With their makeup and outfits, Kiss have always been a theatrical rock band. When they began in the early 1970s, they were something new and bold. They were leading the way for heavier rock, setting themselves apart from the classic rock and roll crowd. But as time went on, and as is always the case for pioneers, the rest of the world caught up, and soon, the band had regrets.
Regret is a harsh word, though. For a band like Kiss, you’d hope that they don’t have many, given the scale of success they’ve hit. They were a group that levelled everything up, daring other acts to be bolder, be more maximalist and be more out there, both in terms of their live shows and staging.
But a pioneer can’t be a pioneer for long. As is always the case for artists forging a new path, others will soon start walking it, and people will soon walk steps ahead. Kiss definitely felt that, not so much in terms of their unrivalled showmanship but simply in the fact that while they opened the door to heavier rock, more modern acts absolutely kicked it down.
All of this comes back to one song, and one of the band’s biggest hits – ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’. Gene Simmons can still recall the exact moment when Paul Stanley first brought the track to the band, so much so that he gave Howard Stern a playback of the exact conversation.
“So he walks in, ‘got an idea for you’, ‘what’s it called?’, ‘I Was Made For Loving You’, ‘Ah that’s great’”, Simmons remembered. For the next part, for a truly immersive effect, let’s lay this out like a script as the bassist gave a line-by-line rundown of the moment the track was introduced.
“‘What’s the first line?’” Simmons began, and the rest went like this:
“‘Tonight’
‘What’s the second line?’
‘I wanna give it all to you.’
‘Yeah, I know what it is, that’s cool.’
‘In the darkness.’
‘In the darkness? Yeah, that rocks’
‘Something I wanna do’
‘That’s really cool! What’s my part?’”