Hell’s Bells
I arrived at AC/DC a few years late. Because of my age, they hit their popularity peak about 10 years before I was old enough to care. So, while I'm not sure how good of an influence they are on me, a trying-but-failing Christian man, I've always liked their songs. My favorite obscure AC/DC song is the mellow "Ride On."
Anyway, one night I found my old "AC/DC Greatest Hits" cassette and I was listening toand thinking about the song "Hell's Bells" and how wild it would be to hear that song 100 years ago. Back then, there wasn't any recorded music and pop music was orchestral marches and symphonies. The guitar wasn't that popular and the electric guitar was unheard. Reverb, feedback and heavy distortion and the modern drum set where also years away.
Now, this little daydream was happening around the time the HBO series Band of Brothers was debuting. So my little daydream took me to a foxhole around Bastogne, during the Battle-of-the-Bulge seige.
What would it be like to hear a song like that without all the stuff leading up to it? Would it be recognized as post-modern music, or some sort of noise that didn't resemble music at all? I mean, I'm no hardcore fan but I really like most of the popular AC/DC songs. I consider them music. But I had Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys and Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, etc. I experienced an evolution to the music. But what if I hadn't?
