For those unaware, often regarded as the greatest frontman in the history of rock music, Ronald Belford Scott aka Bon Scott tragically died on February 19th, 1980 but his memory lives through the music he created with AC/DC.

To fans and critics alike, the years 1973 to 1980 - the Bon Scott era are the most significant of AC/DC’s five-decade career.

When it comes to singers of rock and roll history Bon Scott is a legend. His career was unfortunately cut short in 1979 due to drug and alcohol addiction. To me AC/DC was more AC/DC with Bon Scott as lead vocals. They had a sound that I personally feel Brian Johnson can’t fulfill.

From 1974 to 1979 Bon created legendary hits from Highway to Hell to Whole Lotta Rosie also Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap you can say that they help perfect the Rock n’ Roll sound.

Bon was such an incredible performer and lyricist. People always like to say that every AC/DC release sounds the same, but in terms of lyrics, there’s really a hard shift when Brian takes over that I don’t think is talked about enough.

He wasn’t a big man. He stood just 5’5” in his lurex socks. But if ever a rock star deserved the epithet ‘larger than life’, it was Bon. He was a natural, a one-off, with a special kind of charisma. When he strutted on stage, bare-chested, dripping sweat and oozing machismo, he was effortlessly in control.

He was, as Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott said, “born to do it.” But unlike so many rock stars, Bon never lost touch with reality. Typical of a man born in Scotland and raised in Australia, two places where pretentiousness is rarely tolerated, he had no airs and graces. To the end, he was a genuine working class hero. Indeed, Bon was, in his own words, “a rocker, roller, right out of controller”, and he embraced the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle wholeheartedly.

The band’s lead guitarist Angus Young described Bon, with no little affection, as “the dirtiest f**ker I ever knew”. But as Angus Young would be the first to say, there was more to Bon Scott than a legendary flair for excess. Above all else, Bon was a singer and lyricist of complete authenticity. UFO bassist Pete Way, a close friend of Bon’s, said simply: “He lived what he sang about.”

Of course, nobody would ever accuse AC/DC of having subtlety, but Bon had a sort of down-and-out, acerbic sense of humor in most of his tunes (see songs like Kicked in the Teeth, The Jack, and Down Payment Blues) and a lot of it was genuinely funny and self-deprecating.

Once Brian started singing, Ang and Mal took over lyric duties - I mean, Brian hasn’t written a lyric for an AC/DC song since Blow Up Your Video in 1987, right? - and I feel like they lost that sense of humor. After that, it seemed that the tunes were about rock and roll, good times, and dangerous women… and that’s about it.

I still love Brian as a singer and I have at least one nice thing to say about every single one of their albums, but I can’t help but feel that Bon was a much better lyricist in addition to being a little better of a frontman.

The highs and lows, the hellraising and womanizing, the dreams and hardships: it was all there in AC/DC’s songs. And whatever story he was telling – recalling comical sexual exploits in Whole Lotta Rosie or the grind of poverty in Down Payment Blues, acting tough in Live Wire or, at his most vulnerable, giving into road-weary loneliness in Ride On – Bon was always believable, his voice weighted with experience.

Anyway, simply put, I’m definitely a much bigger fan of Bon’s era. I think his voice’s timbre is what draws me to that era, in the same way Geddy Lee has a very unique singing voice, or Queen’s duo of Freddie Mercury’s voice and Brian May’s guitar tone. That’s just my humble opinion, of course, but this MAGNIFICENT box-set showcases all that and more to a tee.

Disc 1:
1. Live Wire 2. Shot Down in Flames 3. Hell Ain’t Bad Place To Be 4. Sin City 5. Problem Child 6. Bad Boy Boogie 7. The Jack 8. Highway To Hell 9. High Voltage 10. Whola Lotta Rosie 11. Rocker 12. If You Want Blood 13. Let There Be Rock

Disc 2:
1. Gone Shootin 2. Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be 3. Problem Child 4. The Jack 5. Bad Boy Boogie 6. Baby, Please Don’t Go 7. Sin City 8. Problem Child 9. Whole Lotta Rosie 10. Live Wire

Disc 3:
1. High Voltage 2. It’s A Long Way To The Top 3. Soul Stripper 4. Live Wire 5. Baby, Please Don’t Go 6. Dog eat dog 7. Problem Child 8. Bad Boy Boogie 9. Gone Shootin 10. Sin City 11. Rocker

Disc 4:
1. Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be 2. Problem Child 3. Whole Lotta Rosie 4. Gone Shooting 5. High Voltage 6. Baby, Please Don’t Go 7. Rocker 8. Sin City 9. Problem Child 10. Whole Lotta Rosie 11. The Jack

Disc 5:
1. Shot Down in Flames 2. Highway To Hell 3. Hell Ain’t Bad Place To Be 4. Sin City 5. Walk All Over You 6. Bad Boy Boogie 7. The Jack 8. Live Wire 9. Got Rhythm 10. Whola Lotta Rosie 11. Rock And Roll Damnation 12. Rocker 13. Let There Be Rock

Disc 6 1. Live Wire 2. Problem Child 3. Sin City 4. Gone Shootin 5. Problem Child 6. Baby, Please Don’t Go 7. Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be 8. Rocker 9. Whole Lotta Rosie 10. The Jack

Disc 7:
1. Riff Raff 2. Rock And Roll Damnation 3. Bad Boy Boogie 4. Let There Be Rock 5. Dog Eat Dog 6. Rocker 7. Problem Child 8. Hell Ain’t a Bad Place To Be

Disc 8:
1. Rocker 2. Bad Boy Boogie 3. Let There Be rock 4. Problem Child 5. Whole Lotta Rosie 6. Round And Round 7. Highway To Hell

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