AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock” Was Inspired by an English Poet
AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” was released as a single on March 22nd, 1982 . . . which means that as of yesterday, it’s 40 years old.
So here’s a quick nugget of knowledge for your noggin’: The song was inspired by an ENGLISH POET.
In an interview last year, ANGUS YOUNG said, quote, “There was a writer, Robert Graves I believe his name was. I think he had a book out or a story and it was, ‘For those about to die,’ and he went into a day in the Coliseum.
“And this is this thing the gladiators did, and I thought, ‘Hey, that might fit.'”
It’s not clear what specific work inspire Angus. But Graves did do a translation of “The Twelve Caesars“, which is a 2,000-year-old biography on the first emperors of Rome.
It contains the line, “Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you.”
