KISS | Through the Shattered Lens

As you can tell from watching this video, this from the period of time where KISS was performing without their trademark makeup. All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose was their second single from the album Lick It Up and, while the video itself got some airplay on MTV, the song failed to chart in the U.S. Compared to their success in the 70s, KISS struggled through the 80s and the early 90s. Taking off the makeup and essentially looking like every other hard rock band that was around at that time did not help.

Today, All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose is best-remembered as the song in which Paul Stanley raps. The majority of the song was written by KISS’s then drummer, the late Eric Carr and Carr was initially not happy with the decision to have Stanley rap one of the verses. However, later, Carr said that Stanley rapping was actually what the song needed to distinguish itself from the rest of the album and that the rap was probably the reason why All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose was eventually released as a single.

The video is a hard rock fantasy, with the members of KISS walking around a burned-out city and running into criminals, circus performers, and, of course, barely dressed women. This was probably a video that KISS could only have made during the period when they weren’t wearing their makeup. The Demon and the Starchild would have looked out-of-place wandering around the city but Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Carr, and Vinny Vincent fit right in.

In retrospect, it’s hard not to be amused that, back in the 70s and 80s, so many parents groups viewed KISS as being a threat to young minds. (There are people who still believe that KISS stands for Knights In Satan’s Service.) I would guess that few of those concerned parents actually listened to any of the music that they were so concerned about. Instead, they just saw songs with titles like All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose and jumped to their conclusions.

Enjoy!

Do you remember what people used to think KISS stood for?

Knights in Satan’s Service. Preachers and community leaders were told and actually believed that the band was trying to put teenagers under the thrall of Satan.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Paul Stanley came up with KISS and it was never meant to be anything other than a cool name. As Peter Criss explained it, “”It really means a lot. It’s the first thing you do to a chick or anybody. It could also be the kiss of death. It’s a strong word. It’s easy to remember.”

Still, the members of KISS didn’t hesitate to play up their dangerous image. Gene Simmons may have been a self-described “nice Jewish boy from Long Island,” but when he was on stage, he became the blood-drinking Demon. (When Marvel published a KISS comic book in 1977, the red ink was said to contain drops of the band’s blood.)

What’s funny to me about old school KISS is that they would come out on stage, made-up to look like hardcore demons and monsters. Fires would burn as they performed. Blood would pour out of Gene Simmons’s mouth. KISS went out of their way to look evil but their music was so radio friendly that it could probably be played at a church retreat. The idea that anyone believed that they were “knights in Satan’s service” seems ludicrous today.

Rock and Roll All Nite was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Their goal in writing the song was to come up with an anthem for their fans and no one can deny that they succeeded. This video was a promo video that was released, along with the song, in 1975. Like most music videos that were produced in the pre-MTV days, the video keeps things simple and focuses on KISS performing in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Decades later, a second video would be released for Rock and Roll All Nite. However, that video features KISS without their makeup and that just feels wrong.