The Song "Beth"

So this commercial, I saw it just the other day. It had the song “Beth” by KISS playing in the background.

It reminded me of two things.

The first was, this is the only song the drummer Peter Criss from the band did that was any good.

The second, was something I thought only I had done. I would re-write the lyrics for it with another girls name and give it to them as a poem.

What I mean is this. When I was in grade school I was a huge KISS fan. And when I listened to the song I knew it was a love song, I didn’t understand it, but I knew by the tone it was a love song.

I was interested in a girl, I think her name was Lisa. I got a piece of paper, took the vinyl record out of the sleeve and played the song.

Then on the carpet, using the album cover as a flat surface I would write out the lyrics to the song (what I understood of them), replacing the word “Beth” with “Lisa” of course.

I thought I was so clever to have thought of this.

After seeing this recent commercial, I told that story to a few people I knew. Turns out some of them had also done this growing up. Down to using the cover as a flat surface.

What really made me think was this – I can see where I did this on those old albums when I look at them.

When people search for vintage vinyl, do they see this? Do they look for it? The indentation from a kids pencil, pressing hard the words of love embossed on the cover of an old album?