CHAPTER 25 - Ace
Frehley (1978)
“Ace Frehley” Album Notes:
Produced
by Eddie Kramer and Ace Frehley. Recorded, mixed, and
engineered by Eddie Kramer, Bob Freeman, Eric Block, and Don Hunerburg at “The
Mansion,” Sharon, Connecticut, and Plaza Sound Studio, New York City, New York,
June – July, 1978. Prior to recording the album Ace did two demo sessions of
material for the album with Anton Fig, who had been put in contact with Ace by
a bass player trying out for Anton’s band, Spider. This early 1978 demo session
would be Anton’s first connection with anyone from KISS putting to rest any
suggestions that he had anything to do with the drumming on “KISS Alive II” in
late-1977.
25.01. Rip It Out
Credited
to Ace, and Larry and Sue Kelly. Larry had been the lead
vocalist in one of Ace’s pre-KISS bands, Magic People, around 1968. Larry would
sing backing vocals on the track. This song was considered for release in the
25.02. Speedin’ Back To My Baby
Ace would give a song-writing credit on this song to his wife Jeanette.
According to Ace’s friend Bobby McAdams, “Ace would write a song (like
‘Speedin’ Back To My Baby’) and would let her write a
line and give her a song writing credit just to appease her” (Kiss & Tell,
p.102). Ace would also experiment with backwards masking on the track. Ace recalled,
“I’ll tell you the story behind that. I cut a solo and I said to Eddie, ‘Eddie,
maybe we should try a backwards part here’? I thought that it would go with the
sounds of the cars on the choruses and towards the end of the song. They are
Ferraris, by the way - we had to wait a week to get tapes of them.
Specifically, we needed Ferraris because Eddie is a racing car bug and so am I.
So anyway, we tried playing a mediocre solo backwards and [engineer] Rob
Freeman transferred it to a half-track. On unused tracks, when the part came
up, he started up the other machine backwards to sync it up, and he hit it the
first time. The parts fit perfectly, and that’s what came out. Then we
re-edited certain sections of it. The intro came in just fabulous, which was
the end of the original solo. I was really happy with the way it came out – it
just rips at the intro. It’s funny, because it was the end of the solo and I
was all out of ideas, but you turn it around and there is new life to it”
(Guitar Player, 1979).
Quality backing vocalists David Lasley and Susan Collins were brought in
to work on this song, “New York Groove” and “What’s On Your Mind.” David, in
particular was an in-demand backing vocalist, songwriter, and singer who was
working with the legendary James Taylor. Since Ace has been known to make some
homophobic comments during his career, it might interest him to know that David
“came out of the closet” in 1985.
25.03. Snow Blind
While Ace’s album would be
full of musical independence, much of the subject matter drew on what had
become his life experience by that point: Dependence.
25.04. Ozone
One
of three tracks on which Ace would not play bass.
Instead the bass duties would be handled by session player Will Lee. Ace would
additionally play 12-string guitar on this track. It is interesting to note
that both Will Lee and Anton Fig would in later years become members of “The
CBS Orchestra / The World’s Most Dangerous Band” led by bandleader Paul
Schaffer for the David Letterman show.
25.05. What’s On Your Mind?
Ace played 12-string guitar
on this track.
25.06.
This song was originally recorded by the British band Hello (from
Tottenham,
Produced by Mike Leander, the Hello version of “New York Groove” was
released as a single and was backed with “Little Miss Mystery” (
Ace Frehley’s version barely differs from the original recording and
would be the only hit from any of the five singles released from the KISS solo
albums. Minor lyrical changes were applied to the original song’s first verse:
“It’s been a year since I was here / On the street I’m just passin’ my time
away / To the left and to the right / A town of stone grows to the sky / And
it’s outta sight, in the dead of night / Here I am again in this city / With a
fistful of dollars / And baby, you’d better believe.” It would reach #13 during
early 1979 during a 21 week run on the charts, the longest charting of any of
the KISS solo singles.
25.07. I’m In Need Of Love
The second of three tracks
on which Ace would not play bass, with Will Lee providing that instrumentation.
The demo was recorded in April 1978.
25.08. Wiped-Out
This song would be written
by Ace and Anton Fig. According to Anton, Ace had come up with the riff while
the two were in the studio and added a verse to the growing song. Anton would
write the rest of the words to the song to which Ace then made some additional
changes. Interestingly, another song with a similar title, a classic surfing
song from the 1960s, would be one of the songs Ace played in one of his
earliest bands. This, the Surfaris recording of “Wipe Out,” was originally
released (London HLD-9751) in 1963.
The Surfaris instrumental
version of the song reached #2 on the US Billboard charts in June 1963 and #16
in July 1966. Ace would imitate the beginning of that classic hit on his
introduction to his song, which certainly had little to do with surfing. With
lyrics such as “I was gettin’ drunk / The next thing I
knew I looked at you / I was blind as a skunk, I was....” the source of
inspiration is obvious! The recording of this song would also feature Will Lee
on bass, and for the guitar solo Ace would use an old Vox device to attain the
wah-wah effect. While Ace wasn’t a big fan of using the effect for his guitar
solos he had first used it on the “Rocket Ride” solo for “KISS Alive II.”
25.09. Fractured Mirror
Ace’s instrumental, setting
the standard for his releasing one on each successive solo release. This track
would be the only one on the album to not feature Anton Fig on drums, with
those duties being handled by Carl Tallarico. Bill Scheiniman would perform the
ominous atmospheric “bell” that appears at the beginning of the recording.
According to Ace, “I used an old Gibson electric double-neck for that, a very
rare one with a 6-string guitar neck and a mandolin neck. I don’t think they
make them anymore. On that intro I tuned the mandolin neck to open E and let it
drone and resonate while I was picking the figure on the other neck. I don’t
think I’ve ever heard it on record before, that sound. We really got excited
about that when I came up with it. I was also going through a
Ace expanded on the natural
effect: “I had a
25.10. All For Nothing (Demo)
An alleged out-take from Ace’s solo album recording sessions dating
from March 1978. Quite simply, the sound quality on the circulating 3:34 vocal
version is atrocious and it is near impossible to decifer what the lyrics may
have been. Neither would it be possible to make much of the music track.
25.11. All For Nothing (Instrumental)
Two instrumental takes of the full track were
recorded in March 1978 and mixed at Soundmixers Studio in