Rock and Roll Over
Kiss
1976: Casablanca Records 824 150-2
This was the first rock album I ever bought. A neighbor’s son who was a little older than me had got it from some record club and decided it wasn’t something he could have at his home, so he asked if I wanted to buy it off him, which I did. Little did I know it would get me started on a quest to have every KISS album plus special gimmicks…. I have all of their albums up to Unmasked, with the exception of The Elder, which I didn’t hear until a few years ago and which after all that time found disappointingly uninteresting, and I still enjoy the bulk of each album. It’s good solid ’70s rock, very fundamental and strong, and somehow all the posturing pretension of it doesn’t grate on my nerves like it would from any other artist.
Although I think this is one of the ugliest album covers in my collection, it’s a good CD and is only marred by “Hard Luck Woman.” Ace Frehley’s brief solo on “See You In Your Dreams” has for years been one of my favorite bits of melodically flashy electric guitar work, “Ladies Room” has a great sound that just bakes in its slow heat until the guitar solo sears it the last little bit, and even though it took me several years to enjoy it I even like “Baby Driver” now.
Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.