Cold Gin

"Cold Gin" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss. The song was written by the band's lead guitarist Ace Frehley and was released in 1974 on the band's eponymous debut album. The song is featured on many compilations released by the band. Live versions of the song were often extended for about two minutes due to Frehley's soloing. Guitar World listed "Cold Gin" as #7 on their list of greatest drinking songs. It is #14 on Liquor.com's list of top 15 drinking songs and it is ranked #32 of the 50 best drinking songs on TimeOut.com. Background "Cold Gin" is about a person suffering from poverty, loneliness, and alcoholism. However the song's meaning is widely misinterpreted to be about a struggling couple who uses alcohol to cope with a toxic relationship or about how cold gin affects the male sex drive, but thorough lyrical analysis shows this is not the case. Ace Frehley confirms what the song is about in his 2011 book No Regrets. Frehley said he wrote the song while he was on the subway. According to Frehley, the riff for the song was inspired by the song "Fire and Water" by English rock group Free. Gene Simmons actually wrote the bridge, according to Frehley, though Simmons turned down a writing credit: "Back then, it was definitely more of a brotherhood. It didn't matter who got credit, the only thing that mattered was if the song was good". The song was recorded in 1973 and was one of two songs from the band's debut album written by Frehley, the other being the album's instrumental, "Love Theme from KISS", which was written by the whole band. Although "Cold Gin" was never released as a single, it has remained a concert staple during the years.