The Demon Indulges 3 Out Of 5 Stars
In 1978, the four members of Kiss decided to pull a huge marketing stunt; each of the players would release a solo album to be released simultaneously on the same date. In his book And Party Every Day: The Inside Story Of Casablanca Records, Larry Harris tells that Kiss had a distribution clause in their contract that any album Kiss recorded was obligated to shipped a million copies on the opening day, and while Neil Bogart and others tried to argue the band down, Kiss held firm. The end result was one of the biggest promotional catastrophes in record industry history. As the joke goes, it shipped gold, but came back platinum. Casablanca never recovered, but the 1978 Kiss solo albums remain in print.
Does the legend match the music? Not really, as the albums are uniformly decent but not incredible. The four personalities of the band would occasionally combine to make classic rock, and they needed each other to bounce off of. So I may catch flack for this, but despite that previous statement, I think Gene Simmons is a genius. There aren't many bands from the 70's that can still pump out top ten albums in the 21'st century, and for an immigrant from Israel who came up from nothing, he has marketed his band (and himself) to a point where the music and the image is universal. Gene is the demon bassist, the bat monster of rock. That is the personality he cultivated, yet his solo album shows that in his heart of hearts, he really wants to be... Paul McCartney?
The Demon had a soft spot. Who knew? Both "Always Near You/Nowhere To Hide" and "See You Tonight" play off soft harmonies and melodic guitars. Gene so wanted to get that Beatles effect that he hired two members of the Broadway show cast of Beatlemania to sing backups. On a pair of the songs here, he debates the personality he's created for himself. "Man Of A Thousand Faces" and "Mr Make Believe" both wipe off the make-up. And then, there is the over the top finale, as Gene goes full-on show tunes for "When You Wish Upon A Star." Hands down, it's the weirdest thing to appear on any album associated with Kiss, and that is saying something.
On the other hand, Gene was still ready to make the rock and roll go all night. He pulls "See You In Your Dreams" out from Rock and Roll Over and pumps it full of big guitars. "Radioactive" delivers the kind of hook he's good for with singles like "Christine Sixteen." And the lusty rock star known for his backstage proclivities comes out on "True Confessions" (featuring Helen Reddy?!?) and "Living in Sin" (featuring a groupie cameo from then gal pal Cher). They aren't the only ones invited to the party. Seventies stalwarts like Rick Neilsen, Bob Seger, Janis Ian, Joe Perry and Kiss compadre the late Sean Delaney are all aboard. "Gene Simmons
" was not the best of the Kiss '78 solos (that award goes to Ace), but it does nab the blue ribbon for the most eclectic.
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