By Michael Baginski/ It’s hard to appreciate now just how subversive – or at least cool – KISS was when they came on the scene in the ’70s. Just like trying to explain to the younger generation how groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper was when everything that followed ultimately rendered it mainstream.
All of which is to say, I had a poster of KISS – and the now dearly departed Ace Frehley – on my bedroom wall, as many kids did in those days. I also memorably saw them in concert at Maple Leaf Gardens after which I couldn’t hear properly for three days.
Frehley (pronounced free-ly), who died last week at age 74, was lead guitarist and the painted and costumed Spaceman to Paul Stanley’s Lover, Gene Simmons’ Devil, and Peter Criss’s Cat – and is the first of the band’s original core four to leave us.
To be sure, KISS didn’t remain cool as the band later morphed into comic book characters – literally – no longer daring; but Frehley et al still hold a special place for those who were rock and rolling every night, and partying every day.
The Spaceman eventually left KISS amidst great acrimony with band leaders Stanely and Simmons, returned, and left again, but it should be noted that when the four members released coordinated solo albums (still in KISS costume) in 1978, Frehley’s effort proved unexpectedly the most successful, validating his decision to ultimately leave the band and go solo, then form his own outfit, Frehley’s Comet (sans makeup).
Sadly, the bad blood prevented Ace from performing with the band when it was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, though he would subsequently appear again occasionally with KISS for shows in later years. A 2023 concert at Madison Square Garden was billed as the band’s last and a few weeks ago, Frehley cancelled his own tour due to medical concerns (which in hindsight were fatal).
Here’s his hit song, a cover of “Back in the New York Groove” from that 1978 solo album (performed on Jimmy Fallon some 35 years later).
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