KISS – QUOTES: PART 1 of 2
7:35 – FOOLISH, NAIVETE, or BELIEF/VISION
“I had an epiphany.. It was a revelation to me. I’m a little, overweight kid named Stanley Bert Eisen. I’m deaf in one ear. But I see The Beatles and I go, ‘I can do that. I can touch that nerve. Why I thought that, God only knows.”
– Paul Stanley
Y
11:30 – FATE, LUCK, OR SO BE IT.
“In my neighborhood in Queens (New York) there was a head shop (smoke shop), and I was hanging out there, because I seemed to fit in there better than going to Little League or anything of that sort. And one day I came in and they said, ‘Hey, a guy was in this morning from Electric Lady (a music recording studio).’ And that was like somebody from Valhalla (Viking heaven), you know, somebody from, you know, some hallowed ground. And they said, ‘Yeah we got his phone number for you.’ And it had a scribbled name…Ron (Ron Johnson, producer at Electric Lady). So I call up Electric Lady, and I say, ‘Hey, can I please speak to Ron?’ I called back over and over, and over incessantly. And, finally, one day I said, ‘You tell him that it’s because of people like him that bands like mine break up. And that– that did it…just getting through the door at the top of these stairs was monumental.”
– Paul Stanley
*Ron Johnsen finally called back and Gene and Paul finally got a chance to make music in Electric Lady studio.
14:25
The name of the 1st band that Paul and Gene were a part of was called Wicked Lester. By their own admission all they did was follow the trends of other bands. If a hit song had flutes they put flutes in a song, if a hit song had a guitar solo they added a guitar solo to the next song, if a hit song had a piano rift they had a piano rift piano rift in the next song they did.. They were void of any identity or substance or originality as a band. Ironically they got a record deal almost immediately. However when they listened to their album the reaction to their own songs was “This is soul-less, this is bsll-less, just a neutered hodgepodge of music…The sound was generic and we didn’t want to be generic.”
They actually got paid a large amount of money for the album ended up quitting because in their own words, “It wasn’t satisfying…This wasn’t the direction for us. We had to scrap it in order to get back on the path that we should have been on.”
They began from scratch all over again, but this time stayed true to themselves and their art (music). Gene said, “We started over…with all these songs that felt finally right.” Paul added, ” We made it a point to only have one sound and that this would be identifiable. So we immediately started to hone in on what we wanted to do, who we wanted to be.”
21:10 – SERK AND YE SHALL FIND
After Gene and Paul recorded the original songs they were happy with they then had to go out and find a drummer and lead guitarist. They literally hooked up with Peter Chris when Gene saw an ad in the paper by a drummer looking for a band and he called from a payphone.
Peter Criss remembered that conversation as follows:
“I got this crazy call from the bass player, Gene.He goes, ‘Are you skinny?’ I said, ‘Yeah.”He goes, “You have long hair?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ Would you like to wear makeup? Would you do anything? Would you wear a dress on stage?” And I said, ‘Yeah, I’d do anything to make it.’ And he goes, ‘Well, come on down.'”
22:20
To find a lead guitarist, it was Jean and Paul who put an ad in the paper this time around.
Lead guitarist wanted with Flash and balls was the original ad, but the paper made them change it to flash and ability.
23:00 – WHEN YOU KNOW, YOU JUST KNOW
Paul & Gene upon hearing Ace Frehley play at the audition for lead guitarist.
“The kid started playing and I knew right then and there that we had it…Not because we were great, but there was something sonically happening. The four of us got together, and there was something going on that was undeniable. The sum greater than
its parts. This is the band.”
– Paul Stanley
” I guess it’s like love. When you fill it, it’s instantaneous and you know when it’s real. He started playing and I don’t know what I can say. We fell in love”
– Gene Simmons
25:12 – AUTHENTICITY/BEING YOURSELF
Originally, Gene and Paul joined with 3 other guys to start a band named, Wicked Lester.
“No matter who you aspire to be, you’re never going to be better at being them than they are, so you gotta be the best you.”
– Paul Stanley
26:00 – SHRIVEL/WILT OR ?????
Excuse or Exceed/Exclaim/Exorcise
Go to your knees OR Go for the jugular
Go away OR Go for it
Give ([)in/up) OR Give it all you got
I can remember being in 3rd grade and my teacher had me come up to the front of the room so she could look at my ear. I felt incredibly degraded. “But really your choice in life is to use being a victim as an excuse or you suit up.”
– Paul Stanley
33:11
“I never wanted to be the best band in New York. I wanted to be the best band in the world.”
– Paul Stanley
33:20
“Everything we did, we did ourselves. You know, we had to create ourselves, design our own logos, literally make our own clothes. We took a black T-shirt, put glue in the KISS logo, and then poured glitter on it. Do whatever it is you gotta do to set yourself apart. Just figure out yourself what makes you special. We created kiss out of nowhere, out of our imagination.
– Gene Simmons
35:50
“Those first demos, I put them on today, still sounds good, because it’s honest.
– Gene Simmons
36:00
There’s a purity and a naivete about it (the first 5-song demo KISS ever did). The passion was undeniable.
– Paul Stanley
“Eddie Kramer (the music lroducer/engineer of their first music demo tape) just let us be authentically us.”
– Gene Simmons
“It was the Beatles in the 60’s
It’s KISS in the 70’s”
– Narrator 1
“There is a reason for the extraordinary successive KISS. It has something to do with their music. But it has more to do with the way they are hyped and packaged.”
– Narrator 2
“That’s the genius thing about the band, the characters. The makeup seemed to sort of invent these personalities for each of them. And off stage, they were as mysterious as they were on stage. Getting a picture of kiss without the makeup was like getting a fucking picture of bigfoot.”
– Dave Grohl of Nirvana & The Foo Fighters
“When it comes to branding and merchandising …nobody can out-merch KISS.”
– Dave Grohl of Nirvana & The Foo Fighters
“No matter what anybody says, fame is a very powerful drug. It can kill your creativity. It can kill your desire to progress. I don’t think anybody goes through it unscathed. Sometimes people talk about, ‘Oh, fame changed so-and-so.’ Fame doesn’t change you. It allows you to be the asshole you are.”
– Paul Stanley