RE-REVIEW: KISS – Love Gun (1977)

The KISS RE-REVIEW SERIES Part 9:  

LOVE GUN DELUXE_0002kiss-logo – Love Gun (1977 Casablanca, 2014 Universal reissue)

By the late 1970s, Kiss had achieved more than most bands do in an entire career.  In 1977, Marvel comics released the first ever Kiss comic.  Famously, as a publicity stunt, each Kiss member had a vial of blood drawn, and poured into the red ink.  “Printed in real KISS blood”  proclaimed the front cover.  Can you imagine such a thing in 2017?  In 1978, the toy company Mego marketed the first set of Kiss action figures.  The phenomenon of Kiss was almost eclipsing the music.  Perhaps it would have completely, if Kiss didn’t continue to release excellent albums on a biannual basis.  Their first album of 1977 was the legendary Love Gun.  Even the Ken Kelly cover art depicts Kiss as demi-gods of some kind.  Inside, the merchandising spilled over to the album.  Kiss were determined to give their fans a little extra, and so the album was packed with little cardboard “love guns” that you could assemble yourself…accompanied by a Kiss merch mail-away form.

 

The music brightly outshone all the flash and trimmings.  Again with Eddie Kramer in the producer’s chair, Kiss sought to make a focused heavy rock record.  Their material had rarely been stronger.  Paul Stanley was becoming handy at writing opening tracks that defined what an album was going to sound like.  “I Stole Your Love” cranked it fast with one of Paul’s most thunderous riffs.  The tribal sounding drums by Peter Criss are an apt example of what made him great at the time.  Criss was not a technical drummer, but he had the right feel and a knack for the perfect fill.  Ace Frehley soars in and dive bombs with an unforgettable lightning solo.  Gene Simmons is there in the back, adding the thump.  “I Stole Your Love” in a mere three minutes encapsulates everything about Love Gun that makes it great.

Gene Simmons’ demon character had another side; that of the “creepy old man”.  “I don’t usually say things like this to girls your age, but when I saw you coming out of school that day, that day I knew…I knew!…I’ve got to have you, I’ve got to have you!”  Probably from the perspective of a highschool senior, but still, it came from Gene’s mouth.  The less said about the words the better, for “Christine Sixteen” is one of Gene’s most perfect musical moments.  Eddie Kramer provides the piano for a vintage rock and roll sound.  A Kiss classic it is, and Peter once again has the perfect fills for the song.

 

Moving on to “Got Love For Sale”, the lecherous Simmons now “has love, will travel”.  Uptempo sleeze is perfect for Kiss’ friendly demon, but Frehley is the real star here.  Speaking of whom, the Space Ace finally worked up the courage to sing his first lead vocal on his trademark Kiss song “Shock Me”.  On the prior tour, Ace nearly electrocuted himself on stage when he touched a railing that wasn’t grounded properly.  “Shock Me” is a humorous reference to this.  Any Frehley track has a unique flavour.  He attacks his Gibson and assembles chords and riffs in a style all his own.  “Shock Me” showed he could sing too, finally adding a fourth voice to a Kiss album.  For the first time, Love Gun has all four Kiss members singing lead.  The first side was bookended by another Paul Stanley track, the killer “Tomorrow and Tonight”.  Piano and Motown-style female backing vocals give the track a classic feel, and Paul once again came up with a sweet candy-coated chorus.  Echoing a previous hit, Paul sings “We can rock all day, we can roll all night.”

The most well known track from Love Gun is the title track itself.  It has been in the set regularly since 1977 and is generally considered one of Paul Stanley’s best songs (if not his very best).  All the ingredients click perfectly.  “Love Gun” kills and cannot be improved upon.  Even if, when you think about it, “Love Gun” is a metaphor for “penis”, and the lyrics amount to singing, “You pull the trigger of my…penis, penis, penis”.  Substitute “penis” every time Paul sings “Love Gun” and see.  Paul Stanley is an absolute genius, because he has gotten stadiums full of thousands of people to sing an ode to his cock, and that’s cool.


“See Ronnie? His dick is the gun!”

Peter Criss only had one track on Love Gun, a Stan Penridge co-write called “Hooligan”.  It was good enough to get some live performances, though it and Gene’s “Almost Human” occupy the lower rungs of the Love Gun album.  The best thing about both “Hooligan” and “Almost Human” is that both perfectly fit the personas that sing them.  Peter has always emphasized his tough street upbringing, but as the lovable cat character, and that’s “Hooligan”.  “Almost Human” is 100% the sex-crazed demon, almost a theme song.  The bass thumps, but there is some interesting percussion stuff happening too.  Simmons continues looking for love in “Plaster Caster”, his encounter with the legendary Cynthia Plaster Caster.   One can assume that Gene Simmons’ wang is among those on her display.  “A token of my love for her collection.”  “Plaster Caster” rocks hard (pun intended) and has balls (also intended).

Love Gun surprisingly closes on a Phil Spector classic, “And Then She Kissed Me” (gender reversed) by the Crystals.  Paul Stanley helms it, a romantic number perfect for Kiss content at weddings.  The Kiss-ified version is almost comically guitar heavy, but Kiss have managed a number of unusual covers over the years.  Adapting it to their sound, Paul owns “And Then She Kissed Me”, especially when topped by an awesome and appropriate solo.

The Love Gun tour that followed this album is one of Kiss’ most legendary: the dual staircases, levitating cat drums,  and of course the big Kiss logo in behind.  Kiss were huge.  A gallup poll put Kiss as the most popular band in America, over Zeppelin, Aerosmith and the Stones.  When bank accounts inflate, so do egos.  With success comes cost.  Though the Love Gun period is all but universally lauded, it was also the last unified album before some members became liabilities.

Today’s rating:

5/5 stars

See Ronnie?  His dick is the gun!

Uncle Meat’s rating:

3.5/5 steaks 

Meat’s slice:  This was Peter Criss’ last album with Kiss for a long time.  Love Gun is a hit and miss record in Meat’s opinion.  Or maybe better put…hit and somewhat miss.  I think there are simply too many forgettable songs on this album.    “Then She Kissed Me”, “Hooligan”, “Got Love For Sale”, “Tomorrow and Tonight” and “Almost Human” are all average at best.  That’s half the album right there.  There are also standout songs. Obviously the title track is a Rock and Roll classic now, the album’s opener “I Stole Your Love” is a hot tamale, and I have always loved the catchy “Christine Sixteen”, especially that chorus.

However, Love Gun is a very significant Kiss album simply because of one song.  I don’t know a Kiss fan that doesn’t love “Shock Me”.  The debut of Ace Frehley as a “singer-songwriter” so to speak, made many wish he would have sung a few more before things all fell apart.  Some of the songs coming up in the next few albums, including his solo album, are some of Kiss’ best material in my opinion. 

Maybe they just ran out of ideas.  Should have been half an album of Ace songs instead.

Favorite Tracks:  “Shock Me”, “Love Gun”,  “I Stole Your Love”, “Christine Sixteen”

Forgettable Tracks:  Look above

To be continued…

Original mikeladano.com review:  2012/07/011
Deluxe Edition review:  2014/11/09

40 comments

  1. I think the fact that they have ‘love’ in so many of there song titles has always been a turn off for me. But if I replace that with ‘sex’ they all still make sense and it becomes a turn on.

    Wait… I don’t think I worded that right.

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  3. I really enjoy this one and I’ve often called it one of their best but… now I’m thinking about it, I’m more aligned with Meat on this. Dressed To Kill and RNRO are better. I don’t like Christine Sixteen that much and the final tracks on each side are total filler. The rest is top notch (I have a real soft spot for Hooligan) but the three filler tracks drop this down to a 4/5 for me. Still a classic KISS record though!

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    1. Hooligan! Peter Criss gonna do a little singing for you!

      I remember watching an interview with Death Angel. Huge Kiss fans. They said when Love Gun came out it was the heaviest thing they’d ever heard! I love it all.

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  5. I have 3 nephews, aged, 3, 3.5, and 5. They LOVE to dance. They’ll dance all day to Justin Timberlake. But they also love to “rock” – KISS and AC/DC being their favourites for that. I feel like I’ve rediscovered these albums all over again.

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  6. By this time in my adolescent life, I was fully absorbed in the belief that KISS were admitted Satan worshipers so this album passed me by. Still, when I saw them in 85, they played “Christine Sixteen” and “Love Gun.”

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    2. Very interesting. My Evangelical brain washing happened in late 1985 … In January of that year I was 15 watching Metallica …. By early 1986 I thought it was a good idea to swear off secular music. There were a couple blurry years there of Daniel Band … Stryper … Degarmo and Key … Steve Taylor .. Russ Taff … Blech

      There are a few albums I still cherish from those days .. such as Lead Me On – Amy Grant … Phil Keaggy. And Sunday’s Child – Phil Keaggy …… Extraction From Mortality and Sanity Obscured – Believer ….Between Heaven and Hell – Rez Band More Power to Ya – Petra.. etc

      But the majority of Christian music is the true evil. So bad

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      1. I think Stryper is far better today than they were then. I’ve been listening to their album Fallen. Really good.

        Phil Keaggy…Ty Tabor has played with him…

        I don’t hate Christian music but I do hate on the judgemental attitudes.

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      3. I like a lot of Christian rock, especially Stryper. Some of them are talented musicians, they just choose to use their talents for other reasons. I think Mike has a point about judgemental attitudes. My last outing with the biggest fans of Christian Rock was seeing Petra in concert. I really enjoyed it. What I didn’t like was that after the concert, all these ‘Christians’ were slagging off Live Aid because it was done by heathen rockers. Narrow minded attitudes like these was the final nail in the coffin of Born again Christianity for me.

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  9. This is a decent album but man the cycle that they were on tour album tour ..couple of studio records per year ..more tour….Your gonna hit the wall eventually! Still though this has some classic cuts and I’m with Scott on Hooligan….pretty decent for a Criss tune. Good album but for KISS in 77 it’s strike while the iron is hot…they did big time..

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  11. Now that KISS was big, they could call their own shots. So they decided to bring back Eddie
    and do a real studio album. The sound was better than the ‘flat’ sound of R&R Over.
    The problem was, once again, the tempo was too slow. All these songs are better on ALIVE II.
    The only songs I like on this one are the ones not on ALIVE II. Got Love For Sale, Almost Human, Hooligan. Love Gun, meh. Then she kissed me was the worst song they did.
    Everything else is better live. This was KISS at the absolute height of the trend.
    Meanwhile, while they were on the road, storm clouds were gathering. Disco and Punk were
    right around the corner. For good or bad, music was never the same.

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