Powerage is an album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It was the band's fourth internationally released studio album and the fifth to be released in Australia. All songs were written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott. Powerage was re-released in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series.
After a 12-date European tour opening for Black Sabbath in April, bassist Mark Evans was fired from AC/DC on May 3, 1977. In the AC/DC memoir AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, former manager Michael Browning states, "I got a call one day from Malcolm and Angus. We were in London, I went to their apartment and they told me they wanted to get rid of Mark. Him and Angus didn't see eye to eye. They used to have a sort of tit-for-tat thing going, but nothing that I would have ever thought was going to be gig-threatening." According to Browning, the Young brothers were seriously considering Colin Pattenden of Manfred Mann fame until Browning, who feared Pattenden was too old and did not fit their image, pushed Englishman Cliff Williams, who had played with Home and Bandit. Williams, who could also sing background vocals, passed the audition and would go on to record on Powerage, although Evans insists that the album also has bass by him, as the Powerage songs started being done during the recording of his last album Let There Be Rock, and producer George Young while Williams was having trouble getting his work visa. In a 2011 interview with Joe Bosso that appears on MusicRadar, Evans reflected on his ousting from the group:
I know that it's evil
I know that it's got to be
I know I ain't doing much
Doing nothing means a lot to me
Living on a shoe string
A fifty cent millionaire
Open to charity
Rock 'n' roller welfare
Sitting in my Cadillac
Listening to my radio
Suzy baby get on in
Tell me where she want to go
I'm living in a nightmare
She's looking like a wet dream
I got myself a Cadillac
But I can't afford the gasoline
CHORUS:
I've got holes in my shoes
And I'm way overdue
Down payment blues
Get myself a steady job
Some responsibility
Can't even feed my cat
On social security
Hiding from the rent man
Oh it makes me want to cry
Sheriff knocking on my door
Ain't it funny how the time flies
Sitting on my sailing boat
Sipping off my champaign
Suzy baby all at sea [Suzy baby you're obscene]
Say she want to come again
Feeling like a paper cup
[Floating | Blowing] down a storm drain
Got myself a sailing boat
But I can't afford the gasoline [...afford a drop of rain]
But I can't afford to gather way [gather way - navigation - To attain headway. ]
CHORUS