Author Topic: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation  (Read 136020 times)

buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #30 on: May 30, 2009, 02:19:09 PM »
It's very surprising to me that no women are participating in this thread.  I thought KISS fans were almost all professional women.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

Matt

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #31 on: May 30, 2009, 05:42:19 PM »
Seriously, the Dave Clark Five?

I don't know what this is supposed to mean. The Dave Clark Five rocks.
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buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #32 on: May 30, 2009, 06:29:22 PM »
Seriously, the Dave Clark Five?

I don't know what this is supposed to mean. The Dave Clark Five rocks.


Lots of things rock, Matt.  Tuna and peanut butter are both delicious, but I wouldn't like a tuna and peanut butter sandwich.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

Julie

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #33 on: May 30, 2009, 11:13:48 PM »
It's very surprising to me that no women are participating in this thread.  I thought KISS fans were almost all professional women.

Now you aren't surprised, but this is the best I can do.
I have a long history of booing

nec13

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #34 on: May 30, 2009, 11:17:51 PM »
Tuna and peanut butter are both delicious, but I wouldn't like a tuna and peanut butter sandwich.

How about a bacon and peanut butter sandwich?
Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor.

Julie

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #35 on: May 30, 2009, 11:20:11 PM »
Tuna and peanut butter are both delicious, but I wouldn't like a tuna and peanut butter sandwich.

How about a bacon and peanut butter sandwich?

What, are you from Toledo?
I have a long history of booing

nec13

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #36 on: May 30, 2009, 11:35:28 PM »
Tuna and peanut butter are both delicious, but I wouldn't like a tuna and peanut butter sandwich.

How about a bacon and peanut butter sandwich?

What, are you from Toledo?

Pennsylvania, actually. Thanks for asking, though.
Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor.

Julie

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #37 on: May 30, 2009, 11:40:29 PM »
Tuna and peanut butter are both delicious, but I wouldn't like a tuna and peanut butter sandwich.

How about a bacon and peanut butter sandwich?

What, are you from Toledo?

Pennsylvania, actually. Thanks for asking, though.

Do you like to dip bologna in peanut butter?
I have a long history of booing

nec13

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #38 on: May 30, 2009, 11:41:52 PM »
I don't touch that stuff. Bologna, that is. We do like to put french fries on our sandwiches here, however.

Strange isn't it?
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mcphee from the forum

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #39 on: June 01, 2009, 05:13:03 PM »
is it over already
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buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #40 on: June 01, 2009, 05:15:16 PM »
is it over already

Check back tonight to find out!
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #41 on: June 01, 2009, 10:07:31 PM »
#4 - KISS


Now, where were we?


Wikipedia is helpful in learning about the first three albums reviewed here, but it really hits it out of the park with this one.  Whoever wrote it is either very knowledgeable or a great liar.  Who cares which?

KISS, released in 1974 and now featuring a song that wasn't on there then, is the best studio record the band produced in the 70s.  Not that the other ones aren't good, because some of them are.  Not all of them, oh, no.  But some of them.

The best story about this album on Wikipedia is this:

Quote
According to Criss, photographer Joel Brodsky thought Kiss were literally clowns, and wanted to place balloons behind the group for the shoot.  Brodsky, however, has denied this, chalking it up to imagination.

"Strutter," a song originally called "Stanley the Parrot" and written by Gene Simmons before he ever met the real Stanley the Parrot, is quite a first track in a band's career.  Loud, aggressive, streetwise and somehow still as feminine as the subject of the song, "Strutter" is a fine piece of early 70s rock and roll.  When you think of some of the crap that still gets played from this period, it's amazing it wasn't ever a hit.

Please, if you are in any way a KISS fan, find the demos for the first album.  "Strutter" is worth the price of admission and may be the best version of this song.

"Nothin' to Lose" is KISS at its most playful and fun.  Sure, Gene is singing about what he always sings about, but this time it's almost like a hard-R rated version of a 60s beach song.

"Firehouse" is the inspiration for North Carolina based band "FireHouse."  It features a loud siren.

"Cold Gin" is a KISS classic written by Ace Frehley, LEAD GUI-TAWH.  Frehley was too nervous about his voice to sing it himself.  Time would show that he was right.  It's funny, because this song, not written by Simmons, along with "Dr. Love," became Gene's signature songs.

"Let Me Know" is an underrated song.  Its tacked-on coda is preserved as the tacked-on coda to "She" in concert.  Either way, it's a good coda.

"Kissin' Time" is the late addition to the album.  Hoo boy, the throwback pop mention above turns ominous.  The label made them do this one, and it shows.  The vocal harmonies are all wrong.  The whole thing is all wrong.  Gene would never let anyone but himself exploit him this way again.

"Deuce," like "Cold Gin" and "She," written in the same era, are all KISS live staples.  Which means they've played them so many times that it's hard to tell whether they are good or not.  Gene says he doesn't know what the lyrics mean, which puts him in the same boat as everyone else, except the odd henpecked husband who has for years thought of himself as "Old Jim."

"Love Theme from Kiss" is a kiss instrumental.  Yup.   Not a rocker, either.  And not interesting.

"100,000 Years" is pretty great, although the lyrics are difficult to understand.  "I'm just about to ooh yeah" makes perfect sense, but the rest doesn't.  A light drum solo here, especially compared to the 7-minute monster on Alive!

"Black Diamond" on KISS is gargantuan.  5:12 and half made up of an extended train-sound fadeout, the song is really cool for a 70s rock record.  Again, the demo is more energetic and more exciting.  Please download it.

Some people might be forgiven for always having thought that the second line was "bitch has only begun," until they heard the drummer from Superchunk say it on the radio right after playing it on an airhorn.  By the way, Peter Criss sounds like he sings, which is a strange thing.  He also sounds a little like what a cat might sound like if it sang.  


This one's good.  There are a few more that are more good than bad, and a couple that are equally good and bad, and then a couple that have some good songs, and then two that have to be listened to for the first time in decades to determine just how bad they are.


I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

Wes

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Paul Stanley Stage Banter Contest, Part One
« Reply #42 on: June 02, 2009, 09:54:01 AM »
Black Diamond - in all forms, but especially air horn - is definitely one of the band's finest efforts. I'd say it's the second best song in the KISS arsenal, but I'll save my thoughts on the best song in their arsenal for when you get to the review of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey: Music from the Motion Picture. I like to think Paul was inspired by I've Just Seen A Face when he wrote the intro.

Meanwhile!

Paul Stanley Stage Banter Contest

Since 2009 is the historic fourth anniversary of Paul Stanley's People, Let Me Get This Off My Chest, buffcoat has agreed to host a series of contests in this thread honoring the second best solo KISS album (Ace Frehley's Ace Frehley is the best) during the breaks between his album reviews. The goal is simple: attempt to replicate what the incomparable stage banter of KISS frontman and Co-Chairman Paul Stanley might have sounded like in each of the presented, partially fictional scenarios. For example:

***

Scenario: KISS actually mounts a tour for Music From "The Elder" in 1981 and plays a show on the night that Ronald Reagan has been shot.

Paul Stanley Banter: People, I guess maybe you all mighta heard the news today that, uh, that President Reagan was shot and is currently in surgery with a collapsed lung. WELL I GOTTA TELL YOU SOMETHING, people! You know that KISS does not condone the assassination of any member of the government of the United States, the greatest country on the planet, but listen: that don't mean that KISS wants to see GUUuuuuUUNS get banned. Cuz you know, people, KISS has some guns that the Constitution will always protect. Are we talkin' 'bout...tommy guns? (Gene holds axe bass like a tommy gun, pretends to fire at the crowd) NO! Are we talkin' 'bout...machiiiiiiiiiine guns? (Eric Carr plays technically competent machine gun roll on his drums) NOOOOO! Uh, this one's called Love Gun.

***

Obviously, they don't have to be that long. Anyway, your entries will be judged on historical accuracy, KISStorical accuracy, use of the words "people" and "listen", general Stanley-isms and the proper introduction of a relevant song. Feel free to attempt as many as you wish.

Scenario 1: During the Destroyer Tour, KISS plays a show in Greensboro, NC the day after the the Susan B. Anthony Dollar is introduced in the United States.

Scenario 2: (Year and venue choices optional) Paul receives word from authorities during the show that a serial killer is on the loose and was last spotted near the stadium.

Scenario 3: March 27, 1999 - KISS plays a show the day after the internet is attacked by the Melissa worm and Dr. Jack Kevorkian is found guilty of second degree murder for his role in the administration of lethal injection.

Scenario 4: Dressed to Kill Tour, 1975 - Paul introduces "Rock and Roll All Nite" into KISS' live setlist; also Peter Criss wandered into the desert five days ago and has not been seen since.

Scenario 5: (Year and venue choices optional) Paul receives word from security that a baby was found in a basket outside the stadium.
This may be the year I will disappear.

nec13

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #43 on: June 02, 2009, 12:12:35 PM »
Are there prizes involved?
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nec13

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #44 on: June 02, 2009, 01:01:50 PM »
I apologize, because this kind of sucks. But I took a stab at it anyway.

Scenario #2:

ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT Piscataway! Is this or is this not the rock and roll capital of New Jersey? (Crowd responds in affirmation) How does everyone feel tonight! You feel good? (Crowd responds) I can't hear you! I said DO YOU FEEL GOOD? (Crowd responds) Listen, we just found out that there was a serial killer spotted outside the stadium. Let me tell you something, KISS does not like serial killers because murder isn't cool people. So if anyone spots this guy it's your duty to report it to the police. Then we can ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT AND PARTY EVERY DAY! (Song begins)
Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor.