Kiss - Strutter (Demo 1973)

Music: Kiss - Strutter (Paul Stanley / Gene Simmons, 1972). This second of the pre-Kiss later core songs was written before Peter Criss came into the picture. Like many other “collaborations“, Paul borrowed the chord pattern of Gene’s earlier “Stanley The Parrot“ song and developed a new piece. According to Paul, “Once we picked up the tempo of it and started playing a lot suspended chords, the song developed a real Stones-y kind of feel“ (Box Set liners). Paul saw the lyrics as describing, the glam movement of early 1970s New York, along with the strutting style of the song’s music. Lyrically, the song is mostly Paul’s creation, though Gene added the song’s riff to the older original chord structure. Ace Frehley also latter had input on the song, “I wrote those inverted chords, and I think they were a great addition to the song. It’s funny, but Paul and I never wrote a song together“ (Guitar World, 1992). Recorded as a 4:57 demo, the song included musical features, notably the second guitar solo section, that were later removed as the song was further refined.