Youngs : The Brothers Who Built Ac/Dc (9781466865204) by Jesse Fink Page A

that’s the way it always was. From that day on, George had his arm around Harry’s shoulder the whole time. And that’s not to say Harry wasn’t a valuable part of their partnership. I like to call George the heart and Harry the soul of that situation.”
    The second was his old writing partner Stevie Wright, who, concealing a hidden drug addiction and stuck in a career lull after the disbanding of The Easybeats (at one point he sold men’s apparel), was gifted probably the best song Vanda & Young ever worked on in their lives, the 11-minute and eight-second, three-part epic “Evie.” It was written (according to legend) about George’s own daughter, Yvette, and Chris Gilbey confirms this is true: “George talked at that time about ‘Evie’ being inspired by his daughter, yes. But I tend to think that it was more about attaching a name with two syllables to a brilliant song idea.”
    In an interview with The Age in 2004, Vanda would not be drawn on its meaning: “Over the years, everybody keeps asking what the song is about, and we’ve never answered it, and we’re not going to now.”
    It was a song, though, that was never intended to run so long. It started life originally as three separate songs but it became one organically in the studio.
    Like “Good Times,” then, “Evie” was effectively a hit by accident. But it was a much more significant one in the context of Vanda & Young’s songwriting career, having been offered to their old bandmate under the benevolent watch of Ted Albert. Their selfless gesture went some way to make up for the hurt Wright had felt in being shut out as a songwriter for The Easybeats, when Vanda had emerged as George’s go-to creative partner.
    Opitz says it was the song where “George and Harry really stretched their legs.” Doug Thaler thinks it’s “unbelievable, an amazing piece of songwriting.” Shel Talmy says it was “very reminiscent of things I did with The Who and The Kinks.” While Snowy Fleet says it still touches him so much he gets “a lump in my throat” when he hears it.
    â€œIt’s a damn good song,” says Wright, confirming it’s the song he’s most proud of but, all the same, he was never convinced about the slower Part II.
    â€œI said, ‘George, they’ll think I’m Engelbert Humperdinck or something.’ But it turned out as usual I was wrong.”
    So wrong that it went to #1 in Australia for six weeks and stayed on the charts for half a year.
    *   *   *
    In 1974 the flamboyant Queen was just starting to get big. Rock operas such as Jesus Christ Superstar (a local production of which Wright had starred in), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars , Lou Reed’s Berlin and The Who’s Quadrophenia were all the rage. Wright’s comeback album, Hard Road , made up of six of his own original compositions and three from Vanda & Young, required ambition and a grand vision. “Evie” was to be a song that showed that Australia could write rock sagas with the best of them.
    And it was a crucial chapter in the AC/DC story, with a young Malcolm Young, not far out of his teens, contributing the solo to the rocking Part I.
    â€œIt started the whole thing,” says Opitz, “where Malcolm’s confidence—being the elder of Angus—would have grown and with George being the mentor: the successful older brother. Malcolm just wanted to be in a rock band. I think you have to take that maturation process into account.”
    Wright’s influence would also extend to Bon Scott. The AC/DC icon admitted as much in 1978: “The Easybeats were the last rock band that I really liked. We’re taking over where they left off.”
    Two years later, according to Wright, he was asked to front AC/DC for the second time.
    â€œThey asked me to join AC/DC after Bon