Many record store employees drink. Record store people are just people, and some people drink. And some drink, a lot. I was never much of a drinker, not until I moved in with T-Rev in ’98. Then I caught up pretty quickly (Captain Morgan’s and Coke, not beer), but I still couldn’t compete with those guys. (In fact, I still remember when I went out for my 30th birthday. I was accused by the Operations Manager/Bully of “faking” that I was drunk. I’m a light weight, and she was just a meany.)
Like me, some of the younger folks, they just couldn’t pace themselves. The difference is they’d be drinking while having to open the store the following morning. A lot of them would be out partying, and then we’d get the inevitable phone call the next morning. “I’m sick. Can you cover for me today?” It happened more than once, not naming names.
One guy, who helped me set up the first store that I managed, came into work hungover so many damn times. The first time, I had to send him home. He was absolutely useless. He was actually trying to work with his head down touching the counter. He was slowing me down, so I sent him home and somebody else came in.
The same guy came in hungover one Saturday morning, later on, after we opened. He had his head down on the counter when a customer approached him. He raised his head.
“Uhh, excuse me. Do you have the soundtrack to Jason’s Lyric?”
The hungover employee stumbled over to the computer.
“It’s a movie soundtrack,” clarified the customer, seeing Mr. Hangover was struggling.
“No. We don’t have it.”
The customer asked him to check to see if one of our other stores had it, so he picked up the phone. The customer went back to browsing while Mr. Hangover was making the call. We only had three stores at the time. One of them had Jason’s Lyric used on CD!
Mr. Hangover then walked out onto the floor to tell the customer about the CD. Only problem: he didn’t remember who asked. Or the exact name of the CD he asked for. So Mr. Hangover approached somebody who looked right.
Walking up to the unsuspecting stranger he said, “Hey man. They got your Jesus’ Lyric over there.”
“What?”
“They got your Jesus’ Lyric soundtrack CD at the other store that you asked for.”
Overhearing this, the correct customer identified himself, and things got sorted. No big surprise ending here: Mr. Hangover was let go soon after!
Kiss had “made it”. Alive! put them where they wanted to be: on the charts and headlining concert stages coast to coast. The financial pressure was off and they didn’t have to simply crank out new albums to keep the band afloat. They could now take their time and make something that was more thought out; a statement.
The first issue to deal with was Kiss’ past sonic inadequacy in the studio. Prior albums produced by Kenny Kerner & Richie Wise, and Neil Bogart did not capture the full-on Kiss thunder. They failed to shred the speakers. They needed somebody “big time”, to give them the punch they desperately needed. That somebody was Canadian producer extraordinaire Bob Ezrin. Ezrin had been an instrumental guiding force for Alice Cooper. Now it was Kiss’ turn to receive the platinum Ezrin magic touch.
Ezrin agreed to work with Kiss, reportedly influenced by a neighbor kid who liked to discuss music. “The kids from school love Kiss,” the boy told Ezrin. “The problem is, their records sound so shitty. But the band is so good we buy the records anyway.” Working with Kiss wasn’t much different from working with Cooper. These were not schooled musicians. Ezrin had to take them to boot camp. Keeping the drums in time was a challenge. Peter Criss had difficulty maintaining a steady tempo, so Ezrin would beat a briefcase to keep him in time. He wore a conductor’s coat and tails, and pushed the rest of the band like a drill sergeant. Even the mighty demon Gene Simmons was chastised, for finishing a take before the producer instructed him to stop. And when Ace Frehley didn’t show up because he had a card game? Shenanigans were not tolerated. When Ace wasn’t available when he should have been, Ezrin’s buddy Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper) was there. For the first time, a Kiss member was replaced on album by an outside uncredited musician.
One innovative technique that Ezrin brought in to thicken up Kiss’ sound was using a grand piano to back up the big guitars. The end result doesn’t sound like piano and guitars, but one solid wall of rock, like Phil Spector channelled through Bob Ezrin. Where Kiss used to rely on rag-tag recordings they now had a big glossy sound to play with. Ezrin was also fond of sound effects and orchestration, and he brought both to Kiss.
The opening track “Detroit Rock City” was a slam-dunk intro to the new Kiss sound. After an extended start with the sound of a fan driving to a Kiss concert, the band thundered into focus. That trademark riff chainsaws through, before Paul Stanley’s powerful pipes take command. What a song. The new Kiss had arrived, shiny and sleek, souped up and fueled, as if they were a brand new band.
“Detroit” faded out into “King of the Night Time World”, an outside song brought in for completion by Ezrin and Paul Stanley. They turned it into something that worked for a Kiss album, albeit very different from their past. As for Paul, he contributed a fast hard rocker called “God of Thunder”. Though reports sometime differ in the details, ultimately the song fit Gene Simmons’ demon persona better and the song was given to him to sing. It was slowed to a monster plod, and a few lines were changed to suit. (“Make love ’til we bleed” was changed to “Hear my words and take heed”.) And those little demonic voices? Bob Ezrin’s kids, playing with walkie-talkies.
“Great Expectations” (based on Beethoven) has to be the most bizarre song on the album and one of the weirdest that Kiss have attempted. A lush ballad with strings and choirs and Gene Simmons in crooner mode, it is definitely different. Even one of the rockers, “Flaming Youth” written by Frehley/Stanley/Simmons/Ezrin, is different for Kiss. It’s a rock song…with calliope. (Picture circus music.) Gene’s “Sweet Pain” had female backing vocals like an old Motown single. These are all interesting experiments, but none of those three songs have become live concert classics.
Bob Ezrin tricked the band into writing “Shout it Out Loud”. He realized they needed one more song, so he told the band that they had lost the masters to “Great Expectations” and needed a replacement. Gene and Paul hurriedly wrote “Shout it Out Loud” with the producer and had another instant classic. Like “Rock and Roll all Nite” before it, “Shout” was an anthemic rallying cry that a concert audience could get behind.
The album closer was a track called “Do You Love Me”, another tune brought in by outsiders (Kim Fowley) to be finished by Kiss. Though on the surface “Do You Love Me” is a bit repetitive and dull, it was later covered by Nirvana. There must be something to it that struck a chord.
There was still one more song on the album, a throwaway. It was used as a B-side to “Detroit Rock City”, as the band didn’t have much faith in it. Peter Criss had brought forward a love song called “Beck”, named for a girl named Becky, written by Stan Penridge for their old band Chelsea. The song needed work, including a new title. Ezrin revamped it completely, and the result was one of Kiss’ all time biggest hits: “Beth”. Tender and accessible, the only Kiss member on “Beth” was Peter Criss himself. Dick Wagner played acoustic and Bob Ezrin played piano. The orchestra finished it off. Eventually, radio stations started flipping the “Detroit” single and playing “Beth”. This led to Casablanca reissuing “Beth” as a single A-side, Kiss’ highest charting ever.
With the help of “Beth”, Destroyer maintained Kiss’ stardom and opened up the doors for any future musical experiments they could fathom. Its cover showed Kiss in an apocalyptic landscape, in full super hero mode for the first time. Artist Ken Kelly created something that helped define Kiss as larger than life…and larger than life they did become.
That wasn’t the end of the story for Destroyer. For years it became the benchmark that Kiss albums were measured against. In 2012, Bob Ezrin revisited the backing tapes and produced an alternate mix called Destroyer: Resurrected. This featured some previously unheard music such as an alternate Ace Frehley guitar solo for “Sweet Pain” (Dick Wagner played the original solo).
Destroyer is far from the definitive Kiss album. In fact, it is more like a one-off, an experiment that was never fully revisited. Some of its songs are less than classic. Others are so classic that you can’t imagine the world without them. The bottom line for Kiss was that Destroyer propelled them further towards their goal of becoming the hottest band in the world.
Today’s rating:
3.5/5 stars
Uncle Meat’s rating:
4/5 steaks
Meat’s Slice: The general consensus of casual Kiss fans is that this is their greatest studio album. Let’s examine this. I’ll start with the iconic.
“SHOUT IT OUT LOUD” – On May 22, 1976, this song went number one in Canada, the band’s first ever number one song. 40 years later and “Shout it Out Loud” might be the Kiss song with the longest shelf life. One of two perfect “live concert” songs on Destroyer. The other?
“DETROIT ROCK CITY” – Thin Lizzy-esque two-guitar rock fest. Sitting on the same shelf as “Shout it Out Loud”. Iconic indeed. Unperishable. Even has a movie named after it. I have never seen it. Maybe it’s finally time to do so.
“BETH” – If any other member sang “Beth” it wouldn’t have been the same song, or had the same success. Peter Criss has a special rasp in his voice that can both rock and schmaltz it up. Like Rod Stewart, or that goof that sings for Slaughter. I personally wish “Beth” would “fly to the angels” up in the sky, but this song did do one good thing for me. My grandmother refused to get me anything Kiss related until I pointed out to her that “Beth”, on the radio in the car at the time, was actually Kiss. So thanks for that at least.
“DO YOU LOVE ME” – Perhaps this song is more iconic in my own mind specifically, since it is in my Top Five Kiss songs. Classic Paul Stanley stuff here.
“GOD OF THUNDER” – Unique in every way for the time. A lot of Ezrin tricks in this track including backwards drumming. I still have not heard the great cover of this song I always thought I would from some Metal band. There’s still time….
No wonder the casual Kiss fan believes this is the best of all of the Kiss studio albums. It is a great collection of songs that are still loved today. But everything else on Destroyer not listed above is average at best, or much worse than that. Maybe it’s because Kiss was too busy getting music lessons from Bob Ezrin while in the studio. Maybe it’s simply that Kiss was tired of being looked at as a “joke” and wanted to get more serious, hence getting some more respect from the mainstream press. Now again, this is my opinion and I’m sure that some might vehemently disagree with me about some of the deeper Destroyer tracks. The best of which I think is “Flaming Youth”. “King of the Night Time World” is pretty good, but borrowed from another song. “Great Expectations” is blah stuff except for the melody stolen from Beethoven. “Sweet Pain” sucks. And “Rock and Roll Party” is just unnecessary filler, very much like “Inside”, the ending track on 5150. Might as well take the needle off the record as soon as the song starts and put on something else immediately.
Let’s use this analogy.
A couple raises 10 children. Three of their children become world leaders. Two others become successful doctors. But half of their kids are in jail, some for unspeakable crimes against humanity. Can you call them the best family overall because half of them are special? Destroyer is definitely not the greatest Kiss album.
In the spring of 1996, we opened up the big store that I managed. It was our biggest store to date. There were a lot of good times at that location, and hundreds of incredible musical finds. Around the same time, I began replacing my cassette collection with CDs in earnest. Cassettes don’t have the longevity or the sound quality of a CD. Most of my tapes were starting to sound awful, especially the ones purchased from Columbia House, who manufactured their own at a lesser cost.
Upgrading my Kiss cassette collection to CD was an early priority. Some of the first Kiss tapes I bought, like Asylum, had degraded so much they were unlistenable. The early (Canadian) CD releases had issues too; they were not perfect. Both Hotter Than Hell and Alive II (disc one) had severe problems with digital noise in specific spots. On Alive II it was “Love Gun” that was the issue. There was a terrible scratchy sound encoded onto the CD.
The differences between my boss and myself were obvious the day that Kiss Alive! came in stock, used. It came in one of those old “fat” CD cases. It was the first chance I had to buy the first Alive! at an affordable used price, in such great condition. The boss and I had very different personalities, almost opposites. I was a music obsessive who collected things and wanted to know all the obscure facts. He liked music but just wanted to sell CDs. I grabbed that copy of Alive! and handed it to the boss to ring in with my staff discount.
He sighed and gave me a look. “Don’t you already have this?”
He sounded like my dad. When I’d come home, he’d say, “More Kiss? Don’t you already have Kiss?” My boss had a lot in common with my dad.
I had the tape, but the cassette had the songs in a different order. This was a fairly common practice. Song order would be swapped around on cassettes, to keep sides one and two about equal in length. That reduces the amount of actual tape used to manufacture it, and therefore cuts costs. It would be cool to have a CD copy of Alive! to listen to the songs in the original order.
“I have it on cassette and LP,” I explained. “I listen to the tape, but this CD is different. The songs are in a different order,” I finished.
He looked at me again and responded in a mocking tone, “Hey Mike, look at my shoes. The left one is different from the right one. Do you want to buy it?”
“No because I don’t collect shoes,” I answered. “I collect Kiss.”
He shrugged with frustration. I really think he was more just pissed off that I had taken some good stock for myself.
Oh well.
Staff taking “good stock” was an ongoing issue, but because getting stock at a discount was one of the established perks of working at a used CD store, there wasn’t much that could be done. I’ll give him credit; the boss considered the staff discount to be part and parcel of the job for all of us. He eventually put a limit on how much we could buy at a time. Meanwhile, my dad would look at my collection and say “sell, sell, sell!”
He ended up getting that copy of Kiss Alive! back, when I upgraded to the 1997 remastered edition. And then he ended up getting that 1997 remastered edition back when I upgraded to the Kiss Alive! 1975-2000 box set.
He might not have understood my wants and desires as a collector, and he may have complained about me taking all the good stock, but he ended up making money when I sold back my equally good stock. No harm, no foul. Hopefully, I have bought Kiss Alive! for the final time.
– Alive! (1975 Casablanca, 2006 remastered edition from Alive! 1975-2000)
Music fans consider it one of the greatest live albums of all time. Its name is spoken in the same breath as Frampton Comes Alive, Cheap Trick At Budokan, and Deep Purple Made in Japan. It spawned thousands of young new guitar players (particularly of the grunge era), eager to emulate the six string heroism of Ace Frehley. There is really only one miniscule issue: Kiss Alive! is not really live.
Oh sure, Kiss and producer Eddie Kramer did record live shows. When they listened back to the tapes, there were no performances that satisfied them. Kiss were too rambunctious live. They were busy jumping around, entertaining the crowd, not paying attention to each and every note. For the live album, they weren’t looking for perfection, just performances without glaring mistakes or noise. They realized they didn’t capture that with the shows they recorded. So they did what most bands do: went back into the studio and try to fix it. Lead singer and guitarist Paul Stanley explained it in his book: “Yes, we enhanced it – not to hide anything, not to fool anyone. But who wanted to hear a mistake repeated endlessly? Who wanted to hear an out-of-tune guitar? For what? Authenticity?”
Authenticity is an important part of great rock music, but not the only important part. If you can’t tell the difference, then does it matter? Fans listened to Kiss Alive! for decades, blindly enjoying every detail, from Ace Frehley’s extended “Rock and Roll all Nite” guitar solo, to Paul Stanley’s unforgettable stage raps. Few suspected anything was out of the ordinary, unless they heard original bootleg recordings of the same Kiss gigs. Eddie Kramer and the band re-recorded approximately 70% of the album. The only thing they didn’t have to touch were Peter Criss’ drums, which were already pretty solid. Bass, vocals, and even lead guitar was touched up and fixed, all but seamlessly.
The reason Kiss Alive! was and is considered great is that you can’t tell the difference. Unlike a double live Poison album (or even Kiss Alive II), you cannot hear obvious fixes and overdubs. Kiss Alive! might not be authentic, but certainly sounds it.
With 16 scorching tracks all sourced from the first three Kiss albums, Alive! is all killer and no filler. Even the typical “slow” moments, such as a long Paul Stanley rap backed by a Peter Criss drum solo (“100,000 Years”) is an unforgettable highlight. Importantly, the new live version of “Rock and Roll all Nite” became the definitive one. Today, it’s not the studio original version that still gets ready airplay. It’s the Kiss Alive! version. Many of these tracks usurp the originals as the superior versions: “Firehouse”, “Cold Gin”, “Watchin’ You”, “Nothin’ to Lose”, and just about everything from Hotter Than Hell. For the first time, all the warmth and energy are captured on Kiss vinyl. If any of their studio material sounded sleepy, then this was a shot of caffeine. Any sonic issues with the first Kiss studio albums are quickly forgotten by these volcanic recordings, finally capturing Kiss’ full power…in a roundabout way.
Kiss Alive! saved the band, and saved their record label Casablanca records. Casablanca were on the verge of bankruptcy, and manager Bill Aucoin had to put the band on the road using his American Express card for currency. Alive! put everybody back in the black. It also put Kiss on the map as a rock and roll band to be reckoned with. The two LP set was decked out with a gatefold sleeve, photos, a booklet, and even written notes from the band members. For the first time, it felt like Kiss had released an album that lived up not only to their show, but their larger than life image.
Whether you decide to pick up Kiss Alive! on CD or LP, you will be in for a “rock and roll party” as per Paul Stanley. Our recommended edition: The four disc 2006 box set Alive! 1975-2000. The set contains four volumes of Kiss Alive, deliciously remastered, with each album fit onto a single CD without losing any songs. Fire away.
Today’s rating:
5/5 stars
Uncle Meat’s rating:
4.5/5 steaks
Meat’s slice: I would approximate that it was probably somewhere around 1978 when I first heard this record at a friend’s place. I sat there and stared at the inner booklet and the album artwork, and I just wanted to be there. I actually did get there many years later, but since I was like nine years old at this time and had not seen any sort of concert, it was all I knew of what a rock show was. The picture on the back of the album taken at Detroit’s Cobo Hall is an unforgettable one, and makes you almost feel like you are there. You get the scope of what it’s like to be on the floor for an arena show. Tracks like “She”, “100,000 Years” and “Cold Gin” shine on this record specifically because of the banter of Paul Stanley. I think it’s what truly makes the album special. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that Bruce Dickinson may have learned a thing or two from the Starchild on how to connect with an audience. Alive! is the most important album of Kiss’ career, and is especially significant for those who were lucky to be a Kiss fan at a young age, while their unstoppable takeover of the Earth was building and building.
Following the release of Kiss Alive! in September of 1975, the second half of the 70s became known as the “Live Album Era” of Rock and Roll. Not only were a lot of bands doing it, but they were having massive successes with them (At Budokan…Frampton Comes Alive...Unleashed in the East…If You Want Blood etc). This pioneering album was able to make the listener feel like they were actually at a rock concert, better than almost any live record has since. Kiss Alive! was truly the birth of what is now known as The Kiss Army.
However with all this good comes some bad. It was revealed years ago what everyone had already suspected: Most of the record is overdubbed and even most of the crowd noise is dubbed in. For this reason and this reason alone I didn’t give this album 5 steaks. But I refuse to go lower than 4 ½ .
– Dressed to Kill (1975 Casablanca, 1997 Mercury remastered edition)
The band was expected to be huge, so what was going wrong? They had the look and they had the stage show. They had two albums and both underperformed. Casablanca label head Neil Bogart wasn’t about to give up, and took matters in his own hands. He brought the band back to Electric Lady in New York and economically produced the third album himself.
Kiss’ Dressed to Kill was their third LP in 12 months. It was not a drastic change of direction. It offered the same basic rock and roll that Kiss presented on the first two. Bogart provided a clean production, a better sound but not too dissimilar from the first Kiss. It was miles away better than the sludge of Hotter Than Hell, and it was a shorty (just half an hour). Like the first two albums, it recycled some old Wicked Lester songs and Kiss-ified them.
Kiss was touring relentlessly so it was no surprise to hear songs like “Room Service” among the new tracks.
I’m feelin’ low, no place to go, And I’m a-thinking that I’m gonna scream, Because a hotel all alone is not a Rock and roll star’s dream.
But just when I’m about to shut the light and go to bed, A lady calls and asks if I’m too tired or if I’m just to dead for…
Room service, baby I could use a meal, Room service, you do what you feel, Room service, I take the pleasure with the pain, I can’t say no.
An upbeat workmanlike Kiss song about sex on the road? Just what Dr. Rock ordered. The jangly rock and roll of early Kiss is omnipresent, and so are the cat-like pitter-patter drum rolls of Peter Criss. Ace Frehley’s solo is multitracked for extra harmonic punch. Then the album goes for a slow groove on “Two Timer”, a Gene stomp powered by his melodic basslines. Kiss’ voices blend consummately for a nice memorable monster chorus. The “Ladies in Waiting” arrive next, and according to the lyrics, “You’ve been to the market, and the meat looks good tonight.” He’s not singing about Porterhouse steaks (or Uncle Meat). The groove has kick, and plenty of Ace’s guitar fireworks.
Peter Criss had only one lead vocal on Dressed to Kill: “Getaway”, written by Ace. The guitarist hadn’t started singing lead himself, and he knew that Peter needed more material to sing. “Getaway” is a traditional rock n’ roll lick with Pete’s rasp and smooth style. There is nothing wrong with an enjoyably simple Kiss song, especially when it’s one of Ace’s. That goes double if Peter Criss is singing on it. “Getaway” might not be a classic but it’s a deeply enjoyable album cut.
Dressed to Kill‘s first side had a brilliant closer in “Rock Bottom”, a song in two parts. In the years since, Ace Frehley has quite competently come up with some beautiful acoustic songs. On his solo and Frehley’s Comet albums of more recent years, he usually has an acoustic instrumental in his “Fractured” series. The “Rock Bottom” intro might be considered a prequel to the “Fractured” series. A piece like this came out of left field on a Kiss album. He and Paul Stanley created a lovely blend of acoustics, and Neil Bogart captured it warm and clean. As long as the intro is “Rock Bottom” itself, another one in a series of classic Paul Stanley rockers. Paul has a knack for punchy and memorable rock and roll guitar songs, and “Rock Bottom” gets you right between the eyes.
It’s actually two Paul songs in a row that deserve the “classic” tag. Not just “Rock Bottom”, but the side two opener “C’Mon and Love Me” is as brilliant as a 100 watt bulb right in the face. Paul is probably not recognized enough for his riff writing. Iommi, Page and Young are icons of riff, but Paul has really written some corkers over the years. “C’Mon and Love Me” remains so awesome today because of that biting riff. Not quite so with the pop rocker “Anything For My Baby”. It’s too similar to the forthcoming (and superior) “Rock and Roll all Nite”. However side two is quickly redeemed by the heavy-as-fuck “She”. Yes, “She”, the same “She” that sounded like Jethro Tull on acid when recorded for Wicked Lester (1973). Kiss transformed a corny hippie experiment into Sabbathy metal shrapnel. Instead of a wanky falsetto, Gene employed his deep monster voice on “She”. Combined with Peter Criss’ tribal drums, “She” slams you to the wall so turn it right up.
“Love Her All I Can” is goofy filler, another old Wicked Lester remake. Not one of their finest moments, but important to the history of the band. It is notable as being another fine example of Gene and Paul blending their voices for a nice thick chorus. Frehley’s solo smokes so hot it’ll set off your fire alarm, but the song itself ranks low. This matters not, because “Rock and Roll all Nite” was held back as the final track. When Gene and Paul wrote together, they created magic. But it’s not just Simmons and Stanley that can take all the credit. Peter Criss’ cat-groove is unmistakably integral to the song. Neil Bogart did a better job of capturing the band than Kerner and Wise did. He also pushed the band into writing an anthem for themselves, and write it they did. Notably, for the first time outsiders were brought into the studio to appear on a Kiss album. In this case it was just friends and roadies, but it was also the first Kiss “gang vocal”.
There we go. Hit written. Or was it?
“Rock and Roll all Nite” failed to scorch the charts as it was designed to do. Bogart and Casablanca Records were in dire straits now. They had unwisely banked on a Johnny Carson comedy album to sell millions, and were sitting on all that unsold product. (It would not be the last time Casablanca got cocky and made that mistake.) If the record label were in trouble, by extension, so was Kiss.
Dressed to Kill will always be fondly remembered for rocking and rolling us all nite, for the very first time. It’s also a beautiful record jacket to look at. The black and white photo of Kiss in ill-fitting suits, surrounded by embossed Kiss logos, was quite striking. Simmons looks particularly demented, only deepening his Demon image. It’s a good Kiss album, but if they were to survive they had to make a serious statement. Most importantly, they had to capture that thunderous sound at its full potential, something every producer thus far had failed to do. It was time to come Alive!
Today’s rating:
4/5 stars
Uncle Meat’s rating:
5/5 steaks
Meat’s slice: Almost exactly half an hour of perfect Rock and Roll. The shortest Kiss album is the best Kiss album in Uncle Meat’s opinion. After a sophomore slide, Kiss’ third album somehow improved the sound by getting the president of their record company to produce? What shouldn’t have worked, worked perfectly with Kiss under the gun and writing, recording and releasing Dressed to Kill in a ridiculous five months after Hotter Than Hell. Why does it take Metallica 45 years to make a fucking album again? Don’t say ego…because we are talking about the Donald Trump of egos in Gene Simmons by himself here. Fuck Metallica’s bullshit!!! (* I apologize…this is for another time to be determined *) Anyway, Kiss became tighter as a band and better musicians through constant touring. This prepared them to brave these unlikely circumstances and produce not only some of my favorite all-time songs of theirs, but undoubtedly the song that would live on as the very flagpole the Kiss Army flag is attached to, “Rock and Roll all Nite”.
Short but sweet has never been so apropos to describe a record. The chorus of “C’mon and Love Me”. The cowbell in “Room Service”. Then “She” takes off her clothes and I’m sold. Best album of their career. Another interesting Kiss note…Only twice have Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley shared writing credits alone on a song together: “Comin’ Home” and “Rock Bottom”. The former being a song I have already mentioned I don’t really like much, and the latter being a Top 3 Kiss song for me. Ironically a song titled “Rock Bottom” is the exactly the antithesis of that. Top shelf Rock and Roll from the band that got me into Rock and Roll. Also in my Top 3 album covers of all time. Scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.
Favorite Tracks: “Rock Bottom”, “Love Her All I Can”, “She”, “C’mon and Love Me”, “Room Service”
– Agora Ballroom 1974– The Cleveland Broadcast – Plus bonus cuts (2015 Go Faster)
Radio broadcast CDs are common and cheap today. They are a great way to get rare live recordings from bands you love, at a good price, with acceptable sound quality. When this set was recorded at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland (April 1, 1974) Kiss only had one album out. It’s a rare early glimpse at the band when they were just beginning to stretch their road legs. Already, the performances on this CD were far more fiery than that on their studio albums — and that’s without Gene breathing fire.
The Agora set was a mere eight songs, and a strong representation of Kiss’ best early material. Almost everything is from the first LP; nothing from the second that would be released a mere six months later. The oddity is “She”, an old Wicked Lester holdover that wouldn’t come out as a Kiss song until 1975. Also fascinating is that Gene Simmons even does some talking between songs, and you can see why he lets Paul do all the talking now. “How many are you, a hundred? Are you ready to rock? Rock?” Paul Stanley was clearly better at stage raps, and this CD offers a reason why Gene doesn’t do them anymore.
As with any radio broadcast CD, do not expect flawless audio. This isn’t the greatest recording. There’s hardly any bass. What it is though is a great performance captured at the very beginning. Tracks like “100,000 Years”, “Nothin’ to Lose” and “Cold Gin” have so much reckless energy that they make the originals sound sterile. Kiss were a very active band on stage, and all that jumping around means bad chords, missed notes and vocals that drop in and out as Paul moves to and fro. You wanted authenticity? You got authenticity. The most consistent member is Ace Frehley whose solos were often highlights of any Kiss song.
Best track: “Black Diamond”.
But wait, there’s more! From ABC In Concert (03/29/74) comes additional versions of “Nothin’ to Lose”, “Firehouse” and “Black Diamond”. These are not flawless either, but they have more beef and a lot more bass. The performances are just as ragged. Then from their legendary appearance on the Mike Douglas Show (04/29/74) is the Gene Simmons interview and “Firehouse” once more. “Let me spread my wings”, says an awkward Gene, not quite the character he’d become later, but quite the ham. The audience (and guests) had no idea what to make of him. These are tapes that fans have had and loved for years, but to have them on a commercial CD is pretty cool. Besides, these really are bonus tracks. They’re not on other versions of Agora, such as the 4 CD Radio Waves 1974-1988 which only has the first eight songs.
Any Kiss fan needs the Agora show in some form. This CD may as well be your choice, since it’s affordably priced and has those lovely bonus cuts. Kiss is a band that evolved, year by year, from sheer touring experience. The early performances have a raw un-schooled edge, and that’s what makes them special.
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– Hotter Than Hell(1974 Casablanca, 1997 Mercury remastered edition)
Sunny California awaited Kiss, and producers Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise. Hotter Than Hell was an apt title for the album they were set to record, but nobody was happy. Maybe it was homesickness, but Hotter Than Hell is sonically perhaps the very worst Kiss album ever released. Brittle, thin and tinny are three appropriate words to describe its sonic flatness. What are supposed to be drums sound more like wooden planks. It sounds less like an human drummer and more like a clanking machine flailing away in a deep cave.
Production issues keep Hotter Than Hell off the tops of many lists, but the songs were all there. It remains a favourite for many, a reminder of times both good and bad, as nostalgia helps wipe clean the lingering audio disappointment. Kiss had little problem coming up with 10 great songs, mere months after their debut album Kiss(also 1974). Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley had the usual goods, and Ace Frehley provided co-writes on three songs. And what songs they were.
The slow riff for “Got to Choose” is a perfect opener, chunky yet melodic. Paul sings lead, Gene harmonizes, and a Kiss classic is born. “Ooh ooh ooh, got to choose who’s your baby!” they sing, and who doesn’t love “ooo ooo ooo’s” in their choruses? They contrast well with the heavy Kiss guitars, much edgier than the jangle of Kiss. Yet that’s nothing compared to the machine gun tactics of “Parasite”, a Frehley signature track as sung by Gene Simmons. When Ace does contribute his own material, it sounds like idiosyncratic Frehley. “Parasite” powers its way through the sonic haze, forcing its way above the sludgy sound. Ace’s solo remains a trademark, a stuttering classic you can hum in your sleep. Guitarists the world over got their start trying to play “Parasite”.
This makes way for the first Kiss “ballad” if you want to call it that: “Goin’ Blind”. It’s really too heavy to be a ballad, but it’s also too slow and mournful to be a rocker. This track goes back years, as Gene wrote it with his Wicked Lester bandmate Stephen Coronel as “Little Lady”. Though the lyrics may not appeal to all (“I’m 93, you’re 16”), “Goin’ Blind” is one of Gene’s finest songs. Ace’s solo just cries (loudly).
Paul Stanley’s title track is a favourite. The groove is what Kiss call their “monster plod”, and you know it when you hear it. It stomps, it rolls, and it takes its time. “Hotter Than Hell” has not one but two amazing riffs, and some of Ace Frehley’s coolest wailing. Frehley’s outro solo is multitracked, surely one of the earliest examples of this in Kiss. Then Frehley burns it all to the ground on “Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Lightning licks and turbo charged rock n’ roll get the sweat pouring. Anyone who wants to know what the fuss about Kiss is all about just need to play “Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Get past the sonics and focus on the adrenaline.
Dig that cowbell on “All the Way”, a Simmons rock and roll celebration. Though it wasn’t on Kiss Alive!, and hasn’t become a Kiss mainstay, that is not a reflection on its quality. Hotter Than Hell is often heavy and oppressive. “All the Way” is just fun, blowing off steam, and having a good time. “Watching You”, on the other hand, is one of those heavy Kiss grooves that Gene does so well. Listen to his bass playing, too. Cream were one of his big influences, and though Gene is no Jack Bruce, he composes melodic rolling bass lines. Because of his persona, and because it is more about the act than the musicianship, Gene’s skills on the four string are often overlooked. “Watchin’ You” places them front and center. And just listen to Paul Stanley coming in screamin’ at about 1:35! What a voice. There were no slouches in Kiss. Even hampered by the tinny drum sound, Peter Criss is ferocious, almost tribal. (And with tasteful use of cowbell.)
Paul Stanley has come up with some very cool, simple and classic rock and roll riffs over the years. Tracks like “Mr. Speed”, “C’mon and Love Me”, and more recently “All For the Love of Rock & Roll”. Add “Mainline” to that list of great Paul Stanley guitar parts. This song is given to Peter Criss to apply his rasp to. Compared to the more aggressive material elsewhere, “Mainline” almost slips between the cracks. It has become a favourite in fan circles. So has “Coming Home”, a rare Stanley/Frehley co-write. It is unfortunate that you cannot clearly hear the nuances of the rhythm guitars, because Paul and Ace blend their parts very well. “Coming Home” is so upbeat and energetic that you just keep trying to hear it a little better.
A Sabbathy closer called “Strange Ways” was written by Ace and given to Peter Criss to sing. This is an early example of Frehley’s loyalty to Criss. Ace knew that Peter could use another vocal on the album more than Paul and Gene did. Peter nailed it, and with Gene Simmons joining on the chorus, Kiss just flattened everything. Kiss rarely got as heavy as “Strange Ways”, and “Parasite” too…both Frehley songs.
Hotter Than Hell could easily score a 5/5 stars, but the sonics are impossible to simply ignore. Every time you listen to it, there are things that sound irritating. Instruments that don’t sound like themselves. Notes and beats you struggle to hear. It’s unfortunate that such a potentially lethal album was neutered by the lack of magic in the studio. But it was OK. Casablanca Records weren’t about to give up. A third album would be needed, pronto.
Today’s rating:
4/5 stars
Uncle Meat’s rating:
3 ¾/5 steaks
Meat’s slice: Some of the party/sex/sex/sex etc. songs Kiss filled the first album with were replaced by songs with darker lyrical themes. The sound on this album is, well…shit. This seems fitting considering all the bad experiences the band had while making this record (Ace’s face was mangled in a car accident). There are some great songs here, especially on side one. But side two is murked up a bit with a some clunkers.
Not only the first Kiss album I ever owned, but the very first rock record as well. I think my second record was The Bay City Rollers Greatest Hits.
Favorite Tracks: “Parasite”, “Got to Choose”, “Strange Ways”
“Uhh, excuse me. Do you have the soundtrack to Jason’s Lyric?”
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