Name That Band, part 2
Welcome to Monday’s Music Move Me. I’m happy you’re including me in your day. This week’s theme is easy, it’s whatever music moves you! I kicked off this series, Name That Band, about a year and half ago intending to do others. That didn’t happen but I’m here to correct that now. This is how it works, I’m going to give you the name of a successful band that started off with a really bad name. Are you ready to begin the game?
In the early 70s this New York City based rock group known as Wicked Lester played. Under this moniker, the group recorded an album with Epic Records in 1972 which got shelved and played for live shows a few times.
Do you know who this band is after sampling their first album as Wicked Lester? I can’t say for sure if this is enough to go on. Of course knowing who they are I recognize the lead singer’s voice. The two founding band members, yep I’m not ready to tell you just yet, decided Wicked Lester needed a new direction including a new name and music style.
The idea for the new band name came from a conversation these guys had after listening to a potential drummer who joined the group but I’ll tell you about that in a few minutes. While still going by Wicked Lester, the three focused on a harder rock style music. They picked up their lead guitarist shortly after forming one of the most iconic rock bands out of the 70s. The band planned other changes that no doubt propelled their new look and sound into orbit.
Who are these guys you ask? You’ll know who it is when you read the first name. The band included the originals Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley who added drummer Peter Crisis then lead guitarist Ace Frehley. You know who they are, don’t you? If I’m honest the only name I know from the band is Simmons. We know these boys as Kiss!
Remember I mentioned the new band name came from a conversation Simmons and Stanley had with Crisis.
He [Crisis] mentioned he was once in a band called Lips, inspiring Stanley to propose they start calling themselves Kiss. “Get the f*#@ out of here,” Criss complained. “That’s a terrible pansy name.” As would happen many times in the future of the group, things did not go the way the drummer wanted, though he learned to live with Kiss. “Good kissing makes for good laying,” he wrote in his memoir Makeup to Breakup. “It’s sexual, it’s cool.” And it’s infinitely better than Wicked Lester. ~Rolling Stones Magazine
Looking back, I think it’s funny how I really didn’t give them much attention until their power ballad “Beth” hit and I was like, That’s Kiss? After that, I gained a new appreciation for their talent. In the Wiki article Stanley reports Kiss’ days are expected to come to a close in the upcoming year. Regardless of when this chapter ends it’s been a journey filled with memories, music, and money.
This is a music linky party. Your co-hostesses are listed in my side bar just below the 4M banner. Every other week we have a suggested music theme to build your song set around and all participants share YouTube or Vimeo videos for our music enthusiasts. Themes aren’t mandatory to gain access to the dance floor but failure to meet the basic guideline (post must contain music) puts your URL in danger of being removed or labeled – NO MUSIC.
I hope you like this new series. I’ll do my best to get another put together before long. On Wednesday, I have a double headliner ready to publish. A brand new BOTB themed series and another installment of my Maine photo memories. I hope you’ll stop by for a visit. This is CAAC signing off, have a boogietastic! X💋X💋, Cathy
Your Spark of encouragement this week.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. [Matthew 7:1-2]”
34 Comments
Alana Mautone (@RamblinGarden)
No, I never guessed about Wicked Lester. I’m glad they changed their style and name because I like Kiss a lot. My favorite up to now has been Detroit Rock City but your greatest hits playlist may remind me of a song I’ve forgotten. About Marie (yay!) I’m a little confused as to which blog she is going to post on. I prewrote my Monday post for 3/6 and I’ve linked her name (where I introduce the hosts) to that blog. If that’s wrong I’ll be able to change it before Monday. For some reason I am super late in getting to some blogs and I’ll have to be moving along so I can get them all listened to! Have a great weekend! Alana ramblinwitham
Cathy Kennedy
Alana,
Kiss is a great classic rock band. They are scheduled to stop in Knoxville on the Final Tour in the coming weeks. It would be fun to see them perform.
I’m not sure which blog Marie has settled on for sure but as soon as I do, then I’ll let you know. Don’t ever worry about getting around to boogie to me on time. I understand how hard it is to make the rounds. Anytime is good with me. 😉
csuhpat1
Don’t know how I posted twice in hear. Sorry.
Cathy Kennedy
Patrick,
I added your link early this morning. lol Sorry for the confusion, my friend. I saw that you had a 4M post up, so I was trying to help out a little. 🙂 I don’t do that too often.
csuhpat1
Wow, so very cool. I just learned something brand new. Nice. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for hosting this great party.
Cathy Kennedy
Patrick,
The teacher gets schooled. Cool! 😀 Every time I do music research it’s an educational experience. I love it! Thanks for stopping by, my friend!
angelswhisper2011
MOL…I love the panda’s, that’s worth a Kiss…MOL…We knew that Kiss had another name before they started to KISS, CK, but we didn’t know that name. What a COOL game! We’re sorry we couldn’t hop with you last week, and feel a little guilty about it, but there was so much to do and so little time…Anyway, you brought in a great band, with great memories…so long ago😸Here come Extra Double Pawkisses for you and all of the crew and have a wonderful week ahead too🐾😽💞
Eugenia
Wow! I had no idea Kiss used to be Wicked Lester. I remember the Gene Simmons’ reality show which was fun, especially the one where he married Shannon Tweed. This is a fun series dear, Cathy!
messymimi's meanderings
I had no idea about the name change, they certainly made the right choice.
Cathy Kennedy
Wicked Lester would be a good name but Kiss is really cool sounding!
XmasDolly aka Marie
So, I made it to everybody except there was a guy that always played, but I didn’t see him today. I was really looking forward to stopping by him. Hmmmm Can’t remember his name he was a retired teacher, a black fella who was oh so nice & really had great taste in music. Whatever happened to him?
Cathy Kennedy
Marie,
I happened to notice his post feed while I was on Blogger yesterday, hopped over to dance with him, but forgot to add him to the link up. He’s there now, though. 🙂
Brian
That was a fun one. I did like KISS too, they sure were unique in appearance.
Cathy Kennedy
Brian,
When I was a kid, I thought Kiss was strange wearing all that make up. It was a gimmick that paid off for their new direction. I almost do not recognize them without their faces painted. lol
XmasDolly aka Marie
Sorry, but my husband turned my alarm off & I slept away! Anyway, HI HONEY, I’M HOMEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! And it sure feels good. Hey, where’s all your comments? It’s lonely here. hehehehe It’s okay you & I can boogie away to your great music! Woo Hoo Excuse me if I step on your feet…. I’m a bit rusty… hehehehe! HUGS & THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP with this rusty old memory! HUGSSSSSSSSSSSSS HELLO MY SOUTHERN SISTA!!!! HUGS
Cathy Kennedy
Marie,
Don’t worry about sleeping. You were up way too late working on your blog. I’m happy you got it fixed. You don’t owe me any thanks, though. You did this all by yourself, darlin’! Hopefully you saw my emails I sent yesterday telling you I deleted the Blogger 4M account that I set up. Google doesn’t want to work with my VPN. I may look at other free blogging platforms as I have time just to see what they offer. Other than Google’s snoopy practices, you can’t have a Blogger account unless you have Gmail. Well…I want to get totally away from their email service and have begun the process. In the future watch for all emails to come from cathyrkennedy@protonmail.com. It’s far more secure than Gmail and it’s free. They offer paid plans, too. Anyway, I’m glad that you’re back dancing with us, my dear. Have a boogietastic week!
PS: I didn’t realize until now that your URL on the link up is the Blogger site Sandee helped you with but you’re using your WordPress blog which I did visit and couldn’t leave a comment because you have commenting turned off. You probably accidentally unchecked the allow comments on your post.
Birgit
The Pandas are funny and so cute. KISS was so big back in the day. I remember when they finally unmasked themselves and all the girls waited with baited breath only to go…”oh”. Hahaaa they ate not the prettiest. Funny…my hubby loved this band that he owned a pair of Gene Simmons’KISS boots and walked around with them thinking he was hot stuff. Hahahaaa
Cathy Kennedy
Birgit,
I have never been a fan of platform shoes/boots especially the ones that are super chunky like Simmons’. That’s so funny about your hubby. If the truth be told a lot of the rockers aren’t usually all that good looking. I think girls/women are blinded because of the voices they have fallen in love with or they have wild fantasies of snaggin’ a sugar daddy. lol
Kathe W.
Wow! A blast from the past! Thanks!
Sandee
Love the playlists and love those cuties pies. I really love that Bible passage. So very true.
I’m trying to help Marie too. She has a new blog that I can get into, but the blogspot one I can’t even find that post to edit. She copied and pasted it from 2022. Usually I can fix, but this time I can’t. Bugger.
Thank you for joining the Awww Mondays Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Awww Monday and week. Love and hugs, my friend. ♥
Cathy Kennedy
Sandee,
The post she linked this morning is one that I did on the blogspot I created. So, you won’t see that one probably. I had a bit of problem with blogger this morning. I had to logout and then back in which let me see posts, add, etc. Hopefully when she gets a moment she’ll call me and we can talk. It’s hard to get your bearings straight after being away from things a long time. I know she appreciates all your help. Thanks, my friend – you rock!
DrillerAA
My wife’s youngest brother was a huge Kiss fan. He had one of those black velvet paintings in his room. My wife and I got married in 1974 and my music tastes were more folk rock the of James Taylor, Carly Simon, John Denver, and Jim Croce. My classic rock tastes leaned more to Grand Funk Railroad, The Who, Led Zepplin and Eric Clapton (Derek & the Dominos). I just never learned to appreciate KISS until after they began to fade in popularity.
Cathy Kennedy
I always preferred soft rock but over the years I’ve come to enjoy the old classic rock bands a whole lot. There was so real talent in those days. I totally understand what you mean about Kiss. I feel the same way. Thanks for dropping by, my friend!
Debbie D.
Hi Cathy, this is a fun series! And what a surprise – I had no idea that Kiss started out as Wicked Lester! 😲 The band’s longevity is amazing and they had some good tunes. My favourites are Detroit Rock City and Beth. We used to watch Gene Simmons’ reality show, Family Jewels. What a hoot! 😂
Cathy Kennedy
Debbie,
We may have to look into Gene Simmon’s reality show, if we can find available to stream. He’s an interesting person. Thanks for joining me on the dance floor, my friend!
Debbie D.
Yes, Gene Simmons is so full of himself, but in a somehow charming way. 😀 And his wife (Shannon Tweed, who is Canadian) doesn’t put up with his shenanigans. It was a fun show! I’m sure it is online, somewhere. It was originally on the A & E Channel.
Cathy Kennedy
Thanks, Debbie! I’ll have DH to look for it. I love shows where someone is full of themselves. It just makes it fun. Maybe, he/she is like that in real life and then maybe not.
Thomas Anderson
Hi, Cathy!
This is a fun brain buster, dear friend!
I have been a fan of Kiss ever since 1974 when my nephew turned me on to the band by playing their first album for me. Over the years, I collected most of their records and, in the early days of 1986, our MTV crew met Kiss backstage at a Tampa Bay venue where our hard rock/heavy metal veejay interviewed their drummer Eric Carr. I have studied Kiss more than most other bands, and therefore recognized Wicked Lester as the band Kiss founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were in prior to forming Kiss. If I had been blindfolded and not been made aware of the name beforehand, I still would have recognized Paul Stanley’s lead vocals. I never listened to this early album before, and was pleasantly surprised. The sound produced by Wicked Lester was lighter and more diverse than the hard rock sound honed by Kiss. As you might have noticed, the chorus of “What Happens In The Darkness” sounds like the 5th Dimension’s *Let The Sunshine In,” the second song on their hit 1969 “Aquarius” medley. On (I’m guessing the titles) “Shout It Out Loud,” a different song from one they later released as Kiss, the band sounds like The Beach Boys. I also hear country rock influences on the Lester album. Now I’m hearing an early version of “She,” a song Kiss later released on the album Dressed To Kill. Now I’ve come to a second song apparently titled ‘Shout It Out Loud,” which, I cheated and looked up, and determined to be a cover of a song by The Hollies. So, to sum it up, Wicked Lester contains many more softer, light rock songs and Beach Boy style harmonies than the typical Kiss album. It doesn’t surprise me that Paul and Gene left the group and decided to take their music in a harder and heavier direction. In the early 1970s, the record industry desperately needed shaking up. The glam rock, hard rock and shock rock style of bands like Alice Cooper and Kiss were the perfect antidote to the polite pop, country rock, light rock, Jesus rock, new age sounds and novelty songs that were dominating the chart during the period. Indeed, the name Kiss was an ideal choice for the band at a time when glam rock was coming on strong.
The actual Kiss album contains many of their greatest hits. If you never saw it and get a chance, I urge you to watch the wacky 1978 TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. The original Kiss fab four star in the low budget Hanna-Barbera Production. The flick is so bad… it’s great. In it, the band takes the stage at Magic Mountain and performs their hits “Rock And Roll All Nite,” “Shout It Out Loud” and “Beth,” the latter the tender ballad sung by drummer Peter Criss. “Beth” is a song almost everybody on team Kiss hated, because it was not a typical Kiss sound. Paul and Gene didn’t want it on their album, but it was inserted at the last minute. When Peter recorded the song, he was alone in the studio with session musicians and no other members of Kiss. The song was released on the B side of a single, assuming it would be forgotten, but DJs and radio listeners loved it and it soon became one of the most popular and most requested of all Kiss songs. The scene in Kiss Meets the Phantom in which Peter sings his pretty ballad is a memorable one.
Yessum, I very much enjoy this new series and look forward to the next installment. I’ll be back Wednesday for your doubleheader. It’s going to be a tremendously busy Wednesday, because I start a new post that day, too, and the monthly IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) hop is held that same day. I’ll need to make that first pot of coffee in the morning extra strong. 🙂 Have a wonderful week, dear friend Cathy! 🙂
Cathy Kennedy
Tom,
I was certain you knew that Wicked Lester is Kiss and I was right. Thanks for the tidbits and suggestions. I will see if I can find that movie. Have a boogietastic week, my friend!
XmasDolly aka Marie
I can’t post it is the problem 🙁 Can you help? https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/preview/5752556333954962389/7024088326256929908 is the link… 🙁 I cannot get any comments this way, but you can read it or can they sign in… 🙁 I’m such a boob… yawn… later….https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/preview/5752556333954962389/7024088326256929908
Cathy Kennedy
Marie,
Get some sleep. I’m fixing to have breakfast to get my day underway. One thing I noticed is on this blog is you aren’t listed as an author. I will send you an invite and then maybe you can create your own posts. Let’s try that, ok?
XmasDolly aka Marie
sorry about signing in twice… they both work though… the links… See ya later!!! hugs
XmasDolly aka Marie
I sure hope my blog works! It’s about 5 a.m. and I was bound and determine to get my blog up. I surely hope it works. https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/preview/5752556333954962389/7024088326256929908 I know it’s a weird link… but I think it works. I’ll work on it later to get it fixed. I HOPE! YAWN… TALK To you later. HUGS – MISSED YOU ALL! I have my alarm set for noon or so… see you then. HUGS
Cathy Kennedy
Marie,
The weird link is a “Preview”. No one can comment on it. It’s for the author to see how the post looks before it publishes. This one is an older post that I did on that site in December. Is that what you meant to share? I went over to the Blogger blog and I didn’t see anything new waiting in Drafts, so that’s why I ask. I corrected your entry and removed the duplicate, my friend. I think we need to talk by phone. 😉