40 Years Ago: AC/DC Catch Up With Their Past on ‘’74 Jailbreak’

A tiny treasure trove of long-lost rarities titled '74 Jailbreak arrived on Oct. 15, 1984, to provide a back story after AC/DC shot to global superstardom with 1980’s watershed Back in Black album.

This EP followed Back in Black’s 1981 successor, For Those About to Rock (We Salute You). AC/DC also finally issued 1976’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap for the first time in the U.S. Both were huge sellers, easily going platinum and proving that curiosity surrounding the band's late original singer, Bon Scott, was as strong as the support for his replacement, Brian Johnson.

Then, less than a year after the release of 1983's Flick of the Switch, Atlantic dug deep into the vaults for five songs dating back 10 years to AC/DC’s earliest days. In fact, most of '74 Jailbreak predated the band’s signing with Atlantic. The songs were recorded in late 1974 for an Australia-only version of the High Voltage album, which many fans never knew existed in the '80s.

These Scott-sung offerings consisted of the title track, a surprisingly laid-back "You Ain't Got a Hold on Me," the seriously boogie-flavored "Show Business," forbiddingly bluesy "Soul Stripper" and a positively sizzling cover of the R&B standard "Baby, Please Don't Go," which was a showstopper in AC/DC's initial years.

There were only five songs, clocking in at just 24 minutes. That was barely the blink of an eye when gazing back an entire decade, with a life already sacrificed to rock 'n' roll. Still, '74 Jailbreak impacted fans on a level far deeper than its short track listing would suggest.

It took them back to a time when bassist Mark Evans was still in the group, when Phil Rudd was not yet the world’s most rock-solid drummer this side of Charlie Watts, when power-chord-conjuring Malcolm Young still owned a pair of gold-topped glam-rock boots as he peeled off the odd guitar solo and when his snotty baby brother really was a teenager. (Tony Currenti also played drums on three songs from this EP and Peter Clack on one other, while bass duties were shared by Evans, George Young and Rob Bailey.)

More than that, '74 Jailbreak cast a welcome new spotlight on the band's ex-frontman, who was an ancient 28 years old when the music was recorded. Bon Scott was revealed once more as their heart and soul, and eventual martyr, a hero who drove AC/DC's van before he led their juggernaut down the Highway to Hell.