The KISS age was beginning to wind down. Out in the country, I didn’t have access to all those magazines and record stores that fuelled my KISS addiction. The guys in school didn’t seem all that interested in KISS. More importantly, the girls I was interested in certainly weren’t interested in KISS. If I was going to KISS the girls it seemed that I’d have to kiss KISS goodbye. OK so maybe it wasn’t quite that dramatic.
I think the biggest change was that I was really listening to the radio more. I was also hagning out with my two female cousins more. Flavia was a couple years older and her sister Jamie was a year and a half younger than me. By this time the classic rock of the 1970’s was all but gone and the Disco era was in full swing and the popular music on the radio was more polished sounding.
This album, Love Gun, came out and to be honest looking at it all these years later it really does invoke a certain Spinal Tap-ness. Love Gun would be the last studio album of KISS’ that I’d buy for a number of years. I’d get the Alive II follow up later on and I’d get Ace Frehley’s solo album for Christmas a year later. I never stopped liking KISS and even now with this trip down memory lane I’ve listened to a lot of my favorite old KISS tunes and still enjoy them completely.
KISS – Love Gun
KISS – Christine Sixteen
KISS – I Stole Your Love
KISS – Shock Me
KISS – Then She Kissed Me
I can’t put my finger on it but I really liked the cover of Then She Kissed Me it seemed in sync with those 7th grade notions of kissing girls under the stars of a clear Vermont sky.