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List Price: $22.95 | | Publisher: Omnibus Press
Salesrank: 979797
Released: October 1, 2006 |
| Our Price: $14.75 |
| Used Price: $9.55 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
Let There Be Rock is the story of AC/DC written by rock journalist Susan Masino, who met the band during their first American tour in 1977. Over the years, she remained in contact with them, watching AC/DC climb to international stardom. Since 1977, Susan has interviewed the band many times and their friendship has lasted nearly three decades. Now she tells the true story of AC/DC's illustrious career and how they became one of the true great rock 'n' roll bands in history. The book traces the band s history, from their beginnings in Sydney, Australia in the early 1970s to trail-blazing the U.S. mainstream to the devastating death of lead singer Bon Scott in 1980. The band pulled together and rebounded to the top of the charts with new front man, Brian Johnson and the watershed album, Back in Black. Through it all, AC/DC continues their quest to build a legion of new fans in the 21st century.
The Story of AC/DC: Let There Be Rock Reviews:
Solid and Satisfying Unauthorized Biography 
2009-05-16 - This book is really more of a tribute than a real biography. Ms. Masino is clearly a serious AC/DC fan and her effusive enthusiasm for the band leaches through in almost every paragraph. In my view, this is a good thing. It takes a real fan to do justice to a band like AC/DC; any author only mildly interested in this type of music(e.g., Springsteen or Bjork types), or, more likely, anyone biased by envy, could do a tragic disservice to those of us interested in learning about this legendary rock and roll institution. Ms. Masino is interested in only telling the real story, a story which has some up and downs but is none the less one of the most majestic and awe-inspiring stories in the history of music. Her admiration only fuels our own as she reviews the evidence supporting why this is the best rock band in history....or at a minimum is a band matched only by the Beatles, The Stones, and Led Zeppelin for both album sales and mythological intrigue.
A few frustrations surface, however, as you read this tome. First, there is lots of tour data, and reading it is mind-dulling. "Two dates in Holland and then three in France and then back to the UK to record and then on to some barn to write new tracks..."--stuff like that. Endlessly. But I guess that is the price you pay for reading a bio about a band that has toured incessantly for going on four decades. And, due to her efforts, I was able to nail down the probable dates in the late 70's when I saw Bon-era AC/DC at two Days on the Green, and a Brian-era show at the Cow Palace. That was fun to do, as I didn't keep good records as a teenager and I thought I'd never excavate that information. But it was in this book.
Another frustration is that Ms. Masino paints a picture of the band members which is woefully superficial. I was really hopeful to gain better insights as to the thinking and personalities of these guys, especially Angus and Malcolm. I've spent over 30 years in awe of these gentlemen from Down Under, and when I use the word "Mythological" I am not exaggerating. At 5'2", and all sweaty and pimply, Angus is still larger than life. He's up there with Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Churchill, Howard Hughes, Hefner, Mick & Keith, John & Paul, Bruce Lee, Ronald Reagan, Jack London, John Muir, John Wayne, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Evel Knievel, Vincent Price, Michael Caine, Clint Eastwood....you get the idea: The Full Pantheon of World-Altering Revolutionaries. Angus is on that list, and towards the top in my opinion. I really wanted to know all about him. Where does he live? What does he smoke? Drugs? Children? Does he have other hobbies, or does he live only to burn incredible riffs into the fabric of the Universe with his SG? How did he get so good on the guitar?
We have a few of these questions obliquely answered in this book, but the picture is thin at best. Angus paints, he has a place in Holland, he drinks some tea, he is really funny, he has a wife named Ellen. He treats all the crews with respect, and although an ultimate superstar, there is not even a hint of arrogance in his bearing. He is a solid man in terms of meeting his commitments to labels, venues, and fans. I already knew that last fact, as does everyone who ever saw them in concert. AC/DC delivers the goods.
There is another part to that which makes Angus so amazing. It is not just the great music, the primal riffs which are so mathematically perfect and neurologically affecting. There is another dimension to his appeal. Angus represents a man who has found his Ultimate Calling, his pre-destined mission in the Universe. Having found that mission, he applies 120% of his energy, day after day, year after year. He is the ultimately fulfilled individual, he has met his true love and he is sweating all over her, and her six strings, in a city near you as I write this, just as he has for the last four decades. It is perhaps this aspect I wanted to learn more about. Was he born with This Calling, or did he just fall half-arsed into it? He's a lucky little fella regardless!! Ultimate fulfillment.
Ms. Masino has a little bit of connection with the band, but not really a whole lot . It does not appear that there were any interviews with the band which were conducted by her for this book. She mostly quotes them from various guitar magazines, and then she quotes a lot of peripheral players from the crew and other musicians who knew the band in their earlier days. There are some really weak simulated hand-written letters from a road-crew guy who corresponded with Ms. Masino for a few years. I think it would have been more effective to simply quote him rather than "reproducing" his letter in faux handwriting. Ms. Masino does recall some of her rather fleeting interactions with the band at post-concert meet-and-greets. These interactions don't add much to the picture, but to her credit it does not appear that she embellishes at all, because these are really minimal encounters, the type of which AC/DC probably has with thousands of journalists and fans every year. Overall, it was like she was trying to make herself part of the AC/DC story, and it appears that she clearly is not part of the story in any significant way.
Ms. Masino also inexplicably starts writing in italicized print at various points. I could never quite nail down her methodology in using this technique. Are the italicized portions her inner thoughts, her whispered confidences, or are they personal asides? Oh well, I guess it visually made the page a little bit more interesting. One final criticism: sometimes incomplete sentences work, and sometimes they don't. Ms. Masino ought to stick to complete sentences. I found her intermittent sentence fragments really distracting.
In the end, though, I found myself really liking Ms. Masino. She did roll up her sleeves and work hard on this, and given the constraint that she did not have access to the band for interviews, I think she still did a good job. And there is zero gratuitous dirt, which would have been sacrilege in my view.
As I initially mentioned, her biggest credential for doing this book is her love of the band and her appreciation of their musical style. I really enjoyed her description of when she first saw them. She had met them upstairs at a club, and she presumed that they were mere mortals. She then saw their set, and by the third song she realized they were of divine inspiration. I appreciated her reaction, because it was similar to my own when I first saw them. And, since then, every band has paled in comparison. Metallica, Springsteen, Roth-era Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine, U2, and so many others. No other band comes close. It takes a few days to emotionally recover from an AC/DC concert; they are just on that amazing level where you know you are peeking through a crazed "door of perception" when you watch them play.
The book does a nice job on Bon and his legacy. It probably covers Bon better than Angus. You do come away feeling like you know Bon, and of course you like him even more for what you have learned.
Finally, there are some nice photos in the book. I had never seen most of them and they are worth having. The hardback version of Ms. Masino's book is very well made: it's cloth-covered hardback, which you don`t see often nowadays. Omnibus Press is to be commended. This is a book you may want to keep in your permanent library, and so I recommend getting it in the hardback version.
Not very good 
2008-09-24 - My main beef with this book is it lacks credibility. There's too much stuff that reads like it was lifted straight out of Clinton Walker's book Highway to Hell (much better book by the way). In fact, I went back and compared some of the passages and they were spookily similar. The other puzzling thing is why is there a whole list of people on the jacket flat who were supposedly interviewed for the book, but among them, not any of the current members of AC/DC? I believe this is an unauthorized biography, but if the author has such a great relationship with them, why wouldn't they authorize her to do a bio? Why did she not get any letters from Bon Scott, who was a prolific letter writer, and was known for keeping in touch with legions of people over the years? She was so close to them; knew them so well, interviewed them so many times, but never a card or a letter? She quotes letters from the AC/DC roadie she was friends with but there's not much specific information in them. I ended up skimming most of it.
Not much of a story. 
2008-08-08 - This book reads like a list of facts about AC/DC. there is no real personality to it. Masino has written a book based upon her limited aquaintence with AC/DC and thirdhand from numerous books and magazine articles, and it shows. All I read in this book was an account of tour dates and album releases (hell, the book is structured on the albums' releases - that is how the chapters are named.). There is limited info on the members' background, and there is very little on what the guys do besides playing in AC/DC. There are few interesting anecdotes about the band. It does not read like the author knew AC/DC well at all.
From the reviews that I read, I expected to be drawn into the world of AC/DC - both professionally and personally. I got the gist of how hard working these guys are, but I learned nothing about their songwriting or recording techniques, their personal lives (are any of the members besides Angus married? Do any of them have children? What are the names of the wives and children? Where do they live?), or their interrelationships within the band (were there ever any blowouts within the band? What made Phil leave? What made Slade leave? Who was the black sheep? etc.). This book does not even hold a candle to some of the best rock bios out there(i.e. The Love You Make, Hammer of the Gods, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones) - books that get under the skin of the band and make the reader feel like he/she is right there with the band. You've got to be more aquainted with the band than just visiting with them post show whenever they come to your town. That seems to be the extent of Ms. Masino's personal knowledge of AC/DC, and it is not enough to write a book on.
The best AC/DC Biography so far
2008-06-26 - After reading books by Clinton Walker and that bucktoothed bobbing head loser Malcolm Domehead, it is so refreshing to actually be able to read stories from someone who actually knows the band personally, and not the other two who consider themselves the ultimate AC/DC opinions without ever being close enough to the band to smell one of Angus' farts.
Susan Msino has been a journilist since AC/DC first landed in the United States in 1977 or so and got to meet the band before they where the rock n roll legends they are today.
Susan talks about how she got the deal to make this book, shows letters between her and one of the AC/DC roadies, and tells a lot more information then I have found in any other book on this band.
Not to forget, she tells it as it was & how things really happend. Not the speculation, the lies and myths and the twists on tales that others have put in there book to get it more attention then it's worth.
And the most refreshing thing about Susans book here, is she does not say anything at all about AC/DC going downhill after 1980 and how Brian isnt Bon Scott. Unlike Domebucktooh head and the others who are morons who can't accept that AC/DC never died, went on to sell more albums then any other band in history and not even there so called "crap" albums have failed to reach multi platnom success.
I liked reading about the things missing from all the other books. The backgrounds on more then just the Youngs and Bon. It talks about Phill Rudd, Cliff Williams, Mark Evans, Dave Evans and gives the true reson Phil Rudd was let go from the band in 1983, and insight to who played what on what albums. The old myths are laid to rest here as Susan does give detail of who played what tracks on there first album in 1974.
also, I did not know that the tracks "Dirty Eyes", "Cold hearted Man", "Love At First Feel" & "Carry Me Home" where all recorded in England during the same recordng session. They never got released as an LP, but those songs have all surfaced on B-sides of single as AC/DC fans know.
The book also beautifly continues on from 1980 after Bons death and gives the Brian Johnson era the respect it deserves. (Unlike Gap tooth baldy and mr know it all Walker) there is so many things in here during the 80's and 90's period of the band that I could just throw my arms around Susan and tell her thank you for writing about the band, for writing a biography about AC/DC, not focusing on the Bon Scott days for most of the book and then 2 or three pages on Back In Black before saying, "AC/DC died in 1980, they suck now, long live Bon" ... well Bons dead now, sure, he was a great front man and will always be missed legend of Rock N Roll, but those guys have to face the fact that Bon would have wanted AC/DC to carry on, and that the Youngs miss him dearly, but continue to rock on for Bon. So those idiots can go get stuffed and dwell in there 20 bucks they make for there unauthorised DVD interviews.
This book contains a few photos of the band from over the years, as well as a full discography in the back, much like the Kerrang Files listing, only a lot more then what you find in that.
Everything is here from A-Z, from pre AC/DC to Stiff Upper Lip and a bit beyond that. And it's all by someone who was with the band, knew them, has met them, is good freinds with them... unlike some others I might mention. And Susan shows she truely is a real AC/DC fan, showing that AC/DC are AC/DC, not a band that ended with Bons death.
For anyone who wants to know the real deal about AC/DC, or where they played (it seemed like Susan has documented every show they ever played) then this book is the one for you. Ignore Clinton Wanker, and Malcolm Cronedome, they havent a clue about AC/DC.
"Riff Raff" Of A Book
2008-02-15 - This book is written as though it was long article taken from Hit Parader or Metal Edge magazine. It reads very much like a fanzine, or, rather, a fan's own perspective, instead of an actual account of the band's history.
Granted, there is some decent material here, and the photos, many of which have never been printed elsewhere, are a nice addition. But, when discussing former members the author fails to give us any insight as to where they are now, or what led to their departure. For instance, drummer Chris Slade is mentioned, then, suddenly, he's not. We all know he was replaced by AC/DC's second, and longest-lasting, drummer, Phil Rudd, but like the band, she fails to mention exactly why he's gone.
There were a few details missing from the discography section. The author injects far too many "I" comments, personal encounters, and drops the Young brother's names every chance she gets as though she's trying to justify herself to the reader as to just how "important" she is. It borders on cocky. Throwing in her own experiences with the band in the midst of what is supposed to be a book about the history of AC/DC is uncalled for. If a reader wants to know about her own experiences regarding the band, I'm sure we could find a way to contact her.
I wanted to read a book about AC/DC. Instead, I got to read abook about AC/DC and the author. It got to be extremely tiring after a while. Next time, when writing a book about a band, leave it at that.
