The classic rock era was brimming with braggadocio, and no band typifies this better than Kiss. From the outset, the New York quartet were fully confident in their abilities and their sonic character, and erupted onto the scene with their mysterious make-up and grooving hard rock, capturing imaginations. Their swaggering sounds and explosive shows became the stuff of legend, and they quickly rose as one of the 1970s most successful acts.
While Kiss wrote many gems, none typify their nature better than ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’. A highlight of 1975’s Dressed to Kill, it is their signature song, with the classic chorus lyric: “I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day”, speaking to not only their spirit as a group but that of the era in which they emerged. A hard rocking and hard partying outfit completely wrapped up in their image and the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, they opened the gates for controversial glam metal outfits such as Mötley Crüe and Poison, who would push this area to the limit. It would take the Nirvana phenomenon to consign them to the dustbin of history.
ven back then, when rock stars were still mysterious god-like figures, Kiss’ music wasn’t for everyone. When punk arose in 1976, they attracted much criticism from swathes of listeners wanting to do away with the rampant commercialism of the rock world and the egotistical figures who propped it up, including Kiss.
Providing a concise account of how Kiss were deemed by people outside of their fanbase and their deeply polarising nature, Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon once remarked: “There’s a lot [of artists] that are selling you an image that’s false, deliberately fake, and deliberately commercial. I’ve met the Kiss lads. They’re all right. You know, [but] without the makeup, there ain’t much going on.”
With punk a very human genre, fuelled by anger at the state of the world and confusion about our place in it, Kiss represent the complete antithesis; a masked group steeped in fantasy, churning out simple anthems for the masses. Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons’ band delved so deeply into this area that they became known only for their costumes, affected glam metal and extensive use of flames in the live setting. They’ve never been taken seriously.
Kiss aren’t known for their tenderness either. While their cover of Argent’s ‘God Gave Rock and Roll To You II’ is technically a power ballad, it is neither the most emotional moment nor steeped in the complexity of everyday experience. Used in the soundtrack for Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the link to the outlandish comedy film says everything about the temperament of the track.
Despite Kiss not being famed for melancholy, when asked to name his favourite sad song by Shortlist in 2015, frontman Stanley chose an unexpected number, ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ by soul icon Otis Redding. While not a completely blue track, the Kiss frontman is in no doubt that Redding was “such a great deliverer of line and emotion”.
He also loves how the song builds to “this great crescendo”, a compositional move Kiss were prone to utilising every so often. He said: “The song just builds to this great crescendo with the instruments coming in and him just going full bawl – it’s kind of like emotional church. Support your woman… although it may not be sad, it’s certainly emotional and empathetic, so I’ll go there rather than try to find a sad song.”