AC/DC Let There Be Rock Coming to DVD

One of my earliest impressionable rock and roll memories was of me and my friend Bill in probably 7th or 8th grade taking a bus to the Century 25 theaters in San Jose to see the film Let There Be Rock.

This was the third rock and roll film I had seen in a short period. One was The Secret Policeman's Ball and the other was The Song Remains the Same - both of which inspired me to choose music as a career at a ripe young age, and both filled me with dread and uncertainty about HOW I would actually make that happen. But the seed had been planted.

If I had any doubts, though, Let There Be Rock buried them deep. This film (which I have never seen again since) carved itself in my head. The loud rock and roll. The insanity of Angus Young spinning around on the ground and then going side stage for a hit of oxygen. The ruggedness of Bon Scott. Raw raw raw.

I left that theater transformed. It's also why I immensely prefer the Scott-era AC/DC over the Brian Johnson version. But as Johnson said when AC/DC made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "It's Bon's band." Yeah baby. Good man.

Adding to the aura of this film in my mind is that it's apparently never made it to DVD. Oh I am sure I could have found it on VHS or DVD if I had really wanted to, but I am glad I will be able to watch an official sanctioned version some (almost) 30 years later on a large screen TV with the sound CRANKED.

The official release is slated for January 2011. According to Eddie Trunk's Web Site:

"Let There Be Rock", the AC/DC concert documentary that was filmed December 1979 at the Pavillion De Paris, will receive its long-awaited DVD release in January 2011.

According to the All Music Guide, "Let There Be Rock" was released in France a year after it was filmed, though American release was delayed until well after the band had established themselves in the States with new vocalist Brian Johnson and the multi-platinum success of the "Back In Black" album.

In his review of the original "Let There Be Rock" film, Fred Beldin of the All Music Guide writes, "Director Eric Dionysis captures the excitement of the live show with an energetic style and effective close-up shots, though the staged interviews and sub-'The Song Remains The Same' fantasy sequences show the band to be bemused but not convinced by these attempts to add some arty depth to the proceedings. The highlight of the extracurricular segments is Bon Scott, radiating warmth and humility in these last interviews before his untimely death at age 33 from alcohol poisoning."

I will be first in line. Online, of course. Let There Be Rock!