I Still Love You, Vol. V: All American Man
The demon is in the details
There has always been an element of “America’s band” to KISS since their meteoric rise in the mid-1970s. The never-outnumbered KISS Army was officially formed in 1975 in Terre Haute, Indiana, as blue-collar Midwest as blue-collar Midwest gets. 1976 was an all-around patriotic bash for the United States, as citizens celebrated 200 years since the founding of America. Dubbed with the tagline “Spirit Of ‘76,” the bicentennial turned the entire country loud and proud and red and white and blue, and despite being critically rejected for years, KISS were one of the poster bands for American rock and roll once their Destroyer album was released on the Ides of March that year. In 1977, when KISS released Alive II, they loaded the fourth side of the double album with new studio recordings, two of which are Paul Stanley’s ‘All American Man’ and Gene Simmons’ ‘Rockin’ In The USA.’ America was on top, KISS was on top, but neither would last forever. President Ronald Reagan ran America into the ground for the majority of the 1980s, and KISS ran themselves into the ground during the same time, facing one challenge after the next.
When it comes to classic rock, and specifically hard rock and glam metal, the majority of fans of these genres are from the Baby Boomer generation, the long-time working class, the patriots, and the right-wing. They love their good ol’ American rock and roll like Aerosmith, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Bruce Springsteen (who all, by the way, have denounced Trump using their music at rallies), but love their fist-pumping ‘80s metal just the same like Poison, Mötley Crüe, and especially KISS. Even the first time I saw KISS in 2017, they took a portion of their encore to honor America’s veterans, an odd moment of pandering in the middle of the explosive, full-throttle rock show.
Prior to the Tipper Gore censorship campaign, KISS was one of the many villains of the hard-right due to their early heavy metal imagery and music, leading to a conspiracy that their name was an acronym for “Knights In Satan’s Service.” As big as KISS was, they were a band that mostly represented the rebellious youth the way that bands like Led Zeppelin did half a decade before, and bands like Judas Priest would do half a decade later. In retrospect, it’s obvious that KISS were not devil-worshippers, but they were absolutely using subversive themes to make hard-edged rock music that shouldn’t have been primed for the American populous of the era. Which is why, starting around the 1979 Dynasty era, KISS struggled as they noticed more kids and families coming to their shows. They were now regarded as a safe event for all Americans, with a clean-cut rock sound, despite some of the more debaucherous moments on that album like Gene Simmons’ ‘Charisma,’ Ace Frehley’s ‘Hard Times,’ and Peter Criss’ ‘Dirty Livin’.’ Even Paul Stanley’s ‘Sure Know Something,’ despite its shimmering guitars and dark disco bass groove, is a risqué track about a 17-year-old’s relationship with a teacher.
As early as their debut album in 1974, KISS was not writing happy-go-lucky, easy listening rock music for the time. ‘Nothin’ To Lose,’ the first single off of that album is about “anal love” as Simmons so delicately puts it. ‘Black Diamond’ is about a prostitute living on the streets of New York City in the bleak early ‘70s. On their second album, Hotter Than Hell, you have the title track which certainly didn’t signal any “nice boys” attitude at the time, despite seeming a bit tame by today’s standards. ‘Goin’ Blind,’ a Simmons ballad, is a sordid love affair story between someone who’s “93, and [she’s] 16.” And of course, Criss’ ‘Mainline,’ an early ode to cocaine before it would start affecting his performance in the band.
One of KISS’ heaviest songs is ‘She’ on 1975’s Dressed To Kill, a full-on Demon love song about she who “walks by moonlight” and who “doesn’t really know the powers are within her when she takes off her clothes.” Simmons fully immersed himself in his persona on Destroyer with ‘God Of Thunder,’ originally written by Stanley but turned over to his bandmate with the help of producer Bob Ezrin. The song is intentionally evil and frightening, describing the God Of Thunder as being “born on Olympus to my father a son, I was raised by the demons trained to reign as the one,” and he’ll “rob you of your virgin soul.” ‘Sweet Pain,’ another Simmons tune on the album, is about bondage sex — you know, stuff for kids!
The “fuck me suck me” songs, as Stanley calls them in his book Face The Music, continue throughout 1976’s Rock And Roll Over and 1977’s Love Gun. Stanley’s back-to-back album openers on the former, ‘I Want You’ and ‘Take Me’ are horndog anthems at their finest, and Simmons’ contributions of ‘Ladies Room’ and ‘Love ‘Em And Leave ‘Em’ follow suit. Stanley’s title track ‘Love Gun,’ about exactly what you think it’s about,’ pairs well with Simmons’ ‘Plaster Caster,’ a tribute to legendary rock icon Cynthia Albritton who made plaster molds of rock stars’ genitalia. If the term “cock rock” wasn’t inspired by KISS, I have no idea what else could be the origin.
KISS’ first four years showed them young, hungry, and determined to be the next great rock band. They were experts at creating controversy, down to the blood they added to the ink of their first comic book appearance in 1977, which I went into detail about in Volume II of this newsletter. It’s interesting to see the progression of conservative parents complaining about KISS in the 1970s to the same type of people championing their music today. The god-fearing folks who fight against trans rights and drag performers are singing along, beers in hand, to the most iconic makeup and wig band of all time. The band fronted by two Jewish rockstars, one who spits fire and blood and one who ziplines over the audience and smashes guitars, both of whom were singing songs about sex, drugs, war, and the occult well into their seventies, have somehow become synonymous with standard fare American rock and roll. While I don’t think it makes sense, it’s a testament to the band for being able to draw millions of fans worldwide across fifty years while still having a history of material that would have gotten almost every one of their albums a “Parental Advisory” sticker had it been released in a certain era. Again, in 2025, there’s a lot of KISS material that is very low in shock factor, but when given the right context it is hard to argue that there wasn’t a band as absolutely radical as they are universally beloved than KISS.