Cover Versions: AC/DC’s Highway To Hell by Ed Kuepper

So every man and his dog has heard AC/DC‘s Highway To Hell by now but have you heard this wicked re-working by former The Saints by way of the Laughing Clowns and solo artist for over 30 years, Ed Kuepper‘s?

So I really can’t write a post about them but I seem to be doing it right now! Most likely this will be the only post. I find it totally stupid what they’re doing right now but people/fans seem to love/paying money to see Axl Rose as the singer but now a few days ago the bass player Cliff Williams since 1977 is now soon retiring but it’s only him nothing about AC/DC or Angus Young, him and Rose will be recording an album soon and god help us all then. I don’t even know how or why they’re calling themselves AC/DC, it’s only Angus now but I guess he anyways thinks he was the whole band. To me the band die when Bon Scott passed on 19th Feb. 1980 and everything after that was some kind-off bad cover band or just a shadow of the 1970’s band. Recent history, it will be history sooner or later thank god too but earlier this year the singer since 1980 Brian Johnson had to stop singing and touring because he was going to go deaf then with the only founding member, rhythm guitarist and Angus brother Malcolm Young just totaling forgetting to leave the band in 2014 and the on/off drummer since 1975 Phil Rudd just replaced in 2015 because of his legal problems anyway how can they keep called themselves the same name? Rock Or Bust was the name the last terrible album, can you even called it an album? I think bust should win but somehow not yet, they’re a total nostalgia act now even with Rose as a new singer!

I want to write about Bon Scott and my home town now forget about the totally silly band they have become. The song Highway To Hell is about Scott gigging around Perth and Fremantle way before even joining that band or should I say it’s just about going up the road to his fave pub for a drink or two or three or four or… The highway he’s talking and singing about is actually a real place here, it’s Canning Highway. Scott lived in Freo and would have to travel up the Canning Highway to the old Raffles Hotel just before Canning Bridge, it’s was total black spot at the time because it dips into a steep decline in the road with intersection and a pub on the corner so it’s perfect place to get killed in your car. Years before any Aussies heard “Your a bloody idiot if you drink and drink” on TV and radio ads, it became a local joke and nicknamed the highway to hell. Only in Australia you could turn something like that into a joke, today most people that live here don’t even know about it. Local government, main roads and redevelopment has pretty much wiped away almost everything from Scott’s time away but Canning Highway and Bridge are still here. So in 1979 Scott wrote the joke/story into his lyrics for this song. So you now know if didn’t before? I might write a bit more about Bon Scott and that band more sometime but it’s just got to have to be the early days.

Highway To Hell lyrics by Bon Scott

Living easy, living free
Season ticket on a one-way ride
Asking nothing, leave me be
Taking everything in my stride
Don’t need reason, don’t need rhyme
Ain’t nothing I would rather do
Going down, party time
My friends are gonna be there too

I’m on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell

No stop signs, speed limit
Nobody’s gonna slow me down
Like a wheel, gonna spin it
Nobody’s gonna mess me around
Hey Satan, paid my dues
Playing in a rocking band
Hey mama, look at me
I’m on my way to the promised land, whoo!

I’m on the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell
Highway to hell

Don’t stop me

I’m on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell
On the highway
Yeah, highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell
Highway to hell
Highway to hell

And I’m going down
All the way
Whoa!
I’m on the highway to hell

Ed Kuepper did this cover song in the mid-90’s and you can find it on various release of his but I’ve got the single cover artwork here as the main image. I’ve written about him before on my thingy here: his last album called Lost Cities and his last gig in Freo and early single/video of a song called Also Sprach The King Of Euro-Disco from mid-80’s. Oh Ed’s already got another cover here in my ten fave Nick Cave covers too.

Sorry to anyone who still loves AC/DC now and my mad rant about them, it just really pissing me off! What’s everyone’s fave song/album? I total still love the High Voltage album so If I do write about them it will be about that at some other stage, OK? But what is your fave AC/DC song/s?