Wiped Out is a fun track! Not the best on the album by any stretch, but still solid - and coming from a different place musically, which I think adds diversity to it. The playing is excellent! Ace, Anton and Will lock in tightly in those grooves! I also dig the tempo differences between the verses, bridges and choruses. The intro is great too! The lyrics seem to me like a direct account of a night out. This was more than familiar territory for Ace, especially at that point in time. Night to night madness. I wouldn't say the lyrics are silly per se, they are just what they are, stuff like that still happens every night, you go out, get drunk and then there's a woman, you go somewhere else and make out... As old as the hills. Juvenile lyrics? Perhaps, but not unlike most KISS songs. I also like how Ace sings here, it must've been hard for him to stretch out like this vocally, and all of a sudden sing eight tracks on an album. That was a first.
I also want to wish a happy 66th to Ace and reiterate how cool it is that we are in the midst of celebrating his '78 solo record this week. I'm surprised he isn't reading this thread...
I actually thought about that. I'd be really embarrassed if he was! He'd probably call me out on a lot of misinformation! Still, a labor of love for me for my favorite member of KISS since I got into the band at 11 years old. Ace is the coolest.
Anyone curious as how tall the members of KISS are? I was so I and looked it up. Gene 6'2" Ace 6'1" Paul 6'0" Peter 5'9" Gene always looks the easily the tallest of the bunch, so I'm not sure if that info is correct. The reason I looked it up was Rob Freeman commenting that he had to stand on a box to be at level with Ace when they were singing background vocals for "New York Groove". So I thought either Freeman is a really short guy or Ace is taller than I thought. Turns out, he's taller than I thought.
Misinformation? It's ACE!! You're probably jogging his memory!!! Hey, if I were a famous musician it would certainly not be beneath me to read a thread dedicated to myself. Of course that's for another lifetime as nobody gives two ****s in this one..hahaha
Wiped Out is a crazy fun tune. I like the descending 7th chords in the intro over the surf beat.....they really add tension to the intro. The verse riff kicks in and has an Scottish folk sound to it and it is cool how Ace comes in on the second riff in the first verse. The verse riff also has a funk aspect to it with the slurs and reminds me of Stay by David Bowie. The two sets of riffs go through the cycle of 4ths C-F and D-G. Or is it 5ths? Anyway, think the chorus of Jumpin Jack Flash. The verse overall reminds me of Big Country. The verse melody is very flat and recitative gives the verse the sound of an Scottish or Irish tavern tune. The pre chorus/chorus goes into a slow boogie with heavy use of the open bottom E string and then the chorus picks up steam and establishes a key change to E with a variation on the slow boogie that came before. Wow..lots of cool twists and turns including tonal centers. I am not sure what key the song is in...maybe D and E. Help Terrapin Station. Another cool technical thing about the song is it goes thru the cycle of fifths in the verse and then the final rise to E in the chorus. C-F, D-G, E-A which is a 4th but close enough for rock and roll. The song is a three step tonal center rise. Of course I doubt Ace thought of it in those terms. It just sounded cool to him and it sounds great to me. Lots of different influences on the song and Ace makes them work together.
My 2nd and last pic of today as to celebrate Ace's birthday (I won't post anymore so anybody won't get annoyed here):
Wiped-Out: This is a song that I can never remember how it goes. Once I play it, I'm like "oh yeah", and I do like it but it doesn't hit me the same way as many of the other songs do. I kind of wonder if it would have been better to place it earlier on the album. I love I'm In Need Of Love so much that this song is kind of a let down following it. That might not be fair to this song but I think it would be a better song to end side 1 with. It is probably my 3rd least favorite song but I would still rate it a B+ or maybe a B.
Oh yeah, Happy Birthday Ace! That is an awesome picture SammyJoe. I have never seen this particular picture before. This was always my favorite of his costumes.
Yeah, that one was new for me, too! Thanks @SammyJoe. It's definitely going in my file of great KISS pics!
That's really well-stated! I've just always accepted this song at face value, and never really thought about the lyrics too much. I will say that the lyrics do mesh with the whole vibe of the song. But you and a few others have made me realize I've definitely been giving Ace a pass on these lyrics all these years. (I've certainly been known to criticize Paul and Gene on several occasions for what I thought were particularly inane lyrics). It's hard for me to be too critical on this song, because musically it's so damn good and creative. But your wish for a "spacey off kilter message type song" makes me realize that this could have been an epic Ace tune if he had tried to go there and deliver something a bit more creative. I think I'm still going to give "Ozone" a pass on the lyrics, but I guess I'll draw the line there and say that he should have tried for something else here. You've convinced me! But just like with "Ozone", we could toss the lyrics out and we'd still have something memorable. There's a lot going on here, and it's all interesting (to me, at least). As @GodShifter already pointed out in his introductory piece, that chorus riff is just a monster, and it'll bowl you over if you don't get out of its way! Every time I hear it, I picture a big bear of a man drunkenly staggering down the hallway threatening to take out anything in his path. Musically, I'd give "Wiped Out" a 10/10, but lyrically it's only a 5/10 (and I imagine some of you would even say that's too kind!). But since I'm grading on a curve that favors musical creativity over lyrical brilliance, which is a good method to use when you're dealing with Mr. Frehley, it gets an 8.5/10. (I just had a funny thought that if this song had been submitted for a KISS album, Paul and Gene would have made him rewrite the lyrics, and make it about a car crash or something. Certainly Ace was an expert on wrecking an automobile! Or maybe we'd have had our first surfing tune in the KISS songbook! The mind boggles...)
Sorry to say this on Ace's birthday, but yeah I'm not a fan of this song - the vocals don't work for me and the melody's awkward. But the chorus riff and the solo are cool. 3.5 out of 10.
This might be a good time to tell you all that I grew up in Wilton, Ct - the town Ace moved to around the time of the solo albums (maybe a little before). We lived about 10 minutes apart by bike ride. Soooo, I used to ride my back over to his house fairly regularly - I was 9 or 10 - ditch the bike in the woods and mill around his back yard or drive down to his front gate (there was a large gate usually closed) and hang out. At first, they would sometimes let the dogs out (not sure if they let them out because they saw me or because they wanted the dogs to chase me off) - but one of the dogs was a cocker spaniel so, uh, not scary. The other dog was a little scary to my 9 year old self but I decided not to run from it and simply let it catch me. Which it did and then I pet it. After that, I would bring the dogs treats. Never met Ace but a couple times his wife stopped at the end of the driveway and talked to me for awhile - whether she was friendly or lonely I dunno but she would talk for 5 or 10 minutes. I remember one day all these limos and fancy cars pulled up and people got out went into his recording studio which was built into the hill kind of below the man house - I was sure it was all the KISS guys (of course I don't really know) but my god I was excited. I kept thinking one of them would yell, "Hey, Kid! Wanna hear some rock n roll?" No such luck hahaha Kind of crazy to think about it now as I don't think any of that would fly in that town these days - way more permissive back then.
