Sweet, tap-dancing baby Jesus, you guys...
Yeah, I love KISS, on up to that second, slickly recorded live album, afterward that dumb-as-a-box-of-hammers "I Was Made For Loving You" single (which I cherished for Ace's solo, only to find out years later it might
NOT have been Frehley playing it
), "Sure Know Something" (yeah, right...more deep thinking) and some of the "Non-make-up" stuff.
Fuck, I discovered this band while my mom was watching the Mike Douglas show one afternoon when I came home from school. Next thing ya know, I'm in a beat-to-shit Ford Econoline, delivering newspapers with that first album blasting through a crapazoid 8-track player, with one functioning speaker!
Yet there is no possible way am I gonna put this oddball outfit under the scrutiny we normally reserve for acts like Van Halen (don't get me started on that inscrutable worm fest), Grand Funk Railroad or even Uriah Heep.
Who gives a shit about musical or moral integrity from a band of twits like this? Yeah, Gene Simmons is pretty much a schmuck, and Paul Stanley blew his throat out around five years ago.
Whatever.
I'll still buy KISS reissue albums and tee-shirts at Target (
on sale, of course), maybe go to a show or two, and ultimately not concern myself with the band's politics. Know why? The
music makes me happy. And with a group like KISS, if you are thinking beyond that, then perhaps ya might be thinking a bit too much.
And by the way, this is a copy of the shirt I wore to our work Christmas party, a couple years ago...