AC/DC - R.I.P. (Rock In Peace) (2000)

During the long career AC/DC didn't keep much in the vaults, and even the recent 'Backtracks' box set only managed to find a few rarities, including songs that featured on Australian-only releases, movie soundtracks, single b-sides and tour CDs. I've concentrated on just the b-sides, which span the whole of the band's lifestime from early singles in 1976, to a rare b-side from 2000, and the set is split pretty much 50/50 between the Scott and Johnson eras. 'Jailbait' is an excellent start to the album, although when 'Fling Thing' started I was a bit worried that they might have decided to tape novelty songs for the flips to their singles, but luckily it was a one-off, and obviously a tongue-in-cheek nod to their Scottish roots. The rest of the songs are what you'd expect from a band at the fore-front of the hard rock scene. 'Crabsody In Blue' is taken from early UK and Australian pressings of 'Let There Be Rock', before the record company started having second though about the subject matter (pubic lice) and removed it from future pressing. This was in fact the first album of theirs that I bought, so my old vinyl copy includes this disgraceful song! If there's one thing that this album shows, it's that once they found their sound they stuck with it for life, as apart from the vocalist you'd hardly be able to tell a 1976 song from a 1990 one. 

Track listing

01 Jailbreak (single 1976)
02 Fling Thing (b-side of 'Jailbreak')
03 Love Song (Oh Jene) (b-side of 'Baby, Please Don't Go' 1975)
04 R.I.P. (Rock In Peace) (b-side of 'Dirty Deeds Done Cheap' 1976)
05 Carry Me Home (b-side of 'Dog Eat Dog' 1977)
06 Crabsody In Blue (from UK and  Australian editions of 'Let There Be Rock' 1977)
07 Cold Hearted Man (b-side of 'Rock 'n' Roll Damnation' 1978)
08 Snake Eye (b-side of 'Heatseeker' 12" 1986)
09 Borrowed Time (b-side of 'That's The Way I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll' 12" 1988)
10 Down On The Borderline (b-side of 'Moneytalks' 1990)
11 Big Gun (single 1993)
12 Cyberspace (b-side of 'Safe In New York City' 2000)