Kiss have firmly left their stamp on the world of glam rock, however they carved out their sound because of the music legends that got here earlier than them. The truth is, Gene Simmons insists that rock and roll wouldn’t be the identical at present with out The Beatles.

Talking on The Faculty Of Greatness, the Kiss bassist named The Beatles as a few of the biggest musicians and songwriters in musical historical past. “The Beatles are above and past something that anyone’s seen in music over, oh, 200 years?” he says. “Simply. Not for the reason that Renaissance.”

As proof of the band’s genius, he factors to how unlikely it was for a bunch of lads from Liverpool to reach the trade. “It’s a must to perceive, they solely existed for seven years they usually got here from a spot that was a pool stuffed with liver – Liverpool – the place nothing ever occurred,” he explains. “Excessive unemployment price, no expertise, no resume, no nothing!”

Regardless of the circumstances, The Beatles had been capable of toy with music in a method few had earlier than them. “‘I wanna maintain your hand’, ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,’” he sings as proof. “That final chord, that minor ninth, is a classy chord, if you recognize about music. It’s virtually like a jazz chord – unparalleled in rock music!”

He then factors to different ‘nice’ rock songs compared to The Beatles, noting how the Liverpool stars hardly ever teased their viewers. “[The Rolling Stones’] Satisfaction is likely one of the nice songs… but it takes about 40 seconds to get to the primary ‘I can’t get no…” he says. “[Cream’s] Sunshine Of Your Love takes about 50 seconds to get [to] ‘I’ve been ready so lengthy’.”

The Beatles, however, at all times minimize to the chase. Simmons re-imagines how the lads might need written the 1965 monitor, Assist!: “‘I simply wrote a brand new track’, ‘What’s it referred to as?’, ‘It’s referred to as Assist!’, ‘How does it go?’, ‘It goes like this: Assist! I want someone. Assist!’”

He then factors to Yesterday, Michelle, and Hey Jude to additional again his case. “There’s not even an introduction, nothing,” he explains.

“These are what I’d name excellent songs,” Simmons insists. “Not solely that, however the title of the track is the primary phrase of the track… it’s probably the most memorable track and it’s the final phrase within the track… Who writes songs like that? It’s simple, their writing.”

He then praises Paul McCartney particularly. “McCartney, particularly, by far is probably the most profitable songwriter in all of recorded historical past,” he says. “There have been over a thousand totally different artists who’ve [covered] simply Yesterday…”

Simmons has shared his love of The Beatles quite a few instances prior to now. Final yr, he advised Guitar World that McCartney was his largest bass affect, and he has additionally beforehand chosen the band’s 1968 self-titled ‘White Album’ as one of many 10 data that modified his life.

“It’s one in all my favourites since you’re seeing turmoil inside maybe the best band that ever existed that recorded its personal music, the place every member was a star,” he advised Goldmine journal in 2023.

“You would hear and really feel the disjointed sense of that album, though clearly the songs shined and the taking part in and the manufacturing was terrific,” he continued. “It’s fascinating that Abbey Highway maybe was the best Beatles album, they usually had been breaking apart at that time, however in some way that had a extra unified factor. However only for loopy on the market music, it’s gotta be the White Album.”

He additionally claimed that rock ‘n’ roll is “nonetheless lifeless” on The Zak Kuhn Present final yr, begging the query: “Who’re the brand new Beatles?”