I Still Love You, Vol. VI: Time Traveler
“There was this kite flying contest…
…and a new band called KISS was going to play there.” That’s how vocalist and guitarist Paul Major of the Brooklyn psychedelic rock outfit Endless Boogie starts his retelling. Their song ‘Back In ‘74’ was my entry point to the band, featured on their 2017 album Vibe Killer. The almost-seven-minute odyssey is based on a true story when a very young KISS was the musical guest at the 1974 Forest Park Kite-Fly in St. Louis, Missouri. Local radio station KSHE hosted the event on March 29, a mere 39 days after the release of KISS’ self-titled debut album, and it was their biggest concert to date with attendance in the thousands. And Paul Major was there, just a college student, tripping on acid. He makes a point to note that “KISS did not bring their own kites, they were kiteless, carefree.”
The song tells the story better than I ever could, so I urge you to check out the track and its excellent animated music video once you’re done here. One of my favorite things about KISS is their deep lore, all culminating in a perfect rock-and-roll ups-and-downs story rife for retelling, chronicled best in the two-part 2021 A&E Biography special, KISStory. From the kite contest to the solo albums, from Anton Fig to The Elder, from Mark St. John to the Lane Bryant runway show, there have been so many fascinating moments in the band’s fifty-year career that sometimes I’m overwhelmed trying to decide which aspect to talk about on a daily basis here. So today will be what I’ll call a “three-for-all,” where I share three pieces of the KISS legacy I find particularly interesting.
Creatures Of The Night vs. Vinnie Vincent
Vincent Cusano joined up with KISS in 1982, as they began to work on their comeback follow-up from the previous year’s polarizing (Music From) The Elder. The band started utilizing “ghost” players as early as 1976’s Destroyer, when fill-ins for a reportedly unreliable Ace Frehley swooped in to track guitar parts and were left uncredited upon the album’s release. Frehley had already made his first departure from the band before the Creatures sessions started, and Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley used the album as a way to audition his replacement. Cusano, who followed the KISS tradition of changing his name and is now known as Vinnie Vincent, ended up co-writing a third of the album and contributing guitar performances to two-thirds.
When the album was released, Frehley was still pictured on the album cover and appeared in all of the promotional performances, but when the tour started KISS finally debuted their second new member. After Eric Carr as “The Fox” replaced Peter Criss in 1980, Vinnie Vincent became “The Ankh Warrior” for less than a year before the infamous “unmasking” on MTV in 1983 to promote the release of Lick It Up. When the KISS catalogue went through a vinyl reissue campaign in 1985, Creatures Of The Night was released with a new album cover featuring the current non-makeup lineup of the band, which included Bruce Kulick now on lead guitar. Vincent’s contributions to Creatures and Lick It Up are highly regarded amongst the KISS Army, but the band never gave him his due on the former’s album cover. There was, however, a Brazilian tour bootleg that swapped out Frehley’s portrait for the Ankh Warrior’s, a fun collectors’ piece.
All You Need Is KISS
When KISS released their four solo albums in 1978, they were notable for each having their own defined sound. Peter Criss optioned to get back to his R&B and soul roots, Ace Frehley released an album full of rockers he never got to include on a KISS album, and Paul Stanley made a characteristically “harlequin lover” power pop and ballad record. Gene Simmons’ album is my personal least favorite of the four, due to its inconsistent sound and quality from track to track, when it should have been a heavy metal home run. With that said, I do respect Simmons for going against the grain and leaning more into his boogie-rock roots as opposed his Demon persona that he spent the first five years of KISS perfecting with tracks like ‘God Of Thunder’ and ‘She.’ Simmons’ noted favorite band is The Beatles, who inspired both him and Paul Stanley to become musicians in the first place, and when working on his ‘78 solo album it was rumored he tried to get all four Beatles to appear without telling the other ones.
The album already had a number of notable guests including Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Cher, Helen Reddy, Janis Ian, Rick Nielsen, Joe Perry, Bob Seger, and Donna Summer. Prouder and longtime KISS team member Sean Delaney supposedly sent offers out to each Beatle and received an agreement from all except for Ringo Starr. Ultimately, no Beatle ended up contributing to Gene Simmons’ album, a fact they would likely be happy about in retrospect as not to have to justify their work on songs like ‘Mr. Make Believe.’