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

Dedicated to

Eric The Weasel Wenzel

A True Friend & Navy Ace

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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 Id 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. Its 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-1990s; 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 lions 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 Dads 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 Sugarmans 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 Bowies 1980 Floor Show the year before on The Midnight Special, and certainly by Alice Coopers appearance on In Concert that same year, a show that was banned in many small towns around the country. I still dont 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 Larrys 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 its the first KISSsong I heard through serious stereo speakers, I dont 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 hear the instrumental nowadays it takes me back to partying at Myrtle Beach nearly 40 years ago. What?!

I know there was a bit of controversy when they reissued the album and added Kissin Time. Its been well documented in other KISS books, so I will not retell the story of the KISSING contest and the band recording the 1960s pop song. What I will say is, I loved it. Matter of fact, there wasnt a song by KISS that I didnt like at that time.

Back during the early-70s, I had met a guy named Doug Hooper after watching him perform during the high school talent show. I was really taken aback by Dougs guitar playing with his three-piece band when they rocked out on All Along the Watchtower.I started going over to Dougs house almost every afternoon. My sister had bought me a Conrad bass guitar for my birthday, and I really had dreams of learning to play like Gene Simmons. Hooper was an ultra-talented guy, and also very laid-back. Not many people would have given me the time of day at that point, but he encouraged me to learn some songs on the bass. He taught me to play a few songs by Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Mountain - but he knew what a big KISS fan I was,so he taught me the bass parts for several of the songs from the first KISS album. It seems like only yesterday I was playing the bass line to Deuce and Strutter.I would eventually decide that the bass was not my instrument of choice, and I soon moved into six-string guitar. But those initial jam sessions with Doug lit a fire in me that could never be put out.

Although I had purchased the debut KISS album on eight-track tape, I had to have the vinyl album. Back then I wanted everything those guys released. So I saved up my grass-cutting money and went to K-Mart. In retrospect, the bands debut album stands the test of time as one of their best ever. From the beginning Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley chose to write songs about sex and rock n roll. They never encouraged drug use, and the closest they ever came to endorsing alcohol was Aces song, Cold Gin. If only I had a dollar for every time I used that fact in defending my love of the band to my parents back then.

By the time the New York rockers rolled into Greenville, SC for the first time in 1974, I had purchased their new second album Hotter Than Hell. It was another good one, and the cover design was absolutely off the chain. It still sits at the top of my list of best album covers.

Now, mere months before KISS debuted in the old Brown Box (Greenville Memorial Auditorium) in Greenville, SC, Larry and I had attended a rocking show at the auditorium that starred Black Oak Arkansas. The band had a huge following in our area, with singer Jim Dandy Mangrum going all out to entertain the masses. As a side note, I really feel that without Jim Dandy, there would not have been a David Lee Roth. Well, there would have been, but the Van Halen vocalists stage moves would have most likely been different. Shortly after their appearance in Greenville, BOA hit it big with a remake of the LaVerne Baker hit Jim Dandy (to the Rescue).