The political elite is unremitting in its efforts to convince us that the independence campaign was a traumatic experience and that we all now need a lie-down. First we had a service of healing organised by the Church of Scotland and then last week day a Day of Reconciliation on social media with trained mediators making themselves available. Johann Lamont was still banging on about it at Holyrood two weeks after the vote. Most of this nonsense, of course, has come from professionals who were on the no side during the campaign. Unable to match the fervour of the yes side, they decided that it was best to try to besmirch it instead. Jim Murphy stopped just short of asking for a curfew to be imposed after he was hit by a single egg in his Scary Monsters tour of Scotland.
I can exclusively reveal though, that civic Scotland has just passed up a classic opportunity to heal the wounds of division and apply a soothing balm to the silent rage that lurks beneath all of those who voted yes. In the aftermath of the referendum, Glasgow city council had an opportunity to bring warring sides together and for swords to be turned into ploughshares through the salvific power of high voltage rock’n’roll.
The council debated a proposal put forward by one of its hardest-working and indomitable members, councillor Frank Docherty, for a civic honour to be bestowed on Angus and Malcolm Young, founder members of AC/DC. Docherty represents the east end ward in Cranhill, which was once home to the Young brothers.
The council though, for reasons that we may never know, thought it best not to recognise the global achievements of two of the city’s own sons. Perhaps they thought that the rude and raucous form of hard rock that is AC/DC’s favoured approach might scare the horses if they were seen actively to be encouraging it at a civic level.
This is a shame, however, for an award to Angus and Malcolm is long overdue and there are very sound reasons for bestowing such a bauble. I know that some of their songs have titles like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, She’s got the Jack and Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be. But they have a sensitive side too.
AC/DC have a solid following in Scotland which includes devotees of both the yes and no side in the referendum. I’m sure we would all have held our cigarette lighters in the air together and made that wee horned devil sign with our two outside fingers in a show of peace and fraternity if Glasgow city council had indeed saluted the Young brothers. There are some things more important than independence and nationhood and rock’n’roll is one of them.
Cranhill is a proud neighbourhood but one that has suffered a disproportionate share of social inequality and deprivation. Angus Young, the lead guitarist of AC/DC, has revealed that his father had to leave the area in the 60s and head for Australia to find work when the boys were still at primary school.
Docherty and I first discussed the idea to honour the brothers in this way a long time ago. He, having lived and worked in the east end for decades, immediately saw benefits to the Cranhill neighbourhood in having two of its children publicly acknowledged and then, perhaps, playing a wee concert near the site of where their tenement home once stood.
Indeed, Angus has discussed this before in a moving interview which showed that he still cares deeply for his Scottish roots. He even joked about renaming Cranhill “Angusland” and embroidering AC/DC’s iconic thunderflash logo on the famous water tower that once looked over his childhood home. “Our Scottish background gave us a good grounding – we had a kind of doggedness and determination. We kept at it and never let go of what we wanted to achieve,” he said.
I feel too that some of AC/DC’s rather raw and uncompromising song titles and lyrics can give those of a sensitive disposition a jaundiced view of the band and what they represent. I would urge them to look beyond the hard drinking and fast sex allegories and discover messages of hope, redemption and forgiveness interred in some of their poetry. In Bad Boy Boogie, the band are in reflective mood and finding common cause with the outsiders and loners among us who are too often harshly judged.
On the day I was born the rain fell down
There was trouble brewing in my home town
It was the seventh day, I was the seventh son
And it scared the hell out of everyone
And what is the band’s seminal Let There Be Rock if not a moving and passionate endorsement of rock’n’roll and its power to bring us all together in times of bitterness and strife?
Let there be sound, and there was sound
Let there be light, and there was light
Let there be drums, there was drums
Let there be guitar, there was guitar, ah
Let there be rock …
There is one more compelling reason for Glasgow to think again and bestow an honour on the Young brothers. It was revealed two weeks ago that Malcolm, the rhythm guitarist, has had to quit the band owing to illness. This means that we’ll never see them again together on stage doing what they do best. But I feel sure that an acknowledgment of his family’s contribution to global music and culture from his home town and an invite to make one last visit home would perk up his spirits.
To listen to the music and lyrics of AC/DC is to feel the heartbeat of Glasgow and all its qualities and attributes; its harsh, warm humour and its uncompromising attitude to life.
So I would entreat the councillors and city officers to do the right and decent thing and make Angus and Malcolm Young freemen of their home city and thus claim the band, once and for all, for Scotland. They make us all Better Together in an authentic way.