You Wanted The Rest, You Got The Rest. The Hottest Parody Of The Group, KISS!

For this album, the band wanted an even rawer sound than on their debut. Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise therefore had the group record in a closed metal dumpster behind the studio, which explains the unique "voices that sound like drums that sound like guitars that sound like voices" blend. This led to speculation that a stand-in striking garbage collector played the solo on "Mainline," but was refuted by Gene in a 1978 press interview ("'Mainline'? What's that? Oh, the song. Ace definitely played on the second album. He was in the studio just about every day, almost [sticks out tongue for photographer]")

While not recognizing how deep Paul's feelings went, Gene quickly saw how Paul was pulling Peter into his corner. With the success of "Cold Gin," Gene more and more raved to Ace about how good of a songwriter Ace was and how honored Gene was to sing Ace's song every night. "Damn, I wish I could write songs like that," Gene reportedly told Ace backstage at a June 1974 concert. Ace took the bait and went back to write another song for Gene, "Parasite" (actually written by Gene originally -- see "Songs" below). Gene quickly envisioned Kiss as a threesome again -- this time with Paul gone. Gene understood how easy Peter and Ace cold be manipulated if "the Demon" were able to rule the group without the threat of Paul. See "Packaging" below for further details.

Songs
1. The childish antics during album production actually led to some stellar tracks in the studio. Gene came in with "Goin' Blind," a song Paul disliked for its obscure lyrics and slow tempo. Paul would often sing "goin' bland" in rehearsals, which Gene apparently did not find humorous. He wrote a song directed at Paul called "Wanna Fight" with the lyrics "Wanna fight, baby?/Are you even a guy?/Wanna fight, lady/You're going to cry." (Ace took over this song and changed it to "Parasite.") Paul sensed the impending antagonism and came up with "Got to Snooze," again directed at Gene's plodding contribution to the record ("Woo hoo hoo/Got to snooze/That's a song? Please!") This was later changed to a more standard "love" song. Gene, who still recorded on a raised platform above the rest of the group, began singing "Watchin' You" while staring at Paul and directing the words as fiercely as possible at the other contending leader of the group. The final argument was, of course, settled with "All the Way," a song explicitly depicting Gene and Paul's rivalrous relationship to that point.

2. Paul's fascination with Peter shows through in Paul's contribution of "Mainline." Paul admitted to a close friend in 1981 that this song was his desperate plea to Peter for "just one kiss, nothing big." The last minute addition of "Strange Ways" to the album, recorded even after the photo shoot was completed, indicated the confusion Peter felt about Paul's advances. A long night of drinking led Peter to confess to Ace how much Paul was hitting on him, but Peter felt obligated to humor Paul because Paul provided such great songs. Ace wrote "Strange Ways" with Peter's help, but luckily Ace forgot what the song was about by the next morning. This shift, where Peter began to gravitate to Ace, would affect the recording of "Dressed to Kill."

Packaging
1. Paul and Peter are obviously groping each other on the cover, blatantly showing how the once-professional friendship had grown into something a bit more than expected. On seeing the film proofs for the cover, Paul and Peter immediately played it cool and insisted on throwing a huge bash with LOTS of women. The result of each one's drunken stupor, and the subsequent girl they used to reassert their manhood, is shown on the back cover. Interesting anecdote: Peter was told his photo would not be allowed due to the nudity. A former intern in the marketing department at Casablanca worked with Peter on how to fix the problem. She said, "Peter stared at his photo for a long time. I, like, assumed he'd get mad, but it was weird. He just got real quiet and then said, real softly, 'Take the star from Paul's eye and paste it over the girl.' And then he just, like, walked out sniffling."

2. Ace shows his obliviousness to the entire photo shoot; he is literally napping on the cover. For the back cover, Gene dressed a stuporous Ace in a silver dress found on 53rd street in NYC, and the photo shows Ace's reaction on first waking up.

3. The band nearly split up over the back cover's "5th Kiss" face. The idea originated with Gene, who said it might be smart to create a fifth member "just in case any other musicians were needed" on the album. Ace, forgetting about the "Nothin' to Lose" incident, stormed out after saying that no one in Kiss would EVER need someone to stand in for them. Richie Wise saw the entire incident: "(Ace) walked back in after a minute and asked why any other musicians would be needed on a Kiss record anyway. Gene kind of shrugged and said, 'You know, if we need anybody to play keyboards or anything.' Ace got pissed and started shouting, "This band will NEVER have keyboards on its records!' Well, he got so mad that he punched his hand right through his Gibson, causing it to spark and smoke. I think that's where he first came up with the smoking guitar bit." (Ace returned to help design the back cover face after being told Gene was just kidding around.)

4. Gene's desire for a Kiss threesome (see above) began to appear on HTH and future releases. On the cover of HTH, he makes sure to "signal" Ace and Peter with three fingers. As an added touch, Gene pasted in a thumb in each of the top corners that point to him, noting him as the leader. The three fingers on the back cover repeat Gene's signal. At the last minute, Gene also added the purple and orange "mountain ranges" pointing to Ace to show Paul and Peter who the up-and-coming member was.

5. Ace was still having a problem remembering his new name (he still responded to "Paul") such that Bill Aucoin threatened to make him wear a name tag. It was Bill's idea to name each member on the cover to help out Ace.

Other lesser-known facts:
1. Gene loved Peter's exploding drumsticks idea from the first tour, and to top that proposed an even more spectacular "exploding tongue." Gene literally had a cow's tongue grafted onto his own somewhat short and stubby tongue (the medical bills were put on Bill Aucoin's American Express card). After wrapping a few Black Cat firecrackers around the tip of his new tongue, he lit them off. By blowing off the tip of his tongue, he wound up bleeding all over himself, his guitar and the stage. Although he was embarrassed by the stunt and had to have 2 inches of the tongue surgically cut back, a fake-blood-spitting gimmick became part of the stage act. (Gene's new cow tongue makes its first appearance on the front cover, and he seems more than proud to show it off. Compare this to his much shorter tongue on the first album cover.) The concoction of blood underwent a few changes until it was perfected. The original blend of flour, water, and red dye plugged up Gene's throat and forced Paul to cover Gene's songs for the rest of the concert in Toronto. His second attempt, using bacon grease and corn syrup, looked so disgusting that the other members began vomiting on stage (which Lockhaven, PA fans assumed was part of the act). His third attempt, using red-dyed flour, eggs, baking soda, vegetable oil, and milk, has worked well ever since (and continues to provide pancakes for the post-show stage hands on the "hotter than hell" nights).

2. Gene's firebreathing on the first tour was occasionally unsuccessful. Several times he burned the plastic padded bat wings on his shoulder. According to a Lansing, MI concert review, "The bass player Jean [sic] Simmons blew fire at the end of a song called "Firehose," when suddenly the place smelled like burnt rubber and the bat wing on his shoulder started smoking. Running back and forth across the stage, trailing smoke behind him, he ripped off the 'wing' and threw it to the floor. The lighting crew seemed unsure what to do, so I imagine to save the show someone threw a single spotlight on the smoking piece of plastic. The audience around me cheered inexplicably." This accident left its mark on Ace, who was looking for a gimmick to use during his guitar solo.

Awards (semi-serious ones, but just for fun):
Worst attempt at rhyming: louder/father

Biggest "Huh?" moment: What in the hell does "Watchin' You" mean?

Song you could picture Muppets singing: "Mainline"

The "I could've written that" line: "You've got a lot to say/every night and every sunny day"

Most poetic line: "I'm 93, you're 16/and I think I'm goin' blind"

Best, worst, or funniest sexual reference: It's amazing that this is as hard as it is, but the first two albums just don't have that many double entendres. Plenty of lust but it's all straight forward stuff. So I'll have to go with "you know she's gonna leave you well done" for lack of something better to put here.

Classic Kiss moment: Intro to "Let Me Go Rock n Roll"

Best riff: "Parasite"

Coolest/best lead guitar part: "Strange Ways" solo

Coolest/best bass part: "Goin' Blind"

Coolest/best drum part: "Watchin' You"

Coolest/best Paul moment: "Comin' Home"

Eyebrow-raising vocal: Gene's first "beeeeeeee" in "Goin' Blind"

Lyrics I misunderstood when I was younger: "Baby gets tight, everybody knows" "And I'm standin' here not quite away/and I'm tryin' baby, tryin' not to stay" "Strange ways, twister planes" (the guitars made me think of dive bombers, so planes were on my brains).

You Wanted The Rest, You Got The Rest. The Hottest Parody Of The Group, KISS!

© 2000 Rich Hund/KISS ASYLUM.
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