If You Want Blood You've Got It
If You Want Blood You've Got It (written as just If You Want Blood) is the first live album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, and their only live album with Bon Scott as lead vocalist. It was originally released in the UK and Europe on 13 October 1978, in the US on 21 November 1978, and in Australia on 27 November 1978. The album was re-released in 1994 on Atco Records and in 2003 as part of the "AC/DC Remasters" series. Background. The album was released six  months after the band's previous studio album "Powerage". Originally, a greatest hits package had been in the works called "12 of the Best" but the project was scrapped in favour of a live album. It was recorded during the 1978 "Powerage" tour and contains songs from "T.N.T.", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Let There Be Rock", and "Powerage". It is the last Bon Scott-era AC/DC album produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, who also produced the band's first five studio releases. In his 1994 Bon Scott memoir "Highway to Hell", author Clinton Walker observes, "Live  albums, which tended to be double or triple sets in which songs short in their studio versions were stretched out into extended tedium, were for some reason popular in the seventies. "If You Want Blood" reversed this tradition... it boasted a blunt ten tracks and, allowing nothing extraneous, got straight to the point, that being raging AC/DC rock and roll." AC/DC's concert at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 April 1978 was used for the live tracks, and it has never been confirmed if any other concert tracks from this tour were also used. This  concert will also be remembered for the encore when AC/DC came back on stage dressed in the Scottish Football strip, paying homage to Scott's and the Young brothers' homeland. A song with the same title of "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)" appeared on the next album, and the band's US album chart breakthrough, "Highway to Hell". The song "Dog Eat Dog" performed on the night was eventually removed from the album release, and the encore "Fling Thing/Rocker", was edited for the album, removing "Fling Thing" and cutting out the extended Angus guitar solo , as he did a walk around the audience (with an early version of a wireless guitar lead). This part of the band's future concert theatrics was later replaced with "Let There Be Rock", as "Rocker" has not been performed more than a few times since the passing of Bon Scott in 1980. The live rendition of "Dog Eat Dog" from the concert was initially released as the B-side of the single "Whole Lotta Rosie" in November 1978, but only in Australia. It was later re-released worldwide in 2009 on the two (standard) and three (collectors) CD boxed  set compilation "Backtracks", featuring the Australian album only songs not released internationally at the time, and the live B-Sides from some 7" and 12" singles. The encore songs "Fling Thing" and "Rocker" (with its complete guitar solo) have appeared only on video footage of the concert by a Dutch TV station played at the time but were eventually released on the "Family Jewels" DVD. According to the 2006 book "AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll", the album title was an extension of Scott's response to a journalist at the Day on the Green festival in July 1978 who asked  what they could expect from the band and Scott replied, "Blood." The cover art is from a shoot done with Atlantic Records' staff photographer Jim Houghton before a show at Boston's Paradise Theater, the idea for which came from Atlantic's art director, Bob Defrin. Reception. The album is often considered to be one of the greatest live albums of all time. In a 1992 interview with "Metal Hammer" at the time of the band's second live release, Malcolm Young admitted, "I personally still prefer the old album. We were young, fresh, vital and kicking ass." Greg Prato  of AllMusic notes, "While most other rock bands of the era were busy experimenting with disco or creating studio-perfected epics, AC/DC was one of the few specializing in raw and bluesy hard rock, as evidenced by 1978's live set, If You Want Blood You've Got It." Eduardo Rivadavia of "Ultimate Classic Rock" enthuses, "Other concert records may boast more songs, more Top 40 hits or even more crowd-pleasing gimmicks. But very few can challenge the sheer excitement and reckless abandon captured on AC/DC’s terrific concert document." The album was listed at #2 on  Classic Rock magazine's readers' poll of "50 Greatest Live Albums Ever". Carlo Twist of "Blender" magazine praised the album, saying that "They were always a mighty live act, and this is the sound of AC/DC in Europe just prior to 1979’s U.S. breakthrough. The audience’s hysteria regularly cuts through the amps, as they howl along to singer Bon Scott’s tale of sexually transmitted disease (“The Jack”) and punctuate guitarist Angus Young’s staccato riffing on “Whole Lotta Rosie.” Imagine a punk-rock Chuck Berry played at nosebleed volume." Concert footage. The entire Glasgow concert was  filmed but the complete footage has never been released. Eventually, "Riff Raff" and "Fling Thing/Rocker" segments were made available on the DVD "AC/DC Family Jewels", released in 2005. Video footage was also used from the show on "Family Jewels" using the "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" studio version audio track promotional clip. Segments from the concert (the songs "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation", "Dog Eat Dog" and "Let There Be Rock") were made available on the DVD "Plug Me In", released in 2007. "Bad Boy Boogie" was included on the bonus disc on the three-disc edition of "Plug Me  In". Track listing. Complete Concert from the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow 30 April 1978. All songs written by Young/Young/Scott except 'Fling Thing (Scottish trad.)