Hey there, sports fans! I know this isn't what's expected of me, but honestly fuck what's expected of me. In the ass. With several, simultaneous chainsaws.
I pride myself on this sort of thing, you know. The only music blog on the web that gives you unissued material from artists so unrelated they may as well be from different planets.
Wait, did I just say different planets? Somehow I feel this leads well into today's very special birthday spaceboy.
I remember well the day in 1983 he drove his new DeLorean past my old house, the wrong way, on the Grand Central Parkway. If you'd have told me then he'd live to be 67 years old, I'd have asked where you had got a hold of that newfangled freebase stuff.
But he was cognitive enough to figure it out, and he ended up making that day the first one of the rest of his life.
It's very telling to me, that this guy was and is the only KISS alumnus to have a shred of solo success. Very many of their best tunes are his as well.
It makes sense, as his songs were easily their realest ones. The only ones with vices -- Cold Gin and black leather, for instance -- other than groupie sex anyway. I am of the mind, and have been since we were kids and they were everywhere, that they only got out of the Diplomat Hotel Ballroom because of his playing and writing.
He was smart about quitting them, too. He made a deal that as long as he did not release a solo record before 1985, he would get a quarter share of the profits from their music and ubiquitous merchandizing.
I mean, anyone who can jack Gene Simmons out of that much cash has to have something happening between the ears, amirite?
When he got sober and put a band together, he was immediately rewarded with, as I said, the biggest and most consistent solo success of any of his former bandmates.
And today he is 67. Shock me, indeed.
I bet he has some of the most interesting and hilarious rock-n-roll stories of almost anyone currently still alive.
All part of the Rocket Ride that has been and is the life and times of Paul "Ace" Frehley, born this day in 1951 in The Bronx and ever rocking on, thankfully.
Hey, he's even got a new number about his birthplace, the same one as my parents! I think this just came out today, for his b'day.
For sharing today we have pulled out, dusted off and cranked up a full 1987 Frehley's Comet set from the Summerfest in Milwaukee.
Frehley's Comet
Summerfest
Milwaukee, WI
6.29.1987
01 Rip It Out
02 Stranger In a Strange Land
03 Something Moved
04 Cold Gin
05 Love Me Right
06 Into the Night
07 New York Groove
08 Rock Soldiers
09 Breakout
10 Shock Me/Ace solo
11 Calling to You
12 We Got Your Rock
13 Deuce
14 Rocket Ride
Total time: 1:17:19
Ace Frehley - guitar, vocals
Tod Howarth - guitar, vocals
John Regan - bass, vocals
Billy Ward - drums
master FM cassette capture
505 MB FLAC/April 2018 archive link
I shall return soon with something completely different, because that's all I want expected of me. But for today, let's get in the New York Groove with the Space Ace and celebrate his big day like true Rock Soldiers, shall we?--J.
