September 18, 1983. After 10 years and 10 albums, KISS finally took off their makeup. And it was terrifying.
To clarify, I’m not talking about their actual unmasking (un-makeup-ing?) on MTV with VJ J. J. Jackson. That was actually cool and pretty well-executed by 1983 standards.
No, the real terror came in the form of the video for “Lick It Up,” the title track from their first official naked-faced album. To quote my buddy Rubin: “Lick It Up the song was good. Lick It Up the video was an unintentional 3:56 horror show.”
What the hell is going on here? Why is that woman washing a manhole cover? Why won’t Gene stop leering at the camera? That’s not sexy, Gene, you look like a damn caveman! And why can’t Vinny lip sync?
Maybe they should just put the makeup back on. Oh, that’s right, they did, eventually. Thank goodness.