This is where it all began for me and KISS. My buddy Vince lent me his cassette of Alive II which I listened to when moving downstairs into my older brother's vacated bedroom and out from under the aegis of my parents. My own pad, so to speak, at a time when the discovery of (and obsession for) rock and roll was still blossoming and taking deep root. This 1977 double album has it all for any budding KISS fan, the songs are energetic, fun, instantly memorable and as a bonus you get one side of new studio cuts at the end. Funnily enough, as a teenager, I was competely oblivious to lyrics in music. I'm still that way. I hear the "shapes" of music when I listen, not the words. So when Paul Stanley is shouting "You pulled the trigger of my love gun", it just didn't register to my naive ears that it is overtly sexual. I would sing along and not even realize what I was saying. When Gene Simmons (a grown man), in his little monologue in Christine Sixteen, says, "I don't usually say things like this to girls your age, but when I saw you coming out of school that day I knew...I've got to have you...I'VE GOT TO HAVE YOU!!!"...it didn't register how wrong and ridiculous that is. I just didn't hear any of that. The guitars and drums were my drug. And when you're dealing with a band as crude as KISS, it's probably for the best if you tune out the lyrics otherwise you might not respect yourself in the morning for being a fan.
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