Love gun
| Love gun | ||||
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| Kiss studio album | ||||
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| Label (s) | Casablanca Records | |||
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
32:57 |
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Love Gun is the sixth studio album by the US hard rock band Kiss , released in 1977 on Casablanca Records . It was the band's seventh release on the label . The sound recordings made on the subsequent tour formed the basis for the live album Alive II .
History of origin
Classification in the musical background
The musical history of the Kiss band has several clearly separated phases. The band recorded five studio albums from 1974 to 1976 with Kiss , Hotter Than Hell , Dressed to Kill , Destroyer , Rock and Roll Over , which showed their typical hard rock comparatively consistently and without major deviations. During this time there was also an extremely successful live album , namely 1975 Alive! . This album in particular made the band suddenly known to a large audience. Love Gun can be seen as the final studio album of this first phase, as the group oriented itself to the development of pop music after the release of their second live album, Alive II , and followed the disco trend with their next joint studio album, Dynasty .
Recordings
The recordings for Love Gun took place from May 2 to 22, 1977 under the direction of producer Eddie Kramer in the Record Plant Studios in New York , the budget was 94,000 US dollars for the time . However, that amount was insufficient to cover the actual costs, and under his contract, Eddie Kramer would have been required to pay the overdraft of $ 19,968 out of pocket. On June 21, 1977, the Kiss members decided to share this sum with Kramer because the budget overrun was not entirely his fault.
Love Gun is the first album recorded with the original line-up in which every member of the group takes over the vocals for at least one track . While Peter Criss had sung individual tracks in the past, Ace Frehley made his debut on Love Gun as lead singer on the piece he wrote Shock Me , which was inspired by an accident Frehley had on the Rock and Roll Over tour: As Kiss were performing in Lakeland, Florida on December 12, 1976 , Frehley's hand touched an ungrounded railing and was electrocuted . The concert could be continued after a short break.
Frehley was very nervous when it came to recording the vocals for Shock Me on May 17, 1977 . This nervousness was also the reason why he had always refused to sing his pieces until then, even though he had already written titles for the group's second album, Hotter than Hell . For Rock and Roll Over , the song Queen for a Day was written, which Frehley was supposed to sing, but at the last moment he gave up and the song was never published. He made the vocal recordings for Shock Me in the darkened light lying on his back to cope with his nervousness.
Peter Criss' piece on the album was Hooligan , which he wrote with Stan Penridge . Kramer motivated Criss to sing the song as he had imagined and was thrilled with the performance. The recording took place on May 12, 1977, and Criss still had to edit parts of the text in the studio to adapt it to the music.
Love Gun also included a cover of Then He Kissed Me , the 1969 pop classic from The Crystals , which was retyped for Kiss to Then She Kissed Me . The band also considered recording Go Now by The Moody Blues or Jailhouse Rock for the album, but ultimately settled on the track written by Phil Spector , Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich .
Cover & equipment
The cover of the album was drawn by Ken Kelly and shows Kiss standing above four steps between two columns, surrounded by dark-haired women sitting on the floor, barely dressed and masked with white make-up , who look up at the members of the group. A colored inner cover served as a protective cover for the record, showing a marble surface on which the word "Kiss" was written, apparently in blood. In addition, the buyers of the first edition received a sheet of cardboard with the "Kiss Love Gun" (a handicraft sheet that resulted in a pistol with a hanging flag and the word "Bang") and an order form for merchandise items.
publication
Love Gun was released in the US on June 17, 1977 (in Germany on June 30, 1977) and was immediately awarded gold and platinum for 1,000,000 units sold. The album reached number four on the Billboard 200 , but, as with previous albums by the group, Payola was also involved. As singles were Christine Sixteen ( Billboard Hot 100 : No. 25; Cashbox: 58) and Love Gun (Billboard Hot 100: Place 61; Cashbox: 58) published.
Track list
| number | title | singing | Text and music | length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I stole your love | Paul Stanley | Paul Stanley | 3:04 |
| 2 | Christine Sixteen | Gene Simmons | Gene Simmons | 3:14 |
| 3 | Got love for sale | Gene Simmons | Gene Simmons | 3:29 |
| 4th | Shock Me | Ace Frehley | Ace Frehley | 3:49 |
| 5 | Tomorrow and Tonight | Paul Stanley | Paul Stanley | 3:40 |
| 6th | Love gun | Paul Stanley | Paul Stanley | 3:18 |
| 7th | Hooligan | Peter Criss | Peter Criss and Stan Penridge | 3:01 |
| 8th | Almost human | Gene Simmons | Gene Simmons | 2:49 |
| 9 | Plaster caster | Gene Simmons | Gene Simmons | 3:27 |
| 10 | Then she kissed me | Paul Stanley | Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector | 3:02 |
literature
- Julian Gill: The Kiss Album Focus - Kings of the Night Time World, 1972-1982 ; 3rd edition, KissFaq.com 2008, ISBN 978-0972225373
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rock Power , Article Kiss - The Story , June 1992 Issue, p. 20
- ^ A b c Curt Gooch, Jeff Suhs: Kiss Alive Forever - A Complete Touring History ; Billboard Books 2002, first edition; ISBN 0-8230-8322-5
- ↑ a b c d e David Leaf, Ken Sharp: Kiss: Behind the Mask ; Warner Books, New York, 2003. ISBN 0-446-53073-5
- ↑ KissFAQ image: Love Gun - handicraft sheet . Archived from the original on November 26, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
- ↑ KissFAQ image: Love Gun merchandise order form . Archived from the original on November 26, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
- ↑ Larry Harris: And Party Every Day - The Inside Story of Casablanca Records ; Backbeat Books / Hal Leonard 2009, ISBN 978-0-87930-982-4
- ↑ Billboard Chartinfo
