Gene, Ace, Peter & Paul: A detailed exploration of the 1978 KISS solo albums

If you cannot get enough info about Kiss (like me), then this is another book you'll want to read. It's not the first and last word on the band's solo albums, however. It's mostly "extra" details. For example, nothing in this book comes from the band itself. But it fills in a lot of gaps.POSITIVES (in no particular order)1. It's rare to hear from all the hired guns involved in music production, so this book is a treat. The solo albums are a peculiar part of Kisstory, where they each assembled bands (so to speak) to showcase themselves individually. Lots of people helped make this happen and their views and experiences are not widely known.2. It's past time to reveal who recorded what on Kiss's albums. I learned plenty about who did what on these and other Kiss albums. Clearly 1978 was a turning point as the band started experimenting not only with the band's sound, but with lineups as well. I understand the band's desire to keep up appearances, but I hate believing band members played parts they didn't play. I had always assumed the members played their own instruments on their solo records, but that's not really the case. Glad to see this get cleared up.3. Aside from the solo albums, this book includes other Kiss related events of 1978 including: the Double Platinum record, the "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park" movie, the Kiss card set, and other things going on at that time.4. It's mostly interviews, so it's a very easy read.NEGATIVES (in no particular order)1. A book this size should have comments from the band members themselves. Either call them up for a 10 minute chat or include interviews from 1978 or quote other books. Something. Their absence stood out.2. As much as 100 pages could be trimmed from this book. So many of the interviewees had the same comments about their recording experience. "It was pleasant/low stress." "I did not meet any of the other band members/I have not spoken to them since." "I just played my part in a day and left." "The songs/albums were great." That kind of stuff. I guess Gill was hammering the point that the solo albums were better than people thought at the time.3. Other trim-worthy content: Too much space given to interview comments that had zero to do with Kiss. Is this book really the best place to hear about a choir director's career? How much do I need to know about a guest musician's other bands? Irrelevant conversation could go on for pages. I ended up skimming to find the Kiss related comments.4. Little or no discussion of why Kiss decided to do solo records. That's covered elsewhere, but needs discussed here. Was it really just to placate Ace? How did this evolve into a band event? What was the fallout? Are these records really the reason the band split up later? This book includes other kinds of context, but not in terms of band politics.5. The book is really just a compilation from other sources, mostly from KissFAQ.com. So you'd think they would have at least EDITED the "cut and paste" production. They didn't. It contains egregious typos--the kind where you scan a page on your computer (using OCR) but don't bother to read it to clean up the errors. I'm not talking the "to/too/two" variety; I'm talking the "mis(ake" variety. It is utterly inexcusable. No way anybody read this thing after it was pasted into Quark or Pagemaker or Word.MY COMMENT ABOUT THE SOLO RECORDSDespite being a major band event (4 simultaneous records from the hottest band in America), sales were lackluster compared to expectations. Each was "shipped platinum" (meaning over one million) but since shops could return unsold copies that doesn't mean much. Many were bought out of loyalty. When word of mouth got out, sales declined. So who is to blame? I blame Casablanca. This was a very confusing event. Gill's interviews show that the band never intended to release four "Kiss" albums. All but Ace Frehley intended to do a non-Kiss side project. So for the interviewees, the albums deserve more appreciation than they got because they were quality albums for what they were. But the fans had no idea this was NOT a "Kiss" project. The albums were marketed as a "Kiss" event, not four unrelated events. They were scheduled to be recorded and released simultaneously, as one event. They used the "Kiss" logo, making it appear to be official "Kiss" music. They even used the bands make-up faces on the covers in identical (color-coded) designs. How were the fans to NOT expect four "Kiss" albums? Ace fans got everything they wanted. But while Paul fans got some rocking tunes, much of it was too soft for "Kiss." Gene's fans expected more Almost Human but got Disney. And Peter's fans got an entire album of their dad's music. It's no wonder the solo albums struggled to meet expectations. The fans were sold one thing and bought another. They should have been told up front (not just in random interviews that most would never read) that these were intentional departures from Kiss--complete with non-Kiss covers. Maybe then we all wouldn't have felt cheated out of our money.Personally, I liked the albums at the time. But they still disappointed me. We all expected Gene's to be wall-to-wall God of Thunder. At a time when rock was getting harder, edgier, grittier....Kiss got softer, more sentimental. When you're a teenager, that's darn hard to defend.GRADESo I give this book 3 stars. I took a point away for redundant and irrelevant content, and I took another point away for very sloppy production. It looks like something assembled in Microsoft Word with no effort to fix the images in Photoshop to make them less bland looking. And, of course, the inexcusable lack of even basic editing.

Julian Gill has once again given Kiss fans an excellent tome of insight and information. When I first heard about this book, I wondered "What's the point, if he doesn't interview any of the actual BAND?" Well, there are countless band interviews about these albums, going back to 1978, and now that each member has penned a memoir, I think we've gotten THEIR take. What Gill (and co-author/interviewer Tim McPhate) delivers are all the REST of the players: background singers, producers and engineers, session musicians…the list seems endless. Wanna know about the gear Ace used? It's in here. Curious about how the albums were promoted? Check. Need some insight into how Eraldo Carugati created the iconic covers? You get that too. If a person who worked on or with these records was still alive, Gill/McPhate got their thoughts. It's an incredible piece of Kisstory, and while the "casual" fan (does Kiss even HAVE those?) might find the minutae a tad intimidating, those of us who crave the hidden details are not disappointed. Readers "of an age" (ahem!) will also get a nice bout of nostalgia for ALL of 1978, including a recap of the year's top albums, a few pages about the Kiss made-for-TV movie, and a quick look at the Donruss trading cards from that year. This is likely to be an great bibliographical resource for years to come, important enough that I'm more than willing to forgive the occasional grammatical error or misspelling.

An excellently researched and compelling read on this era of KISS. I'd highly recommend the book to those who believe they know everything there is to know about the solo albums. Far too often, I find myself disappointed with music-related books because the author wastes time telling the reader what he/she believes the songs meant. That isn't the case here, and I was amazed at how much new info is brought to light. Chapter after chapter, page after page, new stories and bits of info are unearthed. It's been quite a while since a KISS-related book was worth reading, but this one far exceeded all of my expectations.

I bought this book mainly for Peter Criss and secondly for Ace frehley I've really never been a fan of Gene Simmons or Paul Stanley and do not fall a kiss since Peter and Ace of left I think it's just a cover band now

If you're a KISS obsessive who thinks you know everything about the quartet's 1978 solo albums, this is the book for you. The authors take a deep dive into the making of these records and the reception they received from the public. Well worth the 10 bucks or so I paid for the Kindle copy. Recommended.

detailed is not the word.....super detailed is the word.....only thing missing is them talking about the gear they used on the recording (drums, guitars, etc...)

Very thorough, one can argue almost too thorough, because there were a lot of anecdotes and stories that were needless. Despite that, a well-researched and documented look at the solo record era.

Great book- made up mostly of interviews with musicians, recording engineers, and producers. lots of insight into the different styles used by the four members of Kiss in recording their solo albums

Another great KISS book by the author lots of great insight to events leading up to the release of the solo albums.Thing that disappoints me is the Larry Harris interview criticism of the songs there are some great songs on them

This book goes well into detail on the solo albums. So much so, that it is not for the casual fan. Fortunately, I no casual fan. I was particularly happy to read the parts on Ace's album. Anton Fig & especially Eddie Kramer gave some very useful info.The general data on the albums is also very well researched and useful.A highly entertaining read and certainly recommendable for fans of the classic Kiss period!

very pleased

Love KISS and love the format of this book. Learned all sorts of things. I have bought his other book as well, but this is the best one.

Very interesting and detailed review of the solo albums