Wicked Lester
| Wicked Lester | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | skirt |
| founding | 1971 |
| resolution | 1973 |
| Founding members | |
| Gene Simmons | |
| Paul Stanley | |
| Stephen Coronel | |
| Brooke Ostrander († Sept. 3, 2011) |
|
| Tony Zarrella | |
| Last occupation | |
Vocals, electric bass |
Gene Simmons |
Vocals, guitar |
Paul Stanley |
Lead guitar |
Ace Frehley |
Drums |
Peter Criss |
| former members | |
Lead guitar |
Ron Leejack |
Wicked Lester was the name of an American music group from New York City, founded in 1971 , from which the successful hard rock band Kiss emerged in 1973 . Wicked Lester recorded a record produced by Ron Johnson for Epic Records in 1972 , which was never released, but found distribution among collectors as a bootleg . Two of the songs recorded by Wicked Lester were used by Kiss for their 1975 album Dressed to Kill .
Band history
- Rainbow
Wicked Lester emerged from the band Rainbow , which Paul Stanley belonged to. Rainbow guitarist Matt Rael left the group and was replaced by Stephen Coronel, who in turn tried to bring his friend, bassist Gene Simmons , into the band. A first meeting at Coronel's apartment quickly revealed that Stanley and Simmons were not on the same wavelength, but these initial problems were overcome and Simmons joined the band, which at the time also included Tony Zarrella (drums) and Brooke Ostrander (keyboards).
Rainbow tried to find a musical identity with self-written material and also discussed their image. The band therefore rehearsed a lot, but after only one gig the group renamed itself Wicked Lester .
- Wicked Lester
The name change should support the band's change of style. Wicked Lester began to write their own songs because Stanley and Simmons were no longer interested in mainly playing cover versions of foreign titles. Paul Stanley contacted Ron Johnson, who worked at Electric Lady Studios , and he was interested in producing the band and gave the band studio time when there were breaks between recordings by paying artists.
When it became clear that Wicked Lester's material was strong enough to look for a record deal , Stephen Coronel had to leave the band. This was due on the one hand to the fact that Epic found his appearance and demeanor unsuitable, on the other hand it was due to a smoldering argument between him and Paul Stanley. Coronel had no sympathy for the confident Stanley, who seemed to know exactly what and who he wanted to be.
In the fall of 1971, Coronel was replaced by Ron Leejack. Leejack was a session musician and had already done studio recordings and live performances with the band Cactus . By this point, Wicked Lester had completed about half of the recordings it had started, which were completed by July 1972.
The material for the album consisted partly of cover versions and original tracks. However, the group did not succeed in winning a record company for itself, and Stanley and Simmons sought the reasons for this in their fellow musicians. In the end they managed to get a record deal: In a casting, the band played for Epic Records' A&R assistant , Tom Werman . During this audition, all of the band's musicians moved around the stage, with the exception of Leejack, who preferred to play while sitting because he believed he could play better that way.
The album was initially not released, and Simmons and Stanley were not happy with the result. Simmons said in an interview with Fanzine Kiss Kollector , “When we were listening to the album, we realized that while we liked what we were doing, this was not what we wanted. This music wasn't us ”.
The group still rehearsed before Zarrella and Ostrander were fired. Ron Leejack quit shortly afterwards, after which Epic Records canceled the record deal.
Stanley and Simmons continued their work, but decided to take a new musical path. For this they needed a drummer and read the relevant magazines. In the August 31, 1972 issue of Rolling Stone magazine they found an ad from Peter Criss that read : EXPD. ROCK & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music. Peter and invited him to an interview.
In the late autumn of 1972, Stanley and Simmons wanted to find out whether Epic would be interested in working with Wicked Lester despite the conceptual and musical changes. They invited Epic boss Don Ellis to see a concert of the group and offered two dates, namely November 20 and November 28, 1972. Ellis actually appeared, but he soon fled when Paul Stanley on the song Firehouse suddenly grabbed a bucket of water and poured its contents in Ellis' direction. The bucket contained confetti , however, but Ellis was not enthusiastic and left. The band never heard from him again.
Wicked Lester already wore white make-up at this gig and performed as a trio. Stanley and Simmons advertised in the Village Voice newspaper and were looking for a new lead guitarist along the way. Applicants who auditioned for the job included John French, who founded the band Twisted Sister in 1973 , and Bob Kulick , the older brother of later Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick . Kulick got along particularly well with Paul Stanley and had also shown himself to be well suited musically. After Kulick's casting, Ace Frehley auditioned ; initially the band played some pieces by Led Zeppelin with him , then their own material, including Deuce and Firehouse . Two weeks later, Frehley was invited again, played with the band again and shortly afterwards learned that he had been selected as lead guitarist for Wicked Lester.
In January 1973 the group changed their name to Kiss , and Wicked Lester was history.
album
| Wicked Lester / The Laughing Dogs cover |
|---|
| 1972 |
|
Link to the picture |
The album, recorded between November 1971 and July 1972, contained a mixture of self-written titles and cover versions that showed Wicked Lester's eclectic style between rock, folk and pop. Two of the tracks were later recorded and published in other versions of Kiss.
The chorus of the cover version "We Wanna Shout It Out Loud" ( The Hollies ) served as an incentive for Shout it out Loud from the 1976 Kiss album Destroyer , although the two tracks have nothing in common. Love Her All I Can and She reappeared on the Kiss album Dressed to Kill . Love Her All I Can was very similar to the original version, while She no longer contained the original version's flute and congas .
In 1976, when Kiss was on the wave of success with Destroyer , CBS Records , which held the rights to the recordings, remixed the Wicked Lester album to capitalize on Kiss's popularity and release the album by the end of the year. This was prevented by the purchase of the master tapes by Kiss' record company, Casablanca Records ; the rights were divided equally between Kiss and Casablanca.
The cover slated for release was later used by CBS Records for the group's debut album The Laughing Dogs.
Individual evidence
- ^ Dale Sherman: Black Diamond 2 - The Illustrated Collector's Guide to Kiss ; Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc., 1997, ISBN 1-896522-36-X
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Julian Gill: The Kiss Album Focus - Kings of the Night Time World 1972–1982 ; 3rd edition 2008, Kissfaq.com, ISBN 0-9722253-7-4
- ↑ KISStory ; Kisstory Ltd., 1994, Library of Congress Catalog Card 94-73457
- ^ Photo of the original ad in the book Sealed With A Kiss. Lydia Criss Publishing, 2006