Pulling The Trigger For 45 Years! Love Gun Anniversary

You know, the term ‘old bastard’ gets thrown in my direction a few times, but when you got to be a child in the Seventies, you can throw any name at me you like… the Seventies were the BEST times to be a kid. No contest! Social Media and the internet were all years away and a figment of one’s imagination. In the Seventies one grew up alongside Star Wars, King Kong, Planet Of The Apes, Dragster bicycles, bubble gum and hanging with your friends every day. In the Seventies… one also grew up a KISS fan!

I won’t bore anyone with the gory details on how your’s truly initially got corrupted to the ways of the Knights In Satan’s Service, but by 1977 and the time of the Love Gun release, I was already entrenched within the ranks of the KISS Army.

Yours truly as Ace in 1977

So here we are today, 45 years later, celebrating this classic album’s anniversary. Love Gun is the last album the original four all played on. It is also the album that features all four singing lead on a song. It is an album regarded as the end of the classic era of KISS and before the infighting and malarky nearly brought the band to an untimely end.

Looking back over history, there would have been no harder working band than KISS. By 1977, the band was barely four years old yet already they had released six studio albums, a live album, toured the US extensively as well as trekking over to Europe and Japan. It was a blitzkrieg schedule that had no signs of letting up. I firmly believe had the band slowed things down a little, the original four would have lasted a helluva lot longer than they did.

Ultimately, this ferocious schedule continued during and after the Love Gun release as within the very next year, the band had released another live album, a greatest hits album, four solo albums and the ill fated movie KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park.

At the time, none of us fans knew of the inner turmoil happening within our heroes so we lapped everything brandishing a KISS logo our way.

I remember buying the Love Gun album for a mere $6.99 from Pet Sounds Records which was about a block away from where I lived. The Australian pressing was a typical flimsy and thin vinyl record and sleeve manufactured by Astor Records. Unlike the US pressing, Australian KISS fans did not get the inner sleeve, merchandise sheet and paper gun. However, the Australian pressing did have a different back cover than the rest of the world with past KISS records printed on the rear sleeve.

The rear of the Australian Pressing of Love Gun

When I first got the record home, I played it from SIDE B first with the song ‘Love Gun’ opening proceedings. To this day, I find it hard to listen to the album any other way as I got so used to playing SIDE B first. I discovered my mistake many years later and felt weird listening to it with ‘I Stole Your Love’ as the opening track!

The cover art to Love Gun was once again painted by artist Ken Kelly who had done such a magnificent job on the previous album Destroyer. The initial art presented to the band was considerably different to what became the final cover. The original Love Gun sketch featured the band at a backstage door opening into a laneway full of female fans. When Gene first saw the art, it was rejected immediately with Gene instructing Kelly to “make it grander! We are a bigger band now! This needs to be regal!”

Original sketch idea for the Love Gun cover by Ken Kelly

Ken Kelly returned to the easel using his wife as model for all the vamps at the foot of the band and himself in various poses as the band.

Kelly uses himself as a model for the band poses, whilst his wife does the vamps.

The Review

I Stole Your Love

Kicking off with a ball-tearer of a song, I Stole Your Love sets the pace for the beginnings of one classic Hard Rock album. I Stole Your Love shuffles along on top of some rock-steady drumming by Peter Criss. This is Criss’ peak as a drummer as from this point onwards, things begin to regress for him. It’s as Classic Kiss as you can get with great sing-a-long chorus’ and a great Paul Stanley lead guitar break. It was the tour opener during the Love Gun and subsequent Alive II tours of the US and Canada.
(10/10)

Christine Sixteen

A simplistic Gene Simmons ditty lusting over underage girls and spying on them whilst they leave school. Yeah, 1977! A time where you can sing about ‘young and clean’ girls and not get arrested. Love the beautiful snare sound on this track which was sampled many years later on the track Funky Cold Medina by Tone-Loc!
(8/10)

Got Love For Sale

Another Simmons track which features the entire band on all cylinders. Again kicked on superbly by Criss’ drumming with some great fills and ride work throughout. Midway we have an absolutely classic and vintage Ace Frehley guitar solo that blisters forth. More great guitars by Ace as the track leads to fade out.
(9/10)

Shock Me

A first for KISS at the time, an Ace Frehley lead vocal on the track ‘Shock Me’. A fantastic rocking number which again features some great drumming from Criss whilst Simmons and Stanley handle all the back and forth backing vocals. A brilliant Ace Frehley guitar solo embellishes this track beautifully. Word has it when they played the song for the first time in Japan, Ace broke out in hysterics as the singing Japanese fans sounded like they were singing ‘Chopped Meat’ back at the Spaceman instead of ‘Shock Me’.
(10/10)

Tomorrow And Tonight

Not a fave track amongst KISS fans, but this is one I always loved and appreciated. An old school Rock And Roll song with great sing-a-long chorus from the band. It swings nicely and grooves even better. A great way to wrap things up on the first side of this album and it always felt as if this was another attempt by KISS to create an anthem along the lines of ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and ‘Rock And Roll All Nite”.
(8/10)

Love Gun

Quite possibly one of the greatest KISS songs ever written. Bombastic and features the absolute best from each member musically. A scintillating guitar solo from Frehley, some great drumming from Criss (although Paul Stanley argues this day that Peter couldn’t get the kicks right so all of the bass drum work was re-recorded by a session player!)
(10/10)

Hooligan

Peter Criss takes lead vocals on this one. As always, when the Catman sings, there is no mistaking his brilliant vocals and this bad boy tune shines all the way through.
(9/10)

Almost Human

This always felt like a Gene Simmons rewrite of God Of Thunder. A deliciously evil song that pumps along with an insatiable jungle feeling sinister groove! A great track that is perfect for Gene’s demon persona and a killer reversed lead solo makes the song sound even more maddening and twisted.
(10/10)

Plaster Caster

As we stated, it’s 1977, you can quite comfortably sing about plaster cast of your appendage and not think twice about said fact. Another Simmons track which goes to show how prolific Gene was in the seventies.
(8/10)

Then She Kissed Me

Love Gun comes to a bit of an anti-climactic conclusion with the cover of ‘Then He Kissed Me’ – flipped to the more macho title of ‘Then She Kissed Me’. Not a fan favourite to be honest but I always dug the band’s version of this Rock N Roll hit.
(7/10)