If nothing else, Frehley’s Comet holds the distinction of almost becoming Megaforce Records’ first gold record…almost. But pull back the curtain, the backstory surrounding the Spaceman’s 1987 return to the world of rock amounts to so much more.
By the end of the 1980s early 1990, Glam and Hair Metal were reaching an apex. A storm was coming, but the haze of glitter, hair spray, and ego was so thick in the air, that record executives and musicians alike simply couldn’t see it.
There is no denying that “Space Ace” has a special swagger about him…that certain something that simply makes him special. Ace is both unable and uninterested in reading music and is generally averse to playing by anybody else’s rules but his own. Still, Ace has managed to forge a fifty-year career in music and has seen the wildly unheard-of success that street-walking guys from the Bronx don’t often see.
Comparing Jazz players to Rock players is like comparing apples and oranges, and it’s not on the menu for this trip to the buffet. Anyway, if you were hoping for a rinse and repeat list containing Neil Peart, Tommy Lee, and John Bonham, you came to the wrong place. This is one for the underdogs.
I came to find out that a drummer named Anton Fig played on Dynasty, Unmasked as well as Ace Frehley‘s self-titled album, Ace Frehley. I also came to find that Anton had played on the bulk of Ace’s solo output. His style of drumming was entirely different than my previous idols. I know today that Anton’s love of Jazz was heavily incorporated into his Rock/Fusion style, but at the time, I had no real grasp of what I was hearing.
