Kim Fowley Reviews Alice Cooper's "Musle of Love"/The Hollywood Stars "Shine Like a Radio: The Great Lost 1974 Album"/Richard Creamer Shoots Alice

So did Kiss decide to enlist Bob Ezrin for Destroyer after Fowley’s mash note or prodding? I dunno. The review is spot on nevertheless and pretty funny. Having seen Kim perform a few times, I can even imagine him reading this as a funny spoken word piece. I still like the title track and Teenage Lament ’74 from Muscle of Love but come on Kim, that one sounds like the Band?? I re-read Fowley’s piece in Bomp! on the greatness of the Hollywood Stars (pre-major label article) recently and then listened again to the Hollywood Stars Shine Like a Radio: The Great Lost 1974 Album that came out last year. Yeah, the original Hollywood Stars lp is a bit of a stinker, at least Shine Like a Radio has some good and almost great moments. Live they would have been excellent. Well worth grabbing if you see it. Fowley is right about the failure of Muscle of Love owing to the dropping of Ezrin – I like the Ezrin-produced Kiss cover of “King of the Nighttime World” more than the original, but that may be due to 1970’s saturation or my old roommate Darren’s repeated playing of the lp back in Santa Cruz. Maybe if the the Alice Cooper Band hadn’t fought with Ezrin in the studio, Muscle of Love would be up there with all the lps that preceded it as an undisputed classic. Or maybe they should have let Fowley produce it. I mean that is around the same era as Fowley’s Jimmy Jukebox persona on "Motorboat," which is one of 1973’s top singles worldwide. Do enjoy Kiss on the Paul Lynde show from 1976 (ouch!). Somehow I missed it the first go round. Watching it made me wonder whether Paul Stanley is to thank or to blame for naming Ezra Feinberg's great combo Citay with his pronunciation of the word on the track?

Iggy Stooge Came as Himself (1974)/The Great Kiss Party/Lisa Robinson's "My Latest Fling"/Richard Creamer’s Negatives

Ah, the 70's. Neil Bogart threw quite a party that launched his Kiss goldmine. I don't think such a party would/could exist in the shambles that is today's "record" industry. From his stint at the delisted Cameo-Parkway, somehow Bogart just knew that there was gold in them hills. The movie "Casablanca" was the theme. Hugh Masekela came dressed as a Nazi, Iggy Stooge as himself! Now we normally don't associate Iggy Stooge in any way with Casablanca records. Yet his band did share the stage with Kiss (and BOC) just months earlier on New Years Eve 1973 at NYC's Academy of Music. Thanks to Lisa Robinson we have evidence of both Alice Cooper and Iggy checking out the scene/Kiss at the launch party of the weird label that was Casablanca. Again, we ponder who has Richard Creamer's negatives. I volunteer to edit the coffee table photo book for free. Even stranger for any Los Angelenos out there was the locale - the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City. At the Century Plaza hotel!! That hotel is the basecamp for political campaigns on election night and not for dressing in Nazi finery (even if was for Casablanca the movie). Now all we get at the Century Plaza is the stage where the likes of the Reagans, Andy Williams and foreign fundraisers are held. Wow, the 70's were weird and the money was crazy in the music biz and only about to get bigger for Casablanca. Beyond the weirdness of the photos, the hypocrisy of the costumes should not be lost on any Stooges historians out there. So, let me get this straight, Ron gets heat for wearing his, um WWII "collectibles," but Hugh gets a pass. Ron was ahead of his time on all fronts and fashion forward. I still try to emulate the guys style in 2010 to no avail.

At least the Coop came in a newsboy cap with beer in hand to see who would soon dethrone him in the teenage camp. Come on Alice "Muscle of Love" to "Welcome to My Nightmare"? Sorry dude, but I have to say the string of "Kiss," "Hotter Than Hell," Dressed to Kill," "Destroyer" "Alive" and "Rock and Roll Over" - in the span of two years - kinda trumps the dancers and cyclops. Bonus points are given for the great "Only Women Bleed." In my book the Coop's 1969-1973 run (earlier if you include the AZ singles) beats anything Batliz or the "Demon" scraped together. There was time when it was ok to like the Dictators, the Coop, early Kiss AND the Stooges. See what too much exposure to these folks courtesy of reality television can do to your place in the teen rock canon.

Pose for the camera Iggy.