First KISS: My 40-Year Obsession with the Hottest Band in the World

By Michael Buffalo Smith

FIRST KISS is memoir about my obsession with the hard rockin,' grease paint wearin,' fire breathin' band KISS. I discovered them right as they were beginning their careers some 40 years ago, and have remained a die hard fan since. Which is somewhat odd, given the fact that as a music writer, I am known as "The Ambassador of Southern Rock," catering to The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Still, KISS rocked my world back in 1974, and they still do in 2013.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483514369

Book preview

II

1

The Smell of the Greasepaint

The Roar of the Crowd

Maybe it was because I was a teenager during the early seventies, or perhaps because, along with my obvious love of Southern Rock, I was always drawn to theatrical rock and roll - like Alice Cooper, David Bowie, and Queen - but when I saw KISS for the first time on TV late one Friday night, I thought it was the coolest band I’d ever seen in my life. I knew that somehow this band had just changed my life forever. Little did I know just how much they would change my life in years to come.

That was 1974, and now, nearly 40 years later, I still find myself drawn to the band. I still look for old KISS magazines, comics and LPs. It’s a guilty pleasure. A greasepaint addiction. I still watch old videos of their shows and have followed the solo careers of all four original members; the amazing reunion tour in the mid-1990’s; and watched as Gene Simmons proved to the world that he could make a buck off of anything and everything, including toilet paper, condoms and caskets. No matter what you think of Simmons, it is undeniable that the man knows how to make money - millions. I find it pretty amazing that these guys have accomplished what they have. I mean, they have 28 gold albums, more than any other rock band to date, including The Beatles. With total album sales topping 100 million, KISS is one of the best selling bands of all time.

The very first time I ever heard of KISS, I was reading the new bands section of Rock Scene magazine. This was in 1973, during a time when I devoured rock and roll magazines like breakfast cereal. While I was heavily into Creem magazine, Circus and the more intellectual Crawdaddy and Rolling Stone, I also loved Rock Scene, a decidedly cheaper-made product (published on newsprint) based out of New York that seemed to focus the lion’s share of their attention on the music coming out of the City. I credit Rock Scene with teaching me about bands like Wayne County and The Electric Chairs, The Ramones, The New York Dolls, and yes, KISS. That first visual image of four guys dressed in all black leather and wearing something akin to Kabuki style face paint burned its way into my brain, where it remains all these years later.

That same weekend I tuned my Mom and Dad’s black and white RCA television to ABC-TV, one of the only three choices available back then, for a show called In Concert. I had made it a ritual to watch In Concert and then quickly switch over to NBC for Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special at 1 a.m.

On this particular Friday evening, I was introduced to the madness of KISS, live in concert for the very first time. Truth be told, I cannot for the life of me remember who else was on the show that night. All I remember is the four songs KISS played, and mishearing the lyrics to Black Diamond. I thought they were singing a song about the band Black Sabbath. No, really, I did.

The four grease-painted rockers were tearing up the stage, blowing fire, jumping all over, setting off fire engine lights and sirens, releasing confetti from the ceiling into the audience, and making a fan out of one future journalist and musician in South Carolina.

I had never seen anything like this. Sure, I was pretty blown away by David Bowie’s 1980 Floor Show the year before on The Midnight Special, and certainly by Alice Cooper’s appearance on In Concert that same year, a show that was banned in many small towns around the country. I still don’t know how Wellford, SC managed to avoid that Alice blackout.

Still, KISS combined everything my young escapist mind loved about Bowie, Alice, The Dolls and all the others, and then kicked it up several notches.I remember that night vividly. I also remember choosing my favorite band member that night. Hands down it was the man named Gene Simmons.

I liked all four musicians and their alter egos, but it was Simmons who combined elements of Hammer Horror films, comic books and all things shocking into one character, who just happened to also be a hell of a bass player.

My old friend Larry Whitfield, the son of the pastor at my church, was as into music as I was. One day we were at an 8-Track tape store in Anderson, SC where they sold what amounted to bootleg tapes of all the new albums coming out. I bought the debut KISS album on 8-track, and we wore that thing out. Riding around on weekend nights in his Chevelle Malibu, we blasted Strutter and Firehouse as loud as we could play them. Of course it had to be loud to drown out Larry’s Thrush muffler.

The debut album was self-titled. KISS. The first time I slid the 8-track tape cartridge into my deck I was blown away by he first song, Strutter. It would remain a favorite of mine, maybe because it’s the first KISS song I heard through serious stereo speakers, I don’t know. But that debut album is still one of my favorites from them. All of those now classic tunes like Nothin’ To Lose, Cold Gin, and the perennial show opener, Deuce. Of course Firehouse is still quite the rocker, and honestly, I liked the instrumental Love Theme from KISS. Larry had a various artists 8-track that summer and Love Theme was on it. Every time I