Editing Powerage (section)

==Recording and composition==
[[File:1982 Cliff Williams.jpg|thumb|''Powerage'' is the first AC/DC album to feature bassist [[Cliff Williams|Cliff Wiliams]].]]
According to the Murray Engleheart book ''AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll'', several songs that appeared on ''Powerage'' were started in July 1977 during the band's first rehearsals with Williams at [[Albert Studios]], including "Kicked in the Teeth", "Up to My Neck in You", an early version of "Touch Too Much" (which later appeared on the follow-up album ''Highway to Hell''), and possibly "Riff Raff".<ref name="engleheart">{{cite book |last1=Engleheart |first1=Murray |title=AC/DC : maximum rock & roll |date=2008 |location=New York |isbn=978-0061133923 |page=233, 237}}</ref> The ''Powerage'' sessions officially got going in January 1978 and stretched over a period of about eight weeks. [[Atlantic Records]] executives in the United States complained that the album did not contain a radio-friendly single,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brannigan |first1=Paul |title="F**k you, follow that!": The electrifying story of AC/DC's masterpiece, Powerage |url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/fk-you-follow-that-the-electrifying-story-of-acdcs-masterpiece-powerage |website=loudersound |date=5 August 2022 |access-date=18 August 2022 |archive-date=10 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810194417/https://www.loudersound.com/features/fk-you-follow-that-the-electrifying-story-of-acdcs-masterpiece-powerage |url-status=live }}</ref> so with the first pressings of ''Powerage'' ready to go in the UK, the band complied and recorded "[[Rock 'n' Roll Damnation]]". The song, which features handclaps and maracas and does not have a traditional guitar solo, was released in Britain at the end of May and reached #24, the best performance yet by an AC/DC single.{{cn|date=May 2022}} However, ''Powerage'' was ultimately the final Bon Scott-era studio album the band recorded with the team of [[Vanda & Young|Harry Vanda and George Young]], who had produced all of the band's albums up to that point ([[George Young (rock musician)|George]] was the older brother of Angus and Malcolm; he and [[Harry Vanda|Vanda]] had enjoyed their own pop success with the [[The Easybeats|Easybeats]] in the 1960s), the feeling from Atlantic being that a more commercial producer might do wonders for the band's profile in the lucrative American market.{{cn|date=May 2022}}

Biographer Clinton Walker wrote in his 1994 Scott memoir ''Highway to Hell'', "'Gimme a Bullet' was perhaps Bon's most accomplished piece of writing to date, in which his penchant for hardcase metaphors finds even more genuine pathos and humour than it had before."{{cn|date=May 2022}} "What's Next to the Moon", with its allusions to [[Casey Jones]] and [[Clark Kent]], as well as the elusive "Gone Shootin'" and the unapologetic "Down Payment Blues" ("I know I ain't doin' much, but doin' nothin' means a lot to me"), clearly show that Scott's writing, much like the band's sound, had evolved from the novelties of the group's early albums.{{cn|date=May 2022}} "Bon was a street poet – he described it as 'toilet wall' poetry," former AC/DC manager Michael Browning explained to Peter Watts of ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]'' in 2013. "That was unknown. They signed a singer and got a lyricist, as well."<ref>{{cite web |title=AC/DC – the true adventures of Bon Scott |url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/acdc-the-true-adventures-of-bon-scott-3713 |website=UNCUT |date=26 September 2014 |access-date=18 August 2022 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415232157/https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/acdc-the-true-adventures-of-bon-scott-3713/ |url-status=live }}</ref> "Sin City", which the band performed frequently in concert, explores the seductive charms and dangers of [[Las Vegas]], while "Kicked in the Teeth" addresses a two-faced woman with "two-faced lies". In an interview with ''Bass Frontiers'', Cliff Williams recalls the sessions fondly: "The guys had already been in the studio for a while and we went in to do what turned out to be the ''Powerage'' album. Great work environment. Albert Studios there in Sydney was a great little rock and roll room... Great producers. Obviously a lot of chemistry there being brothers. Just a real fiery, energetic work environment. And we had about three weeks to do it, 'cause that's about all the money we had... It was really a tremendous experience."<ref>{{cite web |title=Video Interview: Cliff Williams of AC/DC |url=https://www.bassfrontiersmag.com/cliff-williams-acdc-video-interview |website=Bass Frontiers Magazine |date=30 October 2010 |access-date=18 August 2022 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804114254/http://www.bassfrontiersmag.com/cliff-williams-acdc-video-interview |url-status=live }}</ref>