The Jack

Mike,
Cars Hiss By My Window has got a Blues chord progression, just like Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll, Ten Years After's I'm Going Home, ZZ Top's Tush and many more songs.

Cars Hiss By My Window is a great song btw

Just was wondering I have both the AC/DC Live ablum and thier Gold Album, how come the lyrics are differnt on each version. the on on Gold is about poker, while the live one is like the true one. why is that? still good song

Also, Ten Years After formed in 1965, so it's more likely that technically Angus Young's playing is similar to his.

Mike, I have heard Cars Hiss By My Window by The Doors, and yes I can confirm your point. Also, Barry, Ten Years After's Alvin Lee (Guitarist/Singer) is an excellent player. The band plays very bluesy stuff most of the time with quick, clean guitar work, but their most popular song is more pop-oriented, "I'd Love to Change the World".

Love the live version. studio one, it's okay.

The live version rocks.

Malcom was having sex at the time with a woman in Melbourne. He was jamming with the guys one day and received a letter from the woman telling him that he had given her the jack. Malcolm said "well she must've given it to me, because I didn't have it" and he had to go to the clinic to get rid of it.

Speaking of "blues" influences on AC/DC, anybody remember the group 10 Years After? They are featured on the "Woodstock" movie doing the song "Going Home". Thier lead guitar player is shredding a ES335 and his style of playing and moving around on stage is like Angus Young. Check out the movie sometime.

Anyone here a Doors fan? Well their song Car Hiss by My Window(on L.A. Woman) has the exact same chord progression. Did they rip it off the Doors or is it coincidental? Anyone heard Car Hiss?

Not your typical AC/DC song but when Bon sang it live, it was pure genius.

AND AC/DC DONT LIVE IN AMERICA- and yeah, Highway to Hell- the Horror of touring the U.S- I feel safe in New York City, IN A CAGE

Such a great song!The play on words- AMAZING how they could write two versions of the lyrics and still form one song..!GENIUS- thanx Bon, 4 the entertainment..So Great

this song is so cool. i can't belive brian said the B word when he sings the jack. why is his verson diffrent than bon scott's

I love this AC/DC song,I love the lyrics,"She told me she was a virgin",ooh! I love this!!!

Congratulations Ryan, you have completely missed my points... except for the one this whole blog was created for. Perhaps I forget that I have to rely on other people to read with a certain tone that I cannot assure they are reading with. To hell with conservatism and to hell with radical liberals, they are all puppet parties anyway. I'm pretty left-leaning as it is. Inherently with living as an American today, you are doomed and are dooming other nations. And, sadly, it isn't just us. I said in my comment that we don't like our president nor the dictatorship created by "terrorist states" we live under, so thanks for adding on to the record that was already there....... I'm just saying, don't you have anything to say to the Aussie down there? He is as human as I am. At some point, you have to break down the barriers and look at others as people of the same race and not as separated entities of social constructs. I wasn't the first to throw hate, as my first comment 6 columns down shows. What does his type of commenting represent? An overly patriotic from Australia. I don't care where he's from, he's a dumbf*ck. What gives him any more authority then anyone else? If he were to claim he knew a lot about The Doors, I wouldn't say he doesn't have the authority to criticize them simply because he is from "ffffff, Australia" and not from ddddd, America. It's not like I have any way of getting to know any American band better than anyone living overseas does, save the exclusive list of friends and family those bands associate themselves with. So go ahead, label me a conservative and talk trash, I don't care. You're an equally pathetic excuse for flesh and bones yourself, have a good day. And that's a real cute picture you made for me, it goes well with your 8=> (fully erect)

Thank you Marshall from Bar Harbor, ME, you have just single handedly andvanced the reason other countries hate the U.S. And for the record most people hate george bush and think our country is going to hell in a handbasket and it is conservative morons like you who neglect that little fact. but however you got one thing right, old school rockers from the 50s did influence the rock bands that we know so well from the 60s and 70s but we can not credit america entirely for that because we were listening to the "bubblegummers" such as Favian, then britain listened to fathers of rock (chuck berry, buddy holly, even elvis) and sent rock n roll back to america. and dont rip on ac/dc for not having and australian singer they still have the young brothers and that is enough australian for anyone. so in short ,,|,, (-_-) ,,|,,

This song wasn't originally known as "The Clap". It has always been The Jack, because that's what it's known as in Austrailia.

I've seen every tour since 1977 in the USA. This song is the only one that they play in each and every show on every tour, without fail.

yeah, that's why the band lives in America, and has in the past written songs praising America, and has more recently written songs about,..uh,.. NEW YORK CITY. Not to mention, in their music video they are depicted driving.., what is that gas guzzling atrocity of a vehicle the world hates America for,..? oh yeah, a HUMMER.
Sounds like AC/DC has jumped at the opportunity to bend down and take that grand American shaft in attempt to boost their image and gain validation from the country and city they, "feel safe in."
I hate to say it, but were it not for the early delta blues musicians of the early 20th century, which by the way came out of America, then there wouldn't be AC/DC, or Zeppelin, or Clapton, or the Beatles, or the Stones, or any other rock band to date. AC/DC is really one of the few commercial rock claims you Australians really have, and the current singer isn't even Australian. Another claim being Savage Garden,.."oo, chicka Cherry Cola." Can someone say, lyrical genius? Please, if anything, rock is the one thing America has done right and is the birth place of Rock. Then to go on and label Americans like the majority of us are actually proud of the government system we live under, just shows your blatant ignorance and insensibility toward the situation. Quit (deleted) the wallabies and scrape off the (deleted) that is apparently keeping your eyes crusted shut. In America, we call you sort of people...retarded!!!!!
That's another thing I don't get, do more explanation marks denote more excitement? Man, those wallabies must love you. You can quit your little "I'm from Australia, I'm so prideful," act, because I'm sure a lot of your friends think you're a douchebag. Hey, thanks for giving Australia a glimmering image!!!!!!!

Cheers mate.

To Tom, East Lyme, CT .

Listening to Americans talk about AC/DC with some authority What a joke! but then again Americans are famous for sticking their noses into issues that they have no understanding of and then have the ordasity to say they are experts. All I can say is IRAQ IRAQ IRAQ Septics leave AC-DC alone!!!!1 you know nothing !!!!!!!!

Come on dudes, panther you are correct. I have the original import releases of the song. It was always called "The Jack" and everybody knew it meant the clap. AC/DC has always been straight forward Rock n" Roll band. If you try to figure them out you gotta get a life. It fun hard rocking roc n' roll. No sissy (deleted) here. If you want the Wall Flowers grab the next train to Pansy Land. Can you here the Thunder?

dude,... AC/DC has a lot of blues influence included in a lot of their songs...I think they have every right to pay it to their origins to do a straight up 12 bar blues song...and its a genious allegory. I think they pull it off well.

I really don't like this song...AC/DC should have never tried Blues, I don't why, apparently I'm the only one who thinks so...

This song rocks!! My fourth favorite AC/DC song (I have a list in order that goes to about 27 of their songs). Have you ever noticed, though, that "Cat Scratch Fever" by Ted Nugent, "(Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones, "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress" by The Hollies, and "The Jack" by AC/DC all have very similar hooks?? And I know that a lot of songs sound similar, not accusing anybody of theft. Just an observation.

Bon was the one who came up with the 2 sets of lyrics. there is a JJJ LATW recording of ac/dc from 1977 in which bon sings the alternate lyrics.

Have you guys seen the Australian album cover for Hight Voltage? (It was their first Australian album) Jeez, it was HIDEOUS! It's all neon green and pink and stuff. Bleh! Anyway, this song is extremely clever! How did Bon Scott come up with these metaphors? Quite funny...

The Jack is a good Blues beat song. Led Zeppelin's Since I've Been Lovin' You and the Lemon Song are also awesome Blues songs.

I personally think that their were to many "she's got the jack"'s, but the way he sing's makes it ok.... oh, and I agree with Jonas from Detriot.

actually there is not a bon version and a brian version there is a live and a studio version though
th live one is the lternate lyrics and does not really have any metaphores in it at all

Oh my. Well, first off the song is very well written and Andrew is correct about the seriousness of the lyrics, full of metaphores and puns. And to Jonas from Detroit, damn it man, you made me soooo cranky. AC/DC won't allow Brian to play it the original way because of the connnection it has with the band, and becomes empty when anyone else plays it besides Bon. That is why there are two versions. Bons and Brians. This is also why Led Zeppelin would sound bad playing it. And Dylan, please tell me where you got your information on the Quote, so I can look into that. I have heard other stories, but I won't comment on them until I see into it further.

First of all...in the early days AC/DC did take ther lyrics seriously. Bon had a notebook of poems that he wrote as songs, which sadly were lost when he died. And yes the jack has two sets of lyrics...a live version (unless they're doin a radio show) and a recorded version. And actually Angus coined the venereal disease phrase the jack.

This song is about one of the AC/DC band members giving a girl an STD. One of the groupies or whatever got it on with a few of the band members and got gonorrhea. She accued Bon Scott of giving her the STD and Bon replied "I didn't give you the jack it was Phil!" (who was AC/DC's drummer at the time). They named the song after this.

This may sound quite odd but I can imagine Led Zeppelin palying this! I mean the solo could've easily been played byJimmy Page and the bass part sounds like it could've been played by John Paul Jones. However, the lyrics aren't very typical of Robert Plant are they!

"The Jack" has two different sets of lyrics. "She told me she was a virgin" is indeed part of the alternate, less radio-friendly version. This is one time, though, where I prefer the radio version (though the other one has some pretty hilarious lyrics, as well) because the metaphor of playing cards worked so well.



Another thing, I'm not too sure about this and that's why I'm not sending it in as a correction, but I seem to recall that it was *not* originally called "The Clap", as "the jack" was Australian slang for "the clap" (American slang).

at first when i heard the song on "high voltage" i loved the song,but when i heard brian johnson sing it.He messed it up soo bad.he said "she said she was a virgin"he gave the whole mystery of the song away it's supposed to say, "she said she hadn't been delt with before".

First appeared in the US on the album 'High Voltage'.