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With their fourth album, Destroyer, Kiss reached for the stars and created their masterpiece. Their first three studio records were simplistic rock’n’roll, banged out fast. For Destroyer, they hired Bob Ezrin, producer of Alice Cooper and Lou Reed.
As a result, Kiss sounded bigger, better and smarter. And they never sounded, bigger or smarter than on the juggernaut of an opening track that is Detroit Rock City. The song was partly inspired by the true story of a fan who was killed on the way to a Kiss gig, hence sound of a car radio and noise of smashing vehicles that bookended the song.
“On a previous tour, somebody had gotten hit by a car and killed outside the arena,” said Paul Stanley. “I remember thinking how weird it is that people can be on their way to something that’s really a party and a celebration of being alive, and die in the process of doing it. So that became the basis of the lyric.”
Ezrin set about encouraging Stanley to complete a lyric, and the end result was the story of a kid who hears about his own demise. And, no, despite what you may have read on the internet, Gene doesn’t take the part of the radio reporter at the start. That was Ezrin.
"We put his voice through a little radio and recorded it off the radio," said engineer Corky Stasiak. "If you listen to this opening through headphones, you get this eerie feeling that this is all happening to you."
Beyond the tragedy told in the lyrics, Detroit Rock City was also a salute to the city namechecked in the title. It was in Detroit, not their home town of New York, that Kiss found their biggest audience in their early days. In return, the band gave the Motor City its own rock anthem. “The first town that opened its arms and legs to us,” as Stanley quipped.
Urged on by Bob Ezrin, this was a fitting tribute – a 150mph rocket of a song, propelled by a bassline lifted from Curtis Mayfield’s blaxploitation classic Freddie’s Dead and featuring Stanley and Frehley’s iconic push-me-pull-you twin guitar solo. With its Spanish flamenco flavour and flair, the solo was an idea that came from Ezrin.
“I wrote the guitar solo on Detroit Rock City," he said. "We got to the point that we had seen the introduction and met the characters, and it was time to set up a little tension with a moment of high drama. I felt like this was the sequence where he was driving and this would be the music that would go underneath it.
"I wrote that in my head; I don’t think I actually picked up an instrument. It’s not exactly original. It is pretty well an old-fashioned flamenco theme adapted to hard rock music. And it’s not because I’m some kind of musicology major. It was my take on Gladiator music."
"Bob sang that solo section note for note, then asked Ace to learn it, including the harmony," confirmed Paul, happy to give credit where it’s due. "The drumbeat, the bassline, it was really all Bob."
Detroit Rock City opened both Destroyer and 1977’s Alive II with an almighty bang, and right until the end, no Kiss show was complete without it.
"This was a calling card of sorts for Kiss," Stanley told Classic Rock. "I always believe that albums, particularly ours, should start with a song that captures the spirit of what you’re going to get on the rest of the album, and Detroit Rock City was very much that for Destroyer."
The surprise for the band was that when radio stations got the single in July 1976, they flipped it over to play Peter Criss's ballad Beth [the single’s B-side] and lo and behold, Kiss got an unexpected hit with a different song, one that climbed all the way to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Kiss's biggest commercial hit in the US.
More than two decades later, Detroit Rock City gave its name to a Gene Simmons-produced comedy film, which followed a group of 1970s teenagers attempting to crash a Kiss show. Described by the New York Times as a "weary promotional comedy", it bombed at the box office but didn't dampen Simmons' rightful enthusiasm for the original song.
"It's kind of a national anthem of rock if you will," said Gene. "Sure, Rock 'N' Roll All Night is a celebration [it's also the only song Kiss have performed more], but there's something about Detroit Rock City that just says 'Heartland.'"
