I recently acquired a pal’s record collection and there was an interesting cultural curiosity found amongst the many ’70s and ’80s albums.
In particular, he had a great many KISS albums — multiple copies, even. Some had the original posters and booklets. My favourite is the mural you ended up with if you were dedicated enough to buy all four of the band’s 1978 solo albums. In the case of every solo album — except Ace Frehley’s — the poster was the best part.
Hardcore collectors who already had the solo albums could go one step further by picking up a copy of the rarer Best Of The Solo Albums record, which was released in 1978 and 1979 in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa, Argentina and Chile. The album was actually issued under a variety of similar names and designs, but all had the same tracklist. Where things get interesting is the German and French pressings. The copy I inherited is from Germany. The KISS logo is different.
Stepping back — for those who don’t know — the band’s famous logo was initially designed and drawn by Frehley and later finessed by Paul Stanley. The most distinctive feature — the lightning-bolt SS — is eerily similar to the insignia of the Nazi Party’s Schutzstaffel. Literally, a “protection squadron.” Hitler’s SS grew from a small guard unit to the foremost security agency within Germany and German-occupied Europe during the Second World War. They were notorious and feared for surveillance and state terrorism. So the KISS logo was banned in Germany.
Stanley (born Stanley Eisen), like Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz), is Jewish. He says his father was never a fan of the logo. Stanley says he never intended the logo to be controversial. “As a Jew, I was sensitive about the SS, and Gene’s family had survived the Holocaust,” he wrote in his memoir, Face the Music. “Our logo was banned in Germany because Nazi imagery was illegal there. When I drafted the logo, I certainly never intended to court controversy at the expense of victims of history. I didn’t want that on my conscience.” As a result, KISS has a special German logo where the SS looks more like a backward ZZ. It’s on all of their album artwork, merch and even the illuminated logo behind them on stage.
I did, however, find one German picture disc of Best Of The Solo Albums that had the original logo. Meanwhile, it seems that in France the band’s albums often have no logo at all. That was certainly the case with Best Of The Solo Albums, which was called The Best of Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Gene Simmons.
Due to the band being onboard with the logo change, and the fact that the altered logo is used in all cases in Germany, it’s not all that rare to find albums using it — even here in Canada. Turns out they’re not terribly valuable. Mine’s worth around $25 CAD, or 16 Euros.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
