By: Michael Drukarsh - September 10, 2025 will be a very special year. Not only will I be one year older, and one year closer to retirement, September 10th, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of one of, if not the most important live albums in hard rock history!
Kiss "Alive" was released September 10, 1975 which makes it 49 years old today. Why, you may ask, is LoudTo celebrating a 49th anniversary rather than waiting for 50? Because we can!
Since its release, much has been written and discussed about “Alive”. Like most of Kiss's mystique in the 70s, it wasn't until years later that fans finally found out that this incredible, bombastic live album capturing Kiss in all its glory was not actually completely live. The album has been dissected, reviewed, and graded so often that I want to take a different approach. Since the album and I are both a year older today, I thought I'd look back and wax nostalgic about the good old days.
Following the release of their first three albums, the self-titled Kiss, Hotter than Hell and Dressed to Kill, Alive was considered the make or break album for the band, and WOW did it ever deliver! Even before the needle dropped, hell, even before the cling wrap was peeled off, you knew this album would blow up your stereo. On the front, Kiss, live in concert complete with pyro on full display. Flip it over and there is a packed Cobo arena in Detroit playing backdrop to two kids forever immortalized holding up their homemade banner. Across the country, in every school, there was at least one kid who swore he knew those guys. Tearing off the plastic and opening the cover revealed a gatefold containing handwritten notes from each member of the band as well as adverts for their first three albums. And once that vinyl hit the turntable and J.R. Smalling's epic "You wanted the best and you got it. The Hottest Band in the land, Kiss" boomed through the speakers you knew you were in for something special!
Upon its release in ‘75, I was celebrating my fourth birthday. My little friends and I were probably sitting in the basement of the townhouse wearing our party hats and gathered around a tablecloth laid out on the floor. While I can’t remember what I got that year, I am pretty sure that at four years old, I did not get my first Kiss album, yet. That would come one year later, thanks to my next door neighbour and best friend Trevor.
Back then, Trevor and I were inseparable. Like most kids at that age we played with our action figures, rode our big wheels, had sleepovers and just enjoyed being kids! At some point, between 1975 and 1976 we discovered Kiss. Trevor had an older brother who, for whatever reason, did not like Alive and just before it hit the garbage can, Trevor asked if he could have it. When I came over and he played it for me, we both became obsessed with the band. I seem to remember that Destroyer the follow up studio album for Alive was my first Kiss album. With its scene of apocalyptic destruction and each member, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss, standing strong, in a comic like superhero pose on the cover, once again Kiss captured the imagination of the youth of the day.
Destroyer was released March 15th, 1976, two days after Trevor’s birthday so I definitely did not get him the album for his birthday. But, by the time September rolled around, I believe I was gifted Destroyer from Trevor and that started the tradition of making sure that every gift giving holiday and birthday we exchanged Kiss albums to make sure we had the same ones in our collection. With Destroyer, Kiss only had 5 albums released up to that point so building the collection was easy. And with Kiss pumping out the vinyl it was easy to continue our obsession. Rock and Roll Over came out in ‘76, followed by Love Gun in' 77. And then BOOM, Kiss did it again with Alive II. While the cover may not have been as exciting or eye-catching as Alive, that gatefold of the entire stage on fire and all four members raised high into the arena ceiling cemented Kiss’s status as the “Hottest band in the World”.
Unfortunately as the 70s drew to a close, so too did Kiss’s hold on the faithful Kiss Army and our album exchange tradition. 1978 saw the release of the four solo albums which did not accomplish what the band had hoped for (but for fans it finally gave lead guitarist Ace Frehley the spotlight he deserved). Kiss released Dynasty in 1979, Trevor and I were eight years old and our musical tastes had grown (as much as an eight year old’s can) and the disco infused album just didn’t seem to hit as hard as the previous albums.
We still loved Kiss but something changed. As we entered the 80s a whole new sound was waiting for us on the horizon. Ozzy Osbourne was a year away from releasing Blizzard of Ozz in North America and Venom’s Welcome to Hell was released the same year. Both bands and albums were miles away from each other musically and in a totally different universe from anything Kiss had done. For me, it was Ozzy, for Trevor it was Venom and for both of us our musical paths would take different roads, although they would definitely cross from time to time.
Looking back, Alive was most certainly the catalyst for my love of all things metal (or hard rock or whatever you want to call it). Were it not for Kiss and that fateful day that Trevor decided to save Alive from the trash, who knows where I would have ended up on my musical journey. So, to Trevor, my first “best friend” and still, 50 odd years later a close friend of mine, I say “thank you for bringing me into the Kiss Army”. And to Alive, an album that captured a moment in music history that will never and can never be replicated, I wish you a very happy 49th anniversary.
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