Gene…  Paul…  Ace… Peter…  outside of The Beatles, what other band out there can you rattle off the first names of each member?  Those of us impressionable youth of a certain age group likely knew as the KISS phenomenon was definitely mega in the mid to late 70s.  Some of us had the albums, the lunch boxes, the bubblegum cards, the dolls, the posters, and even dressed up as the members for Halloween (guilty as charged).  But how do you explain KISS to those who were born in the 80s or 90s or 2000s?

I didn’t know KISS from Adam until I was in the sixth grade, where at one of our school holiday parties (Christmas?  Maybe Valentine’s Day?) it seemed like EVERYBODY brought in a copy of KISS Alive II album to play during the last hour of the day.  I can remember taking an instant dislike to the cover-  who ARE these weirdos?  What’s with the clown makeup and why does that guy have blood dripping out of his mouth?  And what’s so special about these guys if I’ve never heard them on the radio before?

Silly me…  I didn’t listen to the album that day but shortly thereafter I did hear my first KISS album, courtesy of someone I played Little League baseball with.  I was probably eleven, maybe twelve years old at the time and Pat (my friend’s name) had an older brother who had a decent record collection with a lot of KISS records.  I remember seeing Alive II in the stack and likely made the comment to him that I thought these guys were weird but boy did he set me straight.  He didn’t put on Alive II at first-  no, he put on their first live album Alive and it changed my life in ways unimaginable.

Man…  what a racket!  I don’t know if it was the songs, the guitars, the music, the vocals, the excitement of the crowd, the liner notes, whatever…  this was something new.  This was HUGE!  This was awesome!  Once we got done listening to that we threw on Alive II and I was kicking myself because these “weirdos” were awesome!  Everything just sounded big and was totally different from anything I’d ever heard before.  At some point his brother came home and told us not to screw up his records but we didn’t care- we just turned it down so he didn’t hear us and listened to the others that he had (maybe Rock And Roll Over and Destroyer, but that’s almost 40 years ago!).

So for a good two years, KISS was pretty much THE band for me.  They hadn’t quite released the solo albums yet, so my brother and I got hooked on the early stuff up to Alive II and were mesmerized.  Shortly thereafter the solo albums did come out but to me, something had changed and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it…  I loved Ace’s, Paul’s had some decent songs (my brother loved it), Gene’s was a little strange in spots with a couple of good songs, and Peter’s was…  well, something that my young brain couldn’t quite absorb.  All that said, that early magic for me was suddenly gone and everything was just different-  I don’t know if it was the original element of danger or the thrill of discovery, but my love for KISS took a pretty big hit.  Dynasty was the next big album and “I Was Made For Loving You” was cool, but it was no longer the same.  Soon after drummer Peter Criss left, then guitarist Ace Frehley (my all time favorite member), and then…  my fandom kinda sorta left too.

Well, not totally.  I still hung around and my brother or I would buy their latest releases through the 80s (the non makeup years) and into the 90s (Revenge is a pretty damn good record) but by that time my tastes had changed tremendously and the urge to pick up the latest KISS album for old times’ sake had gone bye bye.  However, I will admit the mid 90’s reunion of the original band donning the grease paint and costumes piqued my interest but the resulting Psycho Circus album did nothing for me other than the stomping title cut and Space Ace’s “Into The Void”.  And when the reunion died and Tommy Thayer donned the Spaceman makeup and Eric Singer became the Catman I still held out some hope, but…  it’s just not the same.  Those guys are great players but the resulting albums that they’ve played on (Sonic Boom and Monster) are just missing that special magic that the original four had.

All that said, I have huge respect for the band and support whatever it is that Gene and Paul want to do.  While my KISS ship has sailed, there remains a legion of adoring fans of all ages that still love them and eat up anything and everything they put out, whether it be CDs, T shirts, dolls, Mr Potato Heads, or KISS Koffins.  My comment earlier about explaining KISS to those that were born after their heyday?  Just tell them this…  at the time it was a phenomenon like no other.  The lights, the costumes, the explosions, the blood, the smoke, the fire, the SHOW was 100x bigger and more grandiose than anyone else at the time.  And much of that live spectacle that you see in shows today may very well have come from “the hottest band in the world…  KISS!!!”