If You Want Blood You've Got It

If You Want Blood You've Got It (written as just If You Want Blood) is the first live album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, and their only live album with Bon Scott as lead vocalist. It was originally released in the UK and Europe on 13 October 1978, in the US on 21 November 1978, and in Australia on 27 November 1978. The album was re-released in 1994 on Atco Records and in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series.

If You Want Blood You've Got It
Live album by AC/DC
Released	13 October 1978
Recorded	30 April 1978
Venue	Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland
Genre	Hard rock, blues rock
Length	52:42
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer	Harry Vanda, George Young
AC/DC chronology
Powerage (1978) If You Want Blood You've Got It (1978) Highway to Hell (1979)
Singles from If You Want Blood
"Whole Lotta Rosie (Live)" Released: 1978
Music video
"If You Want Blood (You Got It)" on YouTube

Background

The album was released six months after the band's previous studio album Powerage. Originally, a greatest hits package had been in the works called 12 of the Best but the project was scrapped in favour of a live album. It was recorded during the 1978 Powerage tour and contains songs from T.N.T., Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, and Powerage. It is the last Bon Scott-era AC/DC album produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, who also produced the band's first five studio releases. In his 1994 Bon Scott memoir Highway to Hell, author Clinton Walker observes, "Live albums, which tended to be double or triple sets in which songs short in their studio versions were stretched out into extended tedium, were for some reason popular in the seventies. If You Want Blood reversed this tradition... it boasted a blunt ten tracks and, allowing nothing extraneous, got straight to the point, that being raging AC/DC rock and roll."[1]

AC/DC's concert at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 April 1978 was used for the live tracks, and it has never been confirmed if any other concert tracks from this tour were also used. This concert will also be remembered for the encore when AC/DC came back on stage dressed in the Scottish Football strip, paying homage to Scott's and the Young brothers' homeland. A song with the same title of "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" appeared on the next album, and the band's US album chart breakthrough, Highway to Hell.

The song "Dog Eat Dog" performed on the night was eventually removed from the album release, and the encore "Fling Thing/Rocker", was edited for the album, removing "Fling Thing" and cutting out the extended Angus guitar solo, as he did a walk around the audience (with an early version of a wireless guitar lead). This part of the band's future concert theatrics was later replaced with "Let There Be Rock", as "Rocker" has not been performed more than a few times since the passing of Bon Scott in 1980. The live rendition of "Dog Eat Dog" from the concert was initially released as the B-side of the single "Whole Lotta Rosie" in November 1978, but only in Australia. It was later re-released worldwide in 2009 on the two (standard) and three (collectors) CD boxed set compilation Backtracks, featuring the Australian album only songs not released internationally at the time, and the live B-Sides from some 7" and 12" singles. The encore songs "Fling Thing" and "Rocker" (with its complete guitar solo) have appeared only on video footage of the concert by a Dutch TV station played at the time but were eventually released on the Family Jewels DVD.

According to the 2006 book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, the album title was an extension of Scott's response to a journalist at the Day on the Green festival in July 1978 who asked what they could expect from the band and Scott replied, "Blood." The cover art is from a shoot done with Atlantic Records' staff photographer Jim Houghton before a show at Boston's Paradise Theater, the idea for which came from Atlantic's art director, Bob Defrin.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Blender	[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[4]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	5/10[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[6]

The album is often considered to be one of the greatest live albums of all time. In a 1992 interview with Metal Hammer at the time of the band's second live release, Malcolm Young admitted, "I personally still prefer the old album. We were young, fresh, vital and kicking ass." Greg Prato of AllMusic notes, "While most other rock bands of the era were busy experimenting with disco or creating studio-perfected epics, AC/DC was one of the few specializing in raw and bluesy hard rock, as evidenced by 1978's live set, If You Want Blood You've Got It."[7] Eduardo Rivadavia of Ultimate Classic Rock enthuses, "Other concert records may boast more songs, more Top 40 hits or even more crowd-pleasing gimmicks. But very few can challenge the sheer excitement and reckless abandon captured on AC/DC’s terrific concert document." The album was listed at #2 on Classic Rock magazine's readers' poll of "50 Greatest Live Albums Ever".[8] Carlo Twist of Blender magazine praised the album, saying that "They were always a mighty live act, and this is the sound of AC/DC in Europe just prior to 1979’s U.S. breakthrough. The audience’s hysteria regularly cuts through the amps, as they howl along to singer Bon Scott’s tale of sexually transmitted disease (“The Jack”) and punctuate guitarist Angus Young’s staccato riffing on “Whole Lotta Rosie.” Imagine a punk-rock Chuck Berry played at nosebleed volume."

Concert footage

The entire Glasgow concert was filmed but the complete footage has never been released. Eventually, "Riff Raff" and "Fling Thing/Rocker" segments were made available on the DVD AC/DC Family Jewels, released in 2005. Video footage was also used from the show on Family Jewels using the "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" studio version audio track promotional clip. Segments from the concert (the songs "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation", "Dog Eat Dog" and "Let There Be Rock") were made available on the DVD Plug Me In, released in 2007. "Bad Boy Boogie" was included on the bonus disc on the three-disc edition of Plug Me In.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott.

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Riff Raff" (from Powerage)	5:59
2.	"Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be" (from Let There Be Rock)	4:10
3.	"Bad Boy Boogie" (from Let There Be Rock)	7:29
4.	"The Jack" (from T.N.T.)	5:48
5.	"Problem Child" (from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap)	4:40

Side two

No.	Title	Length
6.	"Whole Lotta Rosie" (from Let There Be Rock)	4:05
7.	"Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" (from Powerage)	3:41
8.	"High Voltage" (from T.N.T.)	5:05
9.	"Let There Be Rock" (from Let There Be Rock)	8:33
10.	"Rocker" (from T.N.T.)	3:24
Total length:		52:44

Complete Concert from the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow 30 April 1978

All songs written by Young/Young/Scott except 'Fling Thing (Scottish trad.)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Riff Raff"
2.	"Problem Child"
3.	"Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be"
4.	"Rock n Roll Damnation"
5.	"Bad Boy Boogie"
6.	"Dog Eat Dog"
7.	"The Jack"
8.	"High Voltage"
9.	"Whole Lotta Rosie"
10.	"Let There Be Rock"
11.	"Fling Thing"
12.	"Rocker"

• The song "Gimme A Bullet" was played during sound-check, according to the Official Apollo Theatre website setlist for the show.[9]
• "Fling Thing" is the b-side to the original Australian only single of "Jailbreak", but is actually the traditional Scottish folk song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The band played it live in Australia and Scotland as a staple part of the encores in the early years, and is replayed on the 1991 album AC/DC Live 2 CD Collectors edition from the Glasgow concert on the Razors Edge World Tour (though this time it is just called "Bonny") and it was re-released in its original form, for the first time since 1976, on the Backtracks boxed set.
• This version of "Fling Thing / Rocker (reprise)" - as it was the encore for the concert - is on the Family Jewels DVD, with some of the other songs from this concert, but the entire show has never been seen in its entirety since an original broadcast by a Dutch TV station around the same era.[10][11]

Personnel

• Bon Scott – lead vocals
• Angus Young – lead guitar
• Malcolm Young – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Cliff Williams – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Phil Rudd – drums

Production

• Producers: Harry Vanda, George Young
• Sound: Mike Scarfe (MHA AUDIO)

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[12]	3× Platinum	210,000^^
France (SNEP)[13]	Gold	100,000^*
Germany (BVMI)[14]	Platinum	500,000^^
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[15]	Gold	50,000^^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[16]	Gold	25,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[17]	Gold	100,000^^
United States (RIAA)[18]	Platinum	1,000,000^^
^* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "How AC/DC Elevated Their Career With the Live 'If You Want Blood, You've Got It'". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
2. Prato, Greg. "If You Want Blood You've Got It - AC/DC". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
3. Twist, Carlo. "If You Want Blood You've Got It". Blender. Archived from the original on 13 May 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
4. "AC/DC: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
5. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 1841955515.
6. C. Strong, Martin. Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Canongate. ISBN 1852279230.
8. "Rocklist.net...Steve Parker...Classic Rock Lists". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
9. "AC/DC at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland". glasgowapollo.com. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
10. "Glasgow Apollo / Who Played". www.glasgowapollo.com. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
11. "Glasgow Apollo / The Apollo Years". Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2007.
12. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2013 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020.
13. "French album certifications – AC/DC – If You Want Blood You've Got It" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
14. "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (AC/DC; 'If You Want Blood')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
15. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (PDF) (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. p. 953. ISBN 84-8048-639-2. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
16. "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards (AC/DC; 'If you want blood')". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien.
17. "British album certifications – AC/DC – If You Want Blood You've Got It". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type If You Want Blood You've Got It in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
18. "American album certifications – AC/DC – If You Want Blood You've Got It". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 

External links

• Lyrics on AC/DC's official website