Simplisma
It seems that the floodgates to the subject of Wicked Lester have definitely been opened and not properly closed again. And you know how it goes with toothpaste, once it's out you can never get it back in the tube. So why not continue with it right away and see what else comes out of it? (1)
Well, if you push it a little more, for example Gene's Charisma from Dynasty (1979) and its somewhat simpler predecessor Simple Type (1972), whose riff is of course 1:1 the one from Charisma, until it just won't budge after the first run through, and a little bit later mutates into something completely different.
If I'm not mistaken, Gene had even used this riff for another song before the Wicked Lester days, I mean, who can remember all that stuff, but obviously for years it just didn't seem significant enough for him to find a use for a proper Kiss album between 1974-77, or even his '78 solo work. And in those days neither he nor Paul were exactly stingy with their tried-and-tested recycling practices.
And here one can see how little Gene must have had up his sleeve in '79, taking the idea for Charisma's lyrics from his manager buddy and spinning them on (2) , and taking the riff from a pre-pre-Kiss predecessor demo that had been omitted until then. But, at least he picked the most interesting, albeit catchiest part.
Luckily for me, because I really love this song.
Side Note:
(1) It won't be too much new though, as the one with Paul's '78 solo album might have been an exception, I guess. But hey, you can't always hit the bull's eye.
(2) You all know the story around Howard Marks, how he more or less put those words in Gene's mouth at a party, and Gene liked it so much that he used it as the basis for Charisma, course.
Charisma (1979)
Simple Type (1972)
