Kiss Live 1973 - Baby, Let Me Go

Apart from being one of the earliest KISS songs, “Baby, Let Me Go” was the band’s musical anthem during the earliest part of their career and often their set closing piece (along with “Firehouse” and “Black Diamond”). It retained this position (usually – there were some occasions during 1975 and early 1976 when “Rock And Roll All Nite” closed the band’s set) until superseded by “Rock And Roll All Nite” in 1976. The song grew out of a riff Paul had been working on that had caught Gene’s attention that he worked on during free time at his day job (Sharp, Ken – Goldmine).

According to Gene, “We were writing, there was so much material coming in, and I wrote the lyric as a free form lyric. That was one of the few times that lyrics were written, that lyric was written first, before the chords or whatever were written out. I came up with this riff... Which is based on an old R&B lick, but that’s all I had” (KISS Konfidential Radio Tapes). The song was demoed for inclusion on the debut album, but was left off at the time, even though it was and important part of the band’s live show. The song was eventually given a new title: “Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll.”