How Lou Reed helped to spawn the Kiss song that became known as Gene Simmons’ anthem
Like an only child who isn’t actually that bothered about getting their own way, there must be someone out there who claims to enjoy Lou Reed and Metallica’s maddening mash-up Lulu without lying, but I’m yet to meet them. On paper, the thrashing rockers are the antithesis of the artistry that Reed held dear, but he has been in bed with those you’d suppose as enemies in the past when he collaborated with geriatric cats of Kiss.
However, perhaps Reed’s need for creative union isn’t all that surprising when you reconcile his beginnings amid Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory’ scene. This was a New York clique that functioned like a creative orgy, sometimes almost in a literal sense. So, the trade and synthesis of ideas and the vitality that clashes create were always been part of Reed’s DNA. Nevertheless, it still raises an eyebrow when you see the Velvet Underground man’s name among the credits for ‘A World Without Heroes’ from Kiss’ 1981 concept album Music from The Elder.
However, the tie on this occasion was the name Bob Ezrin. “Lou was my dear friend from the time we did Berlin together in 1973 until he died 40 years later,” the producer told Ultimate Classic Rock. “I think he was one of the most brilliant lyricists of all time. Occasionally, I would ask him to step out of his sweet spot and write lyrics for other artists. And the story of The Elder appealed to him.“
The story in question revolved around a young boy looking for an idol to guide him through darkness. It appealed to all parties involved in the song. “So he came up to my farm in King City, Ontario, to do some writing on the project,“ Ezrin continues. “He had just taken a new path in life and had started studying tai chi, and I remember the then very odd scene of Lou out on the lawn by our pond in the misty early morning, practising Parting the Horse’s Mane.”
“The whole track was uncharacteristically architected for Kiss,” Ezrin concludes. While you might put that down to the sudden credit of Reed, this experimental track wasn’t actually the first time that he had exercised a presence upon Kiss. In fact, in many ways, Ezrin’s work with both artists bellies the criticism that the face-painted rockers often face of being facile, when, in fact, they’ve always had a touch more depth than all the theatre would have you believe.
You see, songs don’t get much deeper than Reed’s ‘The Kids’. The eighth track on his Berlin album, see the story’s sorry slide of sodomy and sin regathered and reconciled from afar. The new chapter of the rock opera is written with the most distance. As we see the introduction of a fresh voice: the Waterboy, who watches things falling apart from the sidelines, while the dark depravity of innocence lost is soundtracked by the harrowing screams of children created by Ezrin’s kids, David and Josh, on cheap walkie-talkie sets.
Oddly enough, this same extract of depravity would form the basis of the song that became known as Gene Simmons’ anthem, ‘God of Thunder’. Ezrin reused the eerie racket to serve as background noise for the Kiss track three years on from its initial deployment in ‘The Kids’. This use perfectly showcases Ezrin’s masterful capacity to bring depth and consideration to proceedings no matter what world he is working in.
The involvement of Reed’s spirit in the track prompted Kiss to slow down the Paul Stanley-written track, and once the tempo was steadied, it opened the door for Simmons to fill it with drama, all thanks to two kids fooling around.
