More Ace Frehley Ace with the stellar opener "Rip It Out". So good, it even opened the very first solo Ace show with Frehley's Comet in 1984. Old friend and lead vocalist bandmate Larry Kelly helped with "Rip" as did another Kelly by the name of Sue and I apologize for my rare lack of Kiss knowledge in not knowing if she's a sister or spouse. This matters not obviously since what does is how much this song certainly knows how to rock. No best Ace songs or Ace set list be complete without it. After all, can't go wrong with excellent Anton Fig drum breaks right?
I have to admit that the demo version of this song that surfaced at some point on the youtube is what's ultimately made me such a huge fan of it. Give a listen and you'll clearly see why as Paul gibberishes through the verses, spewing out a string of Paul-gasms that hadn't found their actual words yet. It turns "Get All You Can Take" into probably the funniest Kiss song there is. In it's actual form as a non-single highlight to the Animalize album, "GAYCT" is just as strong if not as laugh-out-loud hilarious. Both Paul and Mark St. John handle the lead axe slinging in it and the former has gone on record as saying it's one of his favorite cuts from the album. On this we agree.
A few Sean Delaney collaborations shall find their way onto this list as the unofficial "5th Kiss member" worked with every one in the original band at least at some point with some song input. Of course the late Mr. Delaney was even more instrumental as a behind the scenes guy, co-managing and helping shape many of the band's stage show elements and pretty much being involved in much of Kiss' goings on in the seventies. He also, according to him, wrote "Take Me" all on his lonesome. Whether or not Paul threw in some words or riffs or just sang his arse off on this Rock and Roll Over gem who knows. It stands as a stellar bit of awesome regardless.
The first but most soyently not last Carnival of Souls jam that I will be proudly featuring on this list is "In My Head". Gene originally had this song as a weird little ditty called "Nest of Termites" and had a bunch of wacked-out "in the verse of a crazy person" lyrics. Some of these stuck around, but after bringing in two outside songwriters to help streamline and make sense of the entire thing, it eventually settled into it's released version. I particularly like how dumb and heavy the open guitar chunk sounds during the verses as it's impossible for me to not headbang slowly while making a headbangy face during it.
Paul Stanley's longest song "Take Me Away (Together As One)" is the album's perfect centerpiece and originally closed off the album's first side in vinyl form. It also has a slew of connect-the-contacts people involved in it. Carmine Appice of course is well worth mentioning as he destroys this one, especially during the outro. Cactus, (the most very awesome band that Appice had in the early '70s), at one point featured old Wicked Lester guitarist Ron Leejack. Hence that hook-up. And one of the backup singers on it would later play in a band with Bob Kulick, who's of course also on this track and most of the album. It's all who ya know folks.
Before Unplugged happened, I liked Kiss' then biggest selling song "Beth" just fine. But when the four original members got on MTV and busted this one out, (with an excellent Ace solo thrown in for the very first time), it became the favorite I now rank it as. Peter Criss and old bandmate Stan Penridge had this song floating around for a bit by the time Destroyer was underway and Pete brought it to Bob Ezrin who immediately gravitated towards it. Just as Gene and Paul kinda made fun of it and thought it wasn't "Kiss" enough. Which it wasn't, hence the point of doing it. Ezrin added the piano and strings and eventually the song found an audience outside of the Kiss army and the Catman got his solo vocal spot on tour where he got to sit down with just a mic and throw a rose out in the crowd.
Whether you like this song especially in it's "Rip and Destroy" format as I do or just appreciate it as a mighty fine early Kiss classic, the point is the title track to the band's second album is most worthy. Paul has openly admitted over the years that "Hotter Than Hell" is essentially a rip-off/re-write of Free's "All Right Now", which is a band Mr. Stanley was much a fan of. I don't really hear the thievery so much but that's because I've loved and listened to this song far, far more than Free's one and only radio hit. The end of "Hell" perhaps most of all, (riff and Ace solo combined), is goddamn sexual.
Naturally I was going to include the opening track to my favorite Kiss AND Paul Stanley album, Paul Stanley. The clean acoustic intro gives way to the main riff, which is a goddamn excellent, rhythm based one that is typical great Paul-ness. At only four and a half minutes, "Tonight You Belong to Me" sounds far more epic than it technically is. And of course with a title like that and because this is Kiss we speak of, Paul is singing about how powerful his wang is and how much the woman he's bellowing to is helpless against it's magical abilities. Which falls into the "write what ya know" category.
I have a bit of an inside joke with this song as me and my brother once bored out of our gords back in High School, recorded a "re-mix" of it by simply hitting the super sensitive skip button on our CD player and turning the first a cappella line to this song into a minute and a half masterpiece of Paul-isms. All for the sake of comedy. But alas, the actual "I Just Wanna" is noteworthy for being the first song anyone ever heard off the mighty Revenge album as it was leaked to radio stations as an un-official first single. And of course for allowing the audience to chant "fuck" during live performances as the chorus clearly intentionally was going for. I shall be having much more from this album showing up, fear not good Kiss fans.
The first drum solo I ever learned was Peter's in the Alive! and by far definitive version of "100, 000 Years". Once I got a cowbell, I made it a top priority. Originally stemming from Kiss' debut, the live "Years" I recall being one of the first Kiss songs that really impressed me. Basically the way that Pete's solo continues on over Paul's "Do you feel RIII-IIIIGHT?!?" preaching is just as awesome as it gets and perfectly encompasses this band's live power, especially back in the mid-seventies when no one was putting on a show anywhere near as impressive. Along with "She", it's the highlight to Alive! fo sho.
Two drum solo songs in a row? Sure, why the dick not? Eric Carr and Ace Frehley originally threw together "Carr Jam 1981" when it was then called "Heaven" during the Music from "The Elder" sessions. Ace then used his riffs for the most good Frehley's Comet track "Breakout". The original song resurfaced during the Revenge sessions and Gene, Paul, and Bob Ezrin decided to resurrect it and swap some new Bruce leads over Ace's as a final tribute to their then newly departed former skinsman. The result has arguably the catchiest of all drum solos from Mr. Carr, pretty much an excellently recorded and performed version of his old live solo spot during the 80s.
Paul wrote "I Will Be There" for his first son Evan Shane Stanley who was born around the time the Carnival of Souls sessions were transpiring. So in that regard, it has probably the most pleasant set of words to be found on said album. Carnival is stellar for numerous reasons, the lyrical excellence certainly one of them. As acoustic ballads at the end of the day are perhaps my favorite style of song, "I Will Be There" sat me well since I first bought this album. As the only ballad on Carnival, it follows the tradition, three studio albums running routine of featuring one killer such mellow tune on each, "Forever" and "Every Time I Look At You" proceeding it. This one's just more personal and nearly as strong.
This early Gene Simmons/Paul Stanley collaboration accrued before a certain Peter Criss even entered the picture. Gene originally had a ridiculous song called "Stanley the Parrot", (no relation), that Paul then took the chords to, sped up, and got most of the lyrics over, Gene later coming in with the main riff. Ace would then tweak some of the chords upon his arrival on the scene and Peter of course would supply that instantly recognizable and simple drum intro. Not much to make of the lyrics besides it being about some hot chick with a lot of self esteem, probably one none of the band members at the time could've picked up successfully in their pre-rock star stage.
This Gene highlight from Revenge was one of the ones heavily featured in a live setting for the he/Paul/Bruce/Eric Singer line-up. It's on both Alive III and Unplugged and the later had a funny first take caught on camera where inexplicably Gene just stopped playing shortly into it. "Domino" is one of those only-Gene-could-do-it songs, as the verses are spoken instead of sung over just some AC/DC worthy bass lines and it's overall about some broad that he's eyeing ala-"Christine Sixteen". A line like "When that bitch bends over, I forget my name" somehow seems less creepy though than simply singing about watching a teenager get out of school and how much plowing you'd enjoy partaking in with said teenager. If we were to compare.
A quintessential power ballad from Paul, "I Still Love You" was pretty much a staple show stopper when performed live. Paul's vocal on the Unplugged version one could barely argue is the performance of the Starchild's career. And when I was at the taping for the One Live Kiss DVD at the House of Blues in Chicago for the Live to Win tour, he showed off to the extent of falling to his knees and going full James Brown dramatic during the a cappella section. Panties were moistened I'm sure. "ISLY" represents the only slow, sinister, dark, and most heavy ballad on Creatures of the Night and was a Vinnie Vincent co-write. And a much successful one at that.
Revenge's second track "Take It Off" is basically designed to be a stripper anthem, the kind Motley Crue were certainly proficient at. Naturally I like it a lot more than any Crue cuts, mostly because Paul Stanley's voice isn't Vince Neil's. But besides, "Take" was featured on Alive III and the Revenge tour, which was the moment in the show where the heavily chested ladies would come out and dance, (see picture). Funny it took the band that long to write a song with such an appropriate visual gimmick. Speaking of stage gimmick, none other than Kane Roberts the Barbarian helped co-write it, Paul reaching out to Alice Cooper's ole walking stage prop for assistance.
I look at Killers as basically a useless compilation that doubles as a very satisfying four song EP of then new Paul Stanley songs. All four are pretty damn solid, "I'm a Legend Tonight" one of two that I'm including here. An early Paul/Adam Mitchell collaboration pre-make-up-removal-era, "I'm a Legend Tonight" opens the non-American released comp Killers that has pretty regularly been available this side of the Atlantic. Thankfully so mind you. None of these songs got the live treatment then or now, (sad face), but easily could've stood alongside future Creatures and Lick It Up jams of the era. When my inevitable deep-cuts-only Kiss tribute band finally is a thing that exists, for sure I'll be pulling for this one.
I allowed myself to cheat on my 100 Favorite Beatles Songs list by including a few medley's so shit, why not do the same here? Music from "The Elder" is a favorite Kiss album of mine and every Kiss fan I know. And since always I've been listening to "Under the Rose" only when it immediately follows "Only You". Both these songs were helped segued together by Bob Ezrin in studio and the first was a Gene solo piece while the later was mostly written musically by Eric Carr, Gene coming in with the lyrics to fit the album's concept. Carr's riff ideas were almost always top notch, the rest of the band knowing damn well when they heard something good to bring it into the fold. Both of these represent heavily chanted heaviness, the best stuff The Elder hath to offer after all.
Dynasty was one of the first Kiss albums I ever bought and I still rank it in their top five. It closes with the third and best Ace sung jam on the album, "Save Your Love". Even when I was fourteen and listening to this for the first time, I couldn't help but tilt my head and make a "buh?" face at the chorus which rhymes "Save it for someone else" with "Put it back on the shelf". Lame then, lame now. But thankfully that very same chorus, (melody and otherwise), is really goddamn good and possibly the strongest in Ace's songbook. One has to learn to ignore daft lyrical choices sometimes when a Kiss fan. Or an Ace fan. More so if you're an Ace fan.
The only songs worth a handjob on Gene Simmon's predominantly disappointing Kiss solo album are the ballads says me, and the first of two that I shall be including has arrived in the form of "Mr. Make Believe". I appreciate that Gene got the chance finally to unleash some of his atypical "I'm a horny demon raaarrrggghhh!" material on his solo album and this be one of his strongest songs overall. Gene's entire solo joint was all about excess and the string section here certainly contributes to this, but it's hardly a bad thing. Fruity ballads are all the rage up in my house and it's nice and rare to get a Gene Simmons entry.
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