Kiss Romantic Images Biography
Source(google.com.pk)In March 1966, LIFE magazine published a feature under the quietly chilling headline, “The Crime of Being Married.” Illustrated with photographs by Grey Villet, the article told the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a married interracial couple battling Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statutes. Villet’s warm, intimate pictures revealed a close-knit family, including children and grandparents, living their lives in opposition to a patently unjust law — but also captured eloquent moments, gestures and expressions that affirmed just how heavily the Loving’s defiance of that law weighed on the very private couple.
The LIFE article and Villet’s images, read and viewed today, assume a poignancy and power perhaps unimagined by the magazine’s readers in 1966. The couple, after all, was awaiting an appeal on a court ruling that had, in effect, banished them from their hometown. At the time, the Lovings were adamant (in their own unassuming way) that they had no interest in being cast as Civil Rights heroes. All they wanted was to live their lives and raise their children in peace. But decades later, we know what the people in Villet’s published photographs — a frowning Richard Loving; Mildred Loving, her eyes downcast — might have hoped and prayed for, but could never ultimately count on: namely, that a year later, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court finally and unanimously decided the case of Loving v. Virginia, ruling against the state and finding all anti-miscegenation laws across the country unconstitutional.
Here, LIFE.com presents a gallery of Grey Villet’s photos of the Lovings, along with sections of the article (below) that appeared in the March 18, 1966, issue of LIFE:
Both Lovings were born and raised in the isolated hill country around Caroline County, north of Richmond, where there has always been an easy-going tolerance on the race question. It stirred little fuss when the couple culminated a long and agonized courtship by traveling to Washington, D.C., to get married in 1958. But five weeks later the county sheriff routed them out of bed at 2 a.m. and took them off to jail. A local judge handed down a year’s sentence but suspended it if they agreed to leave the state immediately and stay away for 25 years.
Badly frightened and unaware of their right of appeal, the Lovings lived five years of hand-to-mouth exile in Washington. Even so, they were re-arrested when they returned for a visit to Mildred’s family. Released on bail, they wrote a letter to then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, asking for help. This led the American Civil Liberties Union to take an interest in their case. The Lovings decided to take up permanent residence in Virginia and fight. Now their case will return to federal court — where Loving v. Virginia may well become the next big landmark in civil rights.
Richard and Mildred Loving realize that their fight will affect the lives of many other people if they win; there are probably a half million mixed marriages in the U.S. at present. But the Lovings do not look upon themselves as champions of civil rights.
The idea of someone not allowing to have a interracial marriage in our country is appalling. Living in a free country,no law should set aside to further anymore racial attention among us.The Love family should be the one fighting for there right to integrate. I think we as a country should bring our attention to this matter and fighting the state of Virginia on there behalf. No american in my opinion should hold accountable for who we love. We are all created equally and should love one another equally. We shouldn't be bound by the color of our skin. We have come a long way,but still there is a lot more need to be done in our society.
We have come thus far,but still have a long way to overcome racism. In my opinion all man are created equal,therefore it shouldn't be a problem to love someone from a different race. Love is a beautiful thing and whoever you have the opportunity to express it to should be fine.
Kiss will always be known, above all else, as the band without a face. Until 1983, when the group removed its distinctive comic-book makeup, the four members' faces supposedly had never been photographed (although pictures of them applying their makeup for an early photo session ran in Creem magazine in the early Eighties).
Theatrics and basic hard rock have been a main calling card for Kiss, who were one of the biggest-selling acts of the Seventies and who inspired the Kiss Army, as fans refer to themselves. The quartet formed in the heyday of glitter and rock theater, and it set out to define, at first, evil cartoon-character personas, highlighted by Gene Simmons' bass-playing, fire-breathing, tongue-wagging ghoul.
The group was founded by Simmons and star-eyed rhythm guitar-playing frontman Paul Stanley, who met in a band in 1970. They found "Catman" drummer Peter Criss through his ad in Rolling Stone. After rehearsing as a trio, the group took out an ad in the Village Voice for a guitarist with "flash and balls" and discovered Ace Frehley, who adopted a "Spaceman" persona. At the time, they were all working dead-end jobs, with the exception of Simmons, who taught school at P.S. 75 in Manhattan. Their visual image and game plan were in place from the start. After a few New York shows, Kiss met independent television director Bill Aucoin, who helped the group get a deal with Casablanca Records.
The critics hissed at the anonymous heavy-metal thud rock on the band's first three albums and howled at its mock-threatening image. Nonetheless, Kiss hit it off with its fans (the Kiss Army) from the very start. After some hard financial times (an entire 1975 tour was reportedly financed on Aucoin's American Express card), the band took off with Alive! (Number 9, 1975), which contained the Top Twenty hit "Rock and Roll All Nite."
In 1976 the band's sound and image shifted toward not necessarily softer but certainly more commercial fare, beginning with Criss' ballad "Beth" (#7, 1976), a million-seller that he wrote for his wife, Lydia. Accordingly, Kiss' audience grew from mostly male adolescent heavy-metal fans to include more teenyboppers. As the group racked up more and more platinum records - six between 1976 and 1979 - it became increasingly less threatening. Young fans were frequently photographed wearing the makeup of their favorite Kiss member.
On June 28, 1977, Marvel Comics published a Kiss comic book. The red ink used supposedly contained a small amount of blood from the band members themselves. It sold over 400,000 copies. In the fall of 1978 NBC broadcast a feature-length animated cartoon entitled Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, and Marvel issued a second Kiss comic. But the group's popularity was beginning to wane. Four simultaneously released solo LPs sold poorly — Frehley's was most popular — although the group had several hit singles, including the disco-metal oddity "I Was Made for Loving You" (Number 16, 1979).
In 1980 Criss left for a solo career. He was replaced by Eric Carr, who drummed into the Nineties but died of cancer at age 41. The group then briefly changed its image, abandoning the comic-book characters for a New Romantic–influenced look. Music From "The Elder," an overambitious concept album, featured songs cowritten by Lou Reed and was the group's first album not to go gold. Kiss quickly reverted to its ghoul makeup and primitive hard-rock music, and Creatures of the Night eventually sold 500,000 copies and was certified gold.
What to do? Change image again. Lick It Up (Number 24, 1983) depicted the group (now with Vinnie Vincent in place of Frehley) without its makeup and sparked a commercial resurgence. By the early Nineties, Kiss had sold more than 70 million albums. And as proof that in rock & roll anyone can become a legend if he sticks around long enough, 1994 saw the release of Kiss My Ass, on which artists as diverse as Garth Brooks, Lenny Kravitz, and Anthrax recorded their favorite Kiss songs as a tribute to the band critics loved to hate.
The success of the album anticipated the 1996 reunion of the original Kiss for the taping of MTV's Unplugged (Number 15, 1996), which in turn led to a full-on reunion tour — the year's highest-grossing concert attraction — complete with makeup, stage blood, and pyrotechnics. With Carnival of Souls (Number 27, 1997) already recorded, the recombinant Kiss released Psycho-Circus in 1998. Though much of the album was reportedly performed by session musicians, the album reached Number Three.
In 2000 and 2001, the band's original lineup toured, theoretically for the last time. But in 2003, a new lineup — with Tommy Thayer as "Space Ace" lead guitarist and Eric Singer as "Catman" drummer augmenting Stanley and Simmons — went on the road, earning the seventh highest total gross for music tours that year. Kiss toured again in 2004, but performed only occasional shows for the next few years, not hitting stadiums in earnest again until 2008. Then in 2009, the band put out Sonic Boom, its first new studio album in 11 years. Intended to mark a return to their classic Seventies glam-stomp sound, it hit Number Two in the U.S., Kiss's highest album-chart position ever, and helped kick off another tour of North America and Europe.
Whatever Kiss's future status might be, the band's legacy is ensured by the savvy merchandising of its instantly recognizable, cartoonish image, which has inspired pinball games, plastic action figures and more comic book spinoffs. Career retrospectives such as 2002's The Very Best Of Kiss (Number 52), and live albums such as 2003's Kiss Symphony: Alive IV (Number 18) will almost certainly continue to appear. Meanwhile, Simmons has enjoyed a long-term second career expanding his own, obnoxious personal brand — taking on radio host Terri Gross on National Public Radio in 2002, starring in the Gene Simmons Family Jewels reality show on the A&E network since 2006, and playing the occasional movie villain. All of which goes along with what could be this band's real credo: Rock & Roll all nite, and market yourself every day.
Portions of this biography appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Roc.
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
Kiss Romantic Images Romantic Images With Quotes Of Love Of Couples With For Facebook Timeline For Girlfriend Of Lovers Of Hearts HD Photos
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