CHAPTER 18 - Destroyer
(1976)
“Destroyer” Album Notes:
Produced
by Bob Ezrin. Recorded at Record Plant
Studios,
On the dating of the
“Destroyer” sessions: Following the success of “Alive!” KISS
were featured in Circus Magazine, in an interview that dates to before
the album went Gold. Paul commented, “We’ve already done 400,000 copies, and
that’s in two weeks… The real reason we put this album out [Ed. ‘Alive!’] is
that we’re in the midst of doing a new studio album… But this fifth album so
far has taken a month to finish half of it” (Circus, 1976). This indicates that
work had commenced on the album prior to September 1975 in some form or
another.
18.01.
This song is lyrically
inspired in part from a real-life event where a KISS fan was killed on his way
to a KISS concert in
“
For the car, Bob walked
from the Record Plant studio with microphones recording the sounds of him
opening the door, starting the engine of a studio employee’s car parked on
According to Bob, “I was so
proud of it. It was a perfect little bit of audio story telling” (KISS Online
w/ Bob Ezrin). Gene commented that his bass playing
on the track was very untypical of his basic meat-and-potatoes style, taking
more of the elements from R&B influences rather than rock. Bob also wrote
the guitar solo for Ace to play, and stylisitcally it
was more calculated than the usual sort of Ace solo.
Peter also had to come up
with something special for the song and the rest of the album. He methodically
designed every part of his drumming. He considers it to be his most unique and
“brilliant” drumming, an approach that he would sadly not repeat on future
albums. Bob
played piano on the recording, shadowing the guitar for effect.
“
18.02. King Of The Night Time World
This was yet another track
with which Bob challenged the band, especially Peter. The song would force the
band to play with an unusual 7/8 time change in the center part of the song.
This time change caused the band no end of difficulty during the recording, but
they would survive by making Peter’s drumming part as simple as possible. The
song was originally a piece written by Kim Fowley and
Mark Anthony (manager and guitarist/vocalist, respectively, in the band The
Hollywood Stars) brought into the sessions (Ezrin had
connections to Kim and Mark from using their material on Alice Cooper albums).
According to Gene the band
felt that the song fit them pretty well, though Paul has suggested that there
was work done on the song to create the KISS classic. This is likely, due to
Paul and Bob also being credited on the song with Kim and Mark. The song was
the loud cinematic, grandiose, bombastic track the album’s first song demanded follow it. Paul would use a double neck 1967 Les Paul during
the recording of the track, as he had on “Detroit Rock City,” playing only one
neck with both turned on to get the guitar overtones.
18.03. God Of Thunder
According to Gene, “By the
end of our third record (Dressed To Kill), we had
gotten very used to each other’s songwriting styles. Paul’s songs were always a
little snappier and happier, and mine were always darker and gloomier. So we’d
poke fun at each other sometimes, and Paul once said to me, ‘Anybody can write
a Gene Simmons song.’ To prove his point, he came back the next day with ‘God Of Thunder.’ I changed some of the lyrics and sang it. When
I first heard the song, I immediately had visions of the scene in ‘Fantasia’
when the mountain top opens and this big winged thing is standing there –
something from the dark shadows. But Paul’s ‘God Of
Thunder’ lyrics totally missed the point – they were almost about Aphrodite and
love” (Guitar World). However, getting Paul to give the song to Gene to record
took quite a bit of effort. Paul recalled that the song “was unique in that a
song that became a signature song for Gene was by me and for me, and then I
watched as the producer Bob Ezrin decided that it was
going to be Gene’s song. We all agreed going in that the producer had final
say. I was hoping his final say would always agree with mine” (Rolling Stone).
According to Paul the lyric
Gene changed was “we make love ‘til we bleed,” which became “hear my word and
take heed” (Guitar World, 8/92). However, apart from that example there are
several other changes which were made to “Demonize” the song, all of which have
Gene’s stylistic stamp on them: The end of the second verse, “I was raised by
the women / I live for pleasure and fun,” became “I was raised by the demons /
Trained to reign as the one;” In the chorus, “We’ll take it slowly even more”
(or something like that) became “Will slowly rob you of your virgin soul;” and
substantial changes would be made to the third verse seeing it change from
“Well I’m the master of leather / A modern day man of steel / Be you ancient or
newborn (c’mon) / Come before me and kneel,” to “I’m the lord of the wastelands
/ A modern day man of steel / I gather darkness to please me / And I command
you to kneel before the.”
It is likely that Bob Ezrin had a hand in changing the arrangement around
slightly not only to accommodate the “atmospheric” elements he incorporated
into the recording. While the changes were not substantial, it was common for
members to help one another with their songs, without receiving a credit unless
the work was substantial. According to Paul, “It’s all about arrangement and
embellishment. That’s what you’re supposed to do in a band – come in and add
something. But that doesn’t mean you wrote the song” (Guitar World, 9/96).
Thus, it is fair to say that Gene probably helped co-write his version of “God Of Thunder” since the character and essence of the song would
change so drastically from the original format.
While Gene, Paul, and Jr. Smalling would demo the song, Bob Ezrin
remembers that it took quite a bit of effort to persuade Paul to let Gene take
the song because of the subject matter and balance of the album at that point.
During the recording of the song Peter recalls how some of the effects were
created. They were “at the old Record Plant in
18.04. Great Expectations
“Great Expectations,”
Gene’s most Beatle-esque track at that point to come
under consideration for recording, came under the influence of Bob, which he
now believes that they went slightly over the top with. The lyrics, which had
originally “spoken” about each member of the band were seen as being too close
to the band, too “first-person,” so Bob persuaded Gene to make the song more
general, like a singer singing to the crowd. Thus the song evolved and grew
even more grandiose with Bob’s “enhancements.” This song was, according to
Gene, the most difficult song on the album to record due to the sophistication
of the musical structure and the effects Bob incorporated. Bob also now
believes that they might have gone slightly over the top with all of the
effects added to the song in its transition from Gene’s original idea. The song
was inspired by the Laurence Olivier film of the same title, though the subject
matter came from Gene wanting to write about the band. He rewrote much of an
earlier demo, “You’ve Got Nothing To Live For,” notably the verses to create
the piece, though he also had another demo with the title “Great Expectations”
dating back to at least 1974 that included elements that would be used. The
track includes Beethoven’s ‘Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor.’ Like other KISS
songs this track was originally written on an acoustic guitar.
18.05. Flaming Youth
“Flaming Youth” is yet
another amalgamation of earlier ideas. According to Gene, the song developed
out of one of the numerous demos in his collection, a song called “Mad Dog”
which he had demoed earlier as a complete piece, while “Flaming Youth” was a
title that struck Gene as being too cool to ignore. Gene seems to remember that
it was the name of one of the bands that had played at KISS’ industry debut at
the
The song would also get a
rare (by that point) song-writing contribution from Ace Frehley, though Dick
Wagner would later perform some lead guitar overdubs on the solo section.
According to Bob Ezrin, Gene didn’t care much for the
song, notably some of the effects that Bob put on the track. See also “Mad Dog”
in the “Box Set” section.
18.06. Sweet Pain
This song has a great deal
of notoriety in KISStory due to the guitar solo on
the studio track being played by Dick Wagner, even though Dick performed on
other songs on the album. Bob feels that the track was an unrealized piece on
the album and that the introduction riff was not real good “rock” and should
not have been used on the song, even though that was how Gene had presented it
in demo form. While the song may be the most under-developed piece on the album
musically, its short-comings are hidden by the over-all production qualities
applied to the recording.
According to Ace, Bob Ezrin replaced his guitar work on the song with Dick’s,
without his knowledge until he heard the song. Dick recalled, “Bob liked my
solo work and he suggested I was the guy he wanted for certain solo sections on
a couple songs... So I did my best to make everyone happy.” Apparently Dick
would completely replace Ace’s original solo on this song.
18.07. Shout It Out Loud
One of these ideas came
from Wicked Lester’s cover of The Hollies “I Wanna
Shout.” Gene remembers that the “shout it, shout it, shout it out loud” part of
the songs just came naturally when Bob and Paul were playing around with some
chord ideas on Bob’s piano, though he could possibly also admit that he liked
the anthem-like possibilities of the Hollies’ original, which that original
lacked. Bob believes that this song, of all on the album, best captures the era
of KISS, the interplay of the members, and the creativity of the band. Bob
recalled in an interview with KISS online, “The thing just took off.... we knew
exactly what that song was going to sound within half an hour.” Another
reflection of Wicked Lester, though not of their cover of “I Wanna Shout” would be Gene and Paul trading off the lead
vocals on the verses of the song.
18.08. Beth
For details on the history
of “Beth” refer to the entry for “Beck” in the “Peter Criss Pre-KISS” section.
When “
The impact this had quickly
resulted in wide exposure for both the band and the album. By mid-September
In a way “Beth” was the
savior of both KISS and the “Destroyer” album. At the time the album had
stagnated in terms of sales, and the singles being released weren’t working to
boost sales. The single was awarded a People’s Choice award, tied with “Disco
Duck” by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. Lydia Criss accepted the award on
behalf of the band on
This simple track was
comprised of orchestration, guitar, and piano. The guitar on the recording was
performed by session guitarist Dick Wagner. An
strictly acoustic version was attempted, but this was not used on the album and
was later featured in the movie “KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park.” While the
track was considered something of a throw-away, it did fit perfectly on the
album in terms of the musical scope being explored.
There has long been a
contentious argument about this song being written for
Now the second verse. It is
most likely that this verse was written in 1976, and a logical guess would be
that this is where the Ezrin writing credit comes
from, perhaps with input from Peter. Certainly little else was done to the
original arrangement (changing single words, such as “And” or “But,” generally
don’t get a writing credit applied), and it this section that could refer to
18.09. Do You Love Me?
Paul’s attempt to write a
song that told a story much akin to British bands such as Mott The Hoople did with songs like
“All The Young Dudes” (Sharp, Ken – Goldmine). In telling a story Paul wanted
the song to be something of an audio tapestry, though he would be inspired by
the Contours song of the same title which had been a #3 hit in 1962 (though one
must wonder whether Paul discovered the Dave Clark Five remake of the song from
1964). This song would be the second track co-writer Kim Fowley
would contribute to providing much of the emphasis of the piece.
Kim had previously worked
with two of the bands which inspired KISS: Slade and Alice Cooper. According to
Bob Ezrin the song came together really quickly,
bringing a theme element and vulnerability to the album. It also “truly
established the sex star part of Paul Stanley. When he sang that song, girls
melted” (KISS Online w/ Bob Ezrin).
18.10. (Untitled Track) a.k.a. “Rock And Roll Party”
This unlisted track,
generally referred to as “Rock And Roll Party,” closes the “Destroyer” album
and is something of a teaser. It concludes the album with a bit of audio
illustration similar to the storyline introduction of “
There wasn’t much reasoning
behind the creation of the piece. According to Bob Ezrin,
“It was necessary to round off the experience if you were listening to the
album from top to bottom and that you really needed something to close the
book” (KISS Online w/ Bob Ezrin). Paul has also
suggested that the piece was created because the album felt too short and “Bob
was trying to think of a way to extend the album, because as good as it was, it
was short… We needed to fill up the record” (Firehouse #58).
18.11. Shout It Out Loud (Radio Single Mix)
The single version is slightly shorter than the album
version of the song with the fade-out being abruptly applied during the final
“And everybody shout it now” lyric. This results in
the omission of the final “Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud” lyric and end
of the song coming on Gene’s “Awww!” With this
adjustment, and a touch of compression, the radio single has a
duration of
18.12. Flaming Youth (Radio Single Mix)
Along with a touch of compression the radio single
mix of “Flaming Youth” excludes the 25 second instrumental that ends the album
version of the song. The fade-out commences immediately, and sharply, following
the delivery of the final line of the song: “Flaming youth, our flag is flying higher
and higher and higher and higher and higher and higher and higher.”
18.13.
This mix should not be
confused with the version released on the Box Set in 2001. It is essentially
the same basic studio recording of “
18.14. You’ve Got Nothing To Live For
This demo/song probably dates far earlier than 1975.
While nothing is really known about the track, it would be reworked by Gene Simmons
to become “Great Expectations” on the “Destroyer.”
18.15. Ain’t
None Of Your Business (Demo)
“Ain’t
None Of Your Business” is one of the earliest unreleased tracks to yet surface
and was a song brought by Bob Ezrin to the
“Destroyer” album sessions. Apparently he was unsure about what sort of
material the band would have ready when the initial sessions started in 1975
while the band finished work on the “Alive!” album. The song was written by
Becky Hobbs and Lew Anderson, a country song-writing
partnership, rather than the long-rumored Michael Des Barres.
Regardless, the song would
be demoed with Peter Criss on lead vocals. While not used by KISS, the song
would recorded by Des Barres’
band Detective in May 1977 and released on their self-titled debut album (Swan
Song SS-8417). Interestingly, it would be one of four songs on that album
produced by Jimmy Page using the pseudonym Jimmy Robinson. Ponderous with its
slow, heavy throbbing, pulsing, and thunderous rhythm section, the song was
very un-KISS like.
With it’s
C&W roots the song was not suited for the band’s style, Peter seems to have
enjoyed the angry, manic, and generally shouted lyrics which seem more like a
primal therapy session. One might also wonder about just how unsure Bob was of
the band with the very slow chord progressions and overall simplicity of the
song. The song’s lyrics certainly work nicely within the context of the
relationship between Peter and Gene and Paul: “Don’t ask me where I was last
night / It ain’t none of your concern / Who I see,
and what I do // Ain’t none of your business / Never
you mind / Ain’t none of your business / Never you
mind // If you wanna make something out of nothing /
Let your imagination be your guide / Sticking your nose, where it ain’t wanted;” and the break of the song: “Let me put it
straight to you / There ain’t nothing you can do / I
will be what I will be / With your checkin’ on me.”
18.16. Ain’t
None Of Your Business (Instrumental)
The instrumental take of
the song runs
18.17. Great Expectations
(Original Version)
Gene’s original
18.18. Flaming Youth
(Original Demo)
Clocking in at
18.19. Do You Love Me?
(Original Demo)
At
18.20. Sweet Pain
(Instrumental)
Two mostly instrumental
rehearsals of “Sweet Pain” circulate. One is a pure instrumental while the
other runs
18.21. King Of The Night Time World (Instrumental)
Another pure instrumental
run-through of the song which includes several reattempts of sections of the
song and some interesting and storming free-form guitar work by Ace.
18.22.
At
18.23. God Of Thunder (Instrumental)
At
18.24. Beth (Instrumental)
Simply the orchestration
and piano backing that would be used when Peter recorded the track. This
backing tape may well have been used for the live performances of the song.
Even on this track there is no evidence of the guitar work that Dick Wagner
provided.
18.25. High And Low
“High And Low” was another
of the demos that Gene Simmons recorded prior to the “Rock And Roll Over”
sessions of 1976, though it probably dated back to before the previous studio
album. With parts combined, or recycled, from Gene’s original demo of “Bad Bad Lovin’” – the song “Calling
Dr. Love” would be created. From the structure of the chorus, “High and low /
Baby, Baby, think I know / High and low / Baby, Baby, think I know “ – it would seem quite possible that the piece was
incomplete since vocally and lyrically the song is more of a scat than anything
else. The demo has a duration of
18.26. Daily Planet
While the 3:12 “Daily Planet” was recorded around the same time as
“Rotten To The Core” and “High And Low,” it seems to have not made it past
being an instrumental track at the time. Apparently Gene never got around to
adding the vocals for the song, for the lyrics he wrote seem to have been a
very early and strange effort. While the lyrics seem to be a reaction about
Ace’s personality, it is not known whether Gene would have used these lyrics
that come from one of his lyric books: “Now I’m there / Writes about his
friends from outer space / He’s not from the human race / His friends call him
Ace.” Gene would later revive the instrumental on several occasions both for
KISS and his external production projects. By that time the piece would have a
more musically developed bridge and chorus sections.
“The Lost Concert, 1976” Notes:
While the concert which comprises this DVD has long been available in
bootleg form, Passport Video would release the concert excerpt in 2003. The
release would disappear from many retailers rapidly, indicating that like the
“Live At
18.27. Cold Gin
18.28. Do You Love Me?
18.29. Watchin’ You
18.30. God Of Thunder
18.31. Flaming Youth
18.32. Firehouse
18.33. Black Diamond