Bob Ezrin worked with the band on Destroyer (1976) and brought it to another level, especially for making musicians understand necessary change.
no fan of kiss is able to doubt that Bob Ezrin took the band to another level. The producer was already famous for his work with alice cooper and Lou Reed when he became involved with the masked band in 1976, shortly after they broke out with live work live!.
That year, kiss and Ezrin worked together on destroyer, the group’s fourth studio album. With a more sophisticated sound, the success was maintained and even amplified, especially due to the ballad “beth”, sung by drummer Peter Criss.
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To make the full quartet by Gene Simmons (voice and bass), Paul Stanley (voice and guitar) and Ace Frehley (guitar) level up, it was necessary to understand how the band was at that moment. In the view of bobas reported in a recent podcast interview Rockounts(via classic rock), the situation was not good at all.
“The purpose of ‘destroyer‘, from my point of view, was to stop them being a rock band that attracted pimply 15-year-olds and nobody else.”
For this, it was necessary to introduce an idea coming from a movie classic so that the musicians could understand the objective.
“When we first met, I told them about a famous 1950s movie called The Savagewith Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin. There were two motorcycle clubs at war. the character of Lee Marvin he was monochrome, dressed all in black, a mean, nasty guy. already the one of Marlon Brando, there was something about him that was a little vulnerable, human. The girl falls in love with the character of Marlon Brando. I told them that at the moment they were Lee Marvin and just the 15-year-olds who were like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ We want to expand to where all the girls look at you and say, ‘I love this guy and I’m going to fix him. Because that’s what girls do.”
Kiss, Bob Ezrin and “Beth”
In this way, the presence ofbeth” in destroyer was essential in the vision of Bob Ezrin. Nobody from kiss wanted a ballad on the album, but it was this song that would break with paradigms and show that they were more than a macho band attracting 15 year olds.
“At first, ‘beth‘ was a kind of macho, kind of arrogant song. The lyrics were a guy saying, ‘screw it, I’m not coming home, the band is more important’. I went back to my apartment, I sat down at the piano and I don’t know where it came from, but the melody came out. I found the song sad as the character might not return home and seemed unaware that he was breaking his lover’s heart. It became a sensitive and sad ballad. Knew it would be a hit, but the band felt it didn’t represent the kiss. Not really, but it represented the kiss in destroyer.”
Besides destroyer, Bob Ezrin worked How kiss in the ill-fated (Music from) The Elderfrom 1981, and in the well-received revengein 1992. Other of his works afterdestroyer included albums from pink Floyd (The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Division Bell), deep purple (all albums from Now What?!), between others.
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
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