Detroit Rock City (song)
| Detroit Rock City | |
|---|---|
| Gene Simmons , Paul Stanley , Ace Frehley , Peter Criss | |
| publication | 1976 |
| length | 5:17 (Album) / 3:35 (Single Edit) |
| Genre (s) | Hard rock |
| Author (s) | Paul Stanley , Bob Ezrin |
| Publisher (s) | Hori Productions America, Inc. & All By Myself Music |
| Label | Casablanca Records , Inc. |
| album | Destroyer |
| Cover versions | |
| 1990 | Bullet La Volta |
| 1991 | Pink Cream 69 |
| 1994 | The Mighty Mighty Bosstones |
| 2008 | The Melvins |
Detroit Rock City is a song released in 1976 by the American hard rock band Kiss . It was the opening track of the Bob Ezrin- produced album Destroyer .
background
Detroit Rock City begins in its album version with a radio news anchor reading out the report about a traffic accident. Then someone apparently leaves the house where the radio was playing, gets into a car and starts the engine. The person turns on the radio, which plays the Kiss song, Rock And Roll All Nite , and drives off. The song begins from this situation.
To record the aforementioned sound effects, Bob Ezrin left the studio with a recording device and recorded the noises made when he opened the door, got into the car and started the engine. He also used a small transmitter that broadcast rock and roll all nite from the studio to the car. Ezrin also took on the role of the newscaster from the radio show and read the self-composed news text.
The song's guitar solo was also written by Ezrin, who told Ace Frehley exactly what and how to play. This created a solo that was unusually structured for Frehley.
The song ends with the sound of screeching tires and a subsequent collision, from which the seamless transition to the album's second track, King of the Night Time World, begins with the feedback from Frehley's guitar.
The song was inspired by an actual event. A fan had died in 1975 during the Dressed to Kill tour on the way to a Kiss concert in Charlotte . Paul Stanley also wanted to pay homage to the city, where Kiss was already headlining when the group was largely unknown elsewhere.
For the song, older material that had previously not been used was revised. Among other things, elements of the title Two Timer from the album Dressed to Kill and parts of the never released song Acrobat were used.
Detroit Rock City was released as the third single from the album in early August 1976 , but did not reach the US album charts . It was able to establish itself in the cash box charts and reached number 87 there. In Germany the song reached number 14. The single edit contained neither the intro nor the final “accident” of the album version.
Cover versions
The band Pink Cream 69 from Karlsruhe recorded the song in 1991 and released it on the EP 49 ° / 8 °. The group The Mighty Mighty Bosstones recorded the song for the 1994 published Kiss - tribute album Kiss My Ass on. This cover version was released as the only single from the album and appeared on green vinyl . In 2008 a version of the band The Melvins was released . In 2009, Kiss technically released a cover version of their own song when the group re-recorded some of their songs.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Julian Gill: Rock and Roll All Nite - The Music of Kiss, KissFaq.com, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9822537-7-9 , pages 43 & 44
- ^ Paul Stanley in: Kiss Exciter Fanzine , March 1993
- ^ A b Dale Sherman: Black Diamond 2 - The Illustrated Collector's Guide to Kiss, Collector's Guide Publishing Inc., 1997, ISBN 1-896522-36-X , pages 78-80.
- ↑ CD KISS Klassics, supplement to the album Sonic Boom , Kiss Records, 2009