Another album I've loved since I was a wee lad. So many good tunes on this one - Detroit Rock City, Do You Love Me, King of the Night Time World, and my favorite Shout It Out Loud. I have to confess, I do skip past Beth, and I turn it off when I hear it on the radio, but I'm sure it has its fans, too, however sappy they may be.

If I'm not mistaken, this was the first album Bob Ezrin produced for them, and he really brought a lot of theatrics into their sound. And that album cover? It rocked my world when I was a young'un - I wanted Gene's boots like real bad. But I also wanted my friend Nickey's Avon lipstick, so I was a messed up kid. Sad that only a few years down the line they became a complete joke. A lot of people already thought they were a joke, but their sound wasn't so watered down and targeted to a mass audience at this point.

I had this on 8 track.

"Beth I hear you callin'"

Oh my God!!! I'm so old.

Great band/incredible live shows but I prefer Rock & Roll Over To Destroyer. It's not so over-produced.

Beth is a funny song. It sounds all sweet and sappy, till you ponder over the lyrics...lol

RipHer2Shreds said:

Yeah, being a bigtime fan of KISS all of my life, this is the album that "broke" them, after their huge success from KISS Alive. Yeah, it is the first album produced by Ezrin. He had so much to do with this being a great album. The production is fantastic. KISS truly went to another level with this album as far as being popular went. A lot of KISS fans at first didn't dig the new slick polished sound. And the band thought the album was going to flop. But, lo and behold, a dj played the b-side to "Detroit Rock City", a song titled "Beth". The changed their destiny. The song was a smash, sending sales of the album through the roof. This song won them a People's Choice Award. So many songs are great on this album, but my favorite has always been "Great Expectations". The Brooklyn Boys Choir sung on the chorus. i remember seeing a picture of them in the studio with KISS and 95% of the kids in the choir were black. This impressed me cuz, as a black kid who adored KISS and had my walls covered with their posters, I caught flack for this from other black kids. Great, great album.

The album cover is one of my favorite covers by anyone. I still to this day, have a giant poster of the album cover, hanging on my wall from when I was little. The art work was done by the artist who did covers for the comic book Creepy, Ken Kelly. Now, he is known all over the world, simply because of this single painting.

Also, this album cover greatly influenced Rick James, who was a huge KISS fan as well. If u have ever seen Rick's second lp, Bustin' Out of L7 from 79, the comic style artwork on the cover is actually a combination of TWO KISS album covers: Destroyer and Love Gun. But check out Rick's pose on the cover, and then check Gene's. Not to mention Rick's costume is Peter Criss's from Destroyer. And Rick's women are from the Love Gun album. I used to have all three of these albums hung on my wall in a row as a kid.

blackguitaristz said:

Rick even had some outfits that definitely looked like they came out of the KISS closet!


[Edited 6/3/05 11:06am]

RipHer2Shreds said:

There it is. Rick's pose, minus his guitar, is identical to Gene's pose.

Natisse said:

RipHer2Shreds said:

I was more into "Rock And Roll Over", but this is a classic KISS LP. A little overrated, but still cool. Bob Ezrin produced 2 great KISS LPs (this one and "Revenge") and a horrible one ("The Elder"). Bob Ezrin pulled the best out of KISS and gave them a good "themed" LP. I remember seeing KISS for the 1st time on the "Paul Lynde Halloween Special" performing "Detroit", "Beth", and King Of The Nighttime World" and being blown away. Supposedly the last track that keeps looping over and over is the dead body (of the guy in the car crash in "Detroit") floating over the arena watching KISS perform. And like Black, I was impressed that there were black kids that were in the Brooklyn chior singing too. (Good points by the way Black on the Rick James connection!)..I still have my huge "Destroyer" poster and I was lucky to get Gene, Ace, Peter, and Paul to sign it. Yeah, KISS was a part of my childhood too!

Good record,but "Rocks" by Aerosmith destoys it

SPYZFAN1 said:

Yeah, I also favor "Rock and Roll Over" as well. It's a toss between that and the first KISS album as far as my favorite KISS album goes. But as a kid, Destroyer was it for me. Yeah, I have that Paul Lynde special on tape.

blackguitaristz said:

Here's something for ya. Nile Rodgers said that the reason they named their band Chic was because they wanted something that sounded like KISS.

I have this album!!

Detroit Rock City is the freaking jam!!!