{"id":101887,"date":"2025-05-14T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/101887\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T22:14:09","slug":"the-song-that-took-ace-frehley-over-a-decade-to-complete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/101887\/","title":{"rendered":"The song that took Ace Frehley over a decade to complete"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ace<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ b8ddy h8lly)<\/p>\n

Wed 14 May 2025 20:15, UK <\/p>\n

The whole idea behind Kiss<\/a> in the very beginning was simple: They wanted to be a unit and have complete creative freedom within that unity. While many people will argue that the makeup and pyrotechnics were just good markings, there was a lot more to the band than that. <\/p>\n

When Paul Stanley was initially asked why he and the band were so keen on wearing make-up and inhabiting these characters, he said it was because he had grown frustrated with bands\u2019 image, and how it didn\u2019t look like musical outfits were separate entities. \u201cThose \u201860s British groups all looked like real bands. No member of The Beatles could have fit into the Stones. No member of The Who could have been in the Dave Clark Five,\u201d said Stanley, \u201cYou had unified images of those bands, and at the same time, there was an emphasis on the individual members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gene Simmons added that their make-up didn\u2019t just mean they looked like a unit, but they also had complete creative freedom. \u201cWe also took pride in having the same freedom The Beatles had,\u201d confirmed Simmons, \u201cTheir philosophy was, \u2018No matter what kind of music we do, it\u2019s still The Beatles\u2019. That\u2019s what was amazing about them\u2026 The Beatles were not trapped in that way. They could do music hall, psychedelia \u2013 anything \u2013 and they did. Yet somehow it always sounded like The Beatles.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can certainly hear this creative freedom in their music, as while some of their records, such as Sonic Boom and Animalize, the band leaned heavily into their rock roots; however, they decided to apply disco sounds on their record Dynasty. Despite the changes in sound, the records are fundamentally Kiss, and nobody has ever questioned whether the sound is too left field for the band. <\/p>\n

The image of the band brought with it a strange sense of unity<\/a>. Even when members fell out with one another, it looked as though everything was fine within the band. Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons might be arguing, sure, but their characters in the lineup are alive and well, still rocking out to some of the greatest rock music ever made. <\/p>\n

The band could only ever work as a unit, which is why Ace Frehley\u2019s solo career didn\u2019t take off in the way that he would have liked. Frehley contributed a great deal to Kiss\u2019s music, as he was a fantastic guitar player; however, it apparently wasn\u2019t enough for the rest of the band, and so he left to pursue his own projects. <\/p>\n

This created a very frosty relationship between Frehley and Simmons<\/a>, as while Frehley said he left because of creative differences, Simmons said that the guitarist was fired because he couldn\u2019t control his substance abuse. Simmons went as far to call Frehley a \u201ccancer,\u201d and the two still have a troubled relationship to this day. <\/p>\n

Frehley tried his best to have a successful career outside of the band following his fallout with Simmons, and while he succeeded to some degree, he never achieved the same heights he managed with the band. Despite still wearing his Kiss makeup when performing as a solo artist, there was no getting over the fact that people were more interested in his character as a member of Kiss than they were him as an individual. <\/p>\n

That being said, there is no escaping the fact that he wrote some great songs as a solo artist. One of his most famous is \u2018New York Groove\u2019, which has succeeded in making its way onto the soundtracks of Hollywood movies and is considered a classic by all those who hear it. It shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that Frehley was capable of writing great songs, he had been doing for Kiss for years, and even though his connection to the band was severed, his connection to his art wasn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Frehley has never put anything other than 100% into his work, which is best reflected in his track \u2018Starship\u2019. The song highlights Frehley\u2019s unwavering approach to music, as he will never rush a song. If it doesn\u2019t sound right, it won\u2019t be released, which is why it took him so long to get this track out. He began writing it in the mid-2000s but didn\u2019t end up releasing the track until 2014, as he couldn\u2019t quite figure out how the song should sound. Eventually, the track evolved into something finished, but it took him a while to get the sound perfect. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just evolved,\u201d he said in an interview, \u201cAnd it\u2019s just amazing how it all turned out with all its different sections and the picking part at the end reminiscent of \u2018Fractured Mirror\u2019, I think I\u2019m real happy with the way that one turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frehley doesn\u2019t get the credit he deserves as a solo artist, as his career is somewhat cursed thanks to his tenure in Kiss. While this might have put him on the map, it also stopped him from being recognisable as a single entity. If he wasn\u2019t a part of that famous unit, a lot of people didn\u2019t pay attention to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

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