By Buzz Drainpipe
In the static haze between AM radio and alleyway reverb, there was KISS — not the cartoon, not the marketing juggernaut, but the four New York kids who took the decaying pulse of the city and turned it into something electric. Their third album, Dressed to Kill, always stood apart — sleek, sharp, a record that smelled like fresh vinyl and sidewalk rain. And now, fifty years later, it plays like scripture.
“Come On and Love Me”
There’s a myth that KISS never had depth. But listen closely: there’s an acoustic guitar buried in there, like the ghost of a subway busker swallowed by glam. The remastered Dressed to Kill teases it out — the rhythm, the nuance, the pure heartbeat beneath the bravado. What was once swagger now sounds like worship.
“Parasite” / “Almost Human” / “Cold Gin” / “Black Diamond”
These are not songs — they’re working-class hymns, metal dusted with soot and bourbon. Parasite is an East Village exorcism; Almost Human a nighttime reflection of the self split in two; Cold Gin the ultimate street anthem, as if the liquor store neon were a church window. And Black Diamond — oh, that’s gospel. A factory girl’s prayer that explodes into apocalypse.
“I Stole Your Love” / “Ladies in Waiting” / “Watching You” / “Strange Ways”
Each one is a different sermon from the Church of the Lost Borough. Gene plays the minister, Paul the confessor, Peter the drunk monk, and Ace — Ace is the spirit that slips between their verses, laughing, burning, shining.
“Rock Bottom” → “Hooligan”
The cycle ends where it began — a single acoustic phrase, the sound of a man alone in a room before the amps turn on. “Rock Bottom” is resignation; “Hooligan” is resurrection. The kid from the Bronx who never wanted to grow up, who made his Les Paul sound like a rocket caught in the power lines — he’s gone now. But his tone? It’s eternal.
So here we are, 2025, still staring at that silver lightning bolt carved across the black sky of our youth.
RIP ACE.
The spaceman returns to the stars.
(From CREASE MAGAZINE, “New York Gospel Issue,” Spring 2025.)
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