My Musical Evolution

KISS was more than just a little smart when it came to cashing in on their fame.  They knew that people were joining the KISS Army all over the place. Sales of Alive! and Destroyer were on the rise. They enticed people to buy their first three albums by bundling them together and throwing in a booklet and poster.  This bundling practice is currently in full swing in the DVD market. Go to Wal-mart and look at how many DVD’s feature two or more films packaged together like all the Lethal Weapons or Police Academy movies in one box. KISS did that in 1976. That’s how I got the first three albums.

I still remember when The Originals came out. I stood in the J.C. Penney record section looking at the back of the cover. Could this be right? The first three KISS albums are in here uncut? I compared the track listings carefully. So I can get the rest of the KISS albums for less than buying two of them sold seperately? I finally was satisfied that I was reading this correctly and then convinced mom to buy it for me by demonstrating the value over buying each of the three individually.

At first I was knd of disappointed by the studio versions of some of the songs I had grown fond of on the live album. On KISS Alive! Strutter and Firehouse were so much faster and more energetic.  These studio versions seemed so slow and tired. Since it was KISS, I still listened. I found things to like on each of the albums.  Of course I scrutinized the album covers, fascinated by the evolution of their make up from record to record. More importantly, my record collection had grown to five KISS albums.

If you take some time and look KISS up on Wikipedia on anywhere on the web, you’ll find that what seemed so cool to me as a 5th grader reads more like the basis for the movie This Is Spinal Tap. Even the album names seem kind of Tap-ish: Hotter Than Hell, Dressed To Kill, Destroyer, Rock And Roll Over, Love Gun, Creatures Of The Night, Lick It Up, Aninmalize, Psycho Circus. Combine that with all the toys, bubble gum cards and KISS Meets The Phantom TV movie and it adds up to something seemingly silly in retrospect, but it was so awesome until I reached middle school.

 

So there we were at J.C. Penney at the mall back in thoase days they sold records. Yep, downstairs right next to the escalator was a section of albums which eventually grew to include some TV’s and the new Pong Video Game.  My goal used to be to get the pong ball stuck between the paddle and the wall so it would bounce forever. Now, I was scouring the album racks for more KISS music.

KISS Alive! was a double live album that came out before Destroyer. Peculiar thing, even though I still enjoy KISS and appreciate what it meant to me then and along they way. It all feels different. When I say “Destroyer” in my head, it doesn’t feel so much like a rock and roll milestone  but more like a Godzilla movie. Of course, KISS was larger than life.

This experience with KISS would be a pattern that I’d repeat throughout my life. When I discover a band that I like, I begin to acquire the back catalog. KISS Alive! came with a booklet full of photos of the band which would spawn a huge collection of images taken from magazines and such. In Fact, I still have most of that collection on a book shelf about 5 feet away from where I’m sitting right now. does that reveal something about me. I mean think about it carefully for just a moment. I still have a collection of KISS magazine clippings that I compiled from age 11 to probably 13. It was created in Indiana and travelled to Vermont and back with me. I’ve had 7 addresses since it began and it has lived at each one with me.  It has been a very long time since I removed it from its oversized protective manilla envelope.  Looking over my shoulder I can see it is right next to the Wacky Packages scrapbook that I started at about the same time. I’m not a hoarder. I’m a curator.

Since KISS Alive!  was pre destroyer, all the songs were pretty much new to me. I had heard Rock And Roll All Nite on the radio but it still was new to me. Just a couple years ago, I listened to the entire Alive! CD start to finish and I remember thinking it was a great album.  Even though I rarely go out of my way to listen to KISS anymore, I still can’t help but get caught up in these old anthems that meant so much to me in grade school.

KISS – Deuce

KISS – Strutter

KISS – Firehouse

KISS – Rock And Roll All Nite

 

I’ve been troubled by how I’d handle the transition here. As you know, up to this point, my most significant musical influence had been my mother and her large collection of 45s. Her main influence being the AM radio of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In March of 1976, a band called KISS would release an album called Destroyer and would vault into the global headlines. I had just turned 11 and this album seemed to be like turning on a switch that would take all the focus off of Steve Austin, the bionic man and Planet Of The Apes and redirect it to not only KISS but Rock And Roll music in general.

I’m sure that I mentioned that in school we hadn’t really discussed music on the playground. In fact I can recall just a handful of songs that I heard in discussion prior to The KISS Age.  They are in no particular order. American Woman, Light My Fire, Play That Funky Music, and of course Bohemian “Monstrosity”. I have to chuckle to myslef when I type Bohemian “Monstrosity”. I wonder where Jeff is today. I’ve looked for him on FaceBook but he seems to be off the grid.  Light My Fire interests me in hindsight. I would go on to be quite fan of The Doors and though I was only in first grade when Jim Morrison died, the fact that we were talking about the song Light My Fire makes me feel like I just missed him.

Anyway to get back on point, suddenly there was KISS and not just for me but for KISS too. Destroyer was their 5th album and finally their work was paying off and they were becoming a huge, global phenomenon. I remember the magazine racks a Roger’s grocery store had images of KISS on almost all of them. The make up and the mysterious theatrics were very appealing to an 11 year old kid. I was the perfect age for the KISS explosion.  I somehow convinced mom to buy me my very first album. Up until now, all the records that we had belonged to mom. Even The Streak and Shaving Cream that I picked out belonged in the cabinet under the end table with the rest of the Scratchy 45’s.  Somehow, Destroyer was mine and was kept up in my room, my first album.

At school, it was like a memo was passed out to all the guys in my grade. KISS was the topic of every discussion. Who had that KISS poster? What Destroyer song was the best? Where did you get that KISS T-shirt. People often give George Lucas credit [or disdain] for how her merchandised Star Wars. I think he copied KISS. They may not have been the first musical group to be on a lunch box but they were definitely the biggest.  I went to the Boston Shirt Yard in the mall and got the KISS iron on T-Shirt. That was how they did it back in the 70’s. A big rubbery photo melted onto a T-shirt.
Kiss – Shout It Out Loud

A weird combination. KISS and Paul Lynde. I remember being so excited to actually see KISS in action on Paul Lynde’s Halloween Special. Up to this point, KISS had only existed on magazine pictures and on the record. Here they were actually performing. I can’t remember how this compared to expectation but you can believe that it was the talk of October and well into November. 10 year later, I’d be playing this song on my bass guitar. KISS – Detroit Rock City

KISS – Beth. This one has always held a special meaning for me. My baby sister’s name is Bethany. I’m not sure how I managed to convince everybody but I had worked it out that I’d spend the summers at my Aunt and Uncle’s home in Vermont. This started the summer after 4th grade and was repeated for the summer after fifth grade. So when I left for Vermont in the summer of 1976, I took Destroyer with me and Beth would always make me think of my littlest sister back home. Even now, Beth is my ringtone my baby sister.

KISS – God Of Thunder

KISS – King Of The Night Time World

KISS – Flaming Youth

Needless to say, Destroyer dominated my ears for a long tome. I remember calling WMEE back when it was an AM station and voting for Detroit Rock City and Beth for the viewer’s choice show that aired at 9:00 every night. Then I’d listen in to see how well KISS would do. They always seemed to make it on the show.

I opened up this post talking about having trouble with the transition. The trouble is this, even though KISS had taken center stage, mom’s scratchy 45’s still played a big part in My Musical Evolution so I’m trying to figure out a way to express that. Even though I was listening to KISS a lot, I still listened to the Scratchy 45’s. I might even have been more appreciative. Now that I was 11 and we talked about music on the playground, I might have been more studious with the Scratchy 45’s. Maybe I’ll jump back and forth between The KISS Age and The Scratchy 45 Days for a while. There are still some good tracks there and I don’t want to overlook anything.