RIP Ace Frehley

[Bubbler]

Listening to "Rocket Ride"? Stone Temple Pilots would not exist if not for the song.

 

[SixToe]

My father shook his head and looked at me like I had a disease when I showed him my Alive! album. Unsure if he knew when I bought Destroyer and Alive II. I had Rock and Roll Over on 8-track (I think).

Cheesy, campy, loud af and I loved it. Army member.

The daughter of a friend of mine in LA goes to school with and is friends with Paul Stanley’s daughter. My pal says Stanley is a wonderfully nice guy. They see each other sometimes at school events.

RIP, Ace!

 

[Flip Wilson]

KISS was my first concert, at the Omni in Atlanta when I was in sixth grade. Krokus opened. It was the Animalize tour. I bought a shirt that read: If it's too loud, you're too old.

Ace's makeup was always my favorite.

Kiss played in my town back in the early '90s, and it caused an uproar because, you know, they're Kiss. Anyway...at the time, I worked in a one-hour photo lab and this kid came in and dropped off a roll of film. We developed the film and printed the pictures, and they were from the concert. And he got a shot of a young lady sitting on a dude's shoulders, and she was lifting up her shirt exposing her ta-tas for all the world to see. The kid came back to pick up the pictures but his mom was with him because she had to pay. She insisted on looking at the pictures first, and removed that one photo and stuck it in her purse. The poor kid was devastated.

 

[Cosmo]

I turn up the stereo any time New York Groove comes on. What a perfect rock/pop song. RIP.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

This was big in some circles in my school days and I never got it.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

As noted, Ace and Peter were the heart and soul of that band. Ace in particular felt like he was both in on the joke and a genuinely good musician. He had by far the best solo career and that was with a nearly two-decade break while he battled his demons. And he seemed honest and candid about his **** ups. He wasn't perfect but he never pretended to be. It was perpetually classless of Paul and Gene, neither of whom had anything remotely resembling a decent solo song, to keep taking digs at Ace for his struggles. And this Tweet is right in line for them:



"Essential and irreplaceable?" Then why the **** did you spend two-thirds of your existence trying to replace him? RIP Ace, a true one of one.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Always enjoyed Ace's solos. To me, they just were different than all the shred the strings as fast as you can that many other RnR guitarists would trot out there. I don't know if I can describe it right, but he gave spacing between the notes that let the solo breathe and made it more melodic. 'Shock Me' is probably an obvious example, but 'Firehouse' may be the better representation of what I'm trying to say.

'Rip It Out' quite possibly may be the very best KISS song ever.

'Cold Gin' is one he wrote that flies under the radar in the KISS catalog.

May be pulling out the vinyl KISS solo album to play this weekend. Alway loved "I'm In Need Of Love" and the instrumental 'Fractured Mirror'.

RIP Spaceman.

 

[SixToe]

 

[Bubbler]

As noted, Ace and Peter were the heart and soul of that band. Ace in particular felt like he was both in on the joke and a genuinely good musician. He had by far the best solo career and that was with a nearly two-decade break while he battled his demons. And he seemed honest and candid about his **** ups. He wasn't perfect but he never pretended to be. It was perpetually classless of Paul and Gene, neither of whom had anything remotely resembling a decent solo song, to keep taking digs at Ace for his struggles. And this Tweet is right in line for them:



"Essential and irreplaceable?" Then why the **** did you spend two-thirds of your existence trying to replace him? RIP Ace, a true one of one.

I’m surprised those shameless assholes didn’t have a subtweet that was along the lines of … Mourn Ace the KISS way WITH YOUR OWN KISS COFFIN! You wanted the best, you got the best for eternity! Take a Rocket Ride to paradise! For a limited time only, available in black leather! So put on your black leather, rock ‘n roll all night and everyday in the hereafter as you make the trip to “Heaven”.

Ace is, by far, the most redeemable member of KISS, but I will play the Hella Good Exception for one of Paul Stanley’s solo songs. For this is a power pop masterpiece, a (very good) tribute to the Raspberries that deserves to be far better known than it is.

 

[Huggy]

Always enjoyed Ace's solos. To me, they just were different than all the shred the strings as fast as you can that many other RnR guitarists would trot out there. I don't know if I can describe it right, but he gave spacing between the notes that let the solo breathe and made it more melodic. 'Shock Me' is probably an obvious example, but 'Firehouse' may be the better representation of what I'm trying to say.

'Rip It Out' quite possibly may be the very best KISS song ever.

'Cold Gin' is one he wrote that flies under the radar in the KISS catalog.

May be pulling out the vinyl KISS solo album to play this weekend. Alway loved "I'm In Need Of Love" and the instrumental 'Fractured Mirror'.

RIP Spaceman.

To me his solo album is the best album the band never recorded. Rip It Out, Snow Blind, Speedin' Back to my Baby, all great songs alongside New York Groove.

Love the Alive Cold Gin once Stanley shuts up with his premable.

Ace did some awesome stuff on Let Me Go, Rock n' Roll, especially on Alive.

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

Peter Criss might have been the cat, but Ace had nine lives. Seventy-four is too young to go, but he could have checked out much earlier and on multiple occasions.

Despite the makeup and stage presence, he wasn't a flashy musician, but the showmanship and theatricality of his solos from KISS's heyday remain unmatched. His style fit those songs perfectly and is a large part of what makes them so memorable. I wasn’t the biggest KISS fan but as a hack guitarist, I found their stuff like Parasite or Detroit Rock City very enjoyable to learn and play (it just sounds good and fun).

He definitely had his issues which, as noted above, he was very open about, and some nights (especially during the reunion era) you didn’t know what you were going to get and, brother, it might be baaaaaad. At his worst, you pretty much knew what you were going to get but still held out hope it’d be otherwise.

I saw him earlier this year and I’m very glad I did. He was…fine. That’s all he had to be though because he knew he was Ace Frehley and we were just happy to see him and we knew he was Ace Frehley and he was just happy to be there. He carried himself like a total rockstar but one who’d seen and done it all. It was impossible to tell if he was impaired and maintaining or if he was flying high on Plavix and Poland Spring that’s just how Ace is after decades of The Life.

Rock soldiers come and rock soldiers go, but that dude was on the front lines of a revolution.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

If you have Sirius XM, Eddie Trunk had a terrific three-hour tribute to Ace yesterday. Ton of musicians called in, including Nuno Bettencourtm Tom Morello and Gary Cherone. To get the whole thing, you have to listen on the app. The rebroadcast on channel 103 is shortened to two hours.

 

[I Should Coco]

I believe I've mentioned before how I worked in Cadillac, Mich., at the local newspaper from 1999-2002. During that time frame, we had the 25th anniversary of Kiss playing an October 1975 concert at Cadillac High School and marching in the homecoming parade. This is a well-known event among the Kiss Army, and there have been documentaries on ESPN and elsewhere.

Well, as the 50th anniversary of the CHS concert arrived this month (just before Ace's death), a DJ at the local Cadillac radio station shared his color concert footage of the first two songs of the concert, Deuce and Strutter. The DJ, named Dale Myers, also has tape of Gene and Ace calling him the day before the show ("where did we play last night? Kalamazoo?") and a bunch of cool photos from the band's visit. Here's the YouTube link:

 

[Bubbler]

Hey look! In a development as shocking as the sun rising in the East, Gene Simmons puts in yeoman's work to reclaim/maintain his George Washington-esque status on rock 'n roll's Mount Rushmore of insufferable assholes.

Rock legend blames former bandmate’s death on ‘bad decisions’

Few things are crappier than publicly tsk-tsking someone's post-mortem substance abuse. What's the point other than to make the person look bad? In this case, there's a decent probability he's talking out of his ass too, but even if he wasn't, his judge-and-jury act is insufferable.

Here's a real ****-stained gem ...

"Falling down the stairs — I’m not a doctor — doesn’t kill you."

Frehley was 74 ... with a lot of mileage.

I know a sure-fire way to test Doctor Love's theory. He's 76. Disable Gene's stairlift, hot foot it to the top of the stairs, and queue up Soul Asylum's second-biggest song.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Speaking of Gene the asshole, here he is hanging out with at least one of the few people in the world who is undoubtedly a bigger asshole:

Peter Criss, whom everyone speaks highly of, must be like what the **** am I doing with these assholes.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Jesus. Paul Stanley looks more and more like my grandmother every time I see him.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Jesus. Paul Stanley looks more and more like my grandmother every time I see him.

OMG I laughed out loud at that. And Stallone looks like Pat Morita, sans glasses.

 

[Huggy]

OMG I laughed out loud at that. And Stallone looks like Pat Morita, sans glasses.

And Sly looks like he's holding in a giant fart

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

And Sly looks like he's holding in a giant fart

I'll assume that's a side effect of copious steroids and plastic surgery.