Incidentally, “Great Expectations” includes Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. Well, not funny awkward is a better word for it. Pretty funny to watch a group of kids backing up Gene’s song about groupies fantasizing having sex with the band. In fact, I hate it.ĭue to the huge production and orchestration of “Great Expectations” it was never attempted live until around 2003 when it was performed with the Australian children’s choir and orchestra in Melbourne for KISS Symphony Alive IV. I have never liked this song and find it to be one of the weakest tunes on the album or, for that matter, KISS’s classic period. Personally, I have to say that listening to this song several times for this blurb was not that fun. There’s some nice harmony guitar provided by Ace that is often accompanied by a glockenspiel. Alice Cooper vet, Dick Wagner, was brought in to play acoustic guitar on the track as well as utilizing the Brooklyn Boys Chorus for the dramatic, sweeping choruses. Gene re-wrote the verses for the demo “You’ve Got Nothing to Live For” dating back to 1974 to create this piece. Gene states this song was the most difficult to perform due to the sophistication of the musical structure and all the bells and whistles Ezrin had added to the tune.

Even Ezrin admits that he probably went overboard with the arrangements of this particular song. In typical Ezrin fashion, the producer took a fairly stripped down song that was almost Beatlesque in nature and added a children’s choir and significant orchestration making it a bombastic and over the top piece. So, in a sense, it became a song about classic Gene with his narcissistic attitude and his preoccupation with how a female groupie might perceive him. Ezrin countered that it would be a better idea to have it more general with a performer observing the audience and their reaction to him. The song “Great Expectations” was written originally on acoustic guitar and had the concept of mentioning the members of the band who were up on stage and commenting on what they were doing.

Great expectations 1974