Breaking the Chains

The title track to Dokken's debut album, "Breaking The Chains" was inspired by the song "Balls To The Wall" by the German metal band Accept. On that one, lead singer Udo Dirkschneider sings: They believe slaves always lose And this fear keeps them down Watch the damned They're gonna break their chains Dokken frontman Don Dokken got a sneak preview of the song in 1981 when he was in Germany working with the Scorpions. That's when he wrote the song. In a Songfacts interview, Dokken told the story: "Accept was in the studio, and I remember Udo doing that thing, 'We're going to break the chaaains!' And I thought, 'That's cool.' He kept doing it over and over again trying to get the right vibe, and I thought, 'What a great phrase, 'break the chains.'' The Scorpions were in there recording, Accept was in there recording, and I was in there recording."

Part of the lyric finds Don Dokken breaking free of a toxic relationship once and for all, but he viewed the song on another level. "The title 'Breaking The Chains' was my way of esoterically saying, 'It's now or never. This is my shot. I've got a record deal. It could be over in a month,'" he told Songfacts. "How many bands have put out a record and thought they were going to be big rock stars and you never see them again?"

The Breaking The Chains album first showed up in Europe in 1981. Dokken is an American band, but they earned their deal with the European label Carrere when Don Dokken was working in Germany on a Scorpions album. They signed an American deal with Elektra Records in 1983, which is when the album was released there and the song "Breaking The Chains" released as a single. It was good timing: metal bands of the pop/glam ilk were the next big thing, and labels were on the lookout. The album didn't make much noise when it was released, but it got Dokken on tour with Blue Öyster Cult and they built a following. Their next album, Tooth And Nail (1984), was a breakthrough, their first of three million-sellers in the US.