Blog: Ronald Belford Scott – R.I.P.
Posted on February 19, 2010 with 0 comments
“Death by misadventure.” That’s what the British papers read at the time.
Hard to believe, but it’ll be 30 years today since Bon Scott kicked the oxygen habit. I couldn’t go without saying a bit about that.
Never got to see Mr. Scott perform; in fact, never even became familiar with him until after he died. By the time I was 11 or 12 though, I was an AC/DC fanatic. At that age, I don’t know precisely what I understood about the man, much less the substance of what he was singing. I knew I could play all the chords to all their songs, which just felt amazing. And I knew my parents thought Mr. Scott was dangerous. All in all, a pretty dang good start.
Looking back, I think I’m even more appreciative now than I was then. First of all, the voice – inimitable. Then there are the lyrics – variously hard-knock blues and hormonally-infused, but with all sorts of clever, wily twists. I suppose there were a lot of fathers out there who warned their daughters about guys like this. Those girls are all grown up now. I wonder how they feel about their own daughters singing along to Buck Cherry’s “Crazy Bitch.” Egads. Makes Bon look like a mere teddy bear.
The man was funny to boot. Here's a fine example of a fellow who patently refused to take himself too seriously. I’ve also seen footage of him performing in a skirt after he got his front tooth knocked out. Bet he would have been fun to have pint with.
I have a good friend – we like to have discussions about songwriting and such. This friend has a certain list of rules about what you can’t do in a rock song. No sexy language or silly entendre. No cocky guitar solos. And definitely, definitely no singing about “being in a rock-n-roll band.”
As I sit here and write this, I feel as though I’ve finally deciphered the crux of his beef, seeing as he’s never put it expressly into words for me:
He hates AC/DC.