I heard "Thunderstruck" on Sirius BuzzSaw today.

"Back In Black" is the best hard rock album ever made. Do we credit Bon Scott, who supposedly helped write the tunes before he died, or Mutt Lange? It’s unclear, but all we know is AC/DC has never equaled the quality of that album since. But it came close twice. With "Who Made Who" and "Thunderstruck".

Actually, after my physical therapy appointment, when I tuned back into BuzzSaw, they were playing "Who Made Who". As allmusic.com says, the album is "just a cheap soundtrack to a cheap movie", ultimately a career retrospective, but the title cut sneaks up on you, it’s got this dancing groove, which is kind of funny for a band said to have no melody. The groove of "Who Made Who" bobs and weaves, it’s the soundtrack to a fast walk down a Manhattan sidewalk, a run through the gates on a slalom hill, dodging automobiles on the freeway. There’s a freedom and a power in "Who Made Who" that enables the listener, turns him into a fully-realized being, allows him to be self-directed, running on pure instinct.

That’s the power of metal. That’s why rock still sells the most tickets. It’s what the sound does to the audience. It’s why Nickelback is the best-selling band in the land. What’s underneath, the release, it’s absent from other musical forms, and present in straight ahead rock.

But "Back In Black" was more than that. It had an element of the Beach Boys. How else to explain "You Shook Me All Night Long"? It was like a stroll down the beach, in your all black clothing. A fish out of water, but accepted just the same. Grandmothers, afraid for the future of their progeny, worried about society’s negative influences, embraced "You Shook Me All Night Long". Because it sounded so damn good! Come on, sing along! YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG!!

And fans cannot forget that 180, when the SoCal beach number ends and we go straight to the Sunset Strip, where Brian and the boys implore us to have a drink on them! Only Mutt Lange seems able to do this. Make the secondary tracks, the tertiary tracks, the album cuts buried deep in the center of an album, your favorites. If you ever tipped a bottle, you realize the honesty, the truth in "Have A Drink On Me". On Friday night, when you’ve had just enough, which is really one too many, you no longer give a shit about decorum, you let your inner wolf escape, you finally grow the balls to approach that woman you’ve been eyeing all night.

Then, of course, there are the two side-openers, "Hells Bells" and "Back In Black". In the early seventies, "Brown Sugar" was the kickoff to the weekend. By time the decade turned again, it had become "Hells Bells". You dropped the needle and your inhibitions…you were ready to rage!

Not that "Back In Black" was appropriate solely for good times. It was also the soundtrack when you were mad at society, frustrated. You cranked the album up to 11 and let the sound wash over you. You suddenly felt powerful!

Then came the disappointment of "For Those About To Rock". Not quite as bad as "I’m In You" after "Frampton Comes Alive", but a giant descent for those who now counted the band as one of their favorites. We were forced to keep playing "Back In Black" and retreating to the earlier albums, containing gems like "It’s A Long Way To The Top" and "Highway To Hell".

Then there were two left-field returns to form… "Who Made Who" and "Thunderstruck"…

Went down the highway
Broke the limit, we hit the town
Went through to Texas, yeah Texas
And we had some fun
We met some girls
Some dancers who gave a good time
Broke all the rules, played all the fools
Yeah, yeah, they, they, they blew our minds

This is the rock and roll fantasy. We’re gonna turn on the tunes, get tanked up and roll with the best babes around. The fact that it rarely happens is irrelevant. The music is better than any movie, any video game, with it cranked you suspend disbelief, feel like your dream is a reality.

So, do you want to see the band yet?

Listening to AC/DC on Sirius today, I got a burning desire to see them live. Just like the teenagers. Their three biggest desires are not Madonna, the Stones or Jay-Z, they want to see Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, in that order.

Pink Floyd reunited once, with class, at Live 8. Gilmour does not appear close to conceding. This is a reunion that looks like a longer shot than the Eagles’. For a minute there, Led Zeppelin’s reunion looked impossible too. Now, it may be inevitable. Unless Robert Plant sticks to his word and continues to say no. As for AC/DC… Did they issue a retirement memo? Did they say their last tour was the final one? Did they work the press, manipulate us? No, they’ve been SILENT!

And absence makes the heart grow fonder.

The mainstream media is not cataloging the AC/DC renaissance. The youth have no say. Except in their bedrooms, on their iPods, where the band’s music is king. They know someday, there will be a new album, someday the band will go on the road. There’s no story of suicide, no drug drama, no TMZ/PerezHilton train-wreck. The feeling is that the mad scientist Young brothers are cooking something up, and when it’s finally baked, they’re going to reemerge, and we’ll be back in nirvana.

This is not Van Halen. Eddie’s a great player. Dave’s a talent. We love those albums. But "Back In Black" is akin to "Sgt. Pepper". Van Halen never came close. And "Pyromania" and "Hysteria" are good, but there’s an earthiness to AC/DC’s music absent from Def Leppard’s. A primary element, the kernel of rock and roll.

Have you seen the band? That impossible sound, the AC/DC trademark… Angus duplicates it. This is no Mariah Carey singing to a backing track on GMA, this is no American Idol, who can sing, but cannot play…this is a savant, who seems to have been born to play in this singular style, perfectly. He dons his shorts, drapes that Gibson SG around his neck and lets loose!

Sure, AC/DC got airplay when radio meant so much more. Even got MTV play. But "Back In Black" emerged over a year before the video outlet launched in a limited number of homes. And if you think this is a band built by video, you’ve never seen the clip for "You Shook Me All Night Long". Amateurish, cheap, cheesy…pick your adjective, but classic it is not. AC/DC’s success is all about the music.

Madge can whore herself out to the press. This is not a campaign, this is not marketing, this is music!

The little kids didn’t have to be told, they found out all by themselves.

Keep the ticket prices cheap enough, and the Young brothers and their entourage could sell out stadiums. For them, the world stands still, just like their music. It’s just that powerful.

Some things have to be sold, some things just sell themselves. If Napster had never happened, if the iPod had never been introduced, AC/DC’s career, their fame, their music, might have languished. With the free transfer of tunes, with kids able to hip kids halfway around the world, the flame of the Down Under icons has not only stayed lit, it’s glowing brighter than ever. If you can’t see it, you’re looking too high in the sky, so caught up in today’s paradigm that you don’t understand that bands belong to fans. Fans keep bands alive, not Live Nation. If you’re good enough, you can play forever. As long as you don’t play every day, as long as you don’t tell us to listen to you. We get to make that choice.

If "Back In Black" is not one of your desert island discs, you’re not planning on bringing a stereo to the atoll. If you’re gonna say no to AC/DC live, you’re not even hip enough for Letterman, it’s one of Paul Shaffer’s favorite numbers, he plays it all the time. Hits reside in the mind of the audience, not on sales charts. Sure, AC/DC owns sales records, but that’s not half of it… How many times have you listened to the music? And it never gets old, it always stays fresh. It’s the soundtrack to your life.