KISS "Love Gun" Song Rankings
Let's number them 1-10, power rankings style.
I’m currently reading the last of the four autobiographies written by the original members of the band KISS, which was pretty clearly my first favorite band way back in the mid-1970s. I first came across KISS while watching a Paul Lynde Halloween special on TV, and around that same time my friend Scott had the band’s Alive! album and we listened to that two-LP set constantly. I got my own copy and from there I continued to get new KISS albums whenever they dropped.
There was visually nothing like KISS at the time, so it was easy for them to grab my attention at a time when my interest in music was just starting to coalesce. That was at a point in my childhood when I started to recognize songs that I liked (or didn’t like) when they came on the radio. I was starting to develop tastes and different kinds of music were starting to imprint upon me in new and different ways.
Getting back to those autobiographies…they had been on my reading radar for a while, but in recent years I have spent much more time on social media and scanning the internet than reading books for pleasure. I have gotten back into that of late, and decided it was time to read those four particular books. If I'd thought about it, I would probably have read them in the order they were published, because some of what was written was clearly in response to something another band member had written. Instead, I read them in the order I liked the "characters" in KISS when I was a kid: Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, Gene Simmons, and Paul Stanley. Reading those books has led me back to my old records (now on CD instead of vinyl or cassette) and hours of listening to KISS on Spotify as well.
I started thinking about the different albums and how they stack up against each other. (Perhaps an album ranking story is in my future.) I toyed with stealing an idea from a blog post I read that ranks every Beatles song and applying it to KISS. However, ranking all of KISS’s songs seemed a bit time consuming and daunting. Instead, I figured I might one day rank the albums anyway, so for now, why not start ranking the tracks on each album from best to worst?
I didn’t choose Love Gun for any particular reason. It’s not my favorite KISS record and it’s not the first I owned. But I happened to have it on my mind, so I made it my starting point. Feel free to let me know what you think I got right or wrong in the comments below.
Love Gun – The title track is a cracker. Paul wrote this one and it turned into one of the band’s signature songs. It starts off with a drum and guitar staccato intro and goes into one of the band’s coolest power chord riffs ever. Paul sings the hell out of it, too. Paul claims this song was inspired by a section of Led Zeppelin’s “How Many More Times,” at the point when Robert Plant sings “they call me the hunter…” and you can hear the influence if you pay attention. Criss’s drumming seems heavier than usual to perhaps capture some of that John Bonham power, but is it Criss? Both Gene and Paul have talked about how the band often had to bring in replacements to record drums and guitars during this era due to Peter’s drug problems and Ace’s alcoholism. Different band members dispute how much was done by replacement musicians. Whoever it is did a great job.
Shock Me – Ace Frehley’s lone writing contribution on the album is a really good one. He may not be the smoothest vocalist, but his voice is fine for what KISS tries to do. Legend has it that the idea for the song came from an actual incident in which he sustained an electrical shock while walking onto the stage for a show on the Rock and Roll Over tour. The guitar work on this song is excellent — the solo is one of the best in the KISS catalog — and I like the call-and-answer vocals in the chorus. Not a bad way for Ace to debut as a KISS vocalist.
I Stole Your Love – the album opener is a rocker, setting the tone with a nice, up-tempo riff. Stanley lets you know you’re in for a good time with a loud “ALL RIGHT!” at the start of the show. It’s a simple enough song. Stanley sings the verses over some power chords. We know by this time in KISS’s career that guest musicians were brought in to record some of Ace’s and Peter’s parts, but Ace reportedly performed the solo late in the song and it’s a solid one. Good opener and an all-around great song.
Hooligan – Here we get a contribution from Peter Criss, rocking out with his raspy voice on lead vocals. Criss and Stan Penridge wrote this one together and it lyrically harkens back to Peter’s school days, when he ran with a rough crowd. This is a rocker of a track and for me it has stood up well over time. The lyrics aren’t great (“I’m a hooligan, won’t go to school again.” Yikes!) but it rocks, so it’s forgivable. KISS lyrics in general can be iffy.
Plaster Caster – Oh look, Gene Simmons wrote a song about groupies wanting to get a plaster mold of his junk. This is probably the most Gene Simmons song ever. But if he’s going to sing the praises of his own manhood, at least it’s catchy and has a strong guitar riff. (Side note: Reading through the four band members’ autobiographies is like reading the world’s most tiresome dick-measuring contest. Yes, we get it, all four of you had lots of sex and you were so good at it. Yawn.) Honestly, a lot of the KISS sexual references are laugh-out-loud funny at this point. Overall, this is a good song, regardless.
Tomorrow and Tonight – Paul started getting pretty good at writing anthemic type songs from Dressed to Kill onward, and this is one of those. It’s a great singalong song. It doesn’t necessarily sound like a KISS song, per se, but it’s just a fun, melodic, catchy song with a decent guitar solo and background keyboards by producer Eddie Kramer.
Christine Sixteen – This song plays a lot differently to me now than it did when it was released. I turned 11 years old in 1977. It wasn’t apparent to me at the time how creepy the lyrics of this song are and knowing what I know now about Simmons’ life, it feels pretty icky if I think about the lyrics for more than a split second (“she’s been around but she’s young and clean.” Ugh.). That said, it’s a catchy song with keyboards added by Kramer over a solid bassline and it has a good harmony vocal on the chorus. There’s a riff in here that was sampled later by Tone Loc that people might recognize.
Then She Kissed Me – Originally a hit for the Crystals in 1963, this is a seemingly strange song for KISS to do. It isn’t a bad cover, but this is not a KISS-style song at all and it feels a bit out of place. At least they stuck it on the end of the album to limit the jarring effect. There’s a very cool solo in it that gets doubled at the end. It doesn’t sound like an Ace solo to me, so maybe this was done on one of those recording days when Ace flaked out.
Almost Human – I’ll admit I didn’t care much for this song when I got the album back in the late 1970s. It’s grown on me a bit over the years. There’s something reminiscent of Black Sabbath about the music, but Simmons’ vocals on this one are kind of meh and the falsetto “I’m almost humaaaaaaaan” chorus comes off sounding a bit weak instead of haunting.
Got Love for Sale – This Simmons track is one of the more forgettable songs on the band’s second “trilogy” of albums (which also includes the preceding Destroyer and Rock and Roll Over) in my opinion. I do like the “have love, will travel” repeating vocal line but the call and answer “whoa no’s” are pretty lame, as are the fadeout vocals. It does have a cool guitar solo at the fadeout, which is at least in Ace’s style if it isn’t Ace.
Those are my Love Gun song rankings. Your mileage may vary. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.