OHSC

Black

Exceptionally Fine

Aww yea, Kiss 1977 and the release of Kiss "Alive II". I'll never, for as long as I live forget the Christmas of '77. Being from a small town (Rome, Ga), the buzz in the Junior High hallways across the nation was none other than Kiss and the release of that album. Parents were inundated with adolescent requests for the record and that number just had to be monumental. For us kids, having bragging rights to be the first on the block to have it would be the equivalent of the fat kid in Willy Wonka that falls in the chocolate river. Yes, indulging. To be the first that came back after Christmas vacation proudly sporting just one of those tattoos that came in the insert. For me, it was wearing the ACE tattoo proudly. Do you remember that book that came in gate fold? What was it? Yea, it was "The Evolution of Kiss". Gene Simmons was indeed a master. Call him greedy, but that just didn't matter to a 13 year- old in the 70's. This was as close to sex as kids could ever come at that age. And, about the 20 songs on the album itself? Who cared, because Kiss could have recorded a rendition of "I've Got You Babe' and it would have been musical bliss to me. That is what Kiss meant to me, Ray and millions of other budding rock fans. So, when I see a guitar like this, it takes me right back to side 3 of that record. If you'll remember in "I Stole Your love," when Pauls says, "Guitar"? If you do, then we both have lived a parallel life and you are looking at the very guitar that always brings back the memory. If you don't, then I'm so sorry you missed it.