"Say what you will about the merits and myriad shenanigans of Kiss, this will hit some of us very hard."
- My Friend Alexinnewyorkcity
1977, at least a dozen of us are sitting at the concrete checker tables that surrounded the park on Spring and Thompson Streets in Soho. Eight of us had tickets to see Kiss at Madison Square Garden. A few did not. But Crazy Larry had an extra pair. I just sat there watching the whole thing unfold. Roger screaming at Greg. Anthony yelling at Larry. After a good 15 minutes of mindless, unfounded accusations and idiotic math problems about the number of times Joey did whatever for Frankie times the two favors Denise did for Tommy, Larry handed Frankie the two tickets and Frankie took me.
1979, Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn, everyone had tickets, but Marco's Malibu only sat five. That didn't sit right with anyone. Marco made it work. I don't recall if it was three in the front and six in the back, or four in the front and five in the back. We were all stoned so none of it mattered. If memory serves, it was nine of us in a Chevy Malibu and we laughed so hard on the ride into Manhattan, I can still feel an occasional twinge in my side when I get up from the couch. How was Kiss that night at Madison Square Garden? Who cares?
1988, the Brooklyn gang is scattered. The 80's were dark years for me and a few friends, as well. Kiss is playing at The Ritz, a far cry from the arena heyday. The makeup is off. The band has new members. The records stink. But me and Phil are there. The Ritz held what? Maybe 900 people, give or take a few hundred? It wasn't packed. We left after about 10 songs and got drunk at Alcatraz on St. Mark's Place. The bar had an amazing jukebox and sound system. We listened to Kiss. I found my way home around 3AM. Phil called me around 6:AM. He was still out.
1996, Manhattan, and Kiss are on their first full makeup, all original member reunion tour. Me and my buddy Ty score amazing tickets for Night Two. As we head to our seats, we bump into my friend John.
SAL:
Hey man, this is great! Were you here last night?
JOHN:
Oh, last night was fucking amazing! It was really some..oh wait. You saw them back in the day, right?
SAL:
Of course, 1977.
JOHN:
Oh ok. Then yeah, last night sucked.
We get it. We are not delusional. The Kiss Army? Maybe delusional. I am not a member. I won't go there. I know what I like and I understand what people don't like. I won't defend Kiss once the makeup came off. That's 40 years of me not caring about this band.
Paul and Gene, Don and Glenn, Liam & Noel, blah blah blah. Assholes, yes. But I will fight to the death that the first six Kiss albums are perfect slabs of rock and roll. If you can't hear the hooks, you are just not trying. If you can love The Ramones and the New York Dolls, you can, if nothing else, accept Kiss. It's all boneheaded rock and roll.
Fucking Ace!
R.I.P.
23 comments:
every album up to love gun is all right with me. they were a lot of fun and that's all that matters sometimes. loved ace's guitar playing. that guitar solo in strange ways gets me every time.
e***
Those first 6 albums are tight. RIP.
Saw the 77 show with 8 of us from E 21st (pre-19th st days). The show of course, was the show. The bigger spectacle for us was the day we were buying the tickets. We all cut out of school and went to the Garden box office. Complete mayhem there. Though, after we managed to get tickets, we walked up to Rockefeller Center and took a tour. We somehow got into the audience of a game show, 'Shoot For The Stars' with Geoff Edwards. One of the guests was Adrienne Barbeau. Of course, one of the geniuses with us was screaming "Yo Adrienne" the whole time, almost getting us thrown out. Didn't see the episode on TV, though one somewhat unreliable source amongst us said he did and the you can hear the Adrienne screams come thru.
Back to the show, we thought we had 3rd row Orch in the first section, but it was the second section and we could hardly see anything. A guy behind us was trying to film the concert and we almost got into a huge fight with him every time we stood on the chairs to see. First concert, Feb 1977, never forget it.
For me, a must to include the first two live albums as well. Both Alive! and Alive II are essentially studio albums anyway with the overdubs, reading that the only thing not touched were Peter Criss’ drums. Lol!
For some of us, Space Ace was our first guitar hero. And a most worthy one. R.I.P.
Kiss -- in 1978 -- was my first concert and set the bar immensely high. My parents took me (they were immensely cool when I was 12.) I always figured Ace would be the first to go so it didn't (no pun intended) shock me. A trip-and-fall-brain-bleed was not how I thought he'd go out, though. I love all the albums through Music From The Elder and came back for Revenge and love Psycho Circus. Only saw them 4 times live but each was memorable. Rock on Space Ace!
Similar. My first concert experience was my friends and I riding our bikes to Magic Mountain for the free concert for their 1978 feature film debut, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. They were the hottest band in the world that year. Immensely high bar indeed. ‘Ack!’ :)
Kiss Alive was like a how-to guide for beginning lead guitarists. Ace was great but you could figure it out if you really tried. I remember feeling good about my progress by nailing the solo of "She."
Ace had that wobble vibrato that he didn't get from his influences (Page, Beck, Clapton); you couldn't really tell he was copping licks from those guys, totally unique.
His solo from "Calling Dr Love" NEVER fails to give me goosebumps.
Bob in IL
Great post. Where I grew up - in the suburbs south of Atlanta - KISS was not only king, it was as if they were the only band on earth. Seriously. When they came to Atlanta in the late 70s, my friends went to each show as if it was the second coming. I didn't go because I didn't "get" them then.
Now I wish I had!
Rest in peace, Ace. He wrote my favorite solo KISS song, "New York Groove."
"New York Groove" was actually by Russ Ballard and first recorded by Englsih glam band Hello. But, Ace owns it!
Rest in peace Spaceman
Do you recognize the name of the production assistant on the Frehley's Comet album? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frehley%27s_Comet_(album)
Ha. Spelled wrong! I actually listened to that record this morning.
There are two times I avoid commenting here: when I’ve nothing positive to say, and when the topic’s too big for me to feel up to commenting. I’ll comment this time because of a claim you’ve made now twice in the last few weeks; coincidentally, the first time was one of those times the topic felt too big for me to take the time/effort to respond, and this time would’ve been one of those times I had nothing positive to contribute, as I’m not a fan of Kiss.
I don’t agree that if one likes the Ramones, one should or must like Kiss. Other than being four guys who came up in NYC around the same time, I’m not buying the equivalency you’re suggesting in their music/image. One changed rock music, and did it with knowing wit, incredibly catchy songs, and a focus that wasn’t lost over a couple decades of slogging it out without the sales they deserved. Kiss wasn’t that. Kiss was a cynical exercise, deliberately aimed at checking the boxes to maximize a goal essentially selling widgets (metaphorically, but then, they did go heavy into marketing, too, didn’t they?). I could forgive all that — I’m an American capitalist, and despite my perception of the band as being an extension of the universally-derided Gene Simmons, I’d guess there was at least some genuine fandom of rock music within the various members — but when it’s coupled with such clunky crap for music, it’s all too exposed for what it is, and I feel no loss for crossing them off my list of worthy or important (Having said that, I get them being in the R&RHOF because they were undeniably a big thing in their day, and the Hall clearly attends to cultural impact as much as artistry). My naturally-generated proof to myself that my dislike is based on unbiased listening is the time I was spending too much time and money browsing the stacks at Amoeba SF sometime in the 90s and someone there put a Kiss album on the sound system. I had no idea who it was — up to then I’d heard only a smattering of their output (I was a teen when they were at their commercial peak) — but I grew increasingly irritated and agitated at the album as it progressed, so bad was it to me. Only when it got to Black Diamond did I figure out who it was, having familiarity with the Replacements cover. I will admit to being satisfied that I’d actually given the band a real listen, unprejudiced, and STILL found them a clumsy cartoon of rock & roll, and nothing I’ve heard since then has changed my opinion (those times being times they came on the radio and I didn’t know who it was til it was announced by the DJ).
I don’t hate Kiss, or anybody taking their turn at making a living at music (or any art form, for that matter), but I don’t feel bad calling bullshit on the stuff when I hear it. Obviously, my experience/perception of them is an outlier on this thread.
C in California
"I don’t agree that if one likes the Ramones, one should or must like Kiss."
I didn't say that.
Here's what I wrote:
"If you can love The Ramones and the New York Dolls, you can, if nothing else, accept Kiss. It's all boneheaded rock and roll."
I think there's a difference, and I think what I said has some weight.
I am not defending business practices, politics, misogyny, and arrogance. As a rock and roll fan, I will defend their first six records. I love the Ramones, and The Dolls, and Iggy and the MC5, and while those bands didn't wear clown makeup or blow things up and spit blood in the air, they all had something else going on that was bigger than the music, and I believe Kiss made music far more accessible in terms of hooks and melodies than the Stooges, Dolls and MC5, maybe not the Ramones.
Anyway, I expected some blow back, I am just happy, C in California, that it was not the usual blow back with the same tired and unfunny comments. So, thanks for that.
And I want to stress, I am defending five years out of fifty. Six records between 1974-1978. No more.
A touching tribute, stoned and laughing and bad seats and all.
First concert in 1977, Loverboy opening. This was in Vancouver, where Loverboy was the hottest bar band in town (I was 12, so I just accepted it). Mike Reno says, "This will have to be our last song!" to the biggest ovation of their set.
I get what you mean about accepting Kiss if you love the Ramones and NY Dolls. There's definitely a similarity there, but I find Kiss lacks a certain... je ne sais quois. Had a bunch of their albums I sold to a real fan, with no regrets.
You're welcome; I'd not want to approach a real conversation on this blog with anything less than thoughtful.....um, thoughts. Which is why I avoid some of the bigger questions -- I couldn't write a small response without sounding curt or cavalier, I fear, so I skip it.
I went to see what your other recent reference to Kiss viz the Ramones was (9.24.25, one of your big ones I didn't feel comfortable addressing), and I'm dang lucky I did because I saw that I'd forgotten to download the next day's offering of Gold Band Records music. Yikes!!
C in California
Never a band I really cared for, but, I get your premise: "If you can love The Ramones and the New York Dolls, you can, if nothing else, accept Kiss. It's all boneheaded rock and roll." Though, truly in my mind, not in the same league as The Ramones or the Dolls.
RIP.
I saw Kiss at the Academy of Music in their first tour. They were the opening band on a bizarre bill that consisted of (I think) Fanny and Focus. The next day I went out and bought their 1st album as nd I okayed the crap out of it. I was never in the Kiss Army but I was in their ROTC program for the first couple of albums. Even though I didn't stick with them I do recall the pleasure I got out of them for a while and it's always sad to hear of someone that brought you joy leaving us.
Joey Ramone (singer, Ramones): I was at their first show ever. Kiss and The Ramones both grew up in Queens. At the time I think they were the loudest band I ever heard. They were fun and had great songs. I saw them when they first started out and they just had dry ice. This was way before their image and show came together. - Louder article devoted to Kiss’ first 12 months, 11.24.2023
For me, the spell died with the release of the solo albums. They were only a curiosity after that, with the occasional fun song. And it’s even been decades since that. But, those golden years… still awesome! :)
R.I.P. Ace
C in California basically speaks for me on the subject. That said, and because I don't want to be the skunk at the garden party, I'm gonna save my larger thoughts KISS-wise till my own blog on Monday. 😎
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