“Theater, intentional or not, has always been part of rock and roll at its best,” KISS vocalist and guitarist Paul Stanley once told me. I never used the effect to hide anything, it was just to enhance the presentation.”
In part, it explains why the band’s self-titled debut, released on February 18, 1974, was largely overlooked. Outside of suburban aficionados, KISS was largely unknown. The album included “Deuce,” “Firehouse,” “Strutter,” and “Cold Gin,” which became career-spanning staples of KISS’ sets, but were highly theatrically reproduced. It was not evaluated until it appeared. alive! End of 1975.
“I quickly realized that the recording sounded nothing like the live sound,” said Stanley. “What was recorded on tape was a very timid part of us when we were at the concert. No. But we managed to capture the piss and vinegar and the determination and devilishness behind it. Sounds like a lot of other bands with their teeth cut.”
KISS “Strutter”
Vocalist and bassist Gene Simmons and Stanley wrote most of the songs kiss when they were in Wicked Lester, a pre-Kiss band that formed in 1971 and disbanded at the end of 1972. • Tracked the first album with the producers at the sound studio, three weeks by Kenny Kerner and Richard Wise.
“We were very green,” Stanley said of the session. I was terrified at the thought of doing that. Mike, maybe I was singing to an elephant’s butt. It was in the way. I felt incredibly out of place.”
Compared to the band’s live shows and subsequent recordings, KISS is as if the producer had just finished a session with Grand Funk Railroad, leaving the amps, guitars and control boards set to the levels they had before KISS entered the room. It has a clean, glossy sound, like the . Even so, the above-mentioned “Deuce”, “Firehouse”, “Strutter”, “Cold Gin”, and “Nothin’ to Lose” have the quality of glam piano, female background vocals, soaring guitar solos, and bluesy electric thunder. . ‘100,000 Years’ ‘Black Diamond’ and the multi-textured, almost progressive cowbell-enhanced rock fest ‘Black Diamond’ are impeccable.
KISS “Nothin’ To Roz”
KISS knew they had the songs and live shows to win around the world. However, for some reason, he was ridiculed by music journalists from the beginning. “The critics wanted nothing to do with KISS for reasons only they and their therapists knew,” Stanley said. , that threw me in. We obviously took what we did seriously and I think that was intimidating for a lot of people. But I remember one review in Seattle that went like this: “You better save your money with a band called KISS, because it’s over as soon as it starts”. “
Critics weren’t the only ones who didn’t flock to the party. KISS peaked at number 75 billboard Only sold 75,000 copies on the album charts alive! released. The album went gold in 1977, but pales in comparison to many of KISS’ other records. Even in their hometown of New York City, KISS was initially dismissed as gimmicky and vulgar.
“What was so strange about it was that I knew bands in New York that were being admired and I killed them all,” said Stanley. “Bands that were considered hipster or were darlings of the New York scene spent more time in Max’s Kansas City and clubs than learning their craft. We weren’t supposed to be hip or cool because we weren’t hanging out.We were –forbidden–practicing.We were rehearsing.We were rehearsing.Other bands. For the most part, their music became the soundtrack to fashion shows, and we weren’t about that, we were about rock and roll, so we wanted to be part of the New York scene. I never thought about it.We had a work ethic.We took it seriously.It wasn’t cool back then.”
Deniers could not dismiss KISS for a long time. In April 1976, KISS achieved its first platinum record. Destroyer And they never looked back.
Loudwire contributor Jon Wiederhorn, author of Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends and co-author of Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal, is the autobiography of Scott Ian. ‘I’m Man: The Story of That Man from Anthrax and Al Jurgensen’s Autobiography, Ministry: Al Jurgensen and the Lost Gospels by the Agnostic Front My Riot! Grit, Guts, and Glory.
KISS Album Ranking