My Life With KISS

[phlemmy]

bwaahahhahahhaahhahahhahaha

[whojamfan]

I bought a 1971 VW Bus in 87 that had the KISS "Destroyer" 8 track stuck in it, so it played nonstop if I turned the radio on. I bought their "Love Gun" album and really dug "I stole your Love" and "Shock Me " the most, and really got in to their older albums. Before this, my lead playing was the occasional Johnny Thunders/Steve Jones type stuff, when I wasn't just picking notes out of chords.

Ace Frehley really turned that all around for me, as his soloing style was really cool, and inspired me to learn more lead, as I was mainly into being a rock solid rhythm player instead of a solo guy. I am a songwriter, and have more of a Townshend influence than say a Van Halen one. Besides, everyone around me was trying to out fingertap/sweep pick each other and couldn't play rhythm,(or a whole song for that matter). I figured I'd let someone else practise scales and stuff for 8 hours a day, I wanted to play songs with a band.

Still play "Duece" with my band, tried it on the 360/12 FG once, the rhythm was interesting, but the leads just didn't work. Got a good laugh out of though. Say what you will, but Ace Frehley had an awesome vibrato technique and is still an influencial player on many a guitarist. After all, he was Dimebags Idol.

[atomic_punk]

The vid above sounds like it might have been from the Unmasked tour!
(Ducking)

[indianation65]

Mr. Phlemmy,
Great topic that could go on for quite some time, or at least a reply from the nation could. I agree with many points, some I don't. The first album was classic, minus piano on Nothin' to Lose. Hotter Than Hell got it's power from Parasite, Hotter Then Hell and Strange Ways, the most brutal Kiss song around. The entirety of Dressed to Kill is great, including the random cover photo. The band did many "suits" photos from a single day shoot, which through serendipitous measures proved apropos for this album. Alive was not as live as it could have been, but monumental nonetheless. It launched a thousand bands, and almost broke Casablanca. Aucion had to beg album presses to continue pressing, even though he couldn't pay them on time. Destroyer was too short, and great sounding due to Bob Ezrin's production mastery. Ace hated it, Peter hated being reminded he couldn't keep time, studio guitarists were brought in, (see Alice Cooper albums Killer and Billion Dollar Babies) he almost demanded Gene sing King of the Nighttime World, he taught them a universal, studio musician's language-half step, 4-4, 4-2, etc., insisted and sortof wrote the flamenco lead to DRCity, brought in a boy's choir, and added the live ending extension because the album was too short.
Rock and Roll Over was a Kramer production, with Kramer insisting that Peter sing Hard L.W. against Paul's wishes, and everyone loving it. Ace loved working with Eddie Kramer. The band as a whole, well, maybe not Paul, thought Peter had the best voice...Love Gun had some winners, Love Gun wasn't one of them for me. I Stole Your Love was great, Paul on lead. I liked Dynasty after a few listens because I "had" to like it, I was a massive Kiss fan. I love The Elder and Gene's voice never sounded better. Unmasked was unplayable to me. Gene played the guitars on War Machine from Creatures and God love rocknrollers because it's ridiculous for grown men to sing to teenage girls, that's why I hate songs like Christine Sixteen and lines such as "Your sixteen, your beautiful and your mine!"
After the makeup years I quit following although a few songs I liked. Unholy and Domino have great growl to them, and I do my best to ignore Gene's insistence on singing about his big tool. It's embarrassing, but it's RNR. "I'm gonna give ya every inch a'my love"..."I'm gonna slide it in, slide it in, straight to the top, I ain't never gonna stop," "Put your hand in my pocket, grab onto my rocket"...no matter the band, **** rock should embarrass grown men...in my opinion.
Rocket Ride was great and Ace felt the rest couldn't keep up with the riff. They all hated Rockin' in the USA, but Gene is very patriotic! Good stuff...Oh that band Kiss and what I became...my life with Kiss!
Addendum: Few will argue Ace's solo work is great, Fractured Mirror espouses atmospheric talent, in my opinion.

[kennyhowes]

I first heard KISS in 1974, after the release of their debut album. Wow! - Whatta record! This album stands as one of my all time Rock and Roll classics. The original album was released without Kissin' Time (never cared for that one). The song was added to the reissued album in 1975 after KISS had their first hit with Rock and Roll all Nite. I continued liking KISS for the first four albums, but turned away from them after they sought a teeny bopper image.

I got to see KISS twice during that time. The first time was December 26th, 1974 at the Grand Rapids Civic Center. A thousand seat auditorium, KISS opened for REO Speedwagon, who'd just had a hit with Ridin' the Storm Out. This was KISS' Hotter Than Hell tour. Everyone was there to see REO, except for my friend and I, who went to see KISS. After they left the stage, my friend Dan and I went around to the side, to see if we could see them when they came out. Paul Stanley was the first out of his makeup, and he cam out and talked with the two of us for about half an hour - great guy. The second time I saw them, they were the headliner on their Dressed to Kill tour. we saw them in Muskegon on August 16, 1975.

Here for the first time, are some of the pictures I took at those concerts. I apologise for the quality of the photos. They were taken with a Kodak 110 Instamatic camera. First, a few from Grand Rapids:

KISS 1.jpg

KISS 2.jpg

KISS 3.jpg

Those photos are totally heavy. Great to see icons pictured, if you'll excuse the expression, with ordinary cameras and taken by ordinary people (as opposed to glossy pro studio shots). Same goes for shots of the Beatles that appear from time to time.