Fly on the wall

Fly on the wall
Studio album by
Publication (s)	June 28, 1985
admission	November 1984 - February 1985
Label (s)	Atlantic Records
Format (s)	CD, LP, MC
Genre (s)	Hard rock
Title (number)	10
running time	40:20
occupation	Singing : Brian Johnson Lead guitar : Angus Young Rhythm guitar : Malcolm Young Bass : Cliff Williams Drums : Simon Wright
production	Angus Young, Malcolm Young
Studio (s)	Mountain Studios, Montreux (Switzerland)
chronology '74 Jailbreak (1984) Fly on the wall Who Made Who (1986)

Fly on the Wall (Engl. For " fly on the wall ") is the ninth international studio album of the Australian hard rock band AC / DC . It was released on June 28, 1985 on the Atlantic Records label .

background

After Flick of the Switch , Fly on the Wall was the second (and final) AC / DC album that the Young brothers produced themselves. They wanted to keep up the rough, dirty sound of their previous albums as a counterpart to the emerging hair-metal wave. It was also the first album with the new drummer Simon Wright . He replaced Phil Rudd , who had accompanied the band since 1975 and left in 1983.

As singles, Danger , Sink the Pink and Shake Your Foundations were released from the album. Except for Shake Your Foundations , which reached number 24 in the UK Top 40 in January 1986 , they did not achieve any notable chart successes.

Track list

1. Fly on the Wall (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 3:43
2. Shake Your Foundations (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 4:10
3. First Blood (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 3:40
4. Danger (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 4:22
5. Sink the Pink (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 4:14
6. Playing with Girls (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 3:44
7. Stand Up (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 3:53
8. Hell or High Water (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 4:31
9. Back in Business (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 4:22
10. Send for the Man (Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson) - 3:26

tour

The Fly on the Wall Tour comprised around 85 performances and began on September 2, 1985, as usual, with numerous concerts in the USA and a performance in the Canadian capital, Toronto. This tour section dragged on until the end of 1985. After a three-week break, the tour continued in Europe, including eight appearances in Germany. The last concert of the tour was on February 16, 1986 in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

Sample set list

1. Fly on the wall
2. Back in Black
3. Shake Your Foundations
4. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
5. Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
6. You Shook Me All Night Long
7. Sin City
8. Rock 'n' Roll Damnation
9. Have a drink on me
10. Bad boy boogie
11. The Jack
12. Shoot to thrill
13. Highway to Hell
14. Jailbreak
15. Sink the pink
16. Big balls
17. Whole Lotta Rosie
18. Let There Be Rock

Additions:

19. Hells Bells
20. TNT
21. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

reception

The album was mostly panned by the critics and was also a relatively minor commercial success compared to albums like Back in Black and For Those About to Rock . In addition, the serial killer Richard Ramirez was caught during this time and claimed that the AC / DC song Night Prowler from the album Highway to Hell had prompted him to his acts. That was also a reason for the lack of success.

In the US Billboard 200 , Fly on the Wall reached number 32 and was later honored with platinum, in the British album charts it came to number 7. In Germany it only reached number 14, in Austria it was just under the top 30 (24th place), while in Canada it was only 30th place.

As an example of the sometimes devastating reviews, the judgment of Michael Rensen, who only awarded 6 out of 10 points when it was published and came to the following judgment: “Clearly the weakest AC / DC record to date. No power, no good song ideas, no magical moments. Back in Black was a masterpiece, For Those About to Rock hardly weaker, and Flick of the Switch also passed through as a good record. Fly on the Wall, however, is little more than normal street rock - absolutely disappointing for a legend like AC / DC. ”In a later review, Götz Kühnemund published a further review in the same magazine in which Rensen's opinion was put into perspective: “Like Flick of the Switch , Fly on the Wall is often referred to as a flop these days - wrongly, I think. The record suffers from the weak, muddy production (Angus & Malcolm Young), but the songs themselves can convince for the most part. Shake Your Foundations , Danger and the title song stand out, the rest is still in the upper middle class. ”Kühnemund awarded two points more than Rensen.

Video

In the summer of 1985, the group released a video of the same name for the album, which includes a coherent story of five of the ten album songs. The full video is also included on the Family Jewels DVD, released in 2005, and includes the following songs:

• Fly on the wall
• Danger
• Sink the pink
• Stand up
• Shake Your Foundations

Web links

• Fly on the Wall at Allmusic (English)