AC/DC’s landmark 1980 LP, Back in Black, turns 40 on July 25th, and they’re marking the occasion by releasing vintage videos from the era on YouTube. The newest one is a performance of “What Do You Do for Money Honey” from a February 1981 show at Nippon Seinenkan in Tokyo.
Original AC/DC frontman Bon Scott died slightly less than one year before this show in Tokyo, and this was their first time on the road with singer Brian Johnson. It’s a rare live video where Johnson isn’t wearing his trademark newsboy hat. He is wearing an Ohio State University shirt, which he probably picked up when the group played Columbus, Ohio, five months earlier.
There was initially some skepticism about whether or not AC/DC could flourish without Scott, but all doubts were put to rest the second that Back in Black hit. It was their biggest album to date, and songs like “Hells Bells,” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Back in Black,” “Shoot to Thrill,” and “Rock & Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” have been at the center of their live show for the past 40 years. “What Do You Do for Money Honey” has gotten slightly less love. They last played it on the 2001 Stiff Upper Lip tour.
The future of AC/DC is somewhat of a mystery at the moment, but there is photographic evidence that the group spent time at a Vancouver recording studio in 2018, suggesting that drummer Phil Rudd, bassist Cliff Williams, and Johnson are back in the fold. By the conclusion of the Rock or Bust tour in 2016, they had all departed from the group for various reasons. There were widespread rumors of a new album and tour earlier this year, but it’s quite possible that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed their plans.
