CHAPTER 33 – Creatures
Of The Night (1982)
“Creatures Of The Night” Album
Notes:
Produced by Michael James
Jackson, Paul Stanley & Gene Simmons. Recorded at The Record Plant Studios,
33.01. Creatures Of The Night
Written by Paul Stanley and
Adam Mitchell in Adam’s kitchen, the title track of the album exhibits what
Paul Stanley wanted the album to display with a return to the band’s hard-rock
roots, with a vengeance. It’s not known who would play bass on the track, but
it wasn’t Gene and may have been Mike Porcaro, while Steve Ferris would perform
the lead guitar solo. Co-writer Adam Mitchell would also play some rhythm
guitar on the track. Adam recalled, “I played on the actual song ‘Creatures Of
The Night.’ I played in the middle and the end. All kinds of different guitar
players played on that. Ace, however, was not one of them even though his face
is on the cover. Anyway we just kind of hit it off. Paul and I were both single
at the time so we started hanging out a lot.”
Adam Mitchell’s connection
with KISS would also come about due to his having a prior relationship with
producer Michael James Jackson. Michael had heard Adam recording solo material
in
33.02. Saint And Sinner
Written by Gene Simmons and
Mikel Japp. Mikel was a guitarist whose first connection with KISS had come
about due to his involvement in Paul Stanley’s solo album in 1978. He’s also
been involved in projects with Dana Strum and Michael Des Barres. According to
Mikel, “Gene and I ended up finishing off the idea that I had left with Paul at
the hotel on the tape. That idea became ‘Saint and Sinner’ (which of course had
a least 3 titles before that)” (JG).
33.03. Keep Me Comin’
One of the last songs
written for the album, this song would be composed by Paul Stanley and Adam
Mitchell. This, according to Adam, would be one of Eric’s favorite tracks on
the album because of the massive drums on the track. Adam recalled, “for me, my
favorite parts of ‘Keep Me Comin’ were two things. The other songs for Creatures
we had pretty much written and recorded in
33.04. Rock And Roll Hell
It took quite a few years
for fans to piece together the evidence behind this song and figure out that it
was not actually an original composition for the band. What has been mostly
unknown in fan circles is that “Rock And Roll Hell” is actually a cover (albeit
with rewriting much akin to how the band would later handle Argent’s “God Gave
Rock And Roll To You II”) of a song which had originally appeared on the 1979
Bachman-Turner Overdrive “Rock And Roll Nights” album for which Jim Vallance
had been both a co-writer and producer. At the time the song was solely
attributed to Jim Vallance for it’s original form was an angst ridden ponderous
piece with only the chorus really resembling the version later recorded by
KISS.
During April 1982 Bryan
Adams and Jim Vallance would rework the song giving it a new lyric and a
heavier overall feel. They would submit it, along with “War Machine,” to
producer Michael James Jackson in July 1982 for consideration for KISS to
record. Gene would be responsive to the two new songs and wanted to add an
extra verse to the song. While the song was considered complete prior to
submission to Michael, Gene’s contribution would allow him to get a
song-writing credit on the piece. According to Jim, “About a week later we got
a call from Gene Simmons. He said he loved our tracks and KISS were interested
in recording them. There was just one problem – ‘Rock ‘N Roll Hell’ needed an
extra verse! Adams and I were in the same room, on separate phones. We looked
at each other and shook our heads. The song was finished. Why on earth would
Gene want us to write another verse? We told Gene how we felt about it. There
was a moment of silence on the other end of the line and then Gene spoke, very
slowly and firmly: ‘You don’t understand,’ he said. ‘The song needs an extra
verse. And I’m going to write it.’ Suddenly it dawned on us. The song didn’t
really need an extra verse. Gene was simply trying to tell us, in
not-too-subtle terms, that he wouldn’t record our song unless his name appeared
as a co-writer – and unless he received a portion of the royalties! We’d just
been bullied, and the choices were obvious: we could have partial credit on a
KISS album that would probably sell 10 million copies, or we could have zero
credit on the album – and zero royalties! Regrettably, we gave in to Gene’s
demands. And while the experience left us with an empty feeling, it also served
as an important lesson for the future. We never relinquished credit to anyone
again” (Jim Vallance).
Gene never sat down with
Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams to write the piece and whatever changes he did
make in writing that ‘additional’ verse were minor overall to the reworked
version of the song. Throughout the song’s transition, only the verse would
retain any similarity with the original song recorded by BTO in 1979. Thus,
while the song can in some ways be considered to be a cover of the BTO song, it
was really more of a new recording of a newly reworked song. Robben Ford also
plays the guitar solo on this song. He’d done work on four tracks, but the band
would only use his contributions to this track and “I Still Love You.” This
song would also be performed in KISS’ set, at least once, in
33.05. Danger
Written by Adam Mitchell
and Paul Stanley, Adam recalled, “we demoed ‘Danger’ and oh man, we had such a
killer demo of ‘Danger,’ better than the record even. I remember we took
‘Danger’ over to play for Gene we were so excited cause we just knew it was
killer” (KISS Hell International). The song would written be at Adam’s house and
initially demoed in his home studio. Initially the demo would use a drum
machine, but when it was time to record the piece Eric nailed the real drumming
for the song which Adam felt was very complex and strenuous due to the tempo.
Jimmy Haslip, who had played with Bruce Kulick in Blackjack, played bass on the
track after being hired by producer Michael James Jackson to do a session with
the band late in the recording of the album while Bob Kulick plays lead guitar
on this track (Sharp, Ken – Behind The Mask).
33.06. I Love It Loud
One of the earliest songs
Gene Simmons and Vinnie Vincent worked on together this KISS anthem would be
based on an earlier Vinnie song idea called “Loud And Proud.” Vinnie had been
introduced to KISS by Adam Mitchell, though at the time Vinnie’s band Warrior
had also been rehearsing in the studio next to the one KISS were using. Vinnie
and Adam had written material prior to either becoming involved in KISS. The
song developed around the chant which Gene had come up with. This song would
provide Gene with his last KISS single A-side release for 10 years. Gene would
have the song fade-out and fade-in at the end as a tribute to his favorite
songs, “Good Lovin’” (Young Rascals) and “Do You Love Me” (The Contours), which
had done the same.
33.07. I Still Love You
Vinnie and Paul’s early
writing result was initially referred to as “Still In Love With You.” According
to Vinnie, “Paul Stanley was more on the commercial side of the spectrum. He
had a smooth polished thing going. When he and I wrote together we wrote the
songs that made Kiss respected on a wider basis” (Guitar Magazine, 5/87). That
sentiment is very much self-evident with the level of production of the song.
Robben Ford would play the guitar solo.
33.08. Killer
Like “I Love It Loud,” this
song would be an early collaboration between Gene and Vinnie Vincent. According
to Vinnie, “what Gene and I were able to conceive on the attitude end also
needed the polish to make the whole thing work just right” (Guitar Magazine,
5/87). Gene and Vinnie would be writing this song while the band were recording
the album. According to Vinnie, “I came up with the idea. Gene added some good
stuff to it and the song just grew” (Strike #38).
33.09. War Machine
According to the Bryan
Adams’s official website, “War Machine” started out as a song written by him
and song-writing partner Jim Vallance which was first recorded by the band The
Investigators. However, Jim believed that this is something of confusion on
What changes were made to
the song by Gene Simmons for use on the “Creatures Of The Night” album are
unclear, though from statements he has made, he turned what was mostly a
cyclic-riff based song into one with more structure and can essentially be
considered to have re-worked the original demo version for use on the album.
This song, along with “Rock And Roll Hell” were submitted by Bryan Adams and
Jim Vallance to producer Michael James Jackson in July 1982. Gene did make
substantial changes to the original version of the song, more so than the
changes he had made to “Rock And Roll Hell.”
This is quite a different
picture to that presented by Gene: “War Machine started off, strangely enough,
on a cheap, miniature synthesizer. I had been recording demos at home on a
small four-track recording facility and wanted to do some different kinds of
things. I had bought the cheap synthesizer just to add a layer of sound in back
of something, in back of a guitar. But while fiddling with it, I fell on the
‘War Machine’ riff. The original ‘War Machine’ was a song almost purely based
around the riff. The riff never stopped and the vocals continued over the
guitar figure. Michael James Jackson suggested bringing in a co-writer, who
would help with the lyrics. He suggested a brand new writer, who was an
up-and-coming recording artist himself, named Bryan Adams, and his writing
partner Jim Vallance. Vallance, Adams, and I would co-write ‘War Machine’ and
‘Rock And Roll Hell,’ both of which appeared on ‘Creatures Of The Night.’ Adams
and Vallance. Adams and Vallance added some chordal passages and the basic
lyrical content including the title ‘War Machine’” (KISS Box Set Liners). Gene
Simmons would play rhythm guitar on the track.
How did “War Machine” and
“Rock And Roll Hell” end up in the KISS camp? During 1982 Michael James Jackson
would approach Jim Vallance to see if he and Bryan Adams would be willing to
write material for KISS. They were, since at that point the Adams/Vallance
song-writing partnership did not have the exposure that the KISS name did. When
Gene eventually heard the songs that Vallance and Adams had written, he loved
them, but had to make changes to them to bring some of his own style into the
material, apart from appearing on the credits. This use of external material
raises the interesting question of just how short of material the band were
prior to the recording sessions. Without external writers for both “Killers”
and “Creatures Of The Night” sessions there was little from either Paul and
Gene to record.
33.10. I Love It Loud (Single Edit)
This single, issued in
promotional format, simply presents a different edit of the song having both a
“short version,” clocking in at
33.11. It’s My Life
“It’s My Life” was one of
the then uncommon Gene and Paul collaborations which was recorded for the
“Creatures Of The Night” album in 1982. The
33.12. Betrayed
“Betrayed” was one of the
earliest songs written together by Paul Stanley and Vinnie Cusano. However, the
song had its roots in the Warrior period of Vinnie’s pre-KISStory where it had
been demoed in an instrumental format. At one point the song was even
considered for inclusion on the “Creatures Of The Night” album, but was
apparently left off, appearing on one prospective track listing for the album
which also included “Nowhere To Run.” It is not clear what level the KISS recording
reached on the song and whether a full version was recorded for the album, or
simply demoed in some form. Gene Simmons would later write a song which would
use the same title for the 1989 album “Hot In The Shade.”
33.13. Legends Never Die
KISS actually recorded this
Gene Simmons, Adam Mitchell, and Micki Free composition during the “Creatures
Of The Night” sessions, but the song never had a vocal track put on it and was
abandoned because Paul was not overly fond of the song. Later, Gene would simply
take the KISS track and add Wendy O. Williams vocals to it. It would be this
song on the Wendy O. Williams “W.O.W.” album that Eric Carr would get credited
as guesting on drums, and naturally, with Gene as “Reginald Van Helsing” on
bass, would tend in the direction of what Gene suggested had been the basis for
the track. The song was originally titled “When The Legend Dies” and credited
to Micki Free and Gene Simmons. In 2002 Doro, who had previously covered “Only
You” and recorded Simmons’ penned songs, would record a cover this song.
33.14. Back On The Streets
“Back On The Streets” had
originally been a song written by Vinnie previous to his Warrior project before
becoming involved with KISS. The song would be demoed for “Creatures Of The
Night” due to producer Michael James Jackson liking the song and thinking that
it could be a hit for the band. With Paul Stanley on lead vocals the song would
be considered for release on the album, but like some other songs scratched
from the track lineup. Part of the reason for the recording being excluded from
the album was that it directly competed with Paul’s own co-written ballad “I
Still Love You” and did not sit well with the overall tone of the album.
According to Vinnie, “I asked Gene why we didn’t do that song. He said that
Paul didn’t think he sang it that well” (Strike #38). Vinnie, on the other
hand, liked the recording.
33.15. Eye Of The Storm
Written by Gene Simmons and
Mikel Japp during their “writing spree at Diana Ross's house where Gene was
staying for awhile. We wrote many things and had different titles every other
day for the same song! We would change things inside out, to outside in, it was
a lot of fun though... Gene and I also wrote a few other things such as ‘Eye of
the Storm’ and another ‘It’s Gonna be Alright.’ Two real cool ideas I thought
that never really made an album” (JG). This song is published via BMI #395866.
33.16. It’s Gonna Be Alright
Gene would offer this song
to the Glaswegian band Heavy Pettin’ (along with four other songs), who had
opened up for KISS on the European leg of the Lick It Up tour, along with
Helix, in 1984 while on location filming “Runaway.” Smashed Gladys recorded a
version of the song titled “Give It All You’ve Got” on their Gene involved demo
prior to their being signed by a record label. A mellow rocker it seems to use
a drum loop, but has decent lyrics: “It’s gonna be alright / I asked the cards
and they told me so / But you gotta put up a fight / Don’t worry, I won’t let
you fall.” Two versions of this demo exist, both running to 4:27, though one
has Gene laughing at the beginning of the song. The song was written by Gene,
Mitch Weissman, and Mikel Japp.
33.17. Chrome Heart
This song was included on a
demo tape containing material offered to Heavy Pettin’. Nothing else is
currently known about the song.
33.18. Not For The Innocent (Demo)
Running 4.34, this early
demo has strong similarities with the “Creatures Of The Night” style, with a
somewhat brutal vocal delivery by Paul. That’s right, Paul. While Gene sings
some of the verses, Paul handles the majority of the song including some verses
and the chorus. Gene sings the first verse, which is the same as the “Lick It
Up” album version; Paul the second verse. While the verse is the same as the
album version, the second repetition of “Kick you when you’re down” is not
present. Paul then launches into the chorus: “We’re not for the innocent /
We’re not for the innocent / Yeah, we’re not for the innocent / Let the beast
run wild.”
Gene’s third verse is
slightly different: “I’ve been damned, I’ve been cursed / I’ve been guilty and
abused (Ooh yeah) / Spit in the hangman’s face / I’ll hang him with his noose /
We’re a habitual threat, I’ve got you in my claws.” From this point in the song
(
Creatures Of The Night 1985 Remixes
After all of the effort
that had gone into attaining the sound of the drums for “Creatures Of The
Night” in 1982 it might seem somewhat odd that several songs from the album
were remixed to tone the sound down for the reissue of the album in July 1985.
The tracks would be remixed by Dave Wittman at Electric Lady Studios in
33.19. Creatures Of The Night (Remix)
33.20. I Still Love You (Remix)
33.21. War Machine (Remix)
Tracks 33.19-21 simply
feature general toning down of the drum sound (volume).