KISS - GENE SIMMONS

This is the stuff dreams are made of. If there has ever been a KISS album that would supply the soundtrack for starry-eyed high school youth it is the Gene Simmons Solo LP. Although this album was along for the ride the first night I was introduced to KISS, I truly never dove into the album until I purchased it on CD for myself about a year later. Man…talk about your initiations. The songs moved me in a way that still gives me goose bumps some 16 years later.
In a dreamers way I have always related to the Gene Simmons Solo LP more than the remaining three solo releases. I guess it’s easy to say it was the right album at the right time. As I had begun to learn more about this new band called KISS the music and lyrics of the Gene Simmons Solo LP crept into my bones and became my outlet for a sometimes confusing adolescent life. We have all had an album like this in our lives. I’m thankful mine was Gene Simmons.
The softer side of the Demon eventually proved to be my favorite. Songs like, "Always Near You/Nowhere To Hide" and "Mr. Make Believe" can somehow still choke up this 33 year old exterior when it is played on the perfect autumn evening. Something I am proud to admit. When music touches you in this way there is nothing as powerful on earth.
The Gene Simmons Solo LP was Dan’s favorite record as a kid. He actually owned the 33 LP version in 1978 so anytime Danny would begin to spill nostalgic wax about KISS I was all ears. He had ‘been there done that’. A few of my favorite tales were of Danny playing his record in the families’ living room while making himself busy in his bedroom. When suddenly, as "Living In Sin" began to play in the front room it was interrupted by the sound of a screeching record needle being drug across the vinyl record top by a God fearing, ‘it really does stand for Knight’s In Satan’s Service’ Eleanor Thompson. The Gene Simmons Solo LP served as Danny’s entry into KISS in the late 70’s as it would serve as mine in the late 80’s.
The Gene Simmons Solo LP is more than just a record or a piece of history in the KISS catalog…it is a moving experience. If you have ever held onto a dream or can still look at the world with a child like stare you will automatically be swept away. Taken to that magical place where rock and roll dreams come true. As the world around us seems to be going to hell in a hand basket it is nice to have somewhere to hide and the Gene Simmons solo album is just that perfect place.