Night Prowler, one of the best

Somewhere a clock strikes midnight/And there’s a full moon in the sky…A rat runs down the alley…I’m your night prowler, I sleep in the day…your night prowler, make a mess o’ you…and there ain’t nothin’, nothin’, nothing you can do! WHOA! Kind of scary, but oh, so alluring at the same time! With those undulating blues licks accompanying the lyrics, just slinking through the secretive, velvety and enveloping night. Can’t talk about that aspect too much or enough—just f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s!! Once again, we realize that Angus is so under-rated as a guitarist. Yes, it’s the TDF fave for today, Night Prowler, from the iconic, will-stand-forever as the Rock of Gibraltar equivalent of a classic rock album, Highway to Hell. There may be some foolish, annoying idiots who would argue the point, but there are no bad songs on HTH. This makes Bon’s death even more poignant, this being his last album.
HTH is so important in the AC/DC canon, a set list rundown is required. They kick us into gear with the title track, HTH. There’s a reason that HTH, with its steely, jackhammer sound is the first encore at AC/DC concerts. It’s emblematic of what they’re all about: a bunch of guys who desperately wanted to play rock n roll and were willing to do whatever it took to do so. Taking their considerable talents on the highway to hell, studded as it is with obstacles of all kinds: innumerable one night stands, crappy hotels, low pay, evil managers, you name it. With a drive like theirs, nothing and no one was going to stand in the way of the goal: a stage, every possible night, to do what they love, play in a rock band. And here we are today, howling for more.
Next, the irresistible, pounding, cockiness of Girls Got Rhythm jumps out at us. For the long-time Bibi blog followers, this one almost replaced You Shook Me All Night Long on the memorial service song list—it’s that good; Walk All Over You, with Bon telling some lucky girl: I know baby I ain’t got much/Resistance to your touch, along with some blistering riffs from Angus; Touch too Much—She was taking her time/I was losing my mind—and those inimitable AC/DC lyrics: She wanted it hard, she wanted it fast, she liked it done medium rare…hmmm. This one would have been my pick if Night Prowler weren’t there. Then, Beating Around the Bush, with its stutter step guitar and raving mad break is a real contender for which song rocks the most on this album. Listen to it and the rest is up to (pause) you. Shot Down in Flames was added to the set list in Europe, and thank you, Malcolm! Ironic, coolly insightful about guys’ lizard brain thought processes, she was standing alone over by the jukebox…I said, baby, what’s the going price/she told me to go to hell framed by a no bs rhythm and searing lead by Angus. I know I say this constantly, and I won’t disappoint you this time, Angus just burns it up—a wonder the SG doesn’t evaporate in the heat his fingers create. Following this sizzler, we get a breather with the playful, dance-y, everyone-wins Get it Hot: Gonna have ourselves a party/just like we used to do/Get it hot/Get it hot…No one’s playing hard to get/Just a good old rock n roll…Got myself a sweet little momma/who’s got nothing to lose. Love the way the guys mix it up! If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) is another of the high energy, white hot rockers on offer and another of those songs you want to ask Malcolm about—why can’t it be in the set list? It’s criminal, there ought to be a law/Criminal, there ought to be a whole lotta law against NOT playing this one in concert. Love Hungry Man is a ballad (for AC/DC) and again shows off the versatility rarely acknowledged by the non-aficionados. Soulful, still got the solid rhythm section, the great guitar break, too. The album is completed by the almost sinister Night Prowler, today’s pick. You can understand how difficult it is to make the choice of one song over the others on this album, but if you took the opportunity to listen to all the tracks, you heard an absolutely, undeniably great set! Bibi, as you know, accepts few counter-arguments, and in this instance, she knows there will be none.