KISS "Detroit Rock City" Song Analysis

JW asked for a song analysis of "Detroit Rock City," the third single from KISS's hit album Destroyer. Although the song didn’t initially go anywhere on the charts except in Detroit, it eventually caught fire as the B-side of the single “Beth” during a release a year later. Today, "Detroit Rock City" is still a KISS concert favorite, while "Beth" is.........that KISS song with strings. Like with all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound and the production.

THE SONG

"Detroit Rock City" is basically a simple song based around a verse and hooky chorus, but is skillfully put together both to add some length and some interest. The song form looks like this:

intro ➞ verse ➞ chorus ➞ verse ➞ chorus ➞ 1/2 chorus ➞

bridge ➞ verse ➞ 1/2 chorus ➞ solo ➞ chorus ➞ verse ➞ chorus

The lyrics tell a story and rhyme where they have to. They’re not too clever but they never seem forced in rhyme or cadence.

THE ARRANGEMENT

"Detroit Rock City" is cleverly arranged to make it more interesting. The intro is a combination of a harmony guitar line played with the bass leading into the chord progression of the chorus. When the vocal enters you hear the basic instrumentation of the band with the drums playing a double time feel, the bass playing a counter line, and both guitars panned left and right and playing power chords.

During chorus, the lead vocal sings in the holes left by the background vocals harmony (quite the opposite of most songs), while the guitar power chords are augmented by a low octave piano and at the end, a reprise of the guitar intro in the left channel. What’s different from most hit songs is that both the verses and chorus are mostly identical in instrumentation throughout the song, without adding or subtracting any instruments with one exception towards the end of the song.

The second chorus changes in that it’s a half-chorus vocally, then modulates up a whole step to act as a bridge with the same guitar figure playing over it, then drops back down and ends with the chords to the chorus.

After the next verse, there’s another half chorus, then everything is muted except the drums for 4 bars, then a lead guitar line plays 4 bars, which is joined by a harmony guitar for the next 4 bars. When the next chorus plays, a third harmony guitar is added and only the hook of “Gotta lose your mind in Detroit rock city” is sung in harmony.

The next chorus has the first half vocals, then a 4 bar hole with a drum fill at the end, back into the chorus with the harmony lead line playing on the right side to the hard ending with a high guitar and low piano note.

• The Foundation: drums

• The Rhythm: bass

• The Pad: power chord guitars

• The Lead: lead vocal, guitar line in bridge

• The Fills: background vocals in the chorus

THE SOUND

The lead vocal is doubled, but singer Paul Stanley does a great job because the double is so close to the lead vocal that it almost doesn't sound like a double at all. The vocal also has a short regenerated delay and very bright long reverb on it. The sound is state of the art for that period in time (1976). Stanley has a pretty dynamic voice, and you can sometimes hear the compressor flattening it out as a result, but it doesn't sound too bad in the track. When you're listening, check out how apparent the vocal double becomes in the chorus at around 2:10.

Both the drums (especially the toms) and the lead guitar lines have a long reverb on them, probably the same on as on the vocal.

THE PRODUCTION

“Detroit Rock City” is a great production job by Ezrin, not for how good it is but for how bad it could have been. Just about all the instrumental parts are shaky. They’re pretty good, but they’re not precise in the articulations, and certainly not as good as the band would become in later years. As a result of the playing, the song just doesn’t have much of a groove, although everything is in time. Still, several million kids at the time could care less, and loved the song anyway. Chalk that all up to Bob Ezrin's most excellent production.

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KISS "Detriot Rock City" Isolated Vocals

Here's another fun isolated vocal track, this time from KISS. It's called "Detroit Rock City" and it's from their Destroyer album from 1976. The song was the A side of the 3rd single from the album, but the B side, "Beth," unexpectedly became the big hit, which shot them to world-wide fame.

Here are some things to listen for:

1) Paul Stanley has a pretty dynamic voice, and you can sometimes hear the compressor flattening it out as a result. Doesn't sound too bad in the track though.

2) The lead vocal is doubled, but Paul does a great job because the double is so close to the lead vocal that it almost doesn't sound like a double at all. The double becomes very apparent when you hear the answer vocals in the chorus, which are not doubled.

3) The lead vocal has a very bright long reverb on it, but it also has a separate short delay as well.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.


You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.


Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

Van Halen "Runnin' With The Devil" Demo

Here's an interesting little ditty from the 1976 Gene Simmons-produced Van Halen demo tapes. It's "Runnin' With The Devil" and it sounds surprisingly like the finished version that appeared on the band's first Ted Templeman-produced record for Warner Brothers (called appropriately "Van Halen").

Kiss's Gene Simmons saw the band play a gig at the now defunct Starwood club in Hollywood, financed and produced about 15 tracks, and then presented them to Casablanca (their record label at the time) who rejected them. He then had them play a showcase at SIR in New York for Bill Aucoin (Kiss's manager) who also thought they had no potential. Van Halen then came back to Hollywood, played the tapes for Warner Brothers, and the rest is history. The basics on the Simmon's demo were cut at Village Recorder in Los Angeles and the guitar solos and vocals at Electric Ladyland in New York.

Here's the little bit that I heard on the song that's different.
1) The delayed reverb on the guitar that became a Van Halen signature is missing.

2) David Lee Roth's delivery of the vocal doesn't swing as much.

3) The feel of the solo/bridge part is a lot different.

4) There's a hard ending as compared to a fade. (Actually, I got this one wrong.)

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KISS "Detroit Rock City" - Isolated Vocals

Here's one for the KISS Army out there. It's the isolated lead vocal for "Detroit Rock City." The third single from KISS's hit album Destroyer, DRC didn't go anywhere on the charts except in Detroit. That is, until the B-side of the single, Beth, caught fire.

Today, DRC is still a KISS concert favorite, while Beth is.........that KISS song with strings.

1) Paul Stanley's vocal is doubled with a regenerated short delay and long reverb trail. The sound is state of the art for that period in time (1976).

2) Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss have always sung very well together. In this case, the harmony vocals on the chorus are very tight, especially the releases, which is unusual for the period. Chalk that up to Bob Ezrin's most excellent production (he also co-wrote the song with Stanley).

KISS has always been under-appreciated for its music skills. Tracks like this show you just how good they were, and still are today.

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The R&R Hall Of Fame Strikes Again

Every year I rant about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame around this time of the year, and it looks like I'll continue to do so. Just the very fact that we even have to discuss why one artist gets in while another doesn't is the best reason why there shouldn't be a hall in the first place.

What's the criteria for entry? Is it the number of hits that an artist had during his lifetime? Is it the influence he had on others follow him? Is both? Or neither?

No I'm afraid it's random, more about the kind of dough they can bring in for the ceremony than anything else, as covered by my post last year.

I don't think that there should be a hall of fame for any of the arts, as if you couldn't tell, but if there was a good reason for a music one, consider this:

Frankie Lyman and The Teenagers are in, KISS is not.
Gene Pitney is in, Chicago (120 million records sold) is not.
The Dells are in, Yes is not.
Bobby Womack is in, Neil Diamond (owner of 37 top 40 hits) is not.
Spooner Oldham is in (you really have to know a lot about the music industry to know who he is), Dire Straits (the biggest band in the world for a couple of years) is not.

Stevie Ray Vaughn, Rush, The Commodores (17 top 40's) not in. But Iggy Pop and The Stooges just got in. Influential, maybe (it's debatable), but never big sellers even in their heyday.

This whole R&R HOF thing is so screwed up it's not even worth bringing up. Sorry for the rant. Until next year.

Bob Lefsetz vs. Gene Simmons

In one of the more hilarious confrontations in a while, industry gadfly Bob Lefsetz takes on Kiss's Gene Simmons in a separate dedicated session in Toronto at the Canadian Music Week conference.

The confrontation resulted from a posting in the Lefsetz newsletter accusing Simmons of a long commercial for his new record label during his keynote address. Simmons responded with an email of his own, basically saying, "Who is this guy? What has he done to dare diss me?"

As if he doesn't know. And if he doesn't, Simmons is too far out of the business to own a record label, since Lefsetz has been in the craw of label heads for about 20 years.

The following video is quite an enjoyable exchange though.