As much as they've become a crippling embarrassment to the species today, Kiss will always be counted as one of my favorite bands. Yes, even after myriad betrayals and crass sell-outs and reality television shows and face-lifts, I still cannot deny them my fandom. Sure, there were/are other favorite bands -- Pink Floyd, Devo, The Ramones, Iron Maiden, The Circle Jerks, Motorhead, The Stranglers, Killing Joke, Cop Shoot Cop -- but Kiss? They were my first. Dressed to Kill (their criminally undersung third album from 1975) was the first LP I ever purchased with my own money. I prized it from Sam's Record Shack on Main Street in posh-o Westhampton Beach as a wee lad for all of three or four dollars, I believe (and that was the exorbitant going sticker price at the time -- how things have changed!)
Shortly before their make-over as an aspiring all-thing-to-all-people-sorta band, the Kiss captured on Dressed to Kill was still a comparatively rough-hewn garage act, inspired by the Detroit ramalama of the MC5 and the campily over-the-top theatrics of the New York Dolls. They were also lurid, libidinous and lethally loud. I cherished my copy of Dressed to Kill -- and still do. Beyond the make-up and all the rest of it, it's the music on that record that still moves me. While I was never a giant fan of "Rock and Roll All Night," the mere inclusion of tracks like "Getaway," "C'mon and Love Me", "Anything for My Baby" and "She" make it essential. Hell, "Love Her All I Can" was almost my wife and I's goddamn wedding song. Forget what you may despise about Gene Simmons et al. today. Dressed to Kill by Kiss is a fucking massive rock `n roll album, full stop.
Anyway, blah blah blah. Why am I talking about it now? Because my friend NYCDreamin at This Ain't the Summer of Love exhumed a larger version of a photo from the mighty Bob Gruen's iconic cover shot. I've talked about it before here, of course, and you may even remember last Summer when I went on a bit of a pilgrimage-of-sorts to many a rock photo shoot location, including this one. Anyway, I'd never seen this larger version (see top of post), so I thought I'd share it with ya too.
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