"For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" is a song by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. The song was released onto AC/DC's album with the same name in 1981. The cannons fired in the song are mixed with exploding fireworks. The video to this song was filmed live in Landover, Maryland in 1981. The song would later be released on AC/DC's first soundtrack album, Who Made Who, released five years later for the Stephen King film Maximum Overdrive. The title and central lyric of the song are based on an ancient salute used by Roman prisoners to be executed in the Colosseum, "Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant" ("Hail Caesar, we who are about to die, salute you."). However, Angus Young later said that the inspiration for the cannons came from a very different source. The band was cutting the first recordings of the song on the same day as Princess Diana of Great Britain's televised wedding. Angus recalled that "someone had the wedding on in the next room ... we were playing that part of the song when the cannons were going off and we paused a second and went 'hmmm ... that actually sounds pretty good.'" This coincidence also led to a cannon being featured on the cover of the album and single, as well as life-sized Napoleonic cannons becoming a regular stage prop at AC/DC concerts. The cannons fired in the song are mixed with exploding fireworks. The single's b-side contains an edited live version of Let There Be Rock from the Landover, MD show in 1981. The maxi-single contains the extended version of the same song. AC/DC have often used the song to close live concerts, such as Live at Donington, No Bull, and Stiff Upper Lip Live as well as on their live CD AC/DC Live.
Lyrics[]
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