After the their first three studio albums, KISS was in serious trouble, but they shouldn't have been. They had a catalog of rock songs that any rock band would have killed for, and a live show that might have been only second to Queen's in the seventies. So why were they in trouble of being dropped by their label and forever being known only as a "failed gimmick"?
They couldn't translate that live show to an album. Well that was were the obvious answer came. RECORD A LIVE ALBUM. Fuck it...A DOUBLE LIVE ALBUM...they are KISS after all, bigger is better. Now I'll go into detail another time on what made that album (1975's gigantic live album ALIVE!) the saving grace of KISS. But what I'm interested in right now (as well as listening to) is...
DESTROYER
The first studio album after the giant that was ALIVE! was an important one. It was the first studio album up to that point that captured the power of KISS. As well as easily being their most ambitious album of their entire 1970's Katalog (yea I went there...it's KISS.). While their first three albums ranged from brilliant rock n roll (1973's self-titled KISS), a poorly produced mess (1974's Hotter Than Hell), and finally to what some call (ehm...pitchforkmedia.com) their masterpiece, but unfortunately paper thin (1975's Dressed To Kill). None of them could capture that explosiveness that ALIVE! eventually did. Problem was they couldn't release live albums for the rest of their career could they? I'm talking to you DMB...
The pressure was now on to release a studio album that could finally capture the pure rock n roll that KISS was now know finally the world over for. How do you go about doing that? You hire Bob Ezrin to produce it. You know the guy who eventually produced Pink Floyd's The Wall...yea that guy. Now even though he would go on to produce the BANE of KISS fan's existence 1981's Music from "The Elder". The brilliance that he helped to create with Destroyer he would eventually almost destroy (with the help of KISS, it wasn't all his fault) with that album...anyway...
So KISS has their producer...check. Now you hire a choir, add an orchestra, some effects, wailing children and a reversed drum beat and you have the ingredients for what you probably never thought would be on a KISS album if you were a fan in 1976...
EXACTLY.
The stage was set.
So now what I'm going to do is pick the song that proved better then any other song on the album how KISS finally captured their power in the studio.
The album starts with a series of sound effects having us believe we are listening to the nightly news, washing dishes, and getting into a car on our way to a KISS concert (if this isn't the greatest opener to a rock album I don't know what is). The news broadcast informs us that there was a car accident where a "...Michigan youth" was thrown from his car and killed after driving on the wrong side of the road..."the driver of the truck was uninjured". We then enter the car, rev the engine and what comes on over the radio?? ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE and LET ME GO ROCK 'N' ROLL off of the album ALIVE!...fucking brilliant KISS, I love it. As we speed into the night on the way to the concert, the soundtrack to the rest of our (very short) lives begins...
For me this is easily the best song on the album, as well as one of the best songs they've ever written. Now if you think I'm talking about the version on most Greatest Hits Compilations, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself and go out and listen to the original album version. The song starts with that slow fade klassic KISS riff that turns into the two greatest power chords in the history of rock, and cement the fact that KISS had finally captured their power...just in those two chords...and the first line hasn't even been sung yet. Now if you think I'm over exaggerating, put this song on in your car when you're driving and turn it up as loud as possible and tell me you don't fell a shiver run down your spine and a smile creep across your face.
This song features some of the finest guitar work KISS has ever done, and they've had some great guitarist though the years put on the paint. Little screams of harmonized madness flutter in and out in between the gigantic Paul Stanley vocals, bombastic rhythm guitars, screeching tires, and distinctive Gene Simmons bass line. Peter Criss pounds the drums with surprising authority, enough to make you forget the horrid excuse they used for drums on 1975's Hotter Than Hell (although I always loved the way the late GREAT Eric Carr played the drums, on this song in particular, probably the greatest live version of DRC there is).
Paul Stanley sings as the Detroit native, anxiously driving to the concert...full of cigarette ash and Jack Daniels. He weaves in and out of traffic, driving 95 mph ("but still moving much to slow"), "feeling alive" he cranks the radio as his song fills the car...
"GET UP
Everybody's gonna to move their feet
GET DOWN
Everybody's gonna to leave their seat
You gotta lose your mind in Detroit Rock City"
Enter the KISS solo to top all KISS solos. Is it he most flashy? Hell it isn't even the most flashy on the album, but it evokes what KISS is all about, rocking and rolling. Paul and Ace (who is one of the greatest guitarists to emerge from the seventies) create and harmonize a melodic masterpiece, weaving in around each other like the car the narrator of the song is so carelessly driving on his way to the concert.
Then the clock strikes 12...and this rock and roll fairy tale ends.
"There's a truck ahead, lights staring at my eyes
Oh my God, no time to turn..."
But before the end...Paul Stanley utters the single most bad ass but much more tragic KISS lyric of all time...
"I got to laugh 'cause I know I'm going to die, why?"
The song has a controlled chaos that teeters on destruction until it finally loses control and crashes, killing the narrator, us and cleverly and brilliantly transforming into the next song King of the Night Time World.
This my friends IS the greatest rock n roll song of all time. And although sometimes missed because of it's use in sports arenas and parties around the world, it's also one of KISS' grimmest songs...the song was actually written about a real life KISS fan who on his way to a concert was killed in a head on collision...talk about the ultimate tribute.
RIP unknown KISS fan.
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