“They were doing some fixing on their live record”: Peter Frampton claims Kiss borrowed his guitars to do overdubs on KISS Alive!
It’s long been known that Kiss’s 1975 breakthrough Alive! album wasn’t quite as “live” as advertised. Members have since admitted to overdubs, while producer Eddie Kramer has explained that the band’s explosive stage show often came at the cost of clean-sounding performances.
READ MORE: “Ace started to indulge in things that went up his nose”: Gene Simmons on the “rebellious” nature of Ace Frehley in Kiss’s early days
From fire-breathing and guitar rockets to sky-high platform boots, the chaos of a Kiss gig made it nearly impossible to capture everything cleanly on tape. “It’s no wonder things got a little bit out of whack,” Kramer tells Guitar Player. “So we did a bunch of guitar and vocal overdubs at Electric Lady Studios.”
As it happens, Peter Frampton was mixing Frampton Comes Alive! at the very same studio. And according to the guitarist, Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley made regular visits next door to borrow his gear.
“They kept on coming to us and asking if we got guitars, amps or basses, as they were doing some fixing on their live record,” Frampton told Guitar Player in a 2005 interview.
Among the gear was his mid-’50s Les Paul Custom ‘Black Beauty’, the same instrument immortalised on the cover of Frampton Comes Alive! and in Humble Pie’s breakthrough record Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore.
”They just kept on coming in and borrowing all sorts of different stuff,” Frampton said. “So my equipment is on that album – but not me!”
Kramer, too, remembers Frampton’s gear being used alongside Kiss’s Marshalls: “I do remember Peter’s amps in Studio A other than the Marshall stacks that Ace and Paul had,” he says. “Aside from them doing lead vocals and some harmonies, that’s all the gear I can remember now, as it’s ‘only’ 50 years ago now.”
Despite purists questioning the overdubs, the producer insists the fix-ups were necessary to deliver the record Kiss needed.
“After having heard all of the original shows and the rehearsals, they were remarkably good,” he says. “The essentials were there and well played, and we did whatever was needed to make that a great live album.”
The result spoke for itself: Alive! went on to sell nearly eight million copies, turning Kiss into arena headliners – with a little uncredited help from Peter Frampton’s gear along the way.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
