{"id":367,"date":"2012-03-04T08:54:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T13:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westwoodvalley.com\/?p=367"},"modified":"2012-03-04T08:54:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T13:54:45","slug":"my-musical-evolution-part-45-the-kiss-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wrharrison.com\/musicalevolution\/2012\/03\/04\/my-musical-evolution-part-45-the-kiss-age\/","title":{"rendered":"My Musical Evolution – Part 45 The KISS Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 lar\"KISS<\/a>ge 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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 <\/em>They are in no particular order. American Woman, Light My Fire, Play That Funky Music, <\/em>and of course Bohemian “Monstrosity”.<\/em> I have to chuckle to myslef when I type Bohemian “Monstrosity”.<\/em> I wonder where Jeff is today. I’ve looked for him on FaceBook but he seems to be off the grid.\u00a0 Light My Fire<\/em> interests me in hindsight. I would go on to be quite fan of The Doors<\/em> and though I was only in first grade when Jim Morrison died, the fact that we were talking about the song Light My Fire<\/em> makes me feel like I just missed him.<\/p>\n

Anyway to get back on point, suddenly there was KISS and not just for me but for KISS too. Destroyer <\/em>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.\u00a0 I somehow convinced mom to buy me my very first album.<\/em> Up until now, all the records that we had belonged <\/em>to mom. Even The Streak<\/em> and Shaving Cream<\/em> that I picked out belonged in the cabinet under the end table with the rest of the Scratchy 45’s.\u00a0 <\/em>Somehow, Destroyer<\/em> was mine and was kept up in my room, my first album.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.
\nKiss – Shout It Out Loud<\/em>
\n