The David Bowie song Gene Simmons couldn’t live without
The 1970s was a period of profound metamorphosis in rock music. Following The Beatles’ demise at the beginning of the decade, metal, glam, and prog-rock genres lit the path until punk reared its disdainful head to shake up the system and rejuvenate the countercultural cry for a new generation. Amid this fruitful turmoil was Kiss, a band born from glam rock and forged in the fires of heavy metal.
As their thick makeup and bold, imposing costumes suggest, Kiss have always found value in live presence. However, beyond aesthetics, they established themselves as consummate musicians and competent composers through the mid-1970s.
By the time Kiss set off on their first tour in 1974, the glam era was at its peak, and its early progenitor David Bowie would soon move on to his soul album Young Americans. “Being in Kiss in the very first year and touring around the United States, we felt like we were taking off,” bassist and co-lead singer Gene Simmons recalled in the ‘End of the Road World Tour’ programme.
Adding: “It was like somebody pushing you into the deep end of the pool whether you can swim or not. The early years of Kiss were far from glamorous. We rode in a station wagon hundreds of miles every day.”
“We would take turns driving and sleeping in the back,” he continued. “We ate burgers at roadside taverns. We stopped and peed on the side of long stretches of a highway when we couldn’t find a town anywhere near. We ate beans and franks because we couldn’t afford better food as we were on an $85-a-week salary! Becoming a rock star was better than anything and beyond anything I ever imagined. There were moments of doubt for me that we were gonna make it.”
In 2018, Simmons appeared as a guest on Sirius XM to reveal the tracks he “can’t live without”. With selections from Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick and Lou Reed, it wasn’t hard to see where Kiss found their sound.
One of Simmons’ most enthusiastic selections was Mott the Hoople’s seminal glam anthem, ‘All the Young Dudes’, a song written and later re-recorded by Bowie. “I always liked Mott The Hoople, starting with the name. I thought, ‘What a bizarre thing,'” Simmons said, announcing the song. “And when I heard Ian Hunter, the lead singer, doing his ‘Bob Dylan-isms,’ you kind of sing and talk at the same time.”
Continuing, the Kiss bassist explained how Bowie came to Mott the Hoople’s rescue just when they were about to throw in the towel. “So they were about to break up; their career was over. They just couldn’t get hits,” he explained. “David Bowie had known them because they came from the same town. He had met Ian Hunter and the guys”.
Adding: “They were saying: ‘Yeah. Well, thanks a lot. It was great knowing you. When are you playing?’ And they go, ‘No, we are breaking up. We can’t make heads or tails. We can’t get a hit.’ He goes: ‘Well, you know. I’ve got two songs I’m not recording. Listen to them and see if you want them’.”
“One of them was ‘Suffragette City’, and they go: ‘No, we don’t like that. What else?’ ‘All The Young Dudes’, David Bowie singing the lead. It is astonishing because it immediately says there’s something here that’s grand. Sounds ‘anthemic’ coming from the word ‘anthem’. I’m still not sure what the news is. ‘All the young dudes carry the news’. But who cares?”
“Because ‘Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom’ [from Little Richard’s ‘Tutti-Frutti’) doesn’t mean anything,” he added. “Neither does ‘Ooga-chaka Ooga-chaka’ [from Blue Swede’s ‘Hooked On a Feeling’]. But it feels right because music is feeling. So when I heard ‘All The Young Dudes’ by Mott, it wasn’t just a career saver for them. It was one of those songs that carved its own niche in what a great song can be.”
Listen to Mott the Hoople’s ‘All the Young Dudes’ below.
