"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss, released on their 1976 album Destroyer. The song was written by Paul Stanley and producer Bob Ezrin.
The song is one of the band's most popular and is a classic rock staple. It is also seen as one of the more technical songs musically in the band's canon. The song has been noted for being a duet between guitarists Stanley and Ace Frehley.
The song, recorded and released as a single in 1976, was the third single from Kiss's album Destroyer and was planned to be their last in support of the album. As a single, it did poorly in sales and radio play (other than in Detroit), and failed to chart in the U.S. even though it would prove to be a fan favorite. It came as a surprise that the B-side "Beth", a ballad written and sung by drummer Peter Criss, wound up catching on in different markets in the U.S., so the single was reissued with "Beth" as the A-side and "Detroit Rock City" as the B-side.
While the song briefly references Detroit, the real-life incident which inspired the lyric evidently did not take place there. "I had the basic riff of the song, the 'Get up, get down' part," Stanley recalls, "but I didn't know what the song was about except it was about Detroit. And then I remembered on the previous tour, I think it was in Charlotte, somebody had gotten hit by a car and killed outside the arena. I remember thinking how weird it is that people's lives end so quickly. People can be on their way to something that's really a party and a celebration of being alive and die in the process of doing it. So that became the basis for the lyric."
Lyrics
..Congressional reports
President Ford says that he's disappointed with Congress's performance
In Detroit, a Pontiac, Michigan youth was reported dead at the scene of a head-on collision on Grand Avenue this morning
He was reportedly driving on the wrong side of the boulevard when he struck a delivery truck and was catapulted through the windshield of his car
The driver of the truck is reported to be uninjured
The identities of both men are being withheld by local police
County legislatures today are expected to rally to the aid of striking longshoremen in hopes of ending the nine month deadlock
"..Roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night
And party everyday..."
I feel uptight on a Saturday night
Nine o' clock, the radio's the only light
I hear my song and it pulls me through
Comes on strong, tells me what I got to do
I got to
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat
You gotta lose your mind in Detroit Rock City
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat
Getting late
I just can't wait
Ten o'clock and I know I gotta hit the road
First I drink, then I smoke
Start the car and I try to make the midnight show
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat
Moving fast, down 95
['Resurrected' version: "Moving fast, doing 95"]
Hit top speed but I'm still moving much too slow
I feel so good, I'm so alive
Hear my song playing on the radio, it goes
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet
Get down!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat
['Resurrected' version's additional line:]
You gotta lose your life in Detroit, Rock City
Twelve o'clock, I gotta rock
There's a truck ahead, lights staring at my eyes
Oh my God!
No time to turn
I got to laugh 'cause I know I'm gonna die
Why?
Get up!
Everybody's gonna move their feet
Get up!
Everybody's gonna leave their seat
Get up!