Let There Be Rock

Let There Be Rock is the fourth studio album by Australian rock band, AC/DC. It was originally released on 21 March 1977 in Australia on the Albert Productions label. A modified international edition was released on 25 July 1977 on Atlantic Records. It was the last AC/DC album to feature Mark Evans on bass.

For the song, see Let There Be Rock (song).
"Bad Boy Boogie" redirects here. For the Mötley Crüe song of the same name, see Bad Boy Boogie (Mötley Crüe song).

Let There Be Rock
International cover
Studio album by
AC/DC
Released21 March 1977 (1977-03-21) (Australia)
25 July 1977 (1977-07-25) (international)[1]
RecordedJanuary – February 1977
StudioAlbert (Sydney)
Genre
Length40:19 (Australia)
41:01 (international)
Label
Producer
AC/DC chronology
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
(1976)		 Let There Be Rock
(1977)		 Powerage
(1978)
Alternative cover art
Original Australian cover
Singles from Let There Be Rock
  1. "Dog Eat Dog"
    Released: 21 March 1977 (Aus)
  2. "Whole Lotta Rosie"
    Released: August 1977 (EU)[2]
  3. "Let There Be Rock"
    Released: 30 September 1977 (UK)
  4. "Problem Child"
    Released: 1977 (US)

Background

In late 1976 AC/DC were in a slump. "It was very close to being all over", manager Michael Browning said. "Things were progressing very well in London and Europe. We'd been through a whole thing with the Marquee where they broke all the house records. We'd done the "Lock Up Your Daughters" UK tour and the Reading Festival. It was all shaping up really well." [3] "In the middle of the tour, I get a phone call saying Atlantic Records in America didn't like the Dirty Deeds album", said Browning. "That, in fact, they were going to drop the group from the label. And that's when things got really bad."

"There was always a siege mentality about that band. But once we all found out that Atlantic had knocked us back the attitude was: 'Fuck them! Who the fuck do they think they are?' So from that point onwards it was: 'Fuck, we'll show them!' We were seriously fucking pissed off about it. It didn't need to be discussed. We were going to go in and make that album and shove it up their arse!"

— Mark Evans

Angus Young said, "Our brother George asked us what kind of album we wanted to make and we said it would be great if we could just make a lot of guitar riffs, because we were all fired up after doing all this touring."[4]

Artwork

The Australian cover features the fingers of guitarist Chris Turner, from Australian band Buffalo. "There was a bloke called Colin Stead, who was in Buffalo for about ten minutes," Turner recalled. "He was also the centrefold photographer for Playboy. He phoned me up and said he was doing the album cover for Let There Be Rock, but AC/DC were out of town, so could I help out? He wanted a flash guitar run up and down the neck. Apparently, when he saw it, Angus said, 'He's got fat fingers, hasn't he?'"[5]

The cover of the international version, released in July 1977, marked the first appearance of the band's now iconic logo, designed by Gerard Huerta. The photograph used for the international cover was taken at a concert on 19 March 1977 at the Kursaal Ballroom, Southend, Essex, UK, by rock photographer Keith Morris.[6]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[7]
Classic Rock[8]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[9]
MusicHound Rock4/5[10]
The Quietusfavourable[11]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[12]
Spin Alternative Record Guide5/10[13]

Reception to Let There Be Rock was generally positive; according to AllMusic, which gave the album a rating of four and a half out of five stars in a retrospective review, AC/DC played "sweaty, dirty, nasty rock" and the band had "rarely done that kind of rock better than they did" on Let There Be Rock.[7] In 2001, Q magazine named Let There Be Rock as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.[14]

Cashbox said "Heavy metal is their special forte and there is plenty of voltage displayed on this electrified disc."[15]

Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic enthuses, "Let There Be Rock sees AC/DC's religious-like respect for the simple art of making rock & roll brought to its logical conclusion: a veritable gospel to the glory of rock, canonized here in hymn-like worship. The near-epic title track to what is widely regarded as the best Bon Scott-era album, the song is a holy testimony, bringing good news to all those who believe in the healing power of rock & roll - amen! Oh yeah, it also kicks unholy ass!"

David Fricke of Rolling Stone wrote of the album in a 2008 cover story, "AC/DC's early albums were perfectly frenetic, but inconsistent. Their second U.S. LP was almost all killer. Scott sings 'Bad Boy Boogie' and 'Problem Child' like he's the enfant terrible...Angus' solos are true white heat." Amazon.com calls the LP "a break from the early 'novelty' approach to songwriting and a move to the more focused album-oriented view that the band would perfect." In 2006, AC/DC biographer Murray Engleheart wrote that Let There Be Rock "elevated AC/DC to the status of an album band, something that had previously been the exclusive domain of the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin." In 2000, Angus Young recalled to Guitar World that producer Mutt Lange once told him "of all the many albums we'd done with my brother George and his partner, Harry Vanda, the one Mutt wished he would have done, where he was envious of George, was Let There Be Rock." Band biographer Jesse Fink writes, "Wherever AC/DC ended up in the annals of rock history, this album would stand for all time as an expression of their unrivaled might as a guitar band."[16]

Track listing

Australian version

All tracks are written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Go Down"5:17
2."Dog Eat Dog"3:35
3."Let There Be Rock"6:06
4."Bad Boy Boogie"4:27
Side two
No.TitleLength
5."Overdose"6:09
6."Crabsody in Blue"4:44
7."Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be"4:14
8."Whole Lotta Rosie"5:24

International version
Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Go Down"5:31
2."Dog Eat Dog"3:35
3."Let There Be Rock"6:06
4."Bad Boy Boogie"4:27
Side two
No.TitleLength
5."Problem Child"5:25
6."Overdose"6:09
7."Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be"4:14
8."Whole Lotta Rosie"5:24

Notes

  • For the original Australian vinyl release a different version of "Go Down" was used. This version has an early fade-out, changing the length of the song to only 5:17.
  • Track 5, "Problem Child", was originally released on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap in 1976. This is a shortened version of the original, missing the reprise coda.
  • For the original vinyl release, in all markets other than the US, Canada and Japan, "Crabsody in Blue" was featured instead of "Problem Child".

Personnel

AC/DC

Production

  • Harry Vanda – producer
  • George Young – producer
  • Mark Opitz – engineer
  • Michael Fraser – mastering supervisor
  • Al Quaglieri – mastering supervisor
  • George Marino – mastering
  • Eugene Nastasi – digital assembly
  • Bob Defrin – art direction
  • Richard Ford – artwork
  • Gerard Huerta – cover lettering
  • Murray Engleheart – liner notes

Charts
Chart (1977–1981) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[17] 19
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[18] 10
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[19] 42
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[20] 29
UK Albums (OCC)[21] 17
US Billboard 200[22] 154
Chart (2003) Peak
position
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[23] 37

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[24] 5× Platinum 350,000^
France (SNEP)[25] Gold 100,000*
Germany (BVMI)[26] Platinum 500,000^
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[27] Gold 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[28] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[29] 2× Platinum 2,000,000^

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. "RIAA certifications for AC/DC". Recording Industry Association of America.
  2. "AC/DC singles". Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  3. Wall, Mick (7 May 2016). "Let There Be Rock: The album that saved AC/DC's career". Loudersound. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  4. Sylvie Simmons. "AC/DC Celebrate Their Quarter Century". Rock's Backpages. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2022.(Subscription required.)
  5. Wall, Mick (May 2012). "Let there be light! Let there be sound! Let there be rock!". Classic Rock #170. p. 42.
  6. "AC/DC Tour History - 19 Mar. 1977 Southend (Kursaal Ballroom)". www.ac-dc.net. Archived from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  7. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Let There Be Rock -AC/DC". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 2 June 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  8. Rock, Classic (25 July 2019). "AC/DC: Let There Be Rock album review". Loudersound. Archived from the original on 15 May 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  9. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th Concise ed.). United Kingdom: Omnibus Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-84609-856-7.
  10. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). "AC/DC". MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  11. Marszalek, Julian (27 March 2017). "40 Years On: Revisiting AC/DC's Let There Be Rock". The Quietus. Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  12. "AC/DC: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  13. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 1841955515.
  14. "In our Lifetime #2". Rocklist.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  15. "Album Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 16 July 1977. p. 18. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via World Radio History.
  16. Fink, Jesse (2013). The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC. Australia: Ebury. p. 148. ISBN 9781742759791.
  17. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  18. "Dutchcharts.nl – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  19. "Charts.nz – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock". Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  20. "Swedishcharts.com – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock". Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  21. "AC/DC | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  22. "AC-DC Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  23. "Norwegiancharts.com – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock". Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  24. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2013 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association.
  25. "French album certifications – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock" (in French). InfoDisc. Select AC/DC and click OK. 
  26. "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (AC/DC; 'Let There Be Rock')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  27. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (PDF) (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. p. 953. ISBN 84-8048-639-2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  28. "British album certifications – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock". British Phonographic Industry.
  29. "American album certifications – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock". Recording Industry Association of America.
  • Lyrics on AC/DC's official website
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