If You Build It We Will Come!
By: Steve Corral

Alright, after my initial "Sound Off" article was published I got a lot of email agreeing with my opinions. That's good - I know I'm not alone. People brought some other good opinions to the table and it looks like the fans want an honest album.

As I have been listening to the Beatles' Abbey Road for the last week or so I am amazed at how the biggest group in the world, at the time, put their differences aside and recorded, according to a lot of fans, their most brilliant, mature, and honest record of their careers. They went out with a bang. The last (full) song on the album was called "The End" for crying out loud!

I tried to examine KISS' studio efforts spanning their career and have come to some interesting conclusions:

KISS: Very honest record, hearts on their sleeves, taking a HUGE chance with the makeup and, judging by early TV appearances like Midnight Special from '75, they were INTO it in a big way. It shows that this is the music they believed in and that is what the early fans picked up on. No ballads on the record, Cold Gin actually made it on the album, and the lyrics were cryptic (tell me what 100,000 Years is really about). All in all a record that definitely stands the test of time. Heavy Metal Beatles indeed!

Hotter Than Hell: Again, classic album. Production was more dark than polished. More cryptic lyrics (Strange Ways anyone?), a great happy Peter Criss song (Mainline) from Paul, and Gene being Gene while actually singing (All The Way), and Ace's guitar... listening to the solos in Goin' Blind and Strange Ways never fail to make me have the big "O" in my pants. The songs on this album clearly do not follow any trends, hence the lag time in worldwide success. It usually takes an original band a little longer to break than a "bandwagon jumper". This album is so friggin' raw it just makes you want to throw up, yet the songs are so good it makes you want to wear that dress that Ace is wearing on the back of the album in public. Some of the songs sound as if they were recorded and then slowed down to make them heavier (kind of like the opposite of what they did to "Firehouse" on Double Platinum). If you watch the black and white Winterland video you can see fans snickering when they were introduced. But, by the end of the first song they had their fists in the air and the fans were into it. They were on the right track.

Dressed to Kill: A third great album in a row. It had a more polished production courtesy of Neil Bogart, some more great songs like Rock Bottom, She, and Lover Her All I Can (a lot of which are leftovers from pre-KISS days). You can audibly hear Ace's doubletracking of acoustic guitar for the first time on almost every song (very cool). They were progressing musically and starting to get comfortable in the studio. The touring was doing their musicianship some good. They were a tight recording unit.

Destroyer: An album that all others would be measured by. Destroyer was the masterpiece that would give them respect and fame. It had everything; a great opener bleeding into the next tune, a couple of ballads, some great guitar work and songwriting, the breathy production that KISS needed including those BIG drums, a better anthem than the last one, the woes of fame and touring, and that cover... YEAH! Truly a classic. God of Thunder, King..., Flaming Youth, Sweet Pain, Shout It Out Loud, etc. The very polished studio songs translated well to the stage. But, there was some outside influence on a lot of it. Did Bob Ezrin get involved too much? He admitted he wrote the guitar solo and showed Gene how to play that bass line in Detroit Rock City. If you watch or listen to any early Destroyer shows it doesn't look like Gene had gotten the hang of that bass line yet. Dick Wagoner playing the solo on Sweet Pain at Ezrin's request, along with a lot of writing credit from Ezrin. Great album, but did Ezrin go over the line as producer? This where I think that KISS lost sight of what they wanted to do versus what they THOUGHT they should do.

Rock And Roll Over: Another good album. Great Paul songs, but when hasn't he stepped up and NOT written a great song. Ya know, throughout their entire career I don't think there is one Paul song that sucks. Just listen to Hard Luck Woman. He is a true talent and that might be his downfall; he can crank out songs in his sleep. Anyway, some good output from Gene (Dr. Love, Love 'Em And Leave 'Em), the comic book personas really coming out now. Peter's bound and gagged Baby Driver that he said was supposed to have a shuffle feel that was "vetoed" by Paul and Gene, too bad. Back to basics on this album. They got a great producer in Eddie Kramer and belted out an honest record. They didn't try to recreate Destroyer, which was probably a good move. RNRO is an honest, true KISS record.

Love Gun: Constant touring, comic books, merchandise, KISS cards, etc... no time to write tunes. Again, the Paul stuff never ceases to amaze, and Ace finally coming out to sing and, in my opinion, saving the album with Shock Me. But, here is where it starts to crumble. Who played what? Got any coke? Serving groupie #53... here come da judge.

Everything after this is varied and, really, not a true product of the band KISS. Dynasty was played by a lot of other people, Unmasked was what they thought they should do, the Elder should have been called "Music From Bob Ezrin" and Creatures, although a classic heavy album, was not KISS. Just look at Ace in those European promo/lip-synch TV appearances trying to air guitar the solo to Creatures of the Night; totally unnatural.

The fans want an honest album, but KISS doesn't know how to deliver because they haven't done it in so long. They are too concerned with what they think the masses want and that only results in stale anthems that have no meaning. If they think about it they will realize that their first few albums were what THEY wanted and why the fans came to them.

If you build it WE WILL COME!

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