Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll and over 300,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
51 used & new from $1.15

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of the World's Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band
 
 
Start reading AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
 
  

AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of the World's Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band (Paperback)

by Murray Engleheart (Author), Arnaud Durieux (Author)
Key Phrases: schoolboy uniform, rock movie, Back In Black, Michael Browning, Ian Jeffery (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

List Price: $16.99
Price: $13.25 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $3.74 (22%)
  Special Offers Available
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Only 5 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want it delivered Monday, July 13? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
30 new from $1.15 21 used from $1.30
Also Available in: List Price: Our Price: Other Offers:
Kindle Edition (Kindle Book) $9.99
Hardcover 12 used & new from $12.53

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Purchase this entertainment book and get 12 issues to either Rolling Stone, Men's Journal or Us Weekly for $2.95 each. That's less than $0.25 an issue. Here's how (restrictions apply)
  • Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.


Frequently Bought Together

AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of the World's Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band + Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott + AC/DC: Two Sides to Every Glory: The Complete Biography
Price For All Three: $44.42

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

AC/DC: Plug Me In (3 disc Limited Edition)

AC/DC: Plug Me In (3 disc Limited Edition)

DVD ~ AC/DC
4.5 out of 5 stars (42)  $47.99
AC/DC: Two Sides to Every Glory: The Complete Biography

AC/DC: Two Sides to Every Glory: The Complete Biography

by Paul Stenning
3.6 out of 5 stars (8)  $15.56
Let There Be Rock

Let There Be Rock

~ AC/DC
4.6 out of 5 stars (123)  $9.99
Slash

Slash

by Slash
4.4 out of 5 stars (135)  $12.47
AC/DC: The Encyclopaedia

AC/DC: The Encyclopaedia

by Malcolm Dome
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $15.56
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Five years in the making, journalist Engleheart and leading AC/DC expert Durieux have crafted the definitive biography of the wildly successful Australian rockers. Covering everything from guitarist Angus Young's first record purchase (Club A Go-Go by the Yardbirds) to the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and all points in between, this book is a godsend for fans. Placing an emphasis on the formative years, Engleheart and Durieux chronicle the band's rise to the top in detail without getting bogged down-quite a feat, considering their source material includes more than 1,300 interviews with the band and more than 75 new interviews. While much of the story will be familiar to longtime fans, there is enough obscure trivia and anecdotes to keep it interesting, and the writers wisely give priority to the voices of those who were there. The authors also dispel many myths surrounding the band, including those attached to legendary frontman Bon Scott's death and the infamous cover of their Highway to Hell album. So faithful to the spirit of the band it could leave readers' ears ringing, this book is required reading for any serious fan of rock music.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Australia's AC/DC parlayed riff-driven hard rock into a long-running career despite lead singer Bon Scott's untimely death in 1980. Along with madcap guitarist Angus Young, Scott had become a rock icon embodying an ethos of hard-driving performing and living. Such a loss might have ended most bands, but AC/DC found a replacement remarkably similar to Scott in growling voice and stage persona: Brian Johnson. Pretty much the antithesis of fellow Aussie chart toppers, the falsetto-warbling Bee Gees, AC/DC didn't wear sparkly frippery, eschewed disco, and barred saccharine strings from its strident anthems. Its magnum opus, Back in Black, came after Scott's death and cemented its place in the rock pantheon. Further touring and hits rarely deviated from a hard-rock template. Clearly a devotee, Englehart tracks the band's career with aplomb, from scuffling days down under to its present lofty status, yet avoids excessive praise. Replete with discography, a regular omnibus resource on the band and great reading for rock-history buffs. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 496 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (February 5, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061133922
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061133923
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #50,835 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #58 in  Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Rock
    #72 in  Books > Entertainment > Music > History & Criticism

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of the World's Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band
87% buy the item featured on this page:
AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of the World's Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band 4.4 out of 5 stars (25)
$13.25
Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott
5% buy
Highway to Hell: The Life and Death of AC/DC Legend Bon Scott 4.0 out of 5 stars (26)
$15.61
Slash
3% buy
Slash 4.4 out of 5 stars (135)
$12.47
Let There Be Rock
2% buy
Let There Be Rock 4.6 out of 5 stars (123)
$9.99

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below.
(4)
(4)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

 

Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
5 star:
 (18)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars AC/DC fans should get this!, January 14, 2007
I have every AC/DC book ever published and this is probaly the most informative of them all. I'm a self confesed AC/DC FREAK and I 've read things in here that I never knew. One of the things I like about this book is the interviews with people that were in bands with Angus and Malcolm before they were in AC/DC. Some of the pictures in this book are rare. I like the one with Angus and Malcolm when they were kids on a rocking horse.. Also the pics of Bon and Brian when they young and the picture of Angus with Tantrum. Anyways, I would highly recomend this for every AC/DC fan out there.. Long Live AC/DC!!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story of one of rock's greatest bands ever, February 28, 2007
By Scott Hedegard "Scott" (Fayetteville, AR USA) - See all my reviews
It'd be too easy to capitalize on the alleged mentality of an AC/DC fan's inabilitiy to actually read a book. That would be a joke on the snot nosed critics who used to delight in trashing the band only to be forced to deal with the fact that they have perservered over 30 years. Unlike flavors of the month, fashion statements rather than musicians and ditzy pop divas who die quick deaths after one or two years, hard rock and metal music enjoys life spans much longer thanks to love of the music and a sharp focus.
That focus is never more clear than with AC/DC, whom, as we read in "Maximum Rock And Roll" are far more complex, intelligent and talented than many folks realize or care to admit.
This book is a labor of love. Detractors and enemies need not waste their time. For those who value this gutsy loud great rock and roll band (they are NOT metal), the book is a great read, giving U.S. fans particularly a first hand look at the Australian rock culture and the trials and trevails of the Young brothers as they climb to the top, lose their charismatic singer Bon Scott, and then come back even more ferociously with the legendary "Back In Black".
Readers will have to accustom themselves to the British print, slang and puncuation, but that's a small point. The book is not just a definitive look into AC/DC, but one of the better books on any band or musician in quite some time. Listen to "Powerage" at migraine level while you read.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Information Without Much Insight, April 13, 2008
By Joe Daly (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
First off, AC/DC are my favorite band and have been for years. It took me some time to get around to reading this because it's unauthorized and the band are notoriously mum about what goes on behind the scenes. Still, other reviews gave this high marks, so I gave it a shot.

It's unclear to me at whom this book is aimed. It's a bit maddening because for someone to undertake a read of this size, they would most likely already be an established fan of the band. Therefore, a book that undertakes the history of AC/DC to this level of detail should deliver some new information, impressions, stories, themes, etc., that an existing fan might appreciate. Instead, it reads like an end-to-end string of Wikipedia articles, devoid of any personality, irony, or passion. Where the book falls short therefore, is in its dry exploration of facts that are well-known to most AC/DC fans. Some AC/DC fans will pick up a few bits of new info here and there, but for the most part, this is a clinical history of the band, interspersed with harmless anecdotes that don't give any new insight into the personality of the musicians.

Every once in awhile, the authors will hint at something interesting, or some insightful behind-the-scenes info, but they never deliver. They gloss over Phil Rudd's departure by simply mentioning there was an unspecified problem between him and an unnamed person in "the Youngs circle." Or halfway through the book, a point is made that Angus and Malcolm had a fiery relationship that wasn't always civil during the creative process. But he doesn't expound on how or why that tension existed. It is implied that Bon and possibly other members of the band battled substance abuse, which might have given a new depth to appreciating some of the lyrics and/or stories behind the records. However, such information is withheld or ignored. This is not to say that the book would be improved by the inclusion of lurid and embarrassing stories about the band. Quite the opposite, a respectful examination of such themes and events could deliver a stunning new appreciation of musicians of such high caliber.

For those readers who enjoyed the likes of rock biographies such as "No One Here Gets Out Alive," (Jim Morrison and The Doors), "Hammer of the Gods" (Led Zeppelin), or "The Dirt" (Motley Crue), due to the endless tales of drugs, sex, drugs, sex, drugs, sex, drugs and rock and roll, you will be disappointed. There is none of that here.

For those readers who are looking for a more respectful consideration of the band, this book will be overkill. Find a Mojo, Uncut, or Classic Rock magazine that has done a comprehensive piece on AC/DC and you will be just as satisfied.

I left this book feeling slightly more informed, but without much additional understanding or appreciation of AC/DC.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll: The Ultimate Story of the World's Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band
If you are going to read "The One Book" about AC/DC, this would be it. Alot of information that has never been published before. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Gary Wells, Atlanta, GA.

5.0 out of 5 stars This has to be read.... at all costs !
Very good bood about acdc. Lots of personal stories of the band, from the early days, till now.
Published 5 months ago by William Moulin

5.0 out of 5 stars Maximum RNR
I loved this book ,it was very well written and researched. A real page turner.
Published 5 months ago by Michael D. Dickinson

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!
This book was great. The first hand accounts and quotes from those around the band backing up the stories truly adds a sense of "being there". Read more
Published 6 months ago by A. Gift For You

5.0 out of 5 stars Ac?DC
This book is great for AC/DC fans who are buying tickets to their 2008 tour, lots of background.
Published 9 months ago by L. A. Holiday

5.0 out of 5 stars ROCK WHILE YOU'RE READING!
I discovered AC/DC back in college (circa 1988). Since then I've gotten all their albums and done a fair bit of reading on the group. Read more
Published 13 months ago by M. E Grant

5.0 out of 5 stars AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll
Great book really in depth and tells the great story of a great rock band.
Published 15 months ago by Jeffrey W. Richter

3.0 out of 5 stars Just like AC/DC's records - great up to Back in Black but then the slide starts
Being an Aussie, I grew up with AC/DC. I even remember seeing them on Countdown for the first time in '76 when I was a little kid. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mark Munchenberg

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for AC/DC fans
If you are a fan of AC/DC, then this book is for you. It tells their complete story from when they first played in Australia to now. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Evan Washburn

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable read
I ordered this for my 14 year old son who is a huge AC/DC fan and not an avid reader. He actually sat down and read this book. Read more
Published 20 months ago by A. Kendrick

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
This product's forum (1 discussion)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
Appropriateness for a 10-year-old AC/DC fan? 1 May 2007
See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


   


Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


NARS: Free Shipping

NARS blush orgasm
Get free shipping on all NARS Cosmetics orders of $60 or more. Shop NARS' blush, eyeshadows, lips, palletes and more NARS favorites now.

Shop NARS now

 

Big Savings in Books

Bargain Books
Find great titles at fantastic prices in our Bargain Books Store.
 
Shop for Gerber Knives
Gerber Legendary BladesSetting the standard for quality knives of innovative design, Gerber creates tools and gear essential for outdoor survival.
 

Best Books

Best of the Month
See our editors' picks and more of the best new books on our Best of the Month page.
 

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Where's My Stuff?

Shipping & Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue shopping: Top Sellers
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich
Darkfever
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Conditions of Use | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates