1975 — December: Kiss “Alive!”

While they were a moderate regional success as a band with three studio albums, Kiss was most notable for their live performances.  They would not be vaulted into super-stardom until this breakthrough live album Alive! was released in September of 1975.  It peaked on the Billboard 200 album charts at number 9 in December of that year, and that's why we're featuring this album in this month.

Kiss is well known today not only because of their success as a band, but they also heavily marketed their brand in everything from movies to lunch boxes to a comic book (to which they famously contributed drops of their blood in the ink vat).  All members contributed to vocals, and instruments featured Paul Stanley on rhythm guitar, Ace Frehley on lead guitar, Gene Simmons on bass guitar, and Peter Criss on drums.  This double album relied on the catalog of songs from their first three studio albums, but the energy of the live show that was captured in this compilation is what drew the fans, and what kept it on the album charts for 110 weeks.

Of course, in addition to their performance, Kiss is known for their outlandish costumes and makeup, with Criss as the Catman, Stanley as Starchild, Frehley as the Spaceman, and Simmons as the Demon, they looked like something straight out of the pages of a comic book.  The band would maintain the makeup until the 80's, when they would go into an "unmasked" phase for a decade before returning to their classic over-the-top look.

“You wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the land - Kiss!”

Deuce This is the first song on side A, and Gene Simmons takes duties as the front man to lead off the album.  “Baby if you're feeling good, and baby if you're feeling nice, you know your man is workin' hard - He's worth a deuce.”  The track is also special to lead guitarist Ace Frehley, who auditioned for the group to this song.

Hotter than Hell Never one for subtlety, this song is a tribute to a good looking woman.  The back story is that Paul Stanley was hitting on a lady, and he was rejected because she was married.  Paul Stanley is on lead vocals here, and he wrote the song as well.

Black Diamond Paul Stanley start the song in the introduction, then Peter Criss takes on lead singing duties here.  The song was originally the closing track to their first studio album, and was often used to close their regular concert set with huge pyrotechnics and the Kiss theatrics that were the signature of the band.  

Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll The concluding song on side D is also the only single released from their second studio album.  Written jointly by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, this song was the final song of the encore for their shows, and make sense to conclude this album as well.

ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:

Sky High by Jigsaw This song was the main title from the film "The Man from Hong Kong," which was released this month.  You get the funk-disco feel that was prevalent at the time.

STAFF PICKS:

Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd Bruce leads off the staff picks with this Rager Waters-penned screed against the hypocrisy of the music industry.  Interestingly, this was sung by Roy Harper, an English fok singer who was in the studio at the time, instead of either Waters or Gilmore.  This is one of our more frequent lyric quotes:  "The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think.  Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?"

Fox on the Run by Sweet Rob brings us a song reworked from Sweet's European release.  After releasing it in 1974, the glam rock band created a more upbeat version for the U.S.  This song became a number 1 hit on iTunes in 2016 beacuse of its inclusion in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” 

My Little Town by Simon and Garfunkel Brian's staff pick brings the reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.  They broke up in 1970, but Simon wrote the song for Garfunkel as a critique of the small blue collar town Garfunkel grew up in.  They would perform together again in the third episode of Saturday Night Live.  This song appeared on both Paul Simon's and Art Garfunkel's solo studio albums.

Fire on the Mountain by The Marshall Tucker Band Wayne takes us into the Southern Rock genre with this tragic song about a family moving from the Carolinas to California in the California Gold Rush.  “Now my widow she weeps by my grave, tears flow free for her man she couldn't save.  Shot down in cold blood by a gun that carried fame, all for a useless and no good worthless claim.”  It was written for the Charlie Daniel's Band, but it became one of The Marshall Tucker Band's bigger hits after CDB chose not to use it.

INSTRUMENTAL TRACK:

Fly, Robin, Fly by Silver Convention While it technically include lyrics...this disco hit is close enough to an instrumental for our purposes.

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