ACE FREHLEY KISS SOLO FULL ALBUM 1978 REVIEW BY THE MUSIC OF KISS WITH PETER TIETJEN & JASON FLOM

PROBABLY UNANIMOUSLY THE FAVORED SOLO ALBUM OF THE FOUR, ACE RECORDED A MAINLY STRAIGHT AHEAD AND NEAR PERFECT HARD ROCK ALBUM WITH ANTON FIG AS HIS MAIN COLLABORATOR. WILL LEE PLAYS ON A FEW TRACKS ON BASS AND THERES A FEW OTHER GUESTS AS WELL BUT ACE PERFORMED MOST OF THE GUITAR, BASS AND VOCALS. THIS WAS A FUN ONE TO GEEK OUT ON BECAUSE IT REALLY ROCKS. SEE YA SOON FOR THE PAUL AND PETER EPISODES!

[@InMyHead]

THE BEST! I loved just watching you guys listening to the clips. The faces, the head nodding, the air guitar and air drums, singing along. THIS is what being a KISS fan and an ACE 78 solo album is all about. LOVE IT!

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Thanks for being such a fan of our show and all around nice, cool guy!

[@InMyHead]

@@anywayyousliceitreviews thank you for that. You guys are great . I always have so much fun watching you guys. I am looking forward to the Peter and Paul episodes.

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Thanks man! Filming them both on Tuesday night!

[@rexsmetzer]

Great show guys!!! I just found your channel!! You guys were on another KISS KZbin channel that I saw. Ace is my favorite solo album!!!

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Thanks Rex! We appreciate you making the trek over to find us too!

[@danhickey5707]

I love Ace's solo album! It absolutely rocks, but I also appreciate how weird, spooky and dark it gets as well... I mean, never in a million years would a song like "Ozone" or "Wiped Out" end up on a Kiss album. And can we all just agree that the solo in "Snowblind" is top tier Ace? Dang! Ace was never one of those million note shredders, but his attack, killer vibrato and phrasing are what make his leads so indelibly cool and kick-ass. And I just gotta say that I love the t-shirt choices, dudes! You guys are two of the best dressed KZbinrs out there!

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Haha its funny cuz we had just literally did our Gene episode so we raided Peter's closet for a quick wardrobe change. Glad you approve! And yes that solo in Snowblind is one of his best for sure!

[@Rigosson]

@danhickey5707. Great statement!🤘👍

[@user-mm4vk5cm6o]

The best Kiss album

[@robertluckstedii2207]

Once Ace got over his fear of singing lead, his songs which were always just a bit outside the KISS formula, but they fit in with the sound the band was known for. I'd like to know how many of his songs were turned down per album, like the Beatles, Harrison was overshadowed by Lennon & McCartney so they put George's songs on the B-Side, KISS did this a few times as well. But then all of a sudden, Frehley started writing songs, good songs, damn good songs! There isn't any filler on his solo album, not everything is radio worthy, but 90% of this album is better than anything he had written before. Playing all the GTRS and bass on a lot of the album himself and exploring the boundaries he had to break away from the Simmons & Stanley music machine. Again, this was for the band to do what they want, not make a KISS album, Frehley shows he's got a bit of McCartney in him by doing all the music tracks and a lot of the vocals! Frehley would be turned loose over the next 3-4 years, writing and putting out a lot of damn good songs that would be played in live shows for the next few years as well. There was no end to where he could go! Did being in KISS hold him back? Maybe yes, maybe no, he must have learned something from Stanley & Simmons as far as song structure and how to write better lyrics, riffs were easy for him, that was no problem. He just couldn't stay sober. This album also missed out on Rip It Out being a 2nd single release, a little heavy, but I think it could have charted on the hot 100 somewhere in the Disco haze that we were in back then, OY!

[@mikepratt6481]

Ace was always my favorite member, so its a no-brainer that this was the first if the solos I got as a kid! Loved it from the opening note to the end, and I'm not even a fan of instrumentals! Just a classic rock album! Too bad he couldn't carry this quality throughout his solo careers.

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Totally agree. This was the height of his creativity.

[@Rigosson]

Great statement - I totally agree!👍🤘

[@vernongriffith8308]

The solo album reviews...and I'm tuning into Ace first of course. Excellent track breakdown and some details I hadn't been aware of previously. Ace and the supporting cast turned out a gem, under the great Eddie Kramer's guidance. Others may have raved about Gene, Paul, or Peter....but the cool kids knew who shaped the best sound of KISS, and Ace Frehley validated it with his magnum opus. Great stuff as always gents!

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Thank you so much Vernon, always good to hear from you!

[@Leo-gm2tv]

Just started listening to kiss for the first time and the lead guitar always grabbed me. I think Ace was the most talented kiss member

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

New to Kiss! Righton. I hope we can help educate you.

[@Leo-gm2tv]

@@anywayyousliceitreviews yessir. Just subscribed

[@Rigosson]

You’re right about Aces talant, Leo!🤘👍

[@deuce7687]

Great episode again guys. As a kid Ace's album was the only 1 I'd listen to of the four, I think when your young u just want a rocker album & this was a straight up rocker. I did eventually come around to the other solo albums & now Paul's is my fave. Question - do u think that if Ace had sung more songs previously on KISS albums that he might've gone in a different direction on his solo album?

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Hmmm good question. I've always thought of it as an album Ace had something to prove on. So maybe if he would've had more previous Kiss songs there wouldn't be much to prove...just keep it in the same vein. Then again it's 70s Ace so would've still been bad ass for sure! And thanks man! JF

[@thomasgallagher7092]

Ace wrote some great songs and put together a great band: Anton Fig, Will Lee etc for this album. W/o a doubt the best of the 4 solo albums IMO

[@Rigosson]

Absolutely my opinion 👍🤘

[@botboy6977]

The best he every sounded guitar and vocal wise. I read an article out about Eddie Van Halen in early ‘79 and he said, “Ace really stepped his game up on this album”. That’s all I needed to hear!

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Oh wow i had no idea Eddie gave such praise. Cool! JF

[@Rigosson]

Great episode Peter & Jason!👍🤘👍🤘 But why did you only spend 33 minutes for this masterpiece??? And for the other 3 Soloalbums more than one hour each?!?!😮😂 Anyway…. I freaking love Ace’s album. It’s so guitar-oriented and for the time really heavy! 🤘⚡️🤘 And spacy so to say…..I love the “Guitar-Echoes”, especially on “I’m in need of love” Here is the list of one of the biggest Ace-Frehley-Nutswinger😎🤣: I’m in need of love Snowblind Rip it out Ozone Whipped out Speeding back to my baby New York groove Fractured mirror What’s on your mind? Oh man - it hurts so much to do this ranking…..because I love all songs of this great f…….ing album….🤘⚡️🤘 This album is by far the best of the 4 solo albums, in my opinion. Keep on rocking and greetings from Germany 🇩🇪🤘👍⚡️🎸 P. S.: There is only one real Spaceman in the universe 🌎 and his name is Ace Frehley!🤘⚡️🤘🎸🤘

[@muleblues71]

I was maybe 8 when my mom bought this record for me in '78/'79. New York Groove was the song I loved the most then. The album is full of bangers

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Oh yes sir. One banger after the next!

[@leeprice9649]

👍👍for me too. A great album from start to finish.

[@Rigosson]

I agree!👍🤘

[@robertluckstedii2207]

This is my fave of the solo albums, it's just a great cd to put on and it doesn't disappoint at all. Frehley's song writing juices were in top form as he show's here and for the next few years he was a song writing fool. He was still a bit shadowed by Simmons & Stanley, not writing Pop songs, but he did have the best selling of the solo albums, the quiet guy sold the most. His single sold the most and rode up the charts a bit in the Disco era when the others couldn't, the other three which so much had been expected from. No one really expected Space Ace to come out with a bunch of hard hitting yes, but radio friendly and sometimes sing along catchy tunes like these here and the only instrumental which is right up there with anything Rush was doing. Experimental, oh yes, he and Eddie Kramer clicked again and recorded some of the best grooves on wax in a long time. A rim shot to start things off and Rip It Out is pounding out it's loud Hard Rock guitars and bass, drums are banging out the beat and Frehley comes in screaming top of his lungs about some cheating narcissistic bitch who pissed him off, that's so COOL!!! This was not the Frehley who just sang on Shock Me, this was a guy who had a message, the genie was out of the bottle and he was taking names and kicking ass. Again, how did Rip It Out not become a single? Maybe it's message was a bit harsh, so? The musicianship on this record is the best, Ace does almost all the guitars and bass, synths and all the lead vocals. Some great bluesy lead guitar riffs and Speeding Back To My Baby is off and running. A fun little story song that is a blast to play and it sounds like Frehley is double tracked in vocals too. He has a strong voice and in these first two he's showing up in full force. I'm not sure why sometimes it seems he struggle in concert, like it's too low, the key of the song, he almost speaks his songs sometimes. Great drumming by Anton Fig who is still the only drummer who seemed to be able to do Ace's music right. Just a natural fit those two. Ace just belts this tune out vocally, he's giving her the beans on this one!!! One thing about these solo albums is they all did what they wanted and didn't have to listen to each other tell them , "That's for shit or that's a good one..." When ya don't have other band mates looking at you and yessing and noing you, then you feel more confident, and you may fall on your face or you may bring the goods on home and the checks will start to roll in. Case in point, All the albums were being recorded pretty much at the same time all over the country and one in England and no one was telling anyone to not do that song, cuz it's not a KISS song. Frehley had no one on his back or telling him, we can't use that song, for whatever reason, he was out on his own relying on his own writing as they all were and he just blossomed into the song writing lead singing juggernaut and force he became, stand aside, Ace Frehley was about to steal the show, again! My fave song on this album is Snow Blind, the fun riff, the rim shot intro, up tempo solo, the spacey sounds, it's dreamy and profound at the same time, not sure what that means. It's dark and heavy and I love playing this song and I'm gonna do a cover of it someday. Frehley's vocals shine here, not known for his singing, he does have control and goes up and down when he has to. He's no Paul Stanley, but he can sing when he needs to, and he shouts when he has to. I have to think Kramer was guiding him thru this whole album, but Kramer always says he don't interfere, he just records. So I give Ace a lot of points here, he must have practiced his vocals for these songs.

[@doublejdeluxe]

Love me some Ace

[@BNatoAk]

Absolutely agree that "what's on your mind" could of been a good 2nd single. It's in my top 5 Ace solo songs for sure 👌

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

YES! Thank you for validating us. I believe I said it on the episode, but becuz NY Groove stayed on the charts awhile, I think another Ace single would have been to close to Dynasty time and they didn't want an overlap. That song would of killed though!

[@robertluckstedii2207]

I really wish I had bought the music books that were always on the shelves next to the records back then, all of the solo albums were done all the studio albums and they did this up to about Unmasked. Those books are hard to find these days. When I bought the Frehley solo project, it was a cut out, in a 99 cent bin. With all of them. They'd only been out for a month maybe and I had them all before the movie was shown on NBC for Halloween. Barley a out a month and they were 99 cents. I didn't look at the cassettes or 8-tracks, I couldn't tell ya what they were costing, but the over load of albums to the stores was costly for the stores and Casablanca I suppose. To have the "We can't do anything wrong" attitude is a major ego problem that the band didn't see or the management didn't be truthful with them and tell them yes, you can go overboard and people can only stomach so much at such a pace. Least not forget the shitty Double Platinum reworked collection of singles and B-sides and things was put out then too. I got issues with that album, although I like Strutter '78, I think it's better than the original and more like their demo. The over abundance of stuff coming out of the Casablanca company, the merch, the toys, make-up kits, dolls, comic books, they were on TV being interviewed, they were on every magazine cover here and there, but they weren't on the radio where they needed to be at least not enough. Now they were gonna be in a made for TV movie on Halloween and how would that go? Sure I was watching it that nite, then in the middle of the movie, they're walking around and this music from the Scooby-Doo cartoons comes on while their snooping around, ok stop right there!!!! I know Hanna Barbera Productions had a hand in this but C'mon man!!!!! I laughed so hard, Scooby-Doo music!!! And it wasn't gonna stop there, 1979 brought out more new merch and overload, even the most die hard fans couldn't keep up with what they were releasing. A new album in may even had some fans wondering what happened to the dangerous Rock band they knew just a few years ago and why were there so many little kids at a KISS concert??? OY!!!

[@christopherearly5258]

Wait, my songlist on the back is the proper blue. I never knew some were purple. Entertainment AND education. Stay in school, kids. If memory serves, Ace's was the 3rd I bought. Being the 'quiet KISSer,' his was also the most mysterious ahead of time. What I remember most about getting acquainted with his was how much ENERGY it had. Ace unleashed! Now I'm not one of those who likes heavier songs JUST because they're heavy over more melodic not-as-heavy stuff. Therefore Ace's was never my fave, though it always wins in the polls. But I do appreciate it more and more over the decades. Btw, of the 4 spectacular album covers, Ace's might be the best one. Rip it Out - Ace's album JUMPS out of the speakers. Zero to 60 in 1 second. Like it but don't love it. Speeding Back to My Baby - Like this one better, especially the verses. People often slag his singing voice but I've always thought it has a certain charm. Snowblind - The type of song the makes one think Ace was the true rock backbone of KISS. Love Anton's drums on this. Ozone - Cool song. I just realized something. Maybe whatever thing I don't like about this album is me being a life-long teetotaler and half this album being about Ace blitzed. Hmmm What's On Your Mind - Ace is a great pop song writer. From KISS' early albums to current day, he's proven it over and over again. It's one reason he shines on the poppy Unmasked. Should've been a follow-up single, like you said. New York Groove - Loved it then, love it now. Cover or not, Ace OWNS it. Paul & Gene hate this song out of jealousy, I guarantee it. I'm in Need of Love - B-A-D-A-S-S. Wiped Out - Might be my least favorite. Ace is blitzed again. Get off the damn floor, Ace. Fractured Mirror - Flat out beautiful. The kind of tune you want to force KISS mockers to listen to. Not an instrumental lover but this is one of the rare exceptions. Made me proud. Thanks again, guys. Every damn episode is both enjoyable and insightful. Keep 'em coming.

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Always love your track by tracks! We share many of the same opinions. Yes for sure Whats On Your Mind would have been the perfect follow up single. In that regard, too bad NY Groove hung around on the charts too long. By then, they were onto the Dynasty phase...

[@MD-wk3gj]

This album was Ace at his very best. He was pure brilliance for this release on so many levels and IMO never came close to this again. That’s not a slight against him, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect someone to put out a better follow up to their best.

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

I couldn't agree with you more. He never came close to reaching the heights of that 78 album. I do like his other solo stuff alot though, especially that 1st FC album. JF

[@Rigosson]

Great statement - I can only agree!👍🤘

[@robertluckstedii2207]

The other Space Ace song here is I'm In Need Of Love. Maybe should have been I Need An Idea, not a best effort. If there is a filler on this album it's this one. It just goes on and on and it's slow and time killing. Good use of a delay pedal and Frehley screams his vocals. Not a sing along, or a single. Not much of anything going on here. Frehley got to record his high pitched cackle-laugh with a touch of delay and some echo under the Wipe Out (The Surfaris) beat by Fig to introduce the next party song, Wiped Out. Some good guitar and bass work here. Frehley tells us how out of control he can get at a bash put on by friends and how he pretty much is oblivious to the chaos he was known for causing at a friendly party, but that's part of being Ace Frehley, back then. Uptempo, good tune, catchy, but not quite there to be a single. The only instrumental on the four solo albums was done by the guy no one expected much from, much less Ace didn't have the talent to write an instrumental, no one in KISS had talent right? Some people thought too Frehley was gonna bring in a vocalist for his album cuz he wasn't known for singing, having only done one lead vocal on 6 studio albums. Who would that be? Peter??? LOL!!! Well he surprised a lot of people over and over with this record and being the only one to throw down a damn good instrumental, it's not Rush, but they weren't him either. Fractured Mirror is dreamy with it's quiet sleepy summer days sounds of a bell ringing and birds chirping. Some 12 string guitars playing softly and gain volume. That's a tricky riff he's doing too. In comes a driving beat, not a loud banging beat, but an easy going almost Folky beat just a few times thru and then hits this massive electric guitar chord that holds us by the throats, it's got us now. The 12 strings are still doing their thing, we're riding off in our dream, soaring above the clouds at this point, flying maybe or floating. Could be in space traveling past galaxies. Powerful guitar chords drive us off and the beat never wavers! Add more guitars and the bass gets bolder until the mid section of guitar synths solo out and let us float off into the unknown. This is a big crescendo and then lightens up and brings us back down to Earth as we decrescendo to the sleepy day where we started from. There's a lot of guitars in this song, it's not the most complicated picking instrumental by the Allman Brothers, it's not Rush throwing out La Villa Strangiato, it's not Edgar Winter, It's Ace and it's a clever little bit, that grows into the big bit we all love. A damn fine closer to an incredible album that didn't get it's due from the music industry or the peers or critics of the time.

[@robertluckstedii2207]

One of two what I call Space Ace songs here in the album, this one is pure Frehley, lyrically he glorifies his love of laying back and not doing anything, celebration his success in the band with smoke and drink and how it affects him. Ozone has good riffs, some tempo changes and some time changes too. Lead guitar scales that go and go and go to nowhere, but it's a good tune. Not really a crowd pleaser, I think he did this one in Milwaukee once, I might have been the only one i the room who knew where it was from. Ace surprises all of us sometimes and here he does it a few times with a Pop song What's On Your Mind? He's still a bit choppy with words, they sometimes don't flow very well. Even his accent gets in the way sometimes. But this is a pretty song, good use of acoustic guitars, the melody is loud and proud and then it backs off into a melodic up and down with "You make me crazy, crazy..." a very Beatlesque bridge and he's writing Pop music, for SHAME!!! LOL!!! This song is positive, optimistic and it's not Hard Rock, could have been a single under normal circumstances. September 1978 this country was in the middle of Disco fever baby, England was in the middle of Punk fever, New Wave was coming up fast. We had to deal with big selling albums and singles from Grease, songs like Boogie Oogie Oogie by A Taste Of Honey was on the radio, sad times indeed. But on this Hard Rock almost Metal album came a short danceable cover song by a mid-seventies Glam/Hippy band Hello, New York Groove, Frehley juiced it up a bit and added some strong distorted guitars and a 4/4 beat that just makes ya get up and dance, KISS fans did dance. Sure it has a touch of Disco in it, it's from that era, but it suit Frehley to a tee. Change this and that and there ya go, it's been on the radio ever since, it shows up in movies, tv shows and even commercials. One thing Simmons and Stanley always said they did, encourage the other two to write songs. Radio play pays. Royalties. New York Grove is not a Frehley song, not sure how much if anything went and or to this day goes to Frehley when ever it's played, that's a royalty to the writer. Of all the songs he's sang and written, none get played on the radio. Not in the midwest at least, we never hear Cold Gin out of the blue, it's not in rotation, Shock Me or Rocket Ride. I could be wrong, but radio play is big in royalties and Ace hasn't got anything with his writing credit on the radio that I know of. Sales are big, singles or albums, now days downloads, maybe he's making money in the latter, I hope he is.

[@markjamesmeli2520]

To me, the red in Ace's mouth is where the lip paint ends and his natural lip color just takes over. It's either that or the top of his tongue. Oh, the spaceman thoughts to ponder. Around the time of the release of this album, so many albums were being "over-shipped" like you stated. The quality of those albums is seldom in question, but hanging out at record stores, like I was doing at the time, you had to step over the Kiss solo albums and "Out Of The Blue" by ELO. My brother, dad and I just assumed that recent cutout albums must've sucked (little did we know). Another thing that added to the music scandal around then is that albums were starting to retail at higher prices now, or at least the majors were trying very hard. Believe it or not, but there were some record store chains (like Record Theatre in the North East) that fought against this back then. Anyway, in as much as KISS PAUL was polished, contemporary rock KISS ACE is a wonderful rock album - from the gut. Imagine, if you will, SOME GIRLS by the Rolling Stones, only heavier and harder. Without a doubt - my favorite of the four. But...where's the other 45 minutes of the review? 😆

[@danhickey5707]

Huh...Ace's solo album and "Some Girls", interesting comparison. So "New York Groove" would be Ace's "Miss You"?. Cool! Now I want to listen to these two discs back to back! Also, as a kid with a paper route and not much money back then, I loooved the cut-out bin! Ha! I found Thin Lizzy and UFO in the cut-outs. Not too shabby.

[@anywayyousliceitreviews]

Haha yeah it was a short one. Just not a whole lot to talk about, unlike the Gene album with all its guest stars.