Nows and Forevers

Not my kind of music, but I’ve always liked “New York Groove.” I remember listening to it in middle school in the ’70s — not knowing who KISS was at first — and then not hearing it for a long, long time. When I left the New York metro area in my 20s, I heard it on the radio again and I was hooked all over again.

I’ve been in that New York Groove, having lived around the city for nearly half my life and having lived in New York for a decade. These lyrics often hit me as I walked in my own personal soundtrack:

To the left and to the right/buildings towering to the sky/ it’s outta sight
in the dead of night

And every time I walked by 3rd Avenue and 43rd Street, and it’s more times than you would think, I smiled.

Ace Frehley, who sang the lead on “New York Grove,” died this week. He was 74 and had complications from a fall.

Here’s the song in all its KISS glory.