Editing Flick of the Switch (section)

==Recording==
AC/DC returned to [[Compass Point Studios]] in the [[Bahamas]] to record their ninth album, the same studio where they had recorded ''[[Back in Black]]'' with [[Robert John "Mutt" Lange]] in 1980. Lange had produced AC/DC's three previous releases but this time the band chose to produce themselves. On the recorded commentary on the album for the ''[[Live at Donington (AC/DC album)|Live at Donington]]'' DVD, the band members state that the album was an attempt to make the band raw again, and were happy with the result.<ref>Malcolm and Angus, Live At Donington DVD, Flick Of the Switch Review</ref> In the book ''AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll'', AC/DC engineer [[Tony Platt]] recalls:

{{quote|There was a genuine desire to get back to the basics with ''Flick of the Switch''. There was a general kind of consensus that we needed to find some way of moving on a little bit. You know the [[Johnny Winter]] version of [[Muddy Waters]]' '[[Mannish Boy]]?' Where they're all shouting in the background? Basically what Mal had said was that he wanted to try and get that feeling of being in a room with it all happening. I don't think it really worked entirely.}}

The album is notable for its "dry" sound, with very little of the polish that is evident on their previous effort ''[[For Those About to Rock We Salute You]]''. In a 1984 interview, Angus Young said of the LP, "We wanted this one as raw as possible. We wanted a natural, but big, sound for the guitars. We didn't want echoes and reverb going everywhere and noise eliminators and noise extractors."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rosen |first=Steven |date=2022-03-31 |title=AC/DC's Angus Young: "I liked the SGs because they were light. I tried Fenders but they were too heavy and they just didn't have the balls" |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/acdc-angus-young-sg-fender-1984 |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=Guitar World |language=en}}</ref>

However, the album's birth was a troubled one; after having problems with Malcolm as well as drugs and alcohol,<ref>{{cite book | title=AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll| year=2006 | isbn=0-7322-8383-3 | author=Engleheart, Murray & Arnaud Durieux | pages=366–367| publisher=HarperCollins Publishers }}</ref> drummer [[Phil Rudd]] was fired midway through the album's recording sessions, although he had completed his drum parts. According to Murray Engleheart's band memoir ''AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll'', Rudd had been struggling for some time; tour manager Ian Jeffrey recalls getting a phone call from a strung-out Rudd at four in the morning when the band was playing in Nebraska on the Back in Black tour and finding the drummer in his hotel room in a state of disorientated agitation. Eventually Rudd broke down crying and begged Jeffrey, "Don't tell Malcolm."  Jeffrey also reveals that Malcolm punched the drummer after he showed up two hours late for the band's show at [[Long Island]]'s [[Nassau Coliseum]] and was unable to play the last song of the encore. "It was an absolutely stupid thing that finished it, but it had been brewing for a long, long time," Jeffrey remembers.<ref name="Maximum">{{cite book | title=AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll| year=2006 | isbn=0-7322-8383-3 | author=Engleheart, Murray & Arnaud Durieux | page=367| publisher=HarperCollins Publishers }}</ref> "He got into drugs and got burned out," Malcolm later explained to KNAC.com in August 2000. Former [[Procol Harum]] drummer [[B.J. Wilson]] was hired to help complete the recording if needed, but his contributions were not used. Platt later recalled to band biographer Jesse Fink, "It wasn't a happiest of albums. There were all sorts of tensions within the band. They were all pretty knackered by that point. It was the album that copped the backlash, really."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fink|first1=Jesse|title=The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC |publisher= Ebury |location=Australia|year=2013|isbn=9781742759791 |page=265}}</ref> The drum position was eventually filled by future [[Dio (band)|Dio]] drummer [[Simon Wright (musician)|Simon Wright]] after more than 700 auditions were held in the US and UK.<ref>{{cite book | title=AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll| year=2006 | isbn=0-7322-8383-3 | author=Engleheart, Murray & Arnaud Durieux | page=368| publisher=HarperCollins Publishers }}</ref> [[Simon Kirke]] of [[Free (band)|Free]] and [[Bad Company]] fame, and [[Paul Thompson (musician)|Paul Thompson]] of [[Roxy Music]] were two of the drummers auditioned.<ref name="Maximum" /> Wright appeared in the videos for "[[Flick of the Switch (song)|Flick of the Switch]]", "[[Nervous Shakedown]]",<ref>"Flick of the Switch" and "Nervous Shakedown" videos, ''Family Jewels'' DVD, 2005</ref> and "[[Guns for Hire]]". A second video for "Nervous Shakedown" was also shot at a pre-show rehearsal at [[Joe Louis Arena]] in [[Detroit]]. He also toured for the album, and is seen in the pro-shot video recordings from that period.

The songs on ''Flick of the Switch'' contain much of the outlaw bravado ("Guns for Hire", "Badlands") and sexual innuendo ("Rising Power", "Deep in the Hole") that fans had come to expect from the Australian rockers. The song "Bedlam in Belgium" was inspired by the band's appearance at [[Kontich]] when a riot nearly broke out when police tried to close down the show after the band allegedly ignored a strict 11 p.m. curfew.<ref>{{cite book | title=AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll| year=2006 | isbn=0-7322-8383-3 | author=Engleheart, Murray & Arnaud Durieux | pages=221| publisher=HarperCollins Publishers }}</ref> On tour in support of the album, "Guns for Hire" was the set opener. The tour resulted in more upheaval in the band's inner circle when Malcolm, frustrated by mixed reviews for ''Flick of the Switch'' and dwindling audience numbers in certain cities, fired tour manager Ian Jeffrey. In his [[Bon Scott]] memoir ''Highway to Hell'', author Clinton Walker observes:

{{quote|...when the band reemerged in August 1983, with the album ''Flick of the Switch'', they found they weren't able to just pick up where they'd left off. The production credit the album bore, to Malcolm and Angus themselves, was merely the tip of the iceberg of a purging the pair had effected throughout the entire band and its infrastructure. It's a classic syndrome: the successful campaigner who fears his own troops. But Malcolm and Angus never trusted anyone anyway. They sacked practically everybody: Mutt Lange, who had artistically engineered their breakthrough; drummer Phil Rudd; [[Peter Mensch]], who had himself usurped Michael Browning, even de-facto photographer Robert Ellis was ousted. The replacement of Rudd by Englishman Simon Wright meant that there wasn't an Australian-born member left in the band.}}