Jump to content

Bon Scott

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 82.28.234.193 (talk) at 19:43, 4 March 2006 (→Trivia). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (July 91946 – February 19 1980), was the lead singer, main songwriter and frontman of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC.

History

Bon Scott was born in July, 1946, in Kirriemuir, Scotland. At the age of 6, Scott's family emigrated to Australia. He grew up in Perth, learned drums and bagpipes in the local Scots pipe band. He always had problems with rules, and this resulted with his dropping out of school at the young age of 15. Spending a short time in Fremantle Prison in the assessment centre. He briefly served in the Australian Army, but was discharged for being socially maladjusted. After his first band The Spektors, he formed The Valentines as co-lead singer with Vince Lovegrove. The Valentines recorded several songs written by George Young of The Easybeats including "Every Day I Have To Cry" which made the local top 5. During his tenure with The Valentines, he was one of the first Aussie Rockers to be charged with possession of marijuana. Scott moved to Adelaide and joined the band Fraternity. The band produced the LPs "My Old Man's a Groovy Old Man" and "Flaming Galah" after moving to Sydney, and toured Europe in 1971.

In 1973, just after returning home from a tour of England, Fraternity went into a form of suspended animation. In this period, Scott started playing for a band named Peter Head's Mount Lofty Rangers. It was after leaving a rehearsal with them that Scott got into a motorcycle accident and suffered serious injuries. Fraternity reformed, replacing Scott with now-legendary singer Jimmy Barnes.

The following year, while doing odd jobs in the Adelaide music scene, Scott first met the members of AC/DC, while working as a chauffeur. The band was driven by the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, younger siblings of Scott's friend George Young. Scott was impressed by the band's energy and drive, and the naive bandmates were, in turn, quite taken with the experienced frontman. When AC/DC fired their original singer, Scott replaced him.

In a 2002 interview on Australian radio station Triple J, Angus Young cited how Scott was much older than his band mates. Scott's advice to Angus (the youngest member of the band) was "Whatever I do, you don't!". Scott quickly turned AC/DC from a glam band to a stripped back, foot stompin', no-nonsense rock band.

At the helm of AC/DC, Bon was arguably the most charismatic front man Australia has ever seen. His tough-yet-cheeky persona on stage made him a macho icon that men revelled in and girls loved. However, Scott was also notorious for being a heavy drinker and this would eventually lead to tragedy. After a night of heavy drinking in London's Camden Town, he passed out in a friend's car and was left to "sleep it off". He was found dead in the early hours of February 19th, 1980. He was 33 years old. The cause of death listed on his death certificate was acute alcohol poisoning and death by misadventure.

Bon Scott grave site.

Bon Scott's death was a tragedy for rock & roll music; he was a true talent as a frontman, an awe inspiring vocalist (often imitated, never equalled) and, as has been shown since, an outstandingly witty and poetic lyricist - another unique talent which the Band have sorely missed. He was cut down at the peak of his powers. AC/DC's last LP with Scott- the appropriately titled "Highway To Hell" - is probably their greatest, and one of the most outstanding studio rock albums of all time.

Shortly after his death, British singer Brian Johnson replaced him, and AC/DC recorded Back in Black, which is to this day the second best-selling album of all time. The album cover was all black as a tribute to Bon Scott.

Scott was buried in Fremantle Cemetery. Sailors and other debaucherous folk are known to pay tribute to Scott by drinking at his grave.

The gravesite of Bon Scott, the legendary lead singer of veteran rockers AC/DC, has become one of Australia's most treasured cultural icons (2006). More than 26 years after Scott's death, the National Trust of Australia has decreed his grave in Fremantle cemetery important enough to be included on the list of classified heritage places.

Discography

Singles:

  • Every Day I Have To Cry / I Can't Dance With You (1967) - With The Valentines
  • She Said / To Know You Is To Love You (1967) - With The Valentines
  • Why Me / Getting Better (1968) - With The Valentines
  • Peculiar Hole In The Sky / Hoochie Coochie Billy (1968) - With The Valentines
  • I Can't Hear The Raindrops / Ebeneezer (1969) - With The Valentines
  • Seasons Of Change / Sommerville (1971) - With Fraternity
  • The Race, Part 1 / The Race, Part 2 (1971) - With Fraternity
  • If You Got It / Raglan's Folly / You Have A God (1971) - With Fraternity
  • Welfare Boogie / Annabelle (1972) - With Fraternity
  • Round And Round And Round (1974) - With The Mount Lofty Rangers
  • Jailbreak / Fling Thing (1976) - With AC/DC
  • Dog Eat Dog / Carry Me Home (1977) - With AC/DC

LPs:

Trivia

  • "Shazbot, Nanu Nanu" were the last words the singer said on an AC/DC album. The line was a phrase from the TV show "Mork and Mindy". The Aliens in the show used that phrase to say "goodbye".
    • Nanu Nanu was the Orkan word for Aloha (hello and goodbye), but Shazbot was an Orkan swear word.
  • Reportedly, Mark Evans (bandmate to Scott) said, "Bon really did have big balls. In fact, Bon's unit was the biggest cherry buster I ever did see. Not that I spent a lot of time looking."
  • In 1997, at a listening party for Bonfire", Bon Scott's spirit was supposedly summoned by a psychic on a live Halloween radio broadcast.
  • Bon was well versed in French.
  • Bon's favourite city was said to be Paris, France.
  • Bon once appeared on stage dressed as a schoolgirl on Australian TV's "Countdown", a moment now available on AC/DC's Family Jewels (for now see Family Jewels.) DVD set.
  • In the Prince Of Wales public bar, St Kilda (Melbourne, Australia), they have an original Valentines poster still on the wall.
  • The AC/DC song "Whole Lotta Rosie" is actually based on real life "relations" Bon Scott had with a fat woman named Rosie in a hotel. He said in an interview after the song "Ride On" in the Bonfire box set. This is also mentioned in the audio commentary to the AC/DC live DVD.
  • Bon's last known recording is a version of "Ride On" sang with the French metal band "Trust"
  • The nickname "Bon" (short for "Bonnie", after the Scottish song) was given to him by classmates in Australia because of his Scottish accent.
  • Lost his Scottish accent through growing up in Australia and had a broad Australian accent to the day he died.

Further reading

  • Highway to Hell: The Life and Times of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott - Clinton Walker, 1994. ISBN 1891241133
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bon_Scott&oldid=42230389"