Released
50 years ago today, on February 18, 1974, the eponymous debut LP from
KISS is celebrating its golden jubilee. While the album didn't break
the band into the heights that would come with the release of their 1975
"Alive!" set, it gave them the rock solid foundations that would
provide the songs needed to make that later LP a classic. So many of
the bands most established concert favourites are found on this album,
it's impossible not to retroactively consider this as perhaps their most
important release.
KISS formally began the year before, after
Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons pulled the plug on their Wicked Lester
band, when that project failed to come together into the vision they'd
been brewing up between them. Originating in 1970 as Rainbow, Wicked
Lester was an entity that had evolved a kind of accessible, vaguely
psychedelic 1960s pop-rock aesthetic, while Paul & Gene were sensing
something heavier, darker and vastly more theatrical bubbling up from
their creative juices. That all came clearly into focus when they
re-branded themselves as KISS. The founders also changed their names
from Gene Klein (who'd already renamed himself from the Hebrew name,
"Chaim Witz") & Stanley Eisen to Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley,
respectively. They then ditched the dead weight musicians from Wicked
Lester, and hired Ace Frehley and Peter Criss to complete their new
quartet. The name changes for Gene & Paul were driven by a
self-consciousness about being Jewish, and concern over being rejected
by mainstream rock audiences because of it. It's a situation that
raises a lot of concerns, but the presence of antisemitism in popular
culture is unavoidable, and they were certainly not the only
entertainers to take such precautions with their personal branding in
order to avoid sounding too "ethnic" to "white bread" Anglo-Saxon US
audiences.
Bringing a stash of songs forward from the Wicked
Lester set, the band had a leg up when it came to getting an album
together, though the new arrangements were vastly different from the
older demos. You can readily find Wicked Lester versions of KISS songs
around, and it's rather striking to hear how dissimilar they sound,
pointing to a very conscious contrivance to move away from the
airy-fairy sounds of the past, and into decidedly more "metal" territory
with the new band. Needless to say, you weren't gonna hear any flutes
on a KISS record!
When it came time to record their debut at
NYC's Bell Sound Studios, production came together quickly, and the
album was essentially completed, start to finish, in just 13 days.
The studio was owned by the same company that owned Buddha Records,
which was where Neil Bogart was an executive before starting Casablanca
Records. This put Neil in the right place to hear the band and sign
them to kick off his brand new label. Neil had negotiated a
distribution deal with Warner Bros, specifically because they owned the
rights to the movie, Casablanca. This association enabled Bogart to
appropriate the name, imagery and graphic styling from the movie without
having to worry about any copyright or trademark infringement actions
from WB. However, when Bogart held an elaborate release party in LA for
the KISS album, WB execs were incensed by KISS' outrageous stage antics
and appearance. Afterwards WB demanded KISS stop wearing their
trademark makeup, but manager Bill Aucoin backed the band and refused to
concede to the demands. The result was that WB released Bogart from
any further obligation to the company, which on one hand, gave him
complete autonomy, but on the other, pulled the funding rug out from
under Casablanca's budgets.
With KISS' debut album floundering
in sales, Bogart became desperate to generate revenue, so he insisted
that KISS needed a hit single, pushing them to record the cover song,
Kissing Time, which had been a Top 20 hit for Bobby Rydell in 1959. It
was recorded two months after the album was released, but was
subsequently added to all future represses and re-releases. Though the
single wasn't a hit on its own, it did boost LP sales noticeably after
it was added. Sales were also helped as the band made some key TV
appearances, the most notorious of which was on the Mike Douglas daytime
talk show, aired March 29, 1974. During the interview portion of the
show, Gene Simmons awkwardly declared himself to be "evil incarnate",
eliciting nervous, confused reactions from the studio audience, to which
comedian Totie Fields humorously commented, "Wouldn't it be funny if
he's just a nice Jewish boy underneath the makeup?" Although neither
confirming nor denying his Jewish heritage, Simmons replied, "You should
only know", to which, Fields countered, "I do. You can't hide the
hook", referring to Simmons' nose.
The album's cover photo evokes
a similar look to that seen on With The Beatles from a decade earlier,
with the band members' faces highlighted against a black background.
Gene, Paul and Ace all executed their own makeup, but professional
makeup artists were used on Peter, though they somewhat missed the mark
in terms of recreating his established look. The results were decidedly
more "tribal" than "cat-like", and Criss immediately reverted to his
usual look after the shoot. Paul had only recently modified his look to
the "Star Man" after initially adopting a "bandit" mask. Ace augmented
his appearance with some silver, water soluble spray paint in his hair.
The bulk of the songs on the album would end up forming the
backbone of KISS' live show for the remainder of the decade and beyond.
Strutter, Nothin' To Lose, Firehouse, Cold Gin, Deuce and Black Diamond
all became staples, if not linchpin moments for their live theatrics of
breathing fire, spitting blood and soloing. I don't think any
subsequent album from the group could lay claim to supplying so many
critical components for their live performances. Aside from the more
recognizable songs, there is also one of my favourite "deep cuts" from
the band in the form of the rare instrumental, Love Theme From KISS,
which started out as a live club set piece called "Acrobat". It's an
excellent little example of New York funk-rock that simply grooves
without having to make a spectacle of itself.
While the album's
initial sales were disappointing, once the group got some traction with
Alive!, fans soon back-tracked to pick up the three studio albums which
had come before it, all of which helped their debut be certified gold
by June 8th of 1977. For old time KISS fans, their debut album remains a
touchstone to the band that many first fell for when they were
adolescents and looking for something to alienate their parents. Those
first few years were a time when the band had an air of danger and
controversy, before they became a "kids" band, pushing comic books and
bad superhero movies. KISS were the first band I ever collected, buying
all their albums up until Double Platinum and Gene Simmons' solo KISS
album in 1978 (I never bought the rest of the solo albums). By that
time, it was "punk" and "new wave" that were demanding my allowance
money, but I've always had a soft spot for KISS's early years and the
memories those records bring back of my junior high teen years in the
mid '70s. I even wore platform shoes for a couple of years, and fell
off them regularly, like all the other kids my age.