reviewed here a few weeks back.

Problem child: another example of Bon in "bad boy" mode. Angus shows some fancy singer work on the fretboard and gives the guitar an organ like sound...not unlike, say, Ray Manzarek of The Doors.

Really, I can't understand why the American 'suits' thought that they knew better than the band when it came to track listings on band...or cover art for that matter. The great Australian pop/rock band Mondo Rock also had the same problem, but worse, with American suits: their all time classic song "No time" was butchered by the suits...they cut out the awesome chant at the start of the song. That's like cutting out the heavy guitar sound at the end of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" or Metallica's "Fade to black". Just plain crazy.

Now that I know that the track listing has been messed with, I feel a bit ripped off with this album...where the Hell am I gonna get a good album with "Jailbreak" on it now? Anyway, if you like classic AC/DC (this band are the Kings or riff based rock), Status Quo, or bluesy, boogie hard rock and rock'n'roll, you'll like this album.

Would have given this album a good 8/10, but now it's just a 7/10.