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She Goes Down

While "She" was initially recorded by Wicked Lester, the song dated back to Gene's Bullfrog Bheer band and had been written by him and Stephen Coronel. Steve's input was that he initially came up with the signature riff. Gene then developed the piece into a full song, possibly recycling some earlier lyrical ideas. While the song is not overly complex, Gene recalled, "I remember struggling with 'She.' It was in my mother's basement. I was still going to school and I had this idea for a song. I wanted to call it 'She Walks by Moonlight' because I remember a line in a movie called 'Hondo,' an Indian movie. It was some cowboy; he went up to some big Indian chief and goes, 'I want your daughter.' [The chief said:] 'You may not have my daughter.' [The cowboy said:] 'Why not?' [The chief said:] 'She walks by moonlight.' And that's the first line of the song. I didn't even know what it meant; I just loved the sound of it" (KISS Machine #22).

Gene was persuaded to change the tone of the song by changing the lyric of the chorus from "she's no good" to "she's so good." Like "Love Her All I Can," this song survived the transition of Wicked Lester into KISS and was long part of the band's live set before finally being recorded. However, its arrangement was modified, and Ace borrowed some structure from the Door's "Five to One" for the guitar solo (Sharp, Ken - Goldmine). Also like "Love Her All I Can," the song was also considered for recording for "Hotter than Hell," though the band was able to come up with enough new material for that album to avoid recycling at the time. Session musician Jimmy Maelen allegedly played congas on the track (Gooch, Suhs - KISS Alive Forever).

© KissFAQ, From "Rock And Roll All Nite: The Music of Kiss" (Used with permission).


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