Pull The Trigger of My Love Gun

KISS - "Love Gun" (1977) - Casablanca

Hello Friends,

You better be locked & loaded because we've got the Love Gun out tonight!  

Love Gun is an important album in the KISS canon because it would be the last to feature all four original members playing on all of the songs.  Its their sixth studio album and its followed up by a live album (Alive II), the four KISS solo albums and 1979's Dynasty which would feature drummer Anton Fig, instead of Peter Criss, playing drums on most of the tracks!  

It also important because its the first KISS record to feature a song with Ace Frehley on lead vocals!  And its about time!

Things get kicked off with the great, Paul Stanley-penned "I Stole Your Love" (which also became the opening song on the Love Gun tour!)   Never to be undone, Gene Simmons follows up with the super creepy, "Christine Sixteen" with lyrics like, "She's been around / But she's young and clean / I've got to have her / Can't live with her" it reads likes a pedophile's journal entry!

Gene's "Got Love for Sale" follows featuring yet another great Frehley solo.  

And speaking of Ace, "Shock Me" is Frehley's song which recounts an incident on the Rock and Roll Over tour in which he was electrocuted before taking the stage.  Its not the first song he wrote for the band, but its the first one that he wrote and sang lead on. Arguably, the album's best!  

Side One is rounded out by "Tomorrow & Tonight", a Paul Stanley song that seems a bit similar to the earlier hit, "Rock And Roll All Nite".

Side Two begins with the incredible, hard-rocking anthem, "Love Gun"-- a staple at KISS live shows ever since! 

Side Two also gives us two more sleazy Simmons' rockers, "Plaster Caster"-- an ode to famed groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster who became famous for making plaster molds of rock stars' penises(!)-- and the scary-sounding, "Almost Human".  Peter Criss contributes the song, "Hooligan", which is just eh.

The album ends with an unfortunate cover of the Phil Spector/Crystals song, "Then He Kissed Me" which of course is changed to "The She Kissed Me".  No Homos here!  Good grief!   

Despite the lackluster conclusion, Love Gun is another KISS Classic! 

Great cover art by Connecticut's own Ken Kelly, who previously did the album artwork for 1976's Destroyer.

RATING: 4.5 tokens of my love for her collection out of 5