Unknown Soldier

Three albums in and the four energetic face-paint wearing New Yorkers were already a major concert draw in their native USA, but as a commercial selling band their record sales were still falling far shorter than their ticket sales! It was no surprise then, that their record company Casablanca sought to harness their live concert appeal over four sides of vinyl and in the process usher in one of the great landmark live albums of any musical genre for the 1970s. In fact Alive! sold and worked so well, that over future years certain record companies mostly American ones at that, would use the same formula for breaking other bands in their native US, a future Cheap Trick would be another perfect example of this type of approach. Despite this knowledge of hindsight, Casablanca records were initially somewhat dubious of releasing a live double album of the band, as the label had already faced a flop from one of their fellow artists by the comedian Johnny Carson that same year, but luckily Casablanca soon convinced themselves that a live Kiss album would be a viable outlet to further enhance the band’s record sales and boost their own pockets. The material as with the BOC release, would be garnered from a multitude of US locations and it was commonly known that these locations were packed to the rafters with fanatical fans! The song selection could also hardly be faulted either, as the band probably harnessed their best song choices for their live cuts over four sides of vinyl. Despite this there has often been some controversy over the years, on how much the album was actually enhanced in the studio in regards to studio overdubs, but the band have always claimed that little corrective work was ever done in the studio anyway! The band have only ever stated, that the studio only really enhanced the sound of the crowd at the concerts, as the band felt that the crowd would be a vital component for the success of the album as a whole. The album name Alive! is also a play on the 1972 live release by glam rock band Slade and their Slade Alive album, one of the many bands to influence Kiss. The album is effectively seventy four minutes of unbridled youthful and feisty energy by the band, and not unsurprisingly the album also made the Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time List” On the strength of this live release, Kiss became one of the biggest selling bands in the US throughout the rest of the decade.

Paul Stanley- Rhythm/Vocals
Gene Simmons- Bass/Vocals
Ace Frehley- Guitar
Peter Criss- Drums/Vocals

Production- Eddie Kramer
Various US locations 1975

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