Kiss in 1974 - The Debut hits 50

And I don't think they ever bettered it

Last Sunday saw the 50th anniversary of the debut album from Kiss. Straight out of New York, four guys with painted faces and a rock sound that played an important part of my childhood, the first album is, in my opinion, the best thing they did. I'm sure Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons won't care what I think, but they never came close to capturing the lightening of this first album. It's a real “what if” moment for me. What if they stayed closer to this sound rather than getting more overdriven, more ludicrously lewd and more pantomime? But they didn't.

I wasn't even 3 years old on February 18th 1974 when it came out, but found it, and the band, in the early 80s, firstly through Alive, the great live album, and then working my way through the discography with whatever I could afford from my paper round.

In my teen years I had a compilation video cal…