SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Destroyer (1976).
Although this is not the first Kiss album I heard (that would be Love Gun) it was probably the one I listened to most (it had “Beth” on it after all). It is also full of some of the most over the top theatrical music of any heavy metal band at the time (is it any wonder that I also enjoy Meat Loaf and other over the top bands if I was raised on this?) Kiss has always been about theater, and how much more theatrical do you need? (How about a cartoon of the band standing on a pile of ruins?). But this album is such a classic, it’s hard to even think critically of it
“Detroit Rock City” is, well, it’s “Detroit Rock City.” An amazing, iconic (albeit simple) guitar solo, great effects in the beginning (with Paul (I always assumed) singing along to other Kiss hits on the radio) and an awesome crash at the end. Fill it out with an amazing riff and great work from the whole band. What more need be said? How about the way it leads perfectly into “King of the Night Time World.” This song is overlooked despite its greatness. It opens so loud and full then the verses get awesomely tinny until the galloping chorus kicks back in (Petter Criss plays drum rolls mid-song like no one else). It also has great riffs and a memorable solo. Oh and then a little song called “God of Thunder.” Awesome bombast, creepy kids’ voices (I remember some kind of rumors about who the kids were and how they were held captive by the band or something). It’s a wonderfully memorable song.
“Great Expectations” slows things down but adds the bombast. I’ve always enjoyed this egocentric song, even as a kid singing along in a mirror. Although the extra musical notes (keyboards and such) are kind of wimpy. But it’s followed by the electrifying “Flaming Youth,” a hard-edged guitar song that is pretty simple, but pretty potent. Again, the keyboard bits undermine the heaviness, but the repeated “higher and higher and higher” is pretty bad ass.
“Sweet Pain” is a great dark Gene-sung song (evidently about S&M, although I never knew that quite so specifically–I never understood the first two lines until I looked them up just now: “My leathers fit tight around me/My whip is always beside me”). “Shout It Out Loud” is one of the great Kiss anthems. I actually prefer it to “Rock and Roll All Nite” although that could be just because of the over exposure of “RaRAN.” Of course, “Beth” is next and it is impossible for any Kiss fan to say anything about “Beth”. This was the first song I ever memorized the lyrics to, and I sang it to my no doubt confused grandmother when I was 9 years old–my first and only live performance until college.
I always liked “Do You Love Me” (I think these Kiss fantasy songs were pretty big for me). I was always confused by the tinny voice in the final verse of the song. It was very strange to my young mind, but it really stands out in the song–as does Paul’s ending rant. The overall sentiment of the song is kind of funny coming from the guys who would soon be singing “Love Em Leave Em” but it is nice that they feel insecure once in a while too.
My LP of this album (or maybe it was an 8 track?) did not have the “bonus” track, which is just 90 seconds of a crazily processed version of “Great Expectations” with some lifted vocals of Paul in concert. Apparently even though it is untitled, it is called “Rock and Roll Party” by most fans. It appears to be a joke about all of the backwards masking that was supposedly on Kiss records. Huh.
This is still one of my favorite albums of all time.
[READ: September 30, 2011] “The Russian professor”
Nabokov did not secure the teaching position at Wellesley where he had been creative writing professor the year before (Lolita would not come out for a nother 13 years, so he was working via his Russian book reputation). So instead, he went on a several-month speaking tour of Unites States colleges, many of them in the South. These (excerpts from) letters to his wife detail some of the indignities that he suffered and reiterate his love for her and his son.
On his way to Coker University in South Carolina, his train car was double booked, his taxi didn’t show up and he wound up going to the wrong hotel. When he finally was picked up: “Feeling that I wouldn’t have time to shave before the lecture…I went in search of a barber” [what kind of time management is that??]. Nabokov writes of the shave:
He shaved me horribly, leaving my Adam’s apple all bristly, and since in the next chair a wildly screaming five-year-old child was grappling with the barber who was trying to touch up the back of his head with the clippers, the old man shaving me was nervous, hushed the child, and finally cut me slightly under the nose.
I Just Read About That... 