CHAPTER 34 - Lick It Up (1983)

“Lick It Up” Album Notes:

Produced by Michael James Jackson, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Recorded and mixed at Right Track Studios, New York City, New York, by Frank Filipetti and Moria Marquis, July – August 1983. Additional recording engineered by Dave Wittman and Stephen Benben at Atlantic Studios, New York City, New York, and Danny Caccavo at The Hit Factory, New York City, New York.

34.01. Exciter

Rick Derringer plays the guitar solo on this track. According to Vinnie, “I don’t think Gene and Paul liked what I played on the song, and I did.... I loved it. I thought that it was one of my best pieces and for some reason that angered me quite a bit. Because I wasn’t told about it until after it was done, but that is true. I liked what I played better, than what ended up on that song. I think Rick’s a great player by the way” (Strike #38). This song was performed live during the “Lick It Up” tour giving Vinnie the opportunity to play the solo his way.

34.02. Not For The Innocent

Written by Gene Simmons and Vinnie Vincent. This song would be used as the B-side to the “Lick It Up” single in several international markets, and was revamped from an early version recorded late during the “Creatures of the Night” sessions. See also 33.18.

34.03. Lick It Up

“Lick It Up” very nearly didn’t happen for KISS. Vinnie Vincent came up with the basic idea, the title and basic melody, for the song and brought it to Paul who seemed disinterested in the idea when Vinnie first played it for him. Later he brought it to Gene who liked it and suggested that he play it for Paul. According to Vinnie, “the next time I played it for Paul he said ‘hey, that’s great. We should use it’” (Strike #38). This song would be released as the lead-off single in support of the album. Even with the surrounding hype of the band de-masking the single would only manage a disappointing #66 on the US singles charts and was backed with “Dance All Over Your Face.” Other markets saw the single backed with “Not For The Innocent” and it managed to go top-40 in England, Canada, and Switzerland. The band would shoot a full concept video for the song which would leave many scratching their heads about what the concept was, apart from the band stuffing their faces with food. The video would be directed Martin Kahan and produced by Lenney Grodin. “Lick It Up” would be one of the few non-originals era songs to make it into “Reunion” set lists on a regular basis.

34.04. Young And Wasted

Written by Gene Simmons and Vinnie Vincent many fans identify this song more with Eric Carr who would sing it during concerts. The song would be the B-side on the “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” single in the United States. It had originally been written with the title “Like A Moth To A Flame” by Gene in early 1982 before Vinnie came into the picture, but was refined with his input.

34.05. Gimme More

Written by Paul Stanley and Vinnie Vincent. This speed-demon rocker would be used as the B-side of the “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” single in Japan and was performed live during the “Lick It Up” tour. Elements of Warrior’s “I Need Love” turn up in this song lyrically, notably “c’mon break my candy cane” which would become “c’mon lick my candy cane.”

34.06. All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose

Another contribution to KISS which was primarily Eric Carr’s creation. According to Eric, “once again in Eric Carr fashion the music track that you hear on that song is exactly what I wrote. When I brought it to the band I was expecting ‘Kashmir’! And then I hear it was gonna be like a funk tune.... I’m going, ‘Oh my God, what are you doing to my song’!? But what happened with that was I brought it to the band. Gene started working on it first, on lyrics ‘cause he really liked it. He wasn’t coming up with anything that was really worthwhile. Rather than ditch the song Paul and Vinnie took over. And they came up with a working thing for it” (KISS Neon Glow #1, 1992). Eric would also recall, “I wrote all the music for ‘All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose’ and then Paul, Vinnie and Gene put the rest of the song together. I heard it so differently when I brought the demo to the band; I was really shocked when they made it into sort of a rap song. But it turned out to be much better song than how it started out” (KISS Force ‘85).

Sadly, as the second single, from the album, this song would only manage to chart in one country: Germany, where it reached a disappointing #71. A second concept video from the “Lick It Up” album would be shot for this song, again using Martin Kahan and Lenny Grodin. Instead of chicks with food they used chicks with swords, again leaving many to attempt to figure out what the video’s concept was. The video would be nominated for an award for “Best Cinematography” at the first MTV awards in 1984. The song would be sporadically included in the band’s set list during the final couple of months of the “Lick It Up” tour.

34.07. A Million To One

Written by Paul Stanley and Vinnie Vincent, this song would continue the then new trend of including a power ballad on KISS albums.

34.08. Fits Like A Glove

Written by Gene Simmons, this song lasted second longest in KISS live set due to the “Cause when I go through her, it’s just like a… hot knife through butter, ooh yeah” section which allowed Gene a bit of audience interaction.

34.09. Dance All Over Your Face

Written by Gene Simmons, this track and 34.08 would be the only songs on “Lick It Up” to not feature a Vinnie Vincent co-writing credit.

34.10. And On The 8th Day

Essentially this song would be constructed by Gene Simmons and Vinnie Vincent from parts of the original Warrior demo for “Boyz Are Gonna Rock.” What would be retained from Vinnie’s original demo would be minimal, with the verse riff being kept. Parts of the lyrics from the first verse would be kept. “The song is callin’ / And the wheels of life are grindin’ out a brand new beat / The streets are burnin’ / And I’m full of desire, I live to feel the heat” would be changed to “The sky is fallin’ / And the wheels of life are grindin’ out a brand new beat / The streets are burnin’ / With the call of the wild, and I can feel the heat.” This would represent the minimal material which KISS used from Vinnie’s Warrior project, though Vinnie would use much of the songs on his post-KISS “Invasion” project.

34.11. I’m In Love

Apart from being a Warrior demo, this song would be demoed, along with other Vinnie material during Vinnie’s recording career with KISS, specifically for the “Lick It Up” recording sessions according to Vinnie.

34.12. Exciter (Instrumental)

The 3:44 instrumental rehearsal gives a taste of what the song would have been like with Vinnie’s original solo idea left intact with its diving notes and crunchiness. Then again, one may also wonder what all the fuss was comparing Vinnie’s version with the solo Rick recorded which was more traditional.

34.13. Untitled Instrumental

There are several instrumentals which circulate both on “Elder” and “Lick It Up” session tapes. This instrumental runs 5:11 with a 1:03 guitar introduction. The track is simply a backing rhythm track with no lead guitar or vocals, but the style of the piece would seem to indicate that it was from the “Lick It Up” sessions.

34.14. Young And Wasted (Instrumental)

Gene starts this 3:49 take off with, “one more time.”

34.15. So Many Girls, So Little Time

Written by Gene Simmons and Howard Rice, this song was first demoed by Gene around the time of the “Lick It Up” sessions. Because the demo is obviously Gene on his click-track, it would seem that the song idea was not complete or considered for use by KISS since the 2:31 has little more than the first two verses and chorus. Gene would give the song to Keel to record and it would be used with different lyrics to those in the original demo. The original first verse went: “She’s so cool, she’s so wild / She’s not much more than a child / This ain’t no dream, I’m not Mr. Right / Baby, I ain’t your shining knight.” Also included in the demo is the “I’m gonna put my log in your fireplace” lyric which would be discarded by Keel and recycled by Gene in “Burn Bitch Burn.”

34.16. Gimme More (Drum Track)

Take 1 from reel 10, simply a 3:48 Eric Carr drum track.

34.17. A Million To One (Instrumental)

Numerous instrumental rehearsals exist of this track.

34.18. All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose (Single Edit)

At 3:59 (listed on the US label as 3:49) the single version of this track is shorter than the 4:34 album recording, mainly a result of cutting the instrumental (repetitions of the song’s central riff) introduction by some 17 seconds. As a result the song begins with the riff immediately prior to Eric’s first drum roll removing some 7 measures.

34.19. Lick It Up (Demo)

Probably recorded by Paul and Vinnie with a drum machine, this demo runs 3:35, but in many cases has been drastically slowed down, running over four minutes. Without any guitar solo, Vinnie handles backing vocals, and the song features a different second verse: “Don’t try to wait ‘til you know me better / We should be glad for the time together / There ain’t a reason on earth to waste it (Lick it up, lick it up) / Life’s such a treat and it’s time you taste it / It ain’t a crime to be good to yourself.” It’s clear that most of the song’s structure is there, but the song would still need work.