Rocktober First Tracks Song #5: "Strutter" by KISS

As we begin our second week of Rocktober, we're gonna take a journey back 50 years to a time when four guys from New York decided to put on kabuki makeup and take over the rock and roll world.

KISS's eponymous debut album was released in February 1974, and if you were to walk into a record store and see that front cover, you would have been intrigued, terrified, or both.  The album didn't exactly make a splash on the charts, only reaching #87 on the Billboard album chart, but as you know, KISS built its following through its legendary live shows.  The album eventually went gold in the U.S. a few years later.

The first track off of the album is one of my favorite KISS songs, "Strutter."  Written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, and sung by Paul, it's a damn fine rock and roll song that lets you know what KISS is all about in a little over three minutes.  There's a catchy riff, a chorus you can shout in an arena, lyrics about a good-looking woman, a nice guitar solo from Ace Frehley, and a few little cheeky Paul yelps.  They rocked, but they were accessible, despite outwardly appearing like demon clowns.  And I think that sentence right there sums up the allure and prolonged success of KISS.