How Clint Eastwood’s “The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly” and a National Health Crisis Inspired This 1980 AC/DC Classic

Sergio Leone’s 1966 spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood, reaches its climax during an arid eight-minute, three-way shootout between Eastwood’s Blondie, Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), and Tuco (Eli Wallach) at the center of the Sad Hill Cemetery.

The drawn-out scene always struck AC/DC guitarist Angus Young and inspired the riffs that ended up on the band’s “Shoot to Thrill.” The main solo follows the movement of the gun battle with Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef staring down one another for minutes before the shootout commences in the Civil War cemetery. The breakdown in the song was also written to mimic composer Ennio Morricone’s “Il Triello” composition during the scene.

Written by Angus and Malcolm Young, and Brian Johnson, “Shoot to Thrill” appeared on AC/DC‘s 1980 Back in Black, the band’s first release following the death of lead singer Bon Scott, but was never released as a single.

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A National Health Crisis

With an arrangement set to the famous Western scene, the lyrics fell into AC/DC territory, hinged on some telling subject matter: too many women with too many pills.

Dissecting the track, Johnson said the song was less about “drug culture” and more about housewives addicted to depressants. “I was just a reader and an observer of people, and it basically wasn’t about the drug culture,” said Johnson, during the 40th anniversary of Back in Black.

“What I was thinking of, at the time in England, there was more housewives on Valium,” added Johnson. “The national health system was overloaded with women who were depressed, despondent, and all that. So the doctor, just to get them out of the bloody office, just said, ‘Here, take some Valium,’ and these women were dependent on it … and ‘Too many women and too many pills.’”

Shoot to thrill, play to kill
Too many women with too many pills, yeah
Shoot to thrill, play to kill
I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will, yeah

I’m like evil, I get under your skin
Just like a bomb that’s ready to blow
‘Cause I’m illegal, I got everything
That’s all you women might need to know

I’m gonna take you down
Yeah, down, down, down
So, don’t you fool around
I’m gonna pull it, pull it, pull the trigger

The depressant was marketed toward women as a drug that would remove stress and anxiety and help make their hectic lives easier. Often called “mother’s little helpers,” Valium was the leading prescribed medication from 1962 through 1982 and even inspired the Rolling Stones’ Aftermath hit, “Mother’s Little Helper,” a few years after the drug hit the market.

First synthesized in 1959 by Polish-American chemist Leo Sternbach and on the market by the early 1960s, the drug was often normalized, leading to its sizable addiction and dependency worldwide.

In 1979, there were 30 million prescriptions of the drug in the UK alone, with a worldwide figure closer to three billion. Valium was also the top-selling medication in the U.S. from 1968 through 1982 and reached its peak in 1978 with 2.3 billion tablets sold, according to the National Library of Medicine. Usage declined in the early ’80s following backlash against the benzodiazepine for its adverse effects.

Eastwood Songs and Marvel Movies

Along with AC/DC, Eastwood also inspired two songs by Gorillaz—”Clint Eastwood” (2001) and “Dirty Harry” (2005)—along with Toby Keith’s 2018 ballad on mortality, “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” featured in Eastwood’s film The Mule.

Though never released as a single from Back in Black, “Shoot to Thrill” remains a staple during the band’s performances. Decades after its release, “Shoot to Thrill” also appeared in several films, including the 2005 film adaptation of The Dukes of Hazard and the Marvel films Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Avengers (2012).

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