"It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" is a song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It is the first track of the group's album T.N.T., released in December 1975, and was written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott. Musically, the song is notable for combining bagpipes with hard rock guitars, drums, and bass guitar; in the mid-part of the song there is a duet between the bagpipes and the electric guitar. It is composed in B-flat major.
A slightly shorter version of the song is also the first track on the international version of High Voltage, released in May 1976. This is on the original release and the 2003 remastered CD release of the album only. Other CD releases have the full version.
This song is also on the Volts CD of the Bonfire box set, released in 1997.
This was a signature song for Scott, who also played the side drum in Coastal Scottish Pipe Band WA in the 1960s. Current AC/DC lead vocalist Brian Johnson does not perform it, out of respect for his predecessor.
Read more about It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll): Lyrics, Personnel, Production, Music Video, Popularity, Connection To ACDC Lane, Recorded Cover Versions
Famous quotes containing the words long, top, wanna and/or rock:
“As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
“In a famous Middletown study of Muncie, Indiana, in 1924, mothers were asked to rank the qualities they most desire in their children. At the top of the list were conformity and strict obedience. More than fifty years later, when the Middletown survey was replicated, mothers placed autonomy and independence first. The healthiest parenting probably promotes a balance of these qualities in children.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“And you’re too fired up to go to sleep, you sit at the kitchen table. It’s really late, it’s really quiet, you’re tired. Don’t wanna go to bed, though. Going to bed means this was the day. This Feb. 12, this Aug. 3, this Nov. 20 is over and you’re tired and you made some money but it didn’t happen, nothing happened. You got through it and a whole day of your life is over. And all it is—is time to go to bed.”
—Claudia Shear, U.S. author. New York Times, p. A21 (September 29, 1993)
“each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)