"Cold Gin" is a song by the American hard rock groupKiss. The song was written by the band's lead guitaristAce Frehley and was released in 1974 on the band's eponymous debut album. The song has attained classic Kiss song status, and is featured on many compilations released by the band. Live versions of the song were often extended for about two minutes due to Frehley's soloing. The song is considered one of the greatest drinking songs of all-time by many media sources. Guitar World listed "Cold Gin" as #7 on their list of greatest drinking songs. It is #14 on Liquor.com's list of top 15 drinking songs and it is ranked #32 of the 50 best drinking songs on TimeOut.com.
Background
"Cold Gin" is about a person suffering from poverty, loneliness, and alcoholism. However the song's meaning is widely misinterpreted to be about a struggling couple who uses alcohol to cope with a toxic relationship or about how cold gin affects the male sex drive, but thorough lyrical analysis shows this is not the case. Ace Frehley confirms what the song in about in his 2011 book No Regrets. Frehley said he wrote the song while he was in the subway. According to Frehley, the riff for the song was inspired by the song "Fire and Water" by English rock group Free. Gene Simmons actually wrote the bridge, according to Frehley, though Simmons turned down a writing credit: "Back then, it was definitely more of a brotherhood. It didn't matter who got credit, the only thing that mattered was if the song was good". The song was recorded in 1973 and was one of two songs from the band's debut album written by Frehley, the other being the album's instrumental, "Love Theme from KISS", which was written by the whole band. Although "Cold Gin" was never released as a single, it has remained a concert staple during the years. The studio version differs significantly from the demo version. In the demo, after the solo, Paul Stanley shouts "Whoa! Alright! C'mon!", but in the studio version, he shouts "Whoa yeah!". The second guitar solo was also cut and the outro was shortened. As Frehley was insecure about his singing ability, Simmons sang the song on the original studio version and in most live versions, although during the Alive/Worldwide Tour, Frehley would sing parts of the song. Frehley would provide the lead vocals when touring with his solo band.
Live performances
"Cold Gin" soon became a fan favorite, with the band performing it on subsequent tours but it would be dropped for the Love Gun Tour and the band did not play the song for three years, until the Unmasked Tour. The band once again dropped the song from the setlist for the Aerosmith/Kiss co-headlined Rocksimus Maximus Tour/World Domination Tour but returned it for the Kiss Alive/35 World Tour. Frehley performed "Cold Gin" during his solo tours, along with other Kiss songs.
Appearances
"Cold Gin" appeared on the following Kiss releases:
Chyme-Dyne's version appeared on the band's 1985 album Bad Luck With Fast Food
Death Angel covered the song on their 1988 album Frolic Through the Park.
Pantera and Skid Row performed the song together live while the bands were on tour in 1992. The performance was taped and later included on Pantera's 2000 home video3 Vulgar Videos from Hell. At one concert, Frehley appeared as a special guest.
