434. Gene Simmons / Gene Simmons. 1978. 1/5

In 1978, Kiss and their management, in their wisdom, decided that each member of the band would record and release a solo album, with all four to be released on the same day. It had been mandated in the band’s contract, but the recording and releasing all at once was apparently not specified. None of the members were to be involved in the other’s albums, this was a chance for each member to express themselves in their own way. The style of all four solo albums were completely different from each other, which could be seen to be either a good move to be that counterpoint to the main band’s normal sound, or one that maybe went too far.
The album to be recorded and released by Gene Simmons always had the ability to be the most interesting of the quartet, depending on what attitude Gene went into the project with. His contributions to the other band both in the writing of songs and the ones he contributed lead vocals were often the ones that were the different, interesting tracks of the albums they released. Songs such as “Cold Gin” (written by Ace but sung by Gene), “Deuce”, “Rock n Roll All Nite”, “God of Thunder” and “Calling Dr Love” were examples of great songs that were different from their usual modus operandi, and it was that kind of thing that had the potential to provide a great album. In particular, my guess is that the fans of the day were looking for a real hard rock album from Gene, reflecting those harder songs where he gives that more intense performance like “God of Thunder” and “Deuce”, where his presence could be felt through the speakers as the songs rumbled out at them. What they received instead was something that perhaps no one could have expected.

There is quite the mixture of tracks here on Gene’s version of his solo album, perhaps more so than any of the other three releases in this regard. Firstly, Gene has brought in a number of special guests to help him out. This is introduced from the opening track “Radioactive” which was also the single released from the album. Aerosmith’s Joe Perry plays guitar on the song, with Bob Segar lends backing vocals. Helen Reddy provides backing vocals on the song “True Confessions”, and Donna Summer does the same on “Burning Up with Fever” and “Tunnel of Love”, while Eric Troyer from ELO adds keyboards in the opening track and also “Living in Sin”. Secondly, and in addition to this, he has brought in a whole slew of backup singers to flesh out the vocals behind his own lead vocals to help compensate that his is without having his usual three bandmates to do this. Thirdly, he involved the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras to help him out, in particular with the arrangements of two tracks. “Man of 1000 Faces” has it more of a background piece rather than overly dominating the song but it does give it the air of a more diverse track as a result. Meanwhile the cover that concludes the album of the Disney track “When You Wish Upon a Star” utilises it much more. It seems like a really strange idea, but Gene is quoted as saying that he had always related to the song, and with his love of Disney movies he wante to do his own version.
The songs "Burning Up with Fever", "Man of 1000 Faces" and "True Confessions" were all songs that Gene had written for the “Destroyer” sessions, and all of which were apparently vetoed by producer Bob Ezrin at the time. Of the three, “Burning Up with Fever” sounds closest to the sound that Kiss may have used. “True Confessions” here has a reworked sound that almost makes it like a gospel church song, with the choir vocals as backups and the tinkling piano throughout the song.
As to the other songs themselves, there is an eclectic mix in styles. “See You Tonite” tries to be a middle of the road pop rock song that sounds like it is an attempt at 70’s radio commercialism, despite not being released as a single. It had also been demoed with Gene’s other band a couple of years earlier. “Tunnel of Love” is a typical Simmons ditty where the sexual innuendo of the title is exactly as you would expect. “Living in Sin” does the same, with an overbearing repeating of the chorus “I’m living in sin, at the Holiday Inn”. No worries Gene, we get the message. "Always Near You / Nowhere to Hide" goes down the same path as “See You Tonite”, with Gene going falsetto towards the end of the song, and “Mr Make Believe” is of the same ilk, again utilising the strings that several of the track here do. The other track on the album is “See You in My Dreams”, the Kiss song from their previous album “Rock and Roll Over” which Gene re-recorded because he didn’t like the way it had been done on that album. As a result, it becomes almost the best song on the album, simply because it really is an actual Kiss track and not a solo composition by one of the four members.

Despite my enjoyment of Kiss, I did not hear any of these four solo albums until about 20 years ago. I just felt no compunction to go and find them and listen to them. I didn’t know anyone who owned them, so it wasn’t until the years of downloading that I decided to get around to checking them out.
When I first listened to this album, I was really just confused. There were some good hard rock tracks here, but there were also songs here that would be classed as close to soft rock ballads, actually the kind of songs that Peter Criss would sing in the other band. And for me that didn’t sit right. The fact there was a lot of strings and piano come into play on songs as well, had me in a position that I was unable lock in to the album as a whole, to find where its centre was, and to find a way to actually enjoy it.
So we come to 45 years after the release of the album, and about 20 years after I first listened to it. I have spent about two weeks listening to this album pretty much once or twice every day, and while for the most part it still doesn’t grab me, I have at least come to terms with the different style of songs that are gathered here, and been able to reconcile that, as a solo album that was more for the artist to express themselves in a different way than they may have been able to in the band, it probably fills that quota. And it is different, not to the extent that Peter Criss went with his album, but certainly in a way that for the most part you can be sure this isn’t a Kiss album. Indeed, having had a number of tracks on this album that were eventually rejected for a Kiss album, and one song from an actual Kiss album that was redone here because Gene had been unhappy with the original version, then this can be seen as close to the second level Kiss album that many people had actually been hoping for from this solo project project. Does it convince me to go out and buy a copy of this album, even just for the purpose of completing my Kiss release collection? Absolutely not. Does it convince me that I need to listen to this album more in the future? Absolutely not. But... at least I have given this album a very fair second hearing some 20 years on, to see if I had made any errors in my thoughts from when I first listened to this album all those years ago. On his occasion at least, I had not.