Kiss
Behind The Mask
by David Leaf and Ken Sharp
2003 Warner Books


In a the April 1976 issue of CREEM, there's a picture of Kiss presenting CREEM's writer extraordinaire Jaan Uhelszki with a platinum album for Alive. According to the accompanying news brief, "CREEM was presented with one of the awards in honor of what some have labeled our 'culpability' in the event."

That culpability is something CREEM has always embraced. From the cover of Dressed to Kill (which came from a Bob Gruen photo cartoon shot for CREEM) to Uhelszki's brilliant account of being the only journalist to ever perform with Kiss in full makeup, Kiss and CREEM have always had a symbiotic relationship. Not to mention the fact that it seems like the band bought the back cover of the magazine for half of the '70s (Note to the Kiss: We'll still happily take your money!).

The details of that relationship are one of the high points of Kiss: Behind the Mask, which is billed as the "official authorized biography" of the band. Written by David Leaf and Ken Sharp, the book chronicles the members' pre-Kiss days through the mid-'70s rise to  superstardom and the ups and downs of the ensuing years.

Critically panned, Kiss was a perfect manifestation of the kind of group CREEM understood and other publications didn't. Or, as Uhelszki says in the book: "For me, nothing is more compelling than an idea whose time has come. Kiss's had."

The first portion of the book—titled "The Rise to the Top"—is an unpublished 1979 biography of the band by David Leaf. This picture of a band still pretending to be a partnership of equals is illuminating. The band didn't seem to know it, but it was just about to enter some pretty rough times. This snapshot of a band at the top, teetering toward a steep decline (and ultimate redemption) is fascinating.

The next two parts, by Ken Sharp, are impeccably researched. The section called "Speaking in Tongues" is laid out as an oral history with contributions from band members and associates, alongside luminaries like Bob Seger, Joe Perry, Pete Townshend, Ted Nugent and Ozzy Osbourne.

The third section, "Shout it Out Loud," details each album, song-by-song, with band members talking about what made those albums good, bad, or ugly. Taken together, Behind the Mask is one of the most complete portraits of the group around. It's essential reading for Kiss fans. If there's one deficiency in the book, it's that the band's most important period is covered in all three separate sections, which robs it of a meaningful chronology. But that deficiency is more than made up for with all of the nuggets of information in the book (not to mention the glorious photographs).