Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Original album cover
|
|||||
| Studio album by Megadeth | |||||
| Released | June 1985 | ||||
| Recorded | December 1984 - January 1985 at Indigo Ranch Studios in Malibu, CA. | ||||
| Genre | Thrash metal, Speed metal | ||||
| Length | 27:33 (Original) 43:43 (Remaster) |
||||
| Label | Combat Records Relativity Records Loud Records |
||||
| Producer | Dave Mustaine and Karat Faye | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
|
|||||
| Megadeth chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Alternative cover | |||||
.jpg/200px-500px_Killing(Remastered).jpg)
2002 remastered edition cover
|
|||||
Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! is the debut album by American thrash metal band Megadeth. It was originally released in 1985 on Combat Records. The album received positive reviews, even from mainstream music critics[1]. The deluxe edition, completely remixed and remastered and featuring a new cover and several bonus tracks, was released by Loud Records in 2002.
The album's artwork, featuring a plastic skull with tinfoil, was not intended to be the original artwork. Mustaine wanted a picture of Megadeth mascot Vic Rattlehead on the cover, however the studio lost the artwork, so they improvised the low-budget replacement.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All songs written by Dave Mustaine, except where noted.
[edit] Original track listing
- "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" – 4:40
- "Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!" – 3:06
- "Skull Beneath the Skin" – 3:47
- "These Boots" (Lee Hazlewood) - 3:39
- "Rattlehead" – 3:43
- "Chosen Ones" – 2:55
- "Looking Down the Cross" – 5:05
- "Mechanix" – 4:22
[edit] 2002 re-release track listing
- "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" – 4:40
- "Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!" – 3:06
- "The Skull Beneath the Skin" – 3:47
- "Rattlehead" – 3:43
- "Chosen Ones" – 2:55
- "Looking Down the Cross" – 5:04
- "Mechanix" – 4:22
- "These Boots" (Hazlewood) – 4:42
- "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" (demo) – 4:18
- "Mechanix" (demo) – 4:01
- "The Skull Beneath the Skin" (demo) – 3:11
[edit] Song Information
- "Last Rites" is an instrumental; the title refers to the Roman Catholic tradition of Anointing of the Sick. At live shows before the release of the album, the piano part at the start was played by Dave Mustaine on the guitar. The piano part is, in fact, reminiscent of "Toccata" by Johan Sebastian Bach. The rest of the song bears striking resemblance to the piano parts in Alice Cooper's "Steven", from the 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare.
- "Loved to Deth" is about someone who kills both their love and themselves, both of which end up in hell. Dave Mustaine states the concept of the song as "Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl doesn't love boy, boy kills girl".
- "Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!" is about a hitman based on the comic book character, The Punisher, who kills his employer after he is paid.
- "The Skull Beneath the Skin" is about a black magic ritual that involves the creation of Megadeth's mascot, Vic Rattlehead, explaining the steel visor, the metal caps on his ears, and the iron staples that hold his jaw shut.
- "Rattlehead" is a description of a live Megadeth concert. The last part of the song talks about seeing Vic Rattlehead at the concert.
- "Chosen Ones" is about a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where King Arthur and his knights fight against the man-eating rabbit.
- "Looking Down the Cross" is about the crucifixion of Jesus and his final thoughts before he died. In the song, the lyrics suggest that Jesus might have been wishing for vengeance, but only spoke of forgiveness.
- "Mechanix" is about a horny gas station attendant. It was re-written and recorded with new lyrics by Metallica as "The Four Horsemen" for their first album, Kill 'Em All. The original "Mechanix", which was entitled "The Mechanix," can be found on Metallica's rare No Life 'Til Leather demo.
[edit] Personnel
- Dave Mustaine - guitar, lead vocals, piano
- Chris Poland - guitar
- David Ellefson - bass guitar, backing vocals
- Gar Samuelson - drums, timpani
[edit] Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Dave Mustaine once said at an early live event that the title track and album were going to be called "Blood & Honor", but this didn't occur, so it was called Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!. "Blood & Honor" would appear on Megadeth's next album, "Peace Sells… but Who's Buying?", with different lyrics as "Wake Up Dead". "These Boots" is a cover (with lyrics that parody the original) of the Nancy Sinatra song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'". Lee Hazlewood, the original author, deemed Mustaine's changes to be "vile and offensive" (even though it does not contain any bad language,it does contain sexual references) and demanded that he removed the song. The cover of the song was removed from all pressings of the album released after 1995. The 2002 release partially includes the song, with all of the lyrics that were changed from Hazlewood's version censored with a beep. In the deluxe edition liner notes, Mustaine is strongly critical of Hazlewood, as he had been paid royalties for 10 years before he objected.
- Mustaine has admitted to taking cocaine, heroin, and smoking cannabis for the whole period of writing, performing, and producing the album; it took him years until he finally quit drugs once and for all. It is well known that he spent half the Combat budget on drugs, hence the bad production.[3]
- The 2002 release has a different cover to the 1985 release. According to David Ellefson (in the deluxe edition liner notes), the record label did not properly reproduce the artwork Megadeth wanted, and instead sent them finished copies of the album with the 1985 cover. Unfortunately, it was too close to the release date to make any changes, so they were forced to leave it as is. This left the band unhappy, as the cover that Megadeth originally submitted to Combat Records corresponded strongly with the lyrics of "The Skull Beneath The Skin", while the reissue was missing many of the references to the aforementioned song. The 2002 release has an updated version of the picture of Vic Rattlehead originally submitted to Combat.
- Several of the song titles are spelled differently on the original release's sleeve.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyZkVwRuBYQ
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyZkVwRuBYQ
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyZkVwRuBYQ
