“Your lightnin’s all I need
My satisfaction grows
You make me feel at ease
You even make me glow
Don’t cut the power on me
I’m feelin’ low, so get me high
Shock me, make me feel better
Shock me, put on your black leather
Shock me, we can come together.”
When it was announced that Ace Frehley, one of the original co-founders of KISS had passed away last week on October 16th, I was stunned. It had been nearly 26 years since I listened to their music. I’ll be the first to admit, I was into KISS back in the late ‘90s/early 2000s when I was in middle school and into my freshman year in High School. I wasn’t a massive KISS aficionado, but I had the ultimate respect for them during that time frame before moving onto greener pastures and finding other true parts of music from the progressive, jazz, and avant-garde realms, then becoming a reviewer in 2005 when I was in junior college and doing reviews and small interviews later on for Echoes and Dust.
Now, getting back into KISS again, was like going through an old scrapbook, collecting dust, cleaning it up, and re-visiting the wonderful memories you had. With KISS, they were like comic-book superheroes from the Marvel universe that came out of nowhere, mixed in with the Kabuki theater, theatrics, explosives, mixed-in with power-pop, glam, hard rock, and wanted to rock & roll all night and party every day.
After his passing, I went back to my iTunes library and listened to both Destroyer, which was KISS’ answer to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the first Alive album which were originally released on the Casablanca label between 1976 and 1975. Listening to those two albums, it was like being a kid at a candy store all over again, or being at the comic-book store Bedrock City. They still sound fresh, eruptive, and like a cannon blast, waiting to happen at the right time, at the right place.
Ace wasn’t just the spaceman, he was one of those guys that had the power and the heart when he would play his solos between ‘Flaming Youth’, ‘Shout it out Loud’, ‘Deuce’, ‘Strutter’, and then taking in lead vocals between ‘Shock Me’ from the Love Gun album, followed by a cover of glam rockers Hello with ‘New York Groove’ from his solo album released in 1978, he poured his soul to his improvisation.
When you listen to ‘New York Groove’, it isn’t just an amazing cover Ace did, it is a theme to his hometown when he grew up in the Bronx. It’s a perfect sing-along, clapping rhythms, its Shaft-like intro, and reached no. 13 in the US single charts for 21 weeks. Born on April 27, 1951, he came from a musical background. He got his first guitar as a Christmas present back in 1964. His parents played the piano while his dad played the church organ, and his brother and sister played piano and acoustic guitar.
Despite having a complicated childhood, he surrounded by his influences from what he was listening to; Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and The Who. Ace himself played bands that didn’t go as far as he could, until he came across an ad in the Village Voice in 1972 that said “Lead guitarist wanted with Flash and Ability. Album out shortly. No time wasters please”. He would then join KISS as they formed in 1973.
And the rest as they say is KISStory. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley were the real deal in the ‘70s. From 1974 to 1977, it was their golden-era from their sole self-titled debut album to Love Gun, which was for me, the last real KISS album before they head into disco-land on the Dynasty album thanks to the hit single ‘I Was Made for Lovin’ You’ in ’79, it marked the end of the golden period for KISS.
Ace would soon leave the band in 1982. Even though despise he was on the cover for 1982’s Killers compilation and the band’s tenth studio album Creatures of the Night, he embarked on a solo career with Frehley’s Comet that launched back in 1984, releasing two studio albums in 1987 (Frehley’s Comet) and 1988 (Second Sighting) in 1988 on the Megaforce label. I haven’t got a chance to listen to his two albums, but one day I will. I know people will say that “Zack’s jumping to conclusions”. Well, that’s true. But one day, I will get a chance to delve into the Comet years.
But Ace himself had released eight solo albums which includes his final studio album 10,000 Volts on the MNRK label released last year on February 23rd. I first was introduced to KISS’ music thanks to the 1991 sequel to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure which was Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey starring Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves. Then, I completely forgotten about them after hearing their cover of Argent’s ‘God Gave Rock & Roll To You II’.
It wasn’t until I was re-introduced to their music when I bought the soundtrack to Richard Linklater’s 1993 cult classic Dazed and Confused in May of 1997. I was blown away of hearing ‘Rock & Roll All Nite’, I knew I had to check them out. It wasn’t just my re-introduction to their music, but hearing bands from the two soundtracks such as; Black Oak Arkansas, The Runaways, Primus, Slaughter, King’s X, and the Ian Gillan-era of Deep Purple.
When he re-joined KISS after the brief reunion for MTV’s unplugged back in 1995, then in 1996 the original members put their make-up back on and returned to perform at the stadiums and arenas, it was like seeing old friends you haven’t seen for a long, long time. One of the regrets I have is I never got a chance to see the original line-up before Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer replaced them. I have respect for both Thayer and Singer (who replaced Eric Carr after he lost his battle with cancer in 1991, during 1992’s Revenge album), but when they put Ace and Peter’s make-up on, I jumped ship.
And I’ll stop right there, because it’ll be too personal for me to talk about. And now with Ace up in heaven, jamming with Eric Carr, Dimebag Darrell, David Bowie, Ozzy Osbourne, John Lennon, Neil Peart, Keith Moon, and Vinnie Paul, heaven just got bigger. As I sit here, typing this down, listening to Alive and re-playing the Gotham Knights video game again, with KISS, say what you want about them, they know how to put on a show and please their audience.
To the spaceman, thank you for one hell of a ride you brought us, and thank you for an incredible ride you gave. And those incredible guitar sounds you put your fingers to the fret boards with its smoking effect, and shooting off a few sparks on the Gibson Les Paul. Heaven just got bigger up there in Detroit Rock City.
“Many years since I was here
On the street I was passin’ my time away
To the left and to the right, buildings towering to the sky
It’s outta sight in the dead of night
Here I am and in this city
With a fistful of dollars
And baby, you’d better believe
I’m back, back in the New York groove
I’m back, back in the New York groove
I’m back, back in the New York groove
Back in the New York groove, in the New York groove.”
