Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!
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| Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good! | ||
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| Studio album by Megadeth | ||
| Released | June 1985 | |
| Recorded | December 1984 & January 1985 | |
| Genre | Thrash metal Speed metal |
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| Length | 42:26 (Remaster) 31:28 (Original) |
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| Label | Combat Records Relativity Records Loud Records |
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| Producer(s) | Dave Mustaine and Karat Faye | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Megadeth chronology | ||
| Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good! (1985) |
Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? (1986) |
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| Alternate cover | ||
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| Original album cover | ||
Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good! is the debut album by Megadeth. It was originally released in 1985 on Combat Records. The deluxe edition, completely remixed and remastered and featuring a new cover and several bonus tracks, was released by Loud Records in 2002.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing (1985)
- "Last Rites/Loved To Deth"
- "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!"
- "Skull Beneath The Skin"
- "These Boots"
- "Rattlehead"
- "Chosen Ones"
- "Looking Down The Cross"
- "The Mechanix"
All songs written by Dave Mustaine Except "These Boots" written by Lee Hazlewood
[edit] Track listing (1995)
- "Last Rites/Loved To Deth"
- "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!"
- "Skull Beneath The Skin"
- "Rattlehead"
- "Chosen Ones"
- "Looking Down The Cross"
- "The Mechanix"
All songs written by Dave Mustaine
[edit] Track listing (2002)
- "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" – 5:02
- "Mechanix" – 4:22
- "These Boots" – 4:42 (sample )
- "Last Rites/Loved To Deth" (demo) – 4:18
- "Mechanix" (demo) – 4:01
- "The Skull Beneath The Skin" (demo) – 3:11
All songs written by Dave Mustaine Except "These Boots" written by Lee Hazlewood
[edit] Notes
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" 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/producing the album; it took him years until he finally quit drugs once and for all. He spent half of his budget on the drugs.
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 Combat version 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 track names are spelled differently on the original release's sleeve.
[edit] Credits
- Dave Mustaine - guitar, vocals, piano
- Chris Poland - guitar
- David Ellefson - bass guitar, back-up vocals
- Gar Samuelson - drums, timpani
[edit] Notes about songs
- "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 a man who kills a woman whom he loves that doesn't return his love, so no one else can have her.
- "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 Crusaders marching to the Middle East to fight the Muslims
- "Looking Down The Cross" is about the crucifixion of Jesus and his final thoughts before he died. In the song, Dave suggests 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.
