WINTER 1981
I wasn't living in a cave. "You Shook me All Night Long" was all over the radio. Excruciatingly. Oddly enough, not as much as it is now. Speaking of which, how is it when a band, AC/DC for example, can have a 30 year plus career, release nigh on 20 LPs yet the corporate radio bastards can only select from, say, 6 songs to program?
I'm digressing again, my apologies.
At this point in my life, however, "Back in Black" was the only AC/DC LP I had been exposed to. That all changed in the upcoming summer.
Staying at my sister and brother-in-law's place I was told not only did the Aussie band have prior LPs, but with a different lead singer. Shit, sir, surely you jest.'
Nah.
Rob Will, I introduce you to "Let There Be Rock". Consider me befuddled. This was the time period between my dabbling in classic rock, and my self-guided immersion into the emotional kick-in-the-nuts known as punk. Let's call this my musical growth "Half way point". As close as it gets, anyway.
First of all, that cover. What the hell is with that sky? It looks like a looming apocalyptic thunderstorm is approaching, yet heaven's ray's are emanating down onto a young and scruffy looking Angus Young. The rest of the band is darkly, and yes, even creepily half lit. The arms reaching from the audience onto the stage are greenish/blue like the crayola crayon of the same name.
The title of the record is in a font similar to what you'd think would be etched in the stone of biblical times' laws. And of course, this was the introduction of the signature AC/DC red/yellow sharp-edged logo. One of my all time fave LP covers, as you can see above, I've framed.
Martha Stewart, kiss my nuts.
The tracks.....right. Having heard only "Back" thus far, Bonny's voice was from Mars. That took some getting used to. A mid-tempo song from AC/DC? "Overdose"? Brilliant. The one that really got me was the title track. 1976 and the bastards were almost leaning into thrash metal territory.
I don't have to mention the standbys, you all know they're there. "Rosie", "Problem Child", and "Rocker". But for my money "Hell ain't a Bad Place to Be" (Satan-fearers, believe what you want, but it's a love song of sorts) is the kicker here.
I rediscovered this one on cassette in Waco, Texas, circa 1986 and wondered how I had lived without it all that time, and never made that mistake again.
Yeah, it's framed up on my bedroom wall. But they got these things called CDs now.
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