In Praise of.....<i>DESTROYER</i> by Kiss!

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Somewhat inspired by all the recent Kiss threads of late (KISS Music from the Elder: Brilliant or Trash, Kiss Symphony: Alive IV, etc.) I returned today to the definite article and slapped a tape of Destroyer in the ol' walkman whilst yutzin' around town running errands. I have to say, there a precious few albums like it. Let's review, shall we?

It must've seemed like a huge leap at the time from the garagey sound of the first three records and the whallop of Alive to the über-production of Destroyer (and I believe they claim they even lost fans over it), but twenty-someodd years later, it still sounds like nothing else on earth (though the band themselves certainly tried to replicate its sound, to no avail). From the echoey expanse of the sound, to the vast aresenal of theretofore taboo instrumentation (pianos all over the place, organs, female back-up vocals, church choirs and all those strings, oboes, french horns and woodwinds on "Beth".....and is that a fuckin' calliope on "Flaming Youth"?) it's a fucking herculean effort. Original pressings even came appended with a mysterious coda track reminiscent of the fabled "inner groove" of Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, featuring Paul Stanley ruminating about having parties to an obviously receptive audience while the choir from "Great Expectations" warble said silly song's chorus angelically). What an opus!

The songs themselves, of course, are the stars of the show. Arguably their finest selections are here, notably the epic "Detroit Rock City", the genuinely sinister sounding "God of Thunder" (written by Paul, actually), the anthemic "Shout It Out Loud" (which I've always preferred over "Rock'n'Roll All Night") and, of course, their power ballad-minus-the-power, "Beth." Maybe not "something for everyone," but it's a pretty wide array of offerings all the same.

Once again, though, what really sets it apart is Ezrin's touch. Lending the band so much sonic space to work within, it sounds as if it were recorded in the apse of the Cathedral of St.John the Divine in Upper Manhattan. Ace's guitars wail mournfully from far off corners of the huge room. Peter's drumming reverberates up from some dank lower chamber. Booming piano keys augment Gene's bass. Children's voices like demonic cherubim with leather bat wings flap and giggle all over "God of Thunder." It's a masterpiece, by gosh!

The track that struck me most today is one I've normally never given a great deal of thought to, but it just seemed so wonderfully ludicrous today that I couldn't stop smiling. "Great Expectations" is inflated with so much needless pomp and circumstance, that it's hard to believe it was recorded with a straight face. Basically an entirely presumptious excercise in self-mythologizing (written by Gene, naturally), painstaking detailing the hopes, dreams and aspirations of every self-(dis)respecting groupie ("you know what my fingers can do, and you wish you were the one I was doin' it to!"), Ezrin forgives Simmons' laughably pretentious preenings (I'm sure Ezrin was paid handsomely enough to overlook the band's ego problems) and bolsters proceedings with lilting pianos, drama-drenched surges of guitar and hauls in some innocent church choir of eunuched choir boys to chime in on the incongruous, Dickens-pilfering chorus (is Gene suggesting that it is indeed a great thing to expect sexual favors from the band?) Such hubris wouldn't rear its head some clumsily again until the unforgivale "Charisma" on the Dynasty album. But dressed up in Ezrin's magic, it's a fuckin' hymn.

I could go on and on, and already have. I haven't even touched on the cover, which remains one of my very favorite single images of all time.

So, anyway, raise your glasses (or ready your slingshots and prove me wrong) to praise Destroyer by KISS

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 2 August 2003 03:59 (twenty-two years ago)

wow! I don't think I'll ever agree with you but I don't want to prove you wrong

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 2 August 2003 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Great review, Alex... I'll have my own soon in full, largely because I just can't get over how right you are!

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Saturday, 2 August 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Kiss, Billy Joel, 'Saturday Night Fever'. What IS it with New Yorkers and Beethoven?

― dave q, Saturday, 2 August 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

'Destroyer'/'Billion Dollar Babies' = 'Sgt Pepper'/'Pet Sounds'. Except the first pair is better of course

― dave q, Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex, will you be at Jones Beach for Aerosmith and Kiss? Or did that gig already happen?

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 2 August 2003 23:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex, wondering if you liked KISS Unplugged... was my first ever KISS album, and I love it to this day... One of those albums I can turn on at any given time and totally love it. Not fond of "I Still Love You" but I never liked that song off of Creatures either... Think R&R All Night is probably their best version, with the energy, despite Peter Criss singing the wrong verse... Beth is unbelievable, one of the first songs I learned on guitar, and am STILL waiting to sing it to a girl named Beth... Nothin To Lose, 2000 Man, World Without Heroes, Goin Blind, and Comin Home all sound better on Unplugged than studio... Everytime I Look at You is great w/ the mini-orchestra...

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Sunday, 3 August 2003 02:59 (twenty-two years ago)

"First I drink, then I smoke."

Surely some benchmark for terse brilliance in rock and roll or out of it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 3 August 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

And now that I'm listening to this again, Alex -- that snippet you mention? It's on the end of the remastered CD!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 3 August 2003 04:40 (twenty-two years ago)

"gotta laugh, cuz i know i'm gonna die- WHY?!"

hahahaha- why...

― naturalaw-dp, Sunday, 3 August 2003 06:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex - what do you think of the production on the Gene Simmons solo LP?

― dave q, Sunday, 3 August 2003 07:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Heya Natural Law. I'm still waiting for a tour out here, y'know!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 3 August 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

(1) Nope, not going to see the Kiss/Aerosmith show. Saw them on both the reunion tour and the Psycho Circus tour. Ace isn't there on this `round. What's the point? And, anyway, fuck Aerosmith.

(2) Unplugged. Ummmm. I don't mind it, but I'd be fibbing if I said I played it very often. I like the idea of it more than its actual execution.

(3) Haven't spun Gene's solo record in eons, but will do and get back to you on that. I remember quite enjoying "Living in Sin (at the Holiday Inn)" though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 3 August 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

And remember, three years previous to this album, they were still looking like this:

http://www.kissasylum.com/kisstory/kiss73_b.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 02:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm in shock over that photo. I actually think they look great.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 4 August 2003 03:58 (twenty-two years ago)

is that what they looked like when they were opening for the dolls and the stooges?

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Monday, 4 August 2003 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Pretty much, yup.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 4 August 2003 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

REVIVE

Alright, regarding the cover.....just what the fuck is going on there? Are they running? Are they dancing? Are they celebrating in the wake of the destruction their unbriddled display of RÖCK wreaked on the smouldering city behind them? Also, what's with the gestures? Paul looks like he's doing the hokey-pokey. Peter's steering an imaginary bicycle, Gene is shadow-boxing, but....what's up with Ace? One finger feyly points at you, whereas the other hand holds four fingers up...signifying that it's their fourth studio album? Signifying the four members? Fingers extended to catch a descending pop fly?

And the back cover? Same shit, only....they're not there.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 4 August 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know man, but you made me pull out the record this weekend, and indeed affirm that "Great Expectations" is some sort of sick genius.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 4 August 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't own any KISS albums but I do have a KISS story.
Back in the early 90s, I went to see a KISS cover band at a local club, the best part being this twisted little dwarf lip-syncing and giving the devil sign just in front of me. Guy fuckin' rocked.
Late in the show, and after many beers, I really needed to piss. Relieved myself in the washroom and flushed, without noticing that there was a flaw at my chosen urinal — pipes weren't connected, meaning when I flushed, big stream of water cascaded from chest to feet. All over me.
As an aside, later bought Destroyer and it made up for the saturation (and attendant humiliation)

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Monday, 4 August 2003 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

So I do actually own a KISS album.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Monday, 4 August 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

that was actually my first lp ever, when was it, 1976 or 1977? i found it very hard-rock at the time. though i must admit i haven't listened to destroyer for almost 25 years. i didn't find it over-produced then but at the time everything was over-produced. now i fuckin' hate over-production. when i was 16 or so i felt ashamed of this record and gave it away. that was about the time when i got into nick drake...

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 4 August 2003 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

when i was 16 or so i felt ashamed of this record and gave it away. that was about the time when i got into nick drake...

Can't Nick Drake co-exist happily in your collection alongside Kiss? For same, Alex, for shame!

The only records I ever ditched out of shame were ones by Helix and Grim Reaper.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 4 August 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved this album when I was in junior high, when it came out. *Until* I got the first three Kiss albums and fell in love with the more garagey Kiss. I found it hard to listen to Destroyer after that, though it does have some classics on it.

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:08 (twenty-two years ago)

The only records I ever ditched out of shame were ones by Helix and Grim Reaper.

re Grim Reaper -- did you ditch it before or after Butthead lobbed a spoonful of mashed potatoes at the "see you in hell" video?

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to prank phone call Brian Vollmer from Helix. He teached the Bel Canto vocal technique and advertised in a London (Ontario) urban weekly. Taking said phone number from ad, we used to call him regularly in the early 90s. We were cruel.
He eventually called the police and they showed up at one of my parties.
The phone calls stopped.
Ironically, one of my friends (and one of the guys in on the calls) is now the drummer for Helix on their nostalgia tours.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

how could you not make fun of a band that looks like this?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/pic200_web/drp000/p052/p05271i514s.jpg

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Vindicated. Thank you.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 01:40 (twenty-two years ago)

What did you do, ring up and yell "Gimme an R!"?

― dave q, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 11:23 (twenty-two years ago)

three weeks pass...

Alright, regarding the cover.....just what the fuck is going on there? Are they running? Are they dancing?

Maybe they are leaping away from an explosion they just caused. It looks like they're all jumping, and there does appear to be an explosion behind them.

Since this thread appeared I've wanted to pick up an lp copy but haven't found one at a price I've wanted to pay. But buy one I will, thanks to Alex's enthusiasm.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 29 August 2003 03:06 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Clearly, they're dancing on the mass graves of a destroyed civilization. The sinister sound effects throughout "God of Thunder" are the haunting soundtrack to this most genius album artwork.

The record is a document, for sure. And the sonic imitations of Sgt. Peppers are present from front to back. (Kiss definitely fancied themselves as "fab"). The building cacophony before the opening notes are a direct homage, as well as the abstract loops at the end.

Nobody mentioned "Do You Love Me", which certainly could be scoffed at because of Paul's absurd (but catchy) rap. And of course the lyrics are far-fetched: just like in Great Expectations, they're totally in-line with the entire larger-than-life concept of the band.

For me as an adolescent, KISS (especially this album) were the prefect bridge between Spiderman and John Lennon. As Rolling Stone said before me, Destroyer is truly the 496th greatest album of all time.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Saturday, 9 July 2005 08:01 (twenty years ago)

agree with above and i'll add:
does the cover depict 4 survivors after the end of the world ?
detroit rock city - one of the best guitar solos ever(after 3:55).
king of the night time world - tribal drumming is awesome
god of thunder - very heavy with little children in background.
great expectations - epic .this might've inspired "the elder"
flaming youth - similar to alice cooper's "department of youth".
sweet pain - ace proving why he is a guitar god.
shout it out loud - one of the best kiss songs.
beth - their best ballad.
do you loveme - full of innuendo but never vulgar,so funny.

― st. aul panley, Saturday, 9 July 2005 08:26 (twenty years ago)

sweet pain - ace proving why he is a guitar god.

Actually, that's Dick Wagner. Ace didn't show up that day.

― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Saturday, 9 July 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

Dude, Kent, that's like telling a five year old that Santa went to prison for raping Rudoph.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 July 2005 10:48 (twenty years ago)

(...but yeah, Ace bitches about it in Behind the Mask).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 July 2005 10:50 (twenty years ago)

"First I drink, then I smoke."
Surely some benchmark for terse brilliance in rock and roll or out of it.
- Ned Raggett (ned@...), August 3rd, 2003

It would take almost thirty years for anyone to come this close again...

Get my drink on
And my smoke on
Then go home with somethin' to poke on

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Saturday, 9 July 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

beth - their best ballad.

I would reserve that honor for Hard Luck Woman.

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 9 July 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

And yeah, Destroyer remains the essential Kiss album for me.

I'm partial to "King Of The Night Time World." Also "Do You Love Me" b/c, y'know, sad clown...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Saturday, 9 July 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

Can't recall a dud song on this album. "Great Expectations" always makes me giggle. God, I love Gene Simmons. Too bad he's a man.

― p.j. (Henry), Saturday, 9 July 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

sad clown - lol, indeed.
he's a man - well, almost.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Saturday, 9 July 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/gene_symmonds,0.jpeg
"slowly rob you of your virgin soooouuuuulllll!"

― p.j. (Henry), Saturday, 9 July 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)

Damn, that tongue looks like it might bust through my computer screen!

― p.j. (Henry), Saturday, 9 July 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

Gene really does have nice teeth. Look at that. Perfect teeth! I bet he never uses that tongue for sex, anyway. Not on one of the typical skanks, anyway.

Destroyer seems to be about the only Kiss album non-Kiss Army members will get behind almost un-selfconsciously. I'm not sure why that is, because it has the terrible Great Expectations and the possibly worse Beth. Flaming Youth is annoying as shit as well because it could almost be a really cool song, but Paul's delivery kills it for me.

― Neuromancer, Friday, 23 December 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

I think Love Gun, Dressed To Kill and Rock N' Roll Over are more solid throughout. Hotter Than Hell could maybe beat it with a better production job because it's more of a "grower" album and Destroyer is more of a "grow tired of-er," by which I mean that Destroyer has some immediately catchy songs that are easy to "wear out" and Hotter Than Hell has a bunch of songs you might not really even like at first that you can grow to love.

― Neuromancer, Friday, 23 December 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

The first album has a lot of good songs, too. Love Theme From Kiss goes absolutely nowhere but still sounds cool! Even Dynasty has some weirdness about it that I often prefer to Destroyer. Dynasty has THREE Ace songs: 2000 Man, Hard Times and Save Your Love, which are great even when they are uninspired in parts because he has a cool voice and attitude. They're no Rocket Ride, but I don't feel ripped off. Gene's "Charisma" is about the funniest and stupidest thing he ever sang that is actually enjoyable (he's written funnier and stupider that just sucked, such as "Great Expectations" off Destroyer, for example).

― Neuromancer, Friday, 23 December 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

Peter's Dirty Livin' is about the funkiest Kiss ever got and it's a HELL of a lot better than listening to him sing Beth! There are even things the first non-Ace album (Creatures of The Night) has going for it over Destroyer. What's better: God of Thunder or War Machine? Shout It Out Loud or I Love It Loud? In both cases, I prefer the latter by just a hair. Killer and Keep Me Comin' could've come off one of the first 3 albums, which is a good thing, too.

But Destroyer is a great album. It deserves praise! But, where's the praise for all this other great material?

― Neuromancer, Friday, 23 December 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 10 May 2009 14:12 (sixteen years ago)

― dlp9001, Sunday, 10 May 2009 18:26 (sixteen years ago)

(The original version of King, not by Kiss.)

― dlp9001, Sunday, 10 May 2009 18:28 (sixteen years ago)

Kiss' is better

― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 10 May 2009 18:38 (sixteen years ago)

Agreed. Just interesting.

― dlp9001, Sunday, 10 May 2009 18:47 (sixteen years ago)

True

― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 10 May 2009 18:48 (sixteen years ago)

OMG! I was soooooo going to post that Kim Fowley clip here. dlp9001, sometimes I think we were separated at birth (who are you???).

Destroyer has always been my fave Kiss even though it's the only album ever (except maybe some Hot Tuna) that I've heard only on 8-track. Why is it my fave? Cuz it's the most Kim Fowleyesque which turns out to mean it's their most meta. And most shameless.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, 10 May 2009 19:49 (sixteen years ago)

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In Praise of.....DESTROYER by Kiss!