Last but not least in this whole “meet my guitar hero” chapter is a new Iced Ink tune to document it all. Unlike a lot of songs this one came pretty effortlessly and “wrote itself” as they say; I sat down with a 4 pack of Sixpoint Righteous Ale at about 1am this past Saturday morning and two hours later had the whole thing mapped out. I guess it helps speed things up when you’ve got 30+ years of evil satanic backward masking messages from 1970s rock music influencing your every riff.
In true KISS form I used my Les Paul tuned down to Eb. Before I knew anything about playing guitar I always liked the underlying chimey bell sound of all of the guitars on Ace’s 1978 solo album. Later I learned that he doubled a lot of his parts on acoustic guitar and mixed in just enough of it to get that chimey bell sound so of course I had to do that, too. Soundcloud compression sort of sucks the life out of recordings but thankfully you can still hear a lot of the chimey-ness in there!
This is chock full of Frehley-isms (and Anton Fig-isms) that I tried to Iced Ink-ize as much as I could but still keep the big sounding guitars and cheesy arena rock vibe, complete with corny big power chord/feedback ending. I’m not sure what to make of it anymore so that means it’s done. It’s not the usual kind of Iced Ink tune but really… what is? Look, it’s rock and roll. I usually don’t say this about songs I write but this might be one of my favorites; it was a total blast to put together. I could have made it about 20 minutes longer than it is.
The intro clip is from back in the day when he got his drink on 24/7 – I laugh every time I see it:
If you don’t know who in the Hell I am and somehow ended up here, here’s why I wrote this song.
*******
Here’s just a few examples of what I borrowed from Ace and molded into my own thang. If you happen to enjoy it I highly suggest looking into anything mentioned below on iTunes, Spotify, or whatever you use to find your musics. Contrary to Rock and Roll All Nite it’s some really good stuff.
0:07 – Wiped Out (guitar) Torpedo Girl (Drums)
0:15 – Guitar solo line that he repeats to death at end of Shot Full of Rock
0:49 – Torpedo Girl (long Emaj chord with vibrato/surf guitar effect)
1:14 – Shock Me
1:21 – Unison bends – also the analog delay (echo effect) is a tip of the hat to I’m In Need of Love
1:22 – Fractured Mirror
1:40 – Shock Me
1:57 – Sister (drum beat/overall vibe)
2:47 – rhythmic toggle switch on/off/on/off “dot dot dot dot” sound effect
2:53 and 3:01 The high strummy Dmaj chord is another Fractured Mirror reference (I think? Or one of the other Fractured tunes)
3:11 – 99% of Ace’s guitar solos
3:16 – Torpedo Girl
Yeah, I’m a nerd. What’s it to ya?
