Kiss records their first demo

On 11. March, 1973, Kiss entered Electric Lady Studios, New York, with Eddie Kramer to record their first demo. The songs were “Deuce”, “Cold Gin”, “Strutter”, “Watchin’ You” and “Black Diamond”. The songs were the very first songs printed on a Kiss record on 30. April, 1973.

Paul Stanley:
“We put down pretty much who we were. It was like a musical manifesto. The demo is much rawer than the first album. In many ways I don’t think anything captured the magnitude of what we were doing just in terms of its sonic scope.”
– “Nothin’ to lose: The making of KISS (1972-1975)” by Ken Sharp

Eddie Kramer:
“The demo was done at Electric Lady. They had done an album as Wicked Lester and it wasn’t very good unfortunately and it went straight down the toilet. Gene and Paul were trying to figure out what to do next and they thought they’d be a heavy rock band. It was Gene and Paul’s concept. Their producer asked me if I’d do a demo as my scene was the Heavy Rock stuff so I said yes. I put them in Studio B and recorded a four-track demo with them and that ended up getting them their record deal. I thought it was brilliant. They were wonderful.”
– Metal Express radio

Dave Wittman:
“The first KISS demo was done on four-track, the same way that the Beatles did Sgt. Pepper. It was done pretty much live except for the vocals and solos. The demo was good—they were really tight.”
– “Nothin’ to lose: The making of KISS (1972-1975)” by Ken Sharp

Eddie Kramer:
“We recorded it in Studio B, which is a tiny studio. It’s a tribute to them as performers that even though they were fairly primitive musically in the beginning of their career they played in a fairly tight manner. KISS had obviously done their homework and rehearsed. We did it very quickly in a matter of a couple of days. Ace impressed me as a player. Right off the bat I could tell he was a pretty talented guitar player. Peter Criss’s enthusiasm was tremendous. Gene had the concept and Paul was the rock star singer. My game plan was to capture the spirit of the band. It’s like a time capsule in a way. You grab that moment when the energy is at its raw peak and try not to overembellish. You want to capture the vibe. And that’s the trick. I was very fortunate I was able to do that with KISS on that demo.”
– “Nothin’ to lose: The making of KISS (1972-1975)” by Ken Sharp

Eddie Kramer:
“Paul and Gene were hanging around the studio. I always saw them there because they were working with Ron Johnsen doing the Wicked Lester thing. And then one day Ron called me and said, “Look, Gene and Paul want to form a new band, it’s gonna be a rock’n’ roll band. I’m not really into it but could you do it for me because it’s more your speed?” And I said, “Sure, I’ll have a go.” The studio [Electric Lady] was pretty new at the time and I said to Dave Wittman, who was my assistant at that point, “We’re gonna do a demo for a new band Gene and Paul have got called KISS.” We recorded it in Studio B. It’s a very small studio. I said, “We’ll do it the original way that we used to record four-track.” So we lined up the old fourtrack machine. I remember Ace was very skinny. God, he was so skinny in those days. He was driving a cab in the Bronx and he was all excited, like a kid in a candy store making his first demo. Everybody played at once and it was great. To this day Gene and Paul and Ace think it’s one of the best things they’ve ever done. It’s got “Deuce,” “Cold Gin,” “Strutter,” “Watchin’ You,” and “Black Diamond.” Five songs. I didn’t hear the material until we walked into the studio and did it. I saw them perform live at one of their very first shows at the Hotel Diplomat when they first started wearing makeup. In the studio I remember Gene showing me this spiral notebook which had all these drawings of various members of the band and what they would look like with the makeup on. He had it all planned out. I thought Gene and Paul were well organized. In those days they weren’t great musicians. They had a lot to learn. However, they did have a very unique stage act. Nobody else was doing it. It was very off-thewall stuff, wearing makeup and high boots and calling the band KISS. For some people it was revolting, but to me it was very interesting because nobody had done that before. Obviously it captured the imagination of the kids.”
– “Kiss Behind The Mask: The Official Authorized Biography” by Ken Sharp & David Leaf.