KISS - HOTTER THAN HELL @ 50

 

Marking half a century on the shelves, it's KISS' sophomore LP, Hotter Than Hell, which was released on October 22nd, 1974. While it wouldn't be the ticket to superstardom the band were desperate for, it did pack a bunch of solid songs that were concert staples throughout much of the band's prime career in the 1970s.

Hotter Than Hell followed fairly quickly on the heels of their eponymous debut, released earlier in the year. While that record hadn't made much of a dent in the charts for the band, it did give them enough momentum to keep touring and building their fan-base. The task, however, was still to capture the excitement of their live shows on record, an ambition that would prove elusive through their first trio of albums. The production team of Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise were again retained for the second album, after fairing well enough on the first.

With Richie Wise recently relocating to California, the band were convinced to set up shop in The Village, an LA studio, rather than recording in NYC. Moving out to the west coast proved to be an unpopular decision, however. All four members of the band were hardcore New Yorkers, so they were entirely uncomfortable with the vibe on the opposite side of the country. The fact one of Paul's guitars got stolen the first day they were out there didn't help with the mood either. Richie Wise has since taken responsibility for the lacklustre sound of the album overall, stating that the big move across the country, for him, was an entirely distracting affair, and his head just wasn't in the game when it came to recording the album.

Though the intention was to try to emulate the band's live sound, the production team still indulged the group in a lot of overdubs, far more than on the first album. They felt that the they were familiar enough with the studio by now to be able to manage the process, which was maybe another distraction from the goal at hand. While the murky production added to a sense of darkness on the album, that vibe was further intensified by the subject matter of the songs themselves. "Goin' Blind", which details a doomed, creepy romance between a 93-year-old and a 16-year-old girl, was a song written by Simmons and Stephen Coronel during their days with Wicked Lester. The original title was "Little Lady", and the song's original second verse lyric, revived by Simmons for their MTV Unplugged appearance, as well as on Alive IV, suggests that the song's narrator is a sea captain addressing a mermaid.

Though the album features three songs with Ace Frehley's writing credit, he was still gun-shy about singing lead vocals, opting only to provide backup on a few songs. Instead, he had Gene Simmons take the vocal for Parasite, while Peter Criss took on Strange Ways. And while his voice may not be on display, his guitar solo for Strange Ways is often cited as one of his best.

For the album's artwork, a striking Japanese themed design was conceived, with Japanese characters surrounding the group photo on the front, and the back cover featuring photos from a wild party where there was, apparently, a great deal of intoxication going on. Of course, this wasn't the case for Simmons, a confirmed tea-totaler, but the photos still indicate a debauched affair all round. The Japanese character on the bottom of the album cover (力) is chikara, which means "power". It would later be used on various forms of Kiss material during the 1970s and 1980s, most prominently on Eric Carr's drum kit. The Japanese characters on the top-right corner of the album cover (地獄 の さけび) are Jigoku no Sakebi, which means "shout/scream of hell" or "hell's shout/scream". There are also member names on banners, but the transliteration of the English into Japanese is pretty flawed in terms of representing the phonetic expressions accurately.

While the group toured extensively for the album, sales were actually far worse than for their debut release. Part of the problem was that Warner Bros were involved in distributing the first LP, but that deal had ended by the time the second album came out. This also meant the publicity push was substantially less as well, though there was a TV commercial aired for the album. Only one single was released, Let Me Go Rock 'n' Roll, but sales were dismal and it failed to chart. Four months into their tour to promote the album, Casablanca pulled them off the road and got them back in the studio to record another album, what would become Dressed to Kill, another misfired attempt to break the band. Hotter Than Hell would still end up certified gold, but it would not happen until June, 1977, but it would take an actual live album to truly capture the band's energy and turn them into superstars, and that was something that was more than a year away. Still, they would ultimately make the break and hit the top of the charts, but not with this record.

KISS @ 50

 

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.