A Childhood Obsession, a Bizarre Gift and the Costume that Never Was
Every Halloween I always think back to 1981 when I was ten years old. I desperately wanted to be Ace Frehley from Kiss. For those of you who are unaware of what this would entail, here you go...
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I'm pretty sure I even expected my mom to
come up with a way for the guitar to shoot fire...
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Because my mom was smart enough to realize the ridiculous time and money investment involved in such a costume, she was wise enough to put her foot down. I seriously can't blame her. I was a pirate instead. I'm pretty sure she threw me a bone and bought me a new gun to use in the costume so it turned out pretty well for me in the end. But I still wish that I had donned the Kiss make-up at least once in my life (@merej99 did an awesome makeup tutorial about it the other day).
Kiss was my favorite band ever... until I turned 13. I was pretty much obsessed with them. When I was five years old my Grandma bought me my first album. What was it?
Mine had crayon all over it because I was five...
so of course I tried to draw on it.
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Kiss Rock n Roll Over of course.
That's right, my Grandma bought me that for my fifth birthday. I still don't know what she was thinking. She clearly never listened to the music, that I can understand... but just look at the cover! How is that appropriate for a kindergartner?! It wasn't! Yeah my Grandma was cool... or clueless. Either way, it was good news for me.
When I was ten (and probably still angry about not being Ace Frehley that year) my teacher assigned us a group project on pollution. I and three other ten year olds quickly devised a plan so we could somehow involve our favorite band. Our teacher gave us the biggest piece of paper any of us had ever seen (it had to be 3ft x 5ft... so about 1m x 1.67m for you metric folk). We quickly got to work on our giant pollution mural. When we had finished we proudly showed our teacher this...
This was the inside cover of the album Kiss Alive II... and it was awesome!
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When our teacher asked, "How the heck is this related to pollution?" We proudly responded, "It's noise pollution." None of us could bear to give up the finished product... so we split it into four pieces and each of us hung it on our bedroom wall. I'm sure our parents were thrilled!
My obsession with Kiss didn't end there. There was also a movie. Because I was not home the night that the movie premiered on NBC, my mom taped it for me on a Beta tape. I watched that movie every day for a year. Oh did I "yada, yada, yada" over that? Yes, Kiss made a movie... in which they had super powers and fought robot wolf men (among other villains).
Here are our heroes holding the head of one of the robot wolf men.
Why is there blood coming from a robot? Who knows?
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Just in case you thought I was making up the part about them having super powers...
For some reason, Paul Stanley could shoot a poorly drawn laser out of his eye.
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And of course Gene Simmons breathed fire...
just like he did on stage.
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For the grand finale I present to you...
The Kiss Dolls
These dolls were made by Mego and were roughly the size of Barbie dolls.
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I received my set of Kiss dolls for my First Communion. That is right, what better way to mark your right of passage in the Catholic Church than a nice wholesome set of Kiss dolls? Rest assured I also received some religiously themed Bohemian statues and a few other more appropriate gifts... but none of them could stand up to these awesome dolls! My stepfather had an awesome 1970s bar set up in our basement complete with can lights directly above it. You better believe I positioned those dolls right underneath a can light, blasted my Destroyer record, and flashed those lights so it looked like they were performing just for me.
I was a dork. Clearly I still am.
I don't know if I would call it an obsession. But I would watch MTV as a kid and hope to see Living Colour. I thought they were pretty darn cool! And being black, hard rockers, they were totally different from what I was used to. This song is still great to listen to today! I love the guitar riffs and solos!
Yes I absolutely love that song. The lead singer had the coolest hair ever! That song was in last year's NBA 2k15 game. That "YALA" by M.I.A. are my favorite on there. I was a senior in high school when the song came out so it was right in my wheel house!
Did you ever get to see them live? I bet they would be incredibly entertaining.
No. When this was popular I was only about 10 years old. A Catholic school boy. The chances of me seeing them live were pretty slim. But to see Corey Glover whip that hair around and hear them jam on those guitars would have been a great experience! Even at 10 years old!
They are touring Europe as we speak. When is steamiest? They are in Amsterdam on November 16th and 24th! http://www.livingcolour.com/tour/
I was obsessed with judas priest as I shared a room with my brother and he went through a phase of playing them for a few months. That was me till this day! The worst bit was when my brother got me a Rob Halford poster when he was at his campest, the peaked cap and leather and studs. I dont know if he did it deliberately to get a rise out of me but I didn't care, I had that on my wall for years!
That's awesome. For me it was usually my older uncles turning me onto music... but I think Kiss' "cool" makeup got me all on its own. Judas Priest was always a favorite on Beavis and Butthead. I loved when they would rock out to "Breaking the Law". And man did Halford play it up. Can't blame him though. He had the platform and had a ton of fun. Ever see them live?
Yeah man, saw them live loads of times. I think double figures. Awesome band and they have just gotten better with age. Hehe, I did like the breakin the law bits on beavis and butthead!!
Is your haircut inspired by Rob?
Lol, he has no hair!!!!
The only thing I know about KISS came from watching Happy Gilmore... That Gene Simmons sure had a long tongue! :)
I nearly died when I saw Happy Gilmore. Literally. I had a pretty bad cough and went to see it. When he gets in the batting cage and the balls hit him, I laughed so hard that I couldn't catch my breath.
365 more days till next year's hockey tryouts... gotta toughen up!
One of my first albums was Double Platinum. I wasn't a huge Kiss fan, but I got it because it was cool and remember enjoying a lot of it.
A friend of mine and I painted ourselves black one time. I was very fit, but still not a big guy. We were at a party and a huge black man came walking towards us. As he got near, I warned my friend (whose back was to him) and took two steps back just as the guy reached out his hand and shook ours. He loved our costumes. Whew!!!
I wore a gi one time and two friends were a camel. I rode them into a bar, but couldn't stop laughing so probably blew the effect a bit.
My wife and I dressed as Hershey bars once, when we were dating. Yep, one of us had nuts. :P Someone hollered, "What kind of nuts." Wifey to be hollered back, "Big one!" The rest is history.
Can't recall any costumes I wish I could have worn.
Heh, thanks for making me think about it! :D
My favorite is your Hershey bar! Nuts indeed! Your wife sounds like she has a great sense of humor!
Haha, of course. She married me!! Joke's on her. ;o)
A post from @giantbear already sent me down the rabbit hole of my favourite music once today. I'm now inspired to come up with a list of a favourite song of each year from the year of my conception to now, which would be 60. Yikes. And even that would be only touching the sides of my hundreds of favourite songs.
If I include a Kiss song, it will probably be Rock and Roll All Nite.
I don't remember being obsessed with any particular band, but I know that when I was about 16 The Sweet did a concert in Wellington, and I so wanted to go. But it was Sunday, and my dad wouldn't let me go. Actually, in truth, he wouldn't have let me go whatever night it was.
My first live concert was Rod Stewart live at Athletic Park (the first ever outdoor concert in Wellington) and I would have been about 20 by then.
That's pretty cool that you were at the first concert at that venue. I'd go with shout it out loud but love rock and roll all night! It's cool to think back to all of this old stuff. Have fun comming up with list. Post it so we can all look at it and reminisce .
Will do!
I was obsessed with SOAD. Now I can't even listen to 5 seconds of their songs. What was I thinking when I was younger?? haha
LOL. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I was hoping people would look back and laugh a little. I must admit, I had to look up SOAD... to figure out they were System of a Down! They got some radio play here in the US. I remembered them.
Ya, it sure gave me a chuckle! :D