Did you know that the inspiration for AC/DC’s legendary 1981 hit, “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)”, comes from something quite ancient? Unless you’re a diehard AC/DC fan, this might just be news to you.
Back in 2021, Angus Young sat down for an interview with Zane Lowe on Essentials Radio. There, he talked about the unlikely inspiration behind the title track of one of the band’s greatest career albums. According to Young, the lyrics of the famed rock anthem came from none other than a British poet and novelist named Robert Graves. And the lore gets even older than that.
AC/DC’s Angus Young Said “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” Was Inspired by a British Poet and Ancient Gladiators
Angus Young spoke about the 1981 title track to For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) and the inspiration behind it. He brought up that he and Malcolm Young were inspired by a specific lyric. That lyric came from the famed early 20th-century British poet, Robert Graves
This AC/DC hit started with the brothers coming up with “a little guitar thing” and “this little guitar chordal progression.” From there, the lyrics needed to be written.
“The funny thing is, when we got to the chorus, we were going, ‘Okay, what are we going to sing on this?’” Young told Lowe. “[Robert Graves] had a book out or a story he had put in one of the papers, because he did a lot of history stuff.”
Angus Young read the paper and caught a particularly eye-catching line.
“It was ‘For those about to die,’” said Young.
For reference, Young is referring to the ancient salute that was used by Roman prisoners. Individuals who were about to be executed in Ancient Rome would use this salute before their deaths. The term is “Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.” That roughly translates to “Hail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you.”
“And he went into a day in the Coliseum or somewhere in Rome at the time, and the thing that the gladiators did,” Young continued. “And I thought, ‘That might fit.’ So it was a case of, if I can come up with a way of singing something that can sing into it.”
More recently, Young elaborated on the inspiration for those famous cannons in the song, too. Apparently, the band heard the sound of cannons during Princess Diana’s televised wedding. The sound was heard while they were working on the first recordings of the track. It seems as though history was a bigger part of the song than many fans realized!
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