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April 13, 2017 12:27 PM Subscribe
A Love Letter to Ace Frehley: Artists Share the Blazing KISS Solos That Inspired Them
They are of the genre: transcendent
posted by josher71 at 12:48 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by josher71 at 12:48 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
Once again I was right all along.
*rocks and rolls all nite*
*parties every day*
posted by jonmc at 12:53 PM on April 13, 2017 [6 favorites]
*rocks and rolls all nite*
*parties every day*
posted by jonmc at 12:53 PM on April 13, 2017 [6 favorites]
I can't tell if this article is a joke or not.
posted by curiousgene at 12:58 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by curiousgene at 12:58 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
Pardon my veer into askMeFi land, but there's a guitar solo on a Kiss song (it's on Double Platinum) that I swear is identical to one on a Doors track (right now I can't remember the name of either), anyone else notice this?
posted by 445supermag at 1:06 PM on April 13, 2017
posted by 445supermag at 1:06 PM on April 13, 2017
I've never really thought of Kiss as a rock band, even though I knew people who did, I always figured them as more disco, sort of like Boney M, Earth, Wind & Fire or Village People, except, instead of interstellar gurus or macho men stereotypes, their camp is a suburban mom's fantasy of heavy metal musicians.
No mention of Kiss is complete without their entry in The Winner's History of Rock and Roll.
posted by signal at 1:36 PM on April 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
No mention of Kiss is complete without their entry in The Winner's History of Rock and Roll.
posted by signal at 1:36 PM on April 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's cool to be contrarian and declare that Kiss is ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD! but they ain't, they're the Donald Trump of rock bands, from the unearned treasure to the "the people have spoken" triumphalism to the molestyness, and everything else. No sale. You and me and Eddie Vedder probably liked them when we were ten, and far be it from me to fail to revere the burning visionary condition of childhood, but the fact is our taste in music sucked when we were ten. People liked Transformers when they were ten, too, and that's why everybody has to watch Transformers movies now, and they make a squintillion dollars. But Transformers are not actually really good. Transformers are bad, Transformers movies are bad, and Kiss is bad. I have spoken.
Also: curiousgene, your username is strangely appropriate.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 1:58 PM on April 13, 2017 [13 favorites]
Also: curiousgene, your username is strangely appropriate.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 1:58 PM on April 13, 2017 [13 favorites]
It's cool to be contrarian and declare that Kiss is ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD!
It'd be cool to point to anyone here really making that claim.
I'm pretty sure I'd said this before, but Kiss is one of rock's biggest letdown bands ever. It's pretty clear the band had a great deal of talent. That early Ace Frehley era is full of songs exhibiting good musicianship, first class production, and gloriously catchy hooks. Combined with showmanship that's rarely been paralleled. And embarrassingly juvenile lyrics, so bad that middle schoolers rolled their eyes at them. It's no surprise that when actual musicians remember Kiss, it isn't so much the joyless business end Simmons/Stanley, but Frehley. I think it's probably the case that Frehley was also the casualty, when Simmons and Stanley treated typical 70s rock and roll excess and debauchery as carefully executed brand investment, Frehley regarded it as plain old fashioned excess and debauchery.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:04 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
It'd be cool to point to anyone here really making that claim.
I'm pretty sure I'd said this before, but Kiss is one of rock's biggest letdown bands ever. It's pretty clear the band had a great deal of talent. That early Ace Frehley era is full of songs exhibiting good musicianship, first class production, and gloriously catchy hooks. Combined with showmanship that's rarely been paralleled. And embarrassingly juvenile lyrics, so bad that middle schoolers rolled their eyes at them. It's no surprise that when actual musicians remember Kiss, it isn't so much the joyless business end Simmons/Stanley, but Frehley. I think it's probably the case that Frehley was also the casualty, when Simmons and Stanley treated typical 70s rock and roll excess and debauchery as carefully executed brand investment, Frehley regarded it as plain old fashioned excess and debauchery.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:04 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
The thing about KISS that one has to realize is that the band from 1975-1977 isn't really the same band stylistically as the band from 1978-1983 or from 1983-1993.
The band roots are as a poor man's Zeppelin meets T. Tex. Then they went disco. They they went' "hard rock". They are very bandwagonesque.
I grew up with them in the 70s when they were a straight up rock band.
And yes, their lyrics are sexist chauvinistic drivel, but I really don't have a choice but to love albums like Destroyer and Dressed to Kill.
posted by tunewell at 3:17 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
The band roots are as a poor man's Zeppelin meets T. Tex. Then they went disco. They they went' "hard rock". They are very bandwagonesque.
I grew up with them in the 70s when they were a straight up rock band.
And yes, their lyrics are sexist chauvinistic drivel, but I really don't have a choice but to love albums like Destroyer and Dressed to Kill.
posted by tunewell at 3:17 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think it's probably the case that Frehley was also the casualty, when Simmons and Stanley treated typical 70s rock and roll excess and debauchery as carefully executed brand investment, Frehley regarded it as plain old fashioned excess and debauchery.So true. Ace Frehley actually pops up in the incredible new Mick Rock documentary, during a long sequence which explores Rock's cocaine-fueled nadir in the cesspool of '80s hair metal. One of the prime pieces of evidence for just how far the great photographer had fallen was a Rock-directed Frehley video from that period. (Not that Kiss themselves were doing any better by then, but...)
posted by mykescipark at 3:22 PM on April 13, 2017
When someone asks me how bad KISS's 70s-era lyrics were, I always quote the song "C'mon and Love Me" which is shockingly awful:
She's a dancer, a romancer
I'm a Capricorn and she's a Cancer
She saw my picture in a music magazine
When she met me, said she'd get me
Touched her hips and told me that she'd let me
I took her hand, baby this is what I said
I said baby, baby, don't you hesitate
'Cause I just can't wait
Lady, won't you take me down to my knees
You can do what you please
C'mon and love me
I'm a man, I'm no baby
And you're lookin' every inch a lady
You're good lookin' and you're lookin' like you should be good
posted by tunewell at 3:22 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
She's a dancer, a romancer
I'm a Capricorn and she's a Cancer
She saw my picture in a music magazine
When she met me, said she'd get me
Touched her hips and told me that she'd let me
I took her hand, baby this is what I said
I said baby, baby, don't you hesitate
'Cause I just can't wait
Lady, won't you take me down to my knees
You can do what you please
C'mon and love me
I'm a man, I'm no baby
And you're lookin' every inch a lady
You're good lookin' and you're lookin' like you should be good
posted by tunewell at 3:22 PM on April 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is a list of bands I can't listen to. I love the stage persona and branding and esthetic of KISS, but that's about it (hear hear, Sing or Swim). I could never get the look to jive with the sound. How dare you, signal, malign disco with a KISS comparison. But, as always, I won't malign others' tastes, as tastes are always a mystery. Y'all KISS lovers get on with your bad selves.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:33 PM on April 13, 2017
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:33 PM on April 13, 2017
Listening to Kiss and bitching about the lyrics is like going to a barbecue joint and bitching about the salad.
posted by jonmc at 3:43 PM on April 13, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 3:43 PM on April 13, 2017 [8 favorites]
Bitching about people that bitch about lyrics is like posting on a message board.
posted by tunewell at 4:22 PM on April 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by tunewell at 4:22 PM on April 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
Trouble Walkin' is a pretty good rock guitar album. Just sayin'.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:55 PM on April 13, 2017
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:55 PM on April 13, 2017
OK, this is from my era and while it's nice that all these young guns are supposedly inspired by Ace's solos but c'mon, he was way way back in the pack in terms of guitar heroics in the 70s. A Marshall stack with a Les Paul? That was pretty much the sound for at least a third of the hard rock guitar players (gotta give nods to Strats and SGs, Ampeg and Hiwatt). So sure it was a decent tone but everybody had a big n' crunchy tone then. He could play, I'll give him that. But I doubt if Jeff Beck or Dickie Betts even knew who he was.
And this is Ace's best song.
posted by Ber at 6:06 PM on April 13, 2017
And this is Ace's best song.
posted by Ber at 6:06 PM on April 13, 2017
Kiss has a solid album worth of good songs, maybe two. On the other hand they have a whole lot more than one album.
(They are also songs that tend to benefit from being covered by heavier/weirder bands - e.g. Melvins doing Goin' Blind.)
posted by atoxyl at 9:36 PM on April 13, 2017
(They are also songs that tend to benefit from being covered by heavier/weirder bands - e.g. Melvins doing Goin' Blind.)
posted by atoxyl at 9:36 PM on April 13, 2017
No one will ever convince me that Gene Simmons wasn't in the middle of dropping a deuce every time he recorded his lyrics.
posted by Brackish at 5:46 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Brackish at 5:46 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Not listening to KISS because they don't have good lyrics is like not going to a salad restaurant because they don't have barbecue.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:19 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Wolfdog at 6:19 AM on April 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Kiss has lots of sucky parts and lots of sucky songs. However, they have about ten fucking amazing songs and I'll go to my grave defending "Strutter", "Deuce", "Cold Gin", "Black Diamond", "Shock Me", Love Gun", "I Stole Your Love", "God Of Thunder" and "Detroit Rock City".
And, "I was made for lovin' you" is a great disco song. I used to DJ it and people ALWAYS asked "Who does this song?"
As for Ace, sometimes his leads were just one note bent and it sounded bad fucking ass.
posted by josher71 at 7:33 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
And, "I was made for lovin' you" is a great disco song. I used to DJ it and people ALWAYS asked "Who does this song?"
As for Ace, sometimes his leads were just one note bent and it sounded bad fucking ass.
posted by josher71 at 7:33 AM on April 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
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Looking back, they were marketing geniuses- one part comic book hero, one part rock star, and one part horror movie.
Ace Frehley was a solid guitarist the whole way through and "Shock Me" might have been the best KISS song of its time.
posted by tunewell at 12:30 PM on April 13, 2017 [3 favorites]