An interesting side effect to mom buying KISS ralbums for me is that she felt compelled by fairness to also purchase records for my sisters. I’m not certain what factors guided my sisters tastes in records. We all started on the same batch of Scratchy 45’s. I’ll have to ask them how it happened. All I know is that while I was Shouting It Out Loud, Barb had gotten into Barry Manilow. I have to include Barry her because even though I wasn’t actively listening to his music, I could hear it in our house enough to become familiar with the man who writes the songs.
I suppose it would be expected that a guy who was into KISS and later a much wider vein of heavy metal would scoff at Barry Manilow. The truth is, I like his music like I like so much other music. I appreciate his talents and I recall hearing my sister Barb play one of his live records where he did a medley of songs that he had written for commercials. I was surprised to learn that I knew so much of his music. A few years ago I picked up a version of his Greatest Hits just as a sentimental nod to those old days when Barb would play Barry Manilow in her room.
Barry Manilow – Bandstand Boogie
Barry Manilow – I Write The Songs
Barry Manilow – Can’t Smile Without You
Barry Manilow – Ready To Take A Chance Again
Barry Manilow – Weekend In New England
Barry Manilow – Could It Be Magic
Barry Manilow – Copacabana
Listening to these now, I think i like them now more than ever. I’m sure that Barry Manilow has his critics and folks who are too cool to let themselves enjoy this stuff. The guy had a pretty big string of hits and a pretty energetic live performance.
Like the Disney albums that we discussed at the beginning of the year, mom had a bunch of classic Christmas albums that she got by filling up her gas tank at Gulf stations or Texaco or something. She had Bing Crosby’s Merry Christmas and maybe 7 or 8 other Christmas compilations featuring the greats like Perry Como, Burl Ives, Andy Williams and those types of guys. As I look back on it, I seem to recall that the day after Halloween, we’d break out the stack of Christmas albums and start up the Christmas spirit.
All through November and December we’d be listening to Christmas music, put up our fake Christmas tree and deck the halls. It seemed like the Christmas Season lasted so much longer then. We’d watch the Christmas specials like Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Little Drummer Boy. Every year as December rockets by I wonder why Christmas never seems to last like it used to. I never seems to find an acceptable answer. We have jobs now and other responsibilities. We have 200 channels of stuff on TV and a whole wrold wide web of distractions. I guess the answer is acceptable, just not satisfactory. Back in the 70’s we didn’t have much else to do but listen to mom’s Christmas albums and wait.
Perry Como – O Holy Night This is and has always been my favorite Christmas song. It is wonderfully nostalgic and speaks to the heart of the season.
Bing Crosby – White Christmas
Andy Williams – It’s The Most wonderful Time of the Year
Burl Ives – Holly Jolly Christmas
We’ll talk about Christmas songs again when we get to the early 1990’s but for now, these are the roots of the movement.
All through 6th grade, KISS was a large part of the conversation. We would even figure out ways to insert KISS into our assignments in class. KISS make up was being drawn on everything from blackboards to notebooks. At that time, I never knew when a new album was going to be in stores. I’d just go to the “K” section every time I was in a place that sold records. Most of the time it would be the same 5 that I already had. One day as I flipped through the KISS albums at the store, there was a new one.
Rock and Roll Over was released and that started everything over again as we devoured the new music and publicity shots in Creem and Circus Magazines. KISS was releasing a new album every 6 months it seemed. If we were ever in a shop that sold records, I’d comb through them looking for KISS. I found a lot of album art very interesting and years later I would own many of the iconic covers that I flipped past on my way to the KISS section.
In this age where the internet as been commonplace for over a decade, it is hard to remember what things were like back then. I wonder how different the KISS experience would have been if we had Bing and YouTube back then. One of the angles that KISS played up was the mystery of their true identities. Magazine articles would run a headline of Paul Stanley Unmasked and inside would be a photo of Paul without makeup but 89% obscured by a magazine cover. I’m sure that YouTube would have had hundreds of videos of Gene Simmons unmasked at the movies or in the produce aisle. On the other hand, KISS were marketing geniuses and probably could have vaulted themselves even higher faster with by bending the world wide web to their will.
KISS – I Want You
KISS – Ladies Room
KISS – Calling Dr. Love
KISS – Makin’ Love
KISS – Take Me
KISS – Hard Luck Woman you probably have heard Hard Luck Woman. It was one of their chart toppers back in the 1970’s. What you may not know is this song was originally written for Rod Stewart. With that in mind, take a listen.
Totally sounds like a Rod Stewart song doesn’t it? The vocal quality and musical sensibility make it easy to imagine Rod Stewart in the 1970’s.
And now for something completely different. I’m at a point where I’ve moved on past the Scratchy 45 days and into the KISS Age and I remember a few things that I should have discussed. Of course this will put the chronology even further out of whack but in the interest of being thorough, I must stop and make a note.
The first thing I wanted to discuss is Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I wouldn’t actually have access to any Monty Python recordings until High School. Most people don’t associate Monty Python with music like we’ve discussed so far but they do have several records and quite a few songs. Anyway I thought it was worth mentioning that my fondness for Monty Python’s Flying Circus and British humor in general began when I was in the third grade. I don’t know how it happened but for some reason, I was awake late on a Tuesday night. Late meaning around 10:30. We had 4 TV channels then, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. It seems so strange to think that we had such limited viewing options. Even stranger to think that our TV didn’t have a remote control. Somehow I just happened to turn the TV on to PBS shortly after 10:30 and stumbled into an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I guarantee that as a third grader, some of the concepts were lost on me but I was drawn to the accents and the animated stuff was so funny to me. I couldn’t believe how funny it was.
I remember trying to share what I saw with my classmates at school the next day. I’m sure that I did a horrible job of conveying the humor but I encouraged a few classmates to tune on Tuesday at 10:30. Since 10:30 was way past my bed time then, I had to sneak around to get my Monty Python fix. I’d go to bed at the typical time and try to stay awake then sneak downstairs and check out what those crazy Monty Python boys were doing this week. This went on for quite some time. As KISS took over, Monty Python more or less dropped off the radar. So I bring this up now in order to make the connection when I get to Prep School and rediscover Monty Python’s Flying Circus only in audio format instead of video.
And here in poor quality is the one that I saw that night that started it all
It was a late summer evening in a quiet village in southeastern Vermont. My aunt would often listen to WHOM broadcasting from High on Mount Washington. It was an early NPR type station that would run Star date with Joel Block and various classical and unsual musical choices. This next one was so unusual in fact that I feel it deserves its own post. We were in the kitchen, when the strangest sounds began to emanate from the stereo speakers. I somehow had the foresight to drop a cassette into the deck and press record. What we were hearing was an experimental song called Agony. It sounded like space, aliens and crunching battle. As I recall not only that precise moment but the aura of that period in my life, I cannot help but imagine spaceships hovering over the forests and valleys of the green mountains at twilight. The song went on for quite a while. At the time it felt like we sat there listening to it for 5 minutes or more before I hit record. As I look at the length of the piece, I must have started recording almost immediately.
When they song was over, I pressed STOP but not before the radio announcer said “That piece entitled Agony by Turkish composer…” I held on to that K-Mart brand 60 minute cassette with “Agony” stylistically written in 3 or more colors of magic marker ever since. I can’t explain my attraction to this piece. It really isn’t a song in any sense. Maybe my love of sound effects and the unusual are responsible.
Over the next two decades, I would frequent libraries or telephone NPR radio stations and ask if they new anything about a piece called “Agony” by a Turkish Compser. No such luck. Once I even played my low fidelity K-Mart copy to the local NPR guy who thought it was weird but knew nothing else about it. When the internet became a fixture in my home, I would routinely search for Agony and Turkish Composers. Even the world wide web had forgotten about this strange composition.
A few years ago, my search ended. I was able to track down Agony and its Turkish Composer, İlhan Mimaroğlu. Somebody had a site and even posted a few of his compositions including the coveted Agony. Of course I downloaded them all instantly. I was going to post a link to that site but I just went to check it out and it is gone. I’ll have to make a note about this towards the end of the year when i rediscovered Agony. I wonder if anybody else in the world likes this as much as I do.
My school mates and I all seemed to share this fascination with KISS. It would manifest itself in a bunch of unpredictable ways. A guy named Ricky would collect a handful of ketchup packets [maybe it was catsup in the public school system] from the school lunch. As we walked home from school, he would empty the contents of 6 or 8 packets into his mouth then “Spit Blood” like Gene Simmons. It was messy and not being a big ketchup [or catsup] fan, the notion of a mouthful of nothuing but ketchup [or catsup] makes me want to puke. Did it look like blood? Did Ricky conjure images of Gene Simmons? Not really, but we all stuck out tongues out as far as we could.
Another manifestation came courtesy of a guy named Kent. It is hard to find authentic KISS make up around the house and it may certainly be awkward to ask your mom to buy you some. Even if you could get past that awkward bit, KISS make up isn’t found in the cosmetic section of the local shop. Kent faced this challenge with a little ingenuity and even less foresight. Back in the 1970’s before the world was run by gym shoes, most families wore a type of casual dress shoe. These leather shoes required occasional maintenance in the form of shoe polish. I know my grandpa had several cans of Kiwi in various shades of black that he kept on that shelf above the basement stairs.
Well Kent’s parents must have hasd that same can of black shoe polish. Kent must have seen that deep black creamy paste and thought “that looks just like KISS make up”. We never actually saw the “make up” when it was on but we found out that it doesn’t come off. Kent came to school for a week with the stains of Gene Simmons make up around his eyes and mouth. A few years ago, I ran into Kent at an assembly at my kids’ middle school. He must have had a kid going there as well. I recognized him, not by the stains of Gene Simmons shoe polish, just did. I walked up and said “Hey Kent.” He turned away from me not unlike that Banjo kid from Deliverance. He seemed disturbed. I wonder if he abosrbed something in the polish.
I think every kid at that time was trying to do the KISS logo on the Lite-Brite. I know I tried and got pretty close but the K never quite came out like I wanted it to. It was about this time that the rumours of KISS being ion league with the devil started to rise. Religious folks, especially ones with TV shows took notice of the meteoric rise of KISS and figured that fame like that can’t be simply a product of reasonable music and extrordinary marketing. It has to have help from hell. The PTL club told my mom that KISS stood for Knights In Satan’s Service. I didn’t think it was true. I mean when I listened to KISS I felt energized and happy, not demonic. Of course, Gene Simmons wasn’t helping my case very much. Even though I was 12 I felt that I understood that it was a hype engine and that these guys were simply playing out characters to entertain us.
Mom, guided by PTL, was concerend and followed the talking points about how Hell was actually included in the title of the second album. Songs Like God Of Thunder and King Of The Night Time World were challenges to God. I felt that this campaign by the PTL club was an attemtp to cash in on the success of KISS. I was just enjoying the music and theatrics, I wasn’t turning my back on Chritianity. This went on for a while with the threat of losing my KISS records looming over me. It finally ended when I told mom that anybody take a few letters and invent meaning. I demonstrated by showing her that PTL stood for Power To Lucifer. It was close. Oddly enough, during my metal phase, one of mom’s favorites was Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills. It makes me chuckle to myself as I recall her singing along to the chorus. I wonder if she knew that the album was called Number Of The Beast.
It is hard to describe the KISS explosion of 1976. KISS had been a band for a little over three years at that point so it while I’m sure it didn’t feel like an overnight sensation to the band, it sure seemed like that from my perspective. I’ve given this some considerable thought and I cannot put my finger on my first contact with KISS. In fact, I can’t really remember not knowing about KISS. What seems to come to mind is a guy in my class bringing that first poster to school.
Here it is. What I currently belive is the entry point into the KISS Age. How could you mot look at that poster and be mesmerized by it? Who were these guys? I had to find out more. You have to hand it to the minds behind the band. They were able to take some very basic music music and surround it with an aura that made the entire thing so much more.
In my mind, the KISS age went of for about a decade it seemed as I collected album after album as they were released. Buying magazines that had pictures of KISS it seemed huge. When I do the math, however, it turns out that the KISS age really only amounted to about maybe just shy of three years. For a 12 year old, that is a quarter of your life so I guess I can see why it seemed like more.
I just remember that I was into KISS and there seemed to be no shortage of it. In October of 1976 Paul Lynde got out of his box on Hollywood Squares and hosted an Halloween Special that features KISS. I guess with all the focus on KISS, I never stopped to consider why Paul Lynde would have a Halloween Special. We all knew Paul Lynde from Bewitched and Hollywood squares and a few bit parts in some 1960’s movies but a Halloween special?
It didn’t matter. I was going to be able to see KISS on my TV. I wondered what they would be like. If VCR’s were aroiund then I’m sure we would have taped it.
This is the first time I’ve seen this in nearly 40 years and I almost remembered the dialogue verbatim. Strange.
It was about this time that my dad got remarried and I suddenly had an older Step Brother. Dan was a year or two older. He had KISS Originals but wasn’t quite as enamored with KISS as I was. Still there are a few songs that he was into that I can recall. His presence in my life was brief but not before he could exert some musical influence
KISS – Goin’Blind. I don’t know why he liked this one so much.
Eagles – Hotel California
Stevie Wonder – Sir Duke
Aerosmith – Big 10 Inch
Al Stewart – Year Of The Cat I really liked this one. It seemed like such a rich and complex arrangement compared to the KISS I’d been listening to.
So much happened in that tiny window of time from our nations bicentennial in 1976 to my first day of middle school in Bellows Falls, Vermont in the fall of 1977. Jaws, Star Wars, Rocky, my dad got remarried, skate boarding took off, Disco was on the rise and the Scratchy 45 Days were over. Influences were growing by leaps and bounds. My cousin Flavia, in Vermont was a couple of years older than me. My new step brother Dan was a couple years older than me. Both already had pretty established musical tastes.
Music in gereral was really changing in the latter half of the 1970’s. Here are a few examples and the last few of the Scratchy 45’s.
Orleans – Dance With Me
Burton Cummngs – Stand Tall
Paul Davis – I Go Crazy
Leo Sayer – You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
That 1970’s sound has all but disappeared and you can feel the emergence of Disco and synthesizers.
I’ve send it before and here I am saying it again. Some songs are linked to people. Some songs are linked to events. Some somgs are linked to moments in time. I mentioned earlier that after I finished 4th grade, I went to Vermont and spent the entire summer with my cousins at my Aunt and Uncle’s house. I spent the summer riding my bike on miles of old country roads. I explored acres of wilderness in the foothills of the Green Mountains. I didn’t see TV for nearly three full months. Always outside, always on the go. I lost a lot of weight and got into some serious cardio shape.
As far as my musical evolution goes, the lifestyle there didn’t include records, TV or even radio in any quantity. Those things were present but compared to the mountains and rivers and freedom, they seemed so unimportant. Still there are a few songs that will be forever linked to this time in my life.
Starland Vocal Band – Afternoon Delight If you don’t think that this is the greatest song ever. I will fight you. That’s no lie.
Gary Wright – Dream Weaver. This one, like Bohemian Rhapsody will comeback to me in the early 90’s courtesy of Wayne’s World.
At the end of the summer, we traveled back to Indiana across Canada camping on the shores of Lake Ontario. A soaking storm surprised us in the middle of the night. All along the way, this next batch of songs accompanied us on the radio.
Glen Campbell – Rhinestone Cowboy
James Taylor – How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You
Paul McCartney – Listen To What The Man Said
The Captain & Tenille – Love Will Keep Us Together
