For a group that performed in garish makeup and costumes amid explosions and fire-breathing, it’s perhaps not surprising that Kiss did not often get much respect as musicians. Yet the band’s co-founder and lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, who passed away Thursday after suffering injuries in a fall last month, was a dyed-in-the-wool musician. He was born to a family of musicians, received an electric guitar as a 13-year-old and never stopped playing — his last concert took place just over a month ago.
With Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the Who as his stated primary influences, he began playing in bands as a teenager, joined Kiss in his early twenties, and within a couple of years was one of the most influential rock guitarists in the world, inspiring multiple generations of musicians with his fiery playing and flashy stage presence. He played with Kiss from its formation in late 1972 through 1982, then returned for reunion tours and an album in 1996 before going solo for good six years later.
Below are 10 of his greatest musical moments, with Kiss and solo.
Kiss, “Cold Gin” (1974)
This first track that Frehley wrote for his still-new quartet’s 1974 debut album was a live favorite and a highlight of the band’s breakthrough, “Kiss Alive!” His lyrics are an ode to the the abilities of this chilled cocktail to act as an aphrodisiac, and unfortunately foreshadowed his later struggles with alcohol.
Kiss, “Black Diamond” (1974)
Don’t let the acoustic intro to “Black Diamond” fool you. Frehley’s needle-in-the-red, string-bending solo slips eerily into the sound effect of a tape slowing down, and slurring. The band didn’t bother with such details in a live setting, revving up in time to their onstage pyrotechnics.
Kiss, “100,000 Years” (live, 1975)
Very little of Kiss’ music could be considered jazzy, but drummer Peter Criss, a Gene Krupa aficionado, could swing the band when the occasion called for it. Frehley picks up on the drummer’s simmering syncopation hereand unleashes a banshee-like howl of a solo that still clings to the band’s rhythm.
Kiss, “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em” (1976)
A brawny Gene Simmons-penned track is given light, air and a vintage “Space Ace” solo. More improvisational and experimental than many of his solos, it features a Mick Ronson-ish toggle-flipping stutter toward the end.
Kiss, “Shock Me” (1977)
The “Love Gun” album has a handful of impressive pop metal moments, but none as dramatic and endearing as this track, Frehley’s debut as a lead vocalist. Above Simmons’ thundering bass line, Frehley announces that singing debut with a six-string solo that throws the kitchen sink into disarray with long phase shifts that that roll around the song’s elastic chorus.
Ace Frehley, “New York Groove” (1978)
The four members of Kiss simultaneously released solo albums in September of 1978, and fans were stunned when Frehley’s turned out to be the best, considered by many to be on a par with the band’s last couple of studio albums. Designed for maximum glam rock tartness with T. Rexian guitar sizzle, Frehley takes this Russ Ballard-written stomper and gives it a pouty, poppy, vocal, boosted by pristine production from the legendary Eddie Kramer.
Frehley’s Comet, “Rock Soldiers” (1987)
For the first Frehley’s Comet album, Frehley looked in the mirror for this cowrite with Chip Taylor (who wrote both “Angel of the Morning” for Merilee Rush and “Wild Thing” for the Troggs). He took a sobering look at his 1983 arrest following a high-speed chase with police (for which he received a DUI and reckless driving charge) and boosted the message with a literal guitar army: 20 guitarists who were in attendance at a seminar for Queens, NY’s Musicians’ Institute’s Guitar Institute of Technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1II4NX_4tlc&list=RD1II4NX_4tlc&start_radio=1
Kiss, “Into the Void” (1998)
The original members-in-make-up Kiss reunion would have been just another big-sounding Bruce Fairbairn pop-metal album of the era (Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet,” Aerosmith’s “Pump”). That is, until the album’s sole Ace-written track comes on, and lifts the proceedings with thick, energetic chords and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DlE3Aq6dLIhis most bravura-filled vocals since “New York Groove.”
Ace Frehley, “Fractured Quantum” (2009)
For all of his solo albums’ snotty Bronx attitude-laden vocals and spryer-than-Kiss rhythms, Frehley’s “Anomaly” 2009’s found a genuine rarity in “Fractured Quantum (Instrumental),” a driving, wordless track that builds from a quiet, birds-tweeting beginning to an artful set of melodies, moods, techniques and tones.
Ace Frehley, “Mission to Mars” (2018)
For his last album of original material, “Space Ace” did what his image had always promised: He went to Mars. This ferociously pulsating track features what sounds like 10 menacing fuzztoned guitars, topped by one of his patented solos.
