"Let There Be Rock" was co-written by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, and lyricist Bon Scott.
In spite of its appearing to be nothing more than a typically mindless rock anthem, this is actually quite a sophisticated track:
In the beginning
Back in 1955
The white man had the schmaltz
The black man had the blues
It is an allusion to the birth of rock 'n' roll. The genre developed from boogie woogie; the first rock 'n' roll song is generally acknowledged to be "Rocket 88," to which Ike Turner was a very unlikely contributor considering the way his music was to develop, but then the two men who gave rock 'n' roll to the world in the first instance were if anything even more unlikely. There was the white man - who had performed as Yodelling Bill Haley - and the black man, a qualified beautician named Chuck Berry. Both Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" and Berry's "Maybellene" were released in 1955, and as they say, the rest is history.
Angus Young said of this song:
"I remember the amp literally exploded during the recording session. My brother watched it with crazed eyes, and he told me 'Come on! Keep on playing!' while the stuff was steaming."
Lyrics
In the beginning Back in nineteen-fifty-five Man didn't know about a rock 'n' roll show An' all that jive The white man had the schmaltz The black man had the blues No one knew what they was gonna do But Tchaikovsky had the news He said, "Let there be sound" There was sound "Let there be light" There was light "Let there be drums" There was drums "Let there be guitar" There was guitar Oh, let there be rock And it came to pass That rock 'n' roll was born And all across the land, every rockin' band Was blowing up a storm And the guitar man got famous The businessmen got rich And in every bar, there was a superstar With a seven year itch There were fifteen-million fingers Learning how to play And you could hear the fingers pickin' And this is what they had to say: "Let there be light Sound Drums Guitar" Oh, let there be rock One night, in the club called "The Shaking Hand" There was a 42 decibel rockin' band And the music was good, and the music was loud And the singer turned and he said to the crowd: "Let there be rock"
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