Background
Paul Stanley wrote the song while he attended Manhattan High School of Music and Art in New York. He said he was inspired by The Move's song "Fire Brigade". The tracks are similar in their choruses ("Get the fire brigade" and "Get the firehouse") and background sound effects. Kiss played the song during its early Wicked Lester period and often afterwards as well.
"Firehouse" was one of the first numbers that Kiss performed on its earliest national appearances, including ABC's Dick Clark's In Concert on February 19 (the show aired on March 29). Other songs performed on the show were "Nothin' to Lose" and "Black Diamond". The band also played the song on The Mike Douglas Show on April 29. That broadcast included Gene Simmons' first televised interview.
"Firehouse" is associated with Gene Simmons' fire breathing antics during concerts. One of many incidents occurred on December 31, 1973 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York when the band was opening for Blue Öyster Cult. Gene Simmons' hair caught fire for the first of many times.
In November 1972, Kiss, then performing as a Stanley-Simmons-Criss trio, played "Firehouse" along with "Strutter" and "Deuce" to Epic Records' A&R director Don Ellis. The showcase was intended to secure a record deal for the group. During the performance of "Firehouse", the band started ringing a bell. Stanley, enacting a fire-fighting scenario, then retrieved a red pail and threw it at an alarmed Ellis, who thought there was a real fire taking place. As Ellis was leaving, Peter Criss' drunk brother also vomited on his foot. Ellis later said that it was the worst performance he had ever heard.
Read more about this topic: Firehouse (Kiss Song)
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)