My Life With KISS

[incubus2432]

Great pics Kris!

I grew up listening to KISS and was always drawn towards their heavier material (so they pretty much started me along my path). I only got to see them somewhat recently. First in '96 during their reunion tour with Kid Rock.......KISS was incredible, just an awesome, energetic show. I saw them a few years later during another reunion sweep across the country and they were hugely disappointing.....just going through the motions. Fortunately Ted Nugent was the opener and he was outstanding (a very high energy show and great song list).

I think my favorite album from them is the first live one. I realize it is essentially a studio offering due to all of the overdubs but I prefer the slightly redone versions of the songs/mix better than the original recordings.

[blazer]

Hey Shaun, you really missed out on "Alive" I wondered why it wasn't in your review list. But trust me on this dude, it's by far the best they ever did with the original Line up.

To give you an impression on what to expect, here are a few songs from the "Dressed to Kill" tour


"Strutter"
Okay, who said that Gene Simmons could hardly play bass? This was on the first album and he's doing Jack Bruce proud here.


"Let me go"


"100 000 years"

As for me, I did what Kiss had been doing from the first album onwards: remoddeling existing songs into their own. Such as changing "*****" by the Rolling Stones into "Duece" or changing Robert Palmer's "Addicted to love" into "Let's put the X in sex" and so I changed "Exciter" into the signature song of my band "Slavantas" with which it shares the song structure but has a completely different riff and different lyrics, not to mention that it's also in a different key.

Speaking of "Exciter" did you ever see what Vinnie Vincent did prior to joining Kiss?

WAY worse than "I was made for loving you".

[phlemmy]

I rarely ever review live albums as I am not much of a fan of them. ALIVE wasn't really live.

[nattiep]

Yes, for live stuff ALIVE! is KISS' best album by far. Sure, it's fake, but it has so much more energy than any of their studio stuff.

I can accept a fake live album. Here are some examples.
Judas Priest - Unleashed In The East
Halford - Live Insurrection
Queensryche - Mindcrime At The Moore

My only problem with fake is putting a song on there that was never played live, such as on ALIVE II.

[blazer]

I rarely ever review live albums as I am not much of a fan of them. ALIVE wasn't really live.

But you have to admit that those versions on "Alive" blow the normal versions clean out of the water.

And when "Alive" was put together (by putting the best songs from two live shows from COBO hall together) the band was bancrupt, so as a goodbye they thought to release a live album to have at least an album on how they sounded on stage. So I guess with so little money to spend, there wasn't much overdubbing to do.

[phlemmy]

Oh, I do like the album just fine.

[marc61]

A couple of other KISS related notes...

Ace Frehley came into town with Frehley's Comet. Their equipment had been stolen, but coincidently I had just sold a Les Paul to my friend who worked at the club they played at. My buddy lent him the guitar, and saved the strings used that night...it was pretty cool at the time.

I also had two friends who auditioned for Kiss. One on drums, one on guitar. The drummer was incredible but, when they asked him how old he was, and he replied "16" they said "next!" The guitar player actually got a call back. He said that management told him he would not be a full paid member of the band, and asked him if he could "live" with a salary of $400,000 per year. That was I guess in the early 80's.

[phlemmy]

Marc,

My current guitarist was also being looked at by Gene in the 80s. Gene flew him in from NY to LAX to talk things over for him to replace Vinnie Vincent or Mark St. John...can't remember which.

[nattiep]

Quick question... which bass did Gene use on ALIVE! ? The Gibson on the cover or his custom made one? Whichever it is it has balls! That bass is just booming. Killer tone.

[shamustwin]

Last night on the drive home, the radio station played a CD called "Let Me Get Something Off My Chest".
It's a collection of between song banter by Paul Stanley. It's a riot. That guy has the worst "c'mon people let's party" yell/voice/screach I've ever heard.

[blazer]

Quick question... which bass did Gene use on ALIVE! ? The Gibson on the cover or his custom made one? Whichever it is it has balls! That bass is just booming. Killer tone.

Gene's main basses during the "Dressed to kill" era were two Gibson Grabbers, a burgundy one and a Black one and as evident from the sound on "Alive" they sounded brutal.

Oh yeah, check this out. Ace Frehley said in interviews that when he joined Kiss the first song they showed him was "Deuce" and he loved it from the first second and to this day "Duece" remains a song that Ace and his solo band play live. To show you what the attraction was here's an early demo version.


And check out this demo version of "100 000" years. Gene possibly was playing his Charlie Lobeau (Spelling?) custom bass and he really got a good fat sound from it. Note also the mistakes the band made.

[rick_ovic]

What a great topic!!

Sean, thanks for your album by album review. Kris, your photos are superb, especially seeing Paul with his Firebird I, which was painted with black paint from his Dad's furniture shop apparently. This guitar's headstock was unforunately snapped during the recording of Destroyer.

I got into Kiss after seeing them on The Midnight Special playing "Deuce", which remains my favourite Kiss song followed by "100,000 Years". I could not believe what I was seeing when this clip aired. A defining moment in my life...my axis tilted never to return to it's previous position. And my Mum hated them:-



I saw them on their first Australian Tour in 1980 and I've seen them every tour since, including the Adelaide Unplugged performance. I saw them on their reunion tour, the farewell tour, the other farewell tour, the "oops, we're still going" farewell tour and I was there for Kiss Symphony. I've gone wearing Kiss makeup and so has my wife and my son. I bought a black Gibson Ripper Bass 'cause Gene played one in 1975. I bought a Gibson Firebird 'cause Paul played one in 1975. I bought a Gibson Les Paul Standard, because Ace played one in 1974 and 1975. I bought a Pearl drum kit 'cause Peter played one.

This coming Sunday night KISS perform after the closing of the Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne. Guess who'll be there with the family in tow???

[ozover50]

Did you see them on the Footy Show last night, Trotty? I was never a fan of Kiss bit I appreciate their place in rock 'n' roll history and what they achieved as a band. Unfortunately last night the audio was **** and poor old Paul Stanley couldn't hit a note if you asked him to slap the $10 bill in his other hand!! Hope Sunday is a better gig and you and the family enjoy it.

[Carson]

i remember the first Kiss album i bought was 'Crazy Nights' on cassette when it came out in '87. i still have a soft spot for it, even though it's terrible. i'm guilty of liking a lot of bad Kiss just for the fact that it puts a smile on my face. it's fun if nothing else. i still prefer the classic era, but the later days are fun if i'm loaded.

[atomic_punk]

I've been meaning to post on this topic for a while now but just watching the 3rd volume of the DVD's got me all into KISS again. I first got into them on Dressed to Kill, and growing up in a small town meant I had to beg my sister (who worked at the record store) to custom order the first 2 albums for me. Then Destroyer blew it all wide open for me. I saw them for the first time on the Dynasty tour (they had been SO watered down by then) with CHEAP TRICK opening!!

Met them on the Lick it Up tour (thanks to Queensryche, who hooked me up with backstage passes!), had them sign my LP, gave it to my brother as a gift, who promptly sold it for drugs. Ah...I should have just given him the money and saved the LP!

I've seen them evert tour since.
And when watching the DVD, got a tear in my eye when Paul closed out the LAST KISS show by saying "don't forget us, we will never forget you..."