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Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!

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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.[1]

"These Boots" was on the original pressing of the album, but deleted from subsequent pressings due to legal issues with the song's writer, Lee Hazlewood. It was later added back onto the 2002 remaster, albeit with edit beeps everywhere a lyric change was made.

On June 4, 2009, a newly available Limited Edition of the album in Digipack LP Miniature CD. The CD itself is made to look like a mini LP and is pressed on black plastic with grooves on the top to imitate a LP [2].

Track listing

Original track listing

No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Last Rites/Loved to Deth"Dave MustaineMustaine4:40
2."Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!"MustaineMustaine3:06
3."Skull Beneath the Skin"MustaineMustaine3:47
4."These Boots"Lee Hazlewood/MustaineHazlewood3:41
5."Rattlehead"MustaineMustaine3:43
6."Chosen Ones"MustaineMustaine2:55
7."Looking Down the Cross"MustaineMustaine5:05
8."Mechanix"MustaineMustaine4:22

2002 Re-release Track Listing

No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Last Rites/Loved to Deth"MustaineMustaine4:40
2."Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!"MustaineMustaine3:06
3."Skull Beneath the Skin"MustaineMustaine3:47
4."Rattlehead"MustaineMustaine3:43
5."Chosen Ones"MustaineMustaine2:55
6."Looking Down the Cross"MustaineMustaine5:04
7."Mechanix"MustaineMustaine4:22
8."These Boots"HazlewoodHazlewood4:42
9."Last Rites/Loved to Deth" (demo)MustaineMustaine4:18
10."Mechanix" (demo)MustaineMustaine4:01
11."The Skull Beneath the Skin" (demo)MustaineMustaine3:11

[3]

Personnel

Liner notes, 2002 rerelease

  • 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 remove 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.[1]
  • The 2002 release has a different cover as 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. [citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b c YouTube - Megadeth documentary (Part 5 of 11)
  2. ^ http://www.megadeth.com/home.php
  3. ^ http://www.megadeth.com/discography.php?era_id=1
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