It was around 1975 when I first learned about KISS. My friend Paul Pearson had a copy of KISS ALIVE! Which was a double LP concert recording with this unreal gatefold cover that featured these four dudes in kabuki grease paint on their faces, breathing fire, spitting blood all with bombs of fire that blasted around them like the flames from hell!!
I was around eight years old and was living in a pretty locked down environment at the time, and the KISS thing was not going to happen at the Chancellor house I felt pretty certain. But I could still go over to Paul’s house and listen to KISS. All of my friends were into the band.
Of course, all kids my age were into them, and why not? KISS was cool and played harder than the California style rock that was coming out in the early ’70s. My main connection to music at the time like most was coming from FM radio (98 Rock & Q105 in Tampa were my go-to stations).
Bands like Boston, The Eagles, Bob Seger, Jerry Rafferty, Fleetwood Mac, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel, and songs from the Grease soundtrack were the rock de jure. But the contrast that KISS had to all of these cocaine huffing soft rockers had quite the dichotomy compared to what KISS was delivering during this time frame. I mean for a young kid around 76 – 79 your choices were either KISS or ELO (No disrespect to Mr. Lynn, I love The Move just like anyone else) but KISS sang songs about partying, chicks, rockin’ and burnin’ shit down. So yeah kids at my age were fast fans.
I remember vividly my first KISS “recording” – I was one of those kids who use to spend my weekends perched in front of my little radio with my tape recorder running and record songs off the radio. I would compile these songs and after a while had built this small collection of radio hit compilation tapes (complete with a song list and at times even artwork). It was the closest thing I had to a record collection at the time. Songs by Jackson Browne, Alan O’Day, Dean Freidman, Olivia Newton-John, Supertramp and Foreigner were on heavy rotation along with my copy of KISS – Destroyer that my buddy Mark Rutledge copied for me. Destroyer was technically my first full-length KISS record.
Destroyer had this great cover (which I did not have) but I knew that it was a great painting created by the fantasy artist Ken Kelly (a al Frank Frazetta). I wound up meeting Ken much later on at a KISS Konvention and was able to score a nice reproduction of the album art for Destroyer which he signed for me – now a prized possession but I digress.By 1976, I was finally gifted a small portable record player and became keen on buying 7” 45 rpm records and overtime started amassing a nice little collection of “songs”. From there I started to buy 12” 33 rpm albums. My first 12” was Cheap Trick’s live recording “Live at the Budakon”.
I loved the song “I want you to want me” which was on the radio a lot. This girl I went to school with (Shelly Hartman) use to wear the classic Cheap Trick t-shirt to school. She was older than me and had long blonde hair. She would wear that t-shirt with tight designer jeans, and I would just crush…She looked so damn hot and when she did her Robin Zander imitation…I was floored.
I also loved the fact that the band KISS was mentioned in the Cheap Trick song “Surrender” – Good enough for them good enough for me. The song “Beth” from the Destroyer record somehow found itself onto the radio waves and that further validated in my young eye just how legit KISS was compared to the other bands being played at the time.
The critics at the time hated them, and music magazines like CREEM use to say awful things about them which I took issue with. I thought these “disco dans” just don’t get it. I used to use that term for anyone who didn’t listen to rock but rather “Disco” (bands like the Bee Gees, The Village People, Leo Sayer, and such.) As a rock kid being called a Disco Dan was a real insult.
By 1977 KISS had released a “super special” comic book through Marvel that allegedly had a small amount of their actual blood mixed into the ink ((ALRIGHT!!)).
KISS had also released a follow up to KISS Alive called ironically KISS Alive 2 (Recorded at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles) it was also a double LP gatefold with a book insert and get this…it came with KISS rub on Tattoos ((ALRIGHT!!!)).
Alive 2 also featured 5 new studio tracks of which the song “Rocket Ride” was my favorite…huh huh Rocket Ride get it…huh huh.
It also galvanized that fact the out of all of the band members ACE was my favorite. I think everyone in my neighborhood had their favorite member of the band. For me, the star child was the coolest. I got a really cool Ace t-shirt for my birthday with the classic smoking guitar iron on with sparkles (very 70’s), and along with my neighborhood crew would raid Mark’s sister Cindy’s make-up and draw the kiss makeup designs on our faces for epic air band concerts complete with tennis racket guitars and of course KISS blasting from the stereo. It was so much fun.
I of course played ACE. I got into it one day with this kid Ross Doolittle over who was going to play ACE. Everyone voted, and Ross got tossed, he called us all Disco Dans and went home.
KISS has all kinds of cool toys and swag – KISS bubble gum cards, guitars, lunch boxes, action figures and was even featured on 7-11 Slurpee cups, which were typically reserved for Baseball Players. They had become “Larger Than Life” and to add to their mystique they never showed their face without makeup …everyone was always trying to get a peek. It was so bitchin’.In 77’ there were rumors about the band breaking up. My friends and I would speculate as we rode our bikes to and from school. We thought “no way, they’ll never break up! They’re KISS, they’re our heroes”, and then we all heard more exciting news, KISS was going to be staring in their own movie!
We were all stoked! KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, was aired on NBC as a Halloween special. We all piled into Mark Rutledge’s family’s den to watch it together. Marks mom made us spaghetti and let us have a sleepover in their mobile home parked in their driveway. The plan was to watch the movie, go trick or treating and play a late-night game of “kick the can”…what a night!
Everyone joined the KISS Army and had their membership cards, posters, and certificates hung in their lockers at school. We were dedicated KISS Fans and one day, my buddy informed me that KISS was going to be putting out solos records. Each member would have their own album, this was in 1978.
Two words: ACE RULES. I wonder if anyone predicted in 1978 that KISS’ good-natured but shy six-stringer would wind up producing the only truly classic album out of the solo four-pack?
I thought I’ll bet the naysayers/critics are saying “Damn! I knew Ace was good, but I didn’t know he was THIS good!”
From the moment the needle drops on the barn burning opener “Rip It Out,” Ace is off and running and he doesn’t let up until the final fade out of the closing instrumental “Fractured Mirror.”
While the songs on their solo albums are little more than distant memories to all but the most diehard KISS fans, people are still air-guitaring to Ace’s album to this day. If you can only own one KISS solo album, make sure it’s this one.
I rank them like this;
1.) Ace Frehley
2.) Gene Simmons
3.) Paul Stanley
4.) Peter Criss < Sorry Pete
The response to the four solo albums was lukewarm at best. But I can remember going to K-Mart to buy my Ace record the day it came out. They had the whole record aisle decorated with KISS solo promotional stuff. It was like going to buy a costume during Halloween – it was set up as if it were a holiday celebration with the blue light special flashing.
After a while, it became clear that most KISS fans were playing favorites and buying only the album(s) from the band member(s) they “liked” best.
The most successful album turned out to be Ace’s, which produced the only true “hit” single of the four with its bouncy cover of “New York Groove” by the British band Hello ( #13 on the Billboard Hot 100).
It was and still is my favorite KISS record out of all of them and I still listen to it all the time. The album has Anton Fig on drums and Will Lee on bass (both would later join Paul Shaffer on Late Night with David Letterman as “The Most Dangerous Band in the World”).
The record was just as reckless as Ace’s reputation. Songs like “Wiped-out” and “What’s On Your mind” made me want to raise my fist and scream yeah!The songs “Ozone” and “I’m in need of love” were both trippy jams… and when Ace sang – “g-g-girl it’s not my fau-hault” – I thought “who is cooler than Ace?” Fucking no one that’s who!
(Well maybe Joe Perry at the time, but that’s another story for another day).
This record is all killer – NO filler and IMHO holds up against any rock act today. I’m sure most would agree that it’s the gold standard. If you are going to record a rock album Ace’s solo record is the blueprint.
Did I mention that the solo records all came with a poster? If you were lucky enough to buy all of the solo LPs they would lock together and make one big poster.
Does anyone remember the GIANT wall-sized KISS Posters? – How cool were KISS man?
What Does KISS Mean to You?
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Wade your recollections are priceless and pure. Disco Dan. . .so lame. If those people were in any way creative they could have at least called me Disco Daryl or Disco Dungarees or maybe even Disco Diplodicus. . .I was into dinosaurs. If they had called me Disco Duplex that would have been cool because they would have been making fun of my weight and my fondness for Disco. All those Disco haters had it wrong. Disco, as well as Kiss, made girls butts move back and forth and, swaying female ass cheeks are what rhythm sections are all about.