IN MEMORIAM: ACE FREHLY
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley (April 27, 1951 – October 16, 2025)
KISS were four guys who painted their faces, presented theatrics and pyrotechnics on stage, played basic, anodyne hard rock and managed to build a very long career and cultivate a rabid fanbase, especially in their ‘70s “KISS Army” heyday.
Frehly, founder member, the lead guitarist, songwriter and occasional vocalist for the band, is influenced hundreds of hard rock guitarists, or so the eulogies allege, and there has been a general outpouring of emotional farewells and posthumous praise.
I took note of KISS in the ‘70s, particularly around the time of the release of Alive (1977), because of the costumes and on-stage theatre and because I was very much into rock live double albums at the rime and it was on my bucket list for a while though I never got around to buying it.
The only early KISS song I recall from the radio is “Rock and Roll All Nite” from Dressed to Kill (1975) and though it was fun and entertaining, it was just hard rock lite as far as I was concerned. “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” a stomper from 1979 that was derided as pandering to disco is far more entertaining and probably my favourite KISS song.
Nothing I heard on the radio was compelling enough to persuade me to buy any of the KISS records and, if I really dug “New York Groove” from Frehly’s first solo album, I didn’t invest in him either.
The only KISS album I did buy, is the debut from 1974, that I found in a bargain bin in the mid-‘80s and though it hardly became an all-time favourite, it was quite enjoyable and, once I went to the trouble of listening to the KISS albums back to back, at least up to Dynasty (1979), I realised that not only does the debut album have the best of the ‘70s tunes, the backbone of their live set for years, but the record itself is also the best produced. The following albums just sound tepid and weak, absolutely lacking in the hard rock power I’d expected.
No doubt Frehly was a technically proficient guitarist and perhaps he did influence hundreds of aspirant guitar players but he seems pretty basic to me, no more interesting as guitarist than KISS’ music generally is. He plays well and serves the songs and performances but seems like a journeyman to me rather than a guitar genius.
Of course, there is always extravagant praise for dead musicians, especially from popular and beloved bands, and there is a general tendency to speak only well even if that isn’t an objective view and to excoriate anyone who expresses a less than favourable opinion of the dead person, but it does seem to me that the reaction to Frehly’s death is a tad over the top but, then, I didn’t march in the KISS Army. For me, KISS is just another hard rock band who achieved success with B-grade music and Frehly was just one part of that band.
