The track starts with a pulsating Simmons bass riff, setting the tone for one of Kiss' funkier guitar grooves. It's the flip side of "Strutter," tucked between "Love Theme From Kiss" and "Black Diamond" on the back half of their first self-titled effort. But that call-and-response with the high-pitched vocal on the chorus is so freakishly infectious, it's hard to hold something as minor as being an arrogant cretin against him. The lyrics are straight-up Simmons misogyny ("You need my love baby, oh so bad / You're not the only one I've ever had / And if I say I wanna set you free / Don't you know you'll be in misery"). What's that you say? More cowbell? Well, there's plenty here to go around, from the time it joins the slashing power chords on one of Kiss' most effective introductions. This track features a classic Frehley guitar lead that at one point seems to paraphrase the end of Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway." And handing the mike off to Criss after the intro was a great idea. Then, someone yells "Hit it!" and with that, they shift gears into lumbering through a fat riff that's much closer in spirit to early Black Sabbath than you tend to get with Kiss. The song starts with Stanley on vocals, accompanied by a baroque-sounding 12-string acoustic guitar pattern. But the thing that really seals the deal here is the unexpected shift in tone as they transition into something softer and more orchestrated on the sort of bridge Pete Townshend might have written in the "Who Sell Out" days.Ī song so cool it inspired a great Replacements cover, "Black Diamond" brings their first self-titled effort to an epic close. Stanley's playful vocal really sells this song, from the opening line: "You really like my limousine / You like the way the wheels roll." And that's all fine and good, but do you love him? Stanley needs to know as the guitars come crashing in to join him on the nagging chorus. It's blessed with one of Kiss' strongest riffs and a sing-along chorus extolling the virtues of gin as "the only thing that keeps us together." And bottom shelf is fine with him. It's definitely of its time, production-wise, but the pop-metal chorus is handled with aplomb and a wall of harmonies Def Leppard may have envied.įrehley, no stranger to drinking, wrote this first-album highlight but didn't feel comfortable singing so he handed off the spotlight to Simmons, who does quite the admirable job. This is one of the newer songs on our playlist, taken from 1983's "Lick It Up," the album on which they first appeared without their legendary makeup.
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