“Life is Like an AC/DC Song” – Don’t Be a One Hit Wonder

This thought was originally born of a list I started some time ago called, “Songs I Don’t Ever Need To Hear Again For The Rest Of My Life. Ever.” These are songs that, through no fault of their own, have been overplayed to the point of perpetual burnout. It’s like living forever in the day after Hallowe’en; even though I never thought I’d ever be able to get my fill of candy, I’m sugar-sick. No more.

Pass the vegetables, please.

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Other than “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, perhaps the worst offender of all is an absolute beast of a song, a near-perfect Top 40 rock track by AC/DC called “You Shook Me All Night Long” which has been played to death, resurrected and broadcast back into the grave many times over since its release in 1980.

It’s not AC/DC’s fault. It’s (in my view) the result of  lazy radio programmers and wedding DJs who want to please people who also don’t know what they want, so they just keep asking for what they’ve had all along.

But there are a lot of other great tracks on that disc. And who knows – maybe you’ll like one of them more?

This video blog was my attempt at putting a more positive spin on something that drives me crazy. And for the record: I love AC/DC. And I love myself for not having had any real idea what “Giving the Dog a Bone” was actually about, back when I first heard it as a kid.

Gotta love AC/DC.

Here’s the vlog transcript:

If you’re interested in personal development and really putting a lot of time and energy into understanding yourself and creating and nurturing a life that when you get to the end of it you’d be ale to look back on and say, “Boy, you know, I really squeezed every drop out of that and I was true to myself and I was authentic to who I really was” … if you’re going to do that, one of the things that I’ve learned, that I’ve had to come to grips with and I’ve struggled with, quite frankly, is understanding what it is that I really want.

Now, for you it’s going to be different. You don’t need to understand what I want. You let that be my challenge. But do you really know what you want? Because I’m here to suggest that you may not. I didn’t. It wasn’t until I got clear enough, with the proper instruction and mentoring and coaching, to be able to even ask the question, that I began to realize, “Huh.” I didn’t even see that I was just chasing after things that I thought I was supposed to want but weren’t really the things that lit me up. And then when I found out that that was something that I needed to maybe pay some attention to, I started asking the questions of the universe: “Who am I and what am I really here to do and what do I really want?” And the answers didn’t all come right away. In some of the cases, they still haven’t. It’s a bit of a process.

But I was thinking about that the other day when I was in, I’m going to call it, a record store, and I picked this up. Now what does Back in Black by AC/DC have to do with personal development and understanding what you want? Well, this is an interesting album, I think. Because it’s one of the most successful pieces of music in the history of recorded music. Certainly, in the history of rock.

Do you really know what you want? Because I’m here to suggest that you may not.

But along the lines of, do people really know what they want … keep in mind I’ve spent a large part of my career in the radio and the broadcasting industry, and one of the number-one complaints that I’m always hearing is, “You play the same songs too often, over and over again.” And I think, “Okay.” But what I know from having been in the industry, is number one: that’s researched pretty heavily. And number two: that when those songs that are popular, that the masses go after, aren’t played as much, guess what happens to the ratings? They go down. The research, in terms of asking people, what do you want to hear; they keep saying the same ones. They think they want what’s familiar.

What does that have to do with this? Well, there are actually 10 songs on this album. You might be aware of two or three of them. If I said “Back in Black,” you’ll know that. “Shoot to Thrill,” you’ll probably know. And probably even “Hells Bells,” because that’s played a lot at different sports arenas and stuff like that.

But it’s track number seven on this CD, “You Shook Me All Night Long.” That’s the track that through no fault of AC/DC’s, has been played and played and played to death then brought back to life and played to death again. You get my point.

So it’s the safe bet. So it’s always what gets played and it’s what people think that they want to hear. And it’s a great song and it might get your toe tapping. But all I’m saying is, when you think about your own personal development and the things that really resonate with you, what you’re trading your time and your life for … what are the things that you’re aspiring to have and to be?

Everybody else might be drunk and dancing along to “You Shook Me All Night Long” at the wedding, but if “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” is the jam that really lights up your soul, you’re going to want to know that.

And maybe change the track.

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Comments: What’s Your Favourite AC/DC Song?

It’s okay if it’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.” It’s a great song. But do you have a different one to suggest? Please add your thoughts to the Comments Section, below. I’d love to hear from you.

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