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Post by The Curmudgeon on Jan 8, 2017 12:11:55 GMT 2
I often get particular notions to get "into" certain bands from time to time, and I've often toyed with the idea of getting into Kiss. I mean, look at that.  Fucking bad ass. There's a handful of songs I know (Crazy Crazy Nights, Rock and Roll All Nite, God Gave Rock and Roll to You) and those are great so.. what's the problem? Well, the fact they will do anything and everything for money, the fact Gene Simmons is an almighty prick.. I want to hate them. I know it's possible to like a band's music but not like the band themselves, but Kiss seem like a whole juggernaut of assholery. Plus, where to start? They've been going for over thirty years and an Amazon search shows a baffling amount of live and Hits albums and remasters etc. It's like getting into the Stones from scratch again. So, what do we think? Kiss - is it worth it? |
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Post by trashcanman on Jan 8, 2017 22:12:52 GMT 2
Yes. So much yes. Simmons is a true son of a bitch, but frankly, so are most of the people we love when you get down to it. Lou Reed was a legendary asshole too. Simmons is just very public about it. You've got to separate the art from the artist, or you'll never be able to enjoy anything. Unless it's Sharon Osbourne. That piece of absolute shit goes beyond asshole into pure evil. KISS has made some truly awful music during the 80's ("Let's. Put. The X in Sex!"), but they had some incredible classics before that, and some after too. Their first two "Alive" albums are a good cross section of the original lineup's best material, and the third is a pretty killer representation of their sans-makeup era. If you aren't into live albums, their Double Platinum compilation is as good a single disc hits album as you're likely to find.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Jan 8, 2017 23:19:05 GMT 2
I'm thinking "Hits" are the way to go (do they have good albums, or are they more a singles kind of band?) I don't do live albums, so the Platinum one you're talking about sounds like a plan.
How recent is it? Is it a remaster?
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Post by trashcanman on Jan 10, 2017 1:32:50 GMT 2
Its an older collection, but I've yet to see a better one in terms of track choice. Looks like there's a remaster too. As far as albums go, I've trended pretty hard towards collections of the older stuff since the original albums are so brief and getting 20 songs on a disc was more economical than 8 for me (although Amazon has some crazy low prices now) but I know maybe 70% of their classic era material and I doubt you could go wrong with anything prior to Dynasty (aka "Disco KISS"). Creatures of the Night was pretty great too.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Jan 24, 2017 15:43:43 GMT 2
So I took your advice Trashy and I have now ordered myself a Kiss Greatest Hits album. It's this one, in fact.  Here's the tracklist. I can't believe I'm going to have a song on my phone called "Calling Dr Love" but it's going to happen once it arrives. I only know a few songs here, (as well as "Do You Love Me" from a Nirvana outtake), so what do you think? Are there a bunch of songs I'm missing out on? 1. Crazy Crazy Nights
2. I Was Made For Lovin' You
3. Detroit Rock City
4. Lick It Up
5. Hard Luck Woman
6. Calling Dr. Love
7. Beth
8. Love Gun
9. God Of Thunder
10. Sure Know Something
11. Deuce
12. Do You Love Me
13. Strutter
14. Rock And Roll All Nite
15. Plaster Caster
16. Hotter Than Hell
17. Shock Me
18. Cold Gin
19. Black Diamond
20. God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II |
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Post by trashcanman on Jan 24, 2017 20:19:17 GMT 2
It's a decent, but limited career spanner, I suppose. A couple songs I don't know on there too. No "I Love it Loud" is weird and "Domino" and "Heaven's on Fire" are perhaps the best hits from the non-makeup era so I'm a bit baffled as to why they bothered with the cheesy (but not unenjoyable) "Lick it Up" and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" if they were going to include less popular makeup era tunes like "Shock Me" and the abominable "I Was Made for Loving You" and exclude the other latter day hits. I don't really think "Love Gun" and "Calling Doctor Love" are really great enough to warrant being on every fucking hits compilation either. I get that they're classics and all, but I question whether anybody would miss them if they put something else there in their stead. There are better KISS songs. The power ballad they wrote with Michael Bolton of all people, "Forever", is actually kind of amazing and should be on there too. And nothing from their last few albums at all. Psycho Circus was a pretty damn good reunion album. But yeah, it'll do for a starter.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Feb 2, 2017 15:00:27 GMT 2
Ha ha, I like "I Was Made For Loving You"! I was reading about it and a lot of fans see it as a "sell-out." Why?
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Post by trashcanman on Feb 3, 2017 12:03:27 GMT 2
I had a feeling you'd dig it. Calling KISS sellouts is stupid as fuck because they set out from the very beginning to become the biggest band in the world by any means, and they were always very vocal about that. At that time, they felt that means was disco. I personally hate disco more than any other kind of music so of course I hate to see a kickass classic rock band stoop there. Even when Alice Cooper did it ironically, it was still just bad music. I'm just happy KISS never tried to make a rap album. The hair metal phase was bad enough. But you can see why people wanting to hear more like "God of Thunder" and "Deuce" might object to getting "Doo doo doo doodoodoodoodoodoo doo doo doo doodoodoodoooooooo" to a fucking disco beat, yes?
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Feb 6, 2017 17:02:02 GMT 2
Yeah, I guess. But wasn't it the same with, say, Queen? From "Tie Your Mother Down" to "Another One Bites the Dust" is a big jump from rock to disco.
Another thing I discovered while reading, that Kiss brought in professional songwriters to help them out?? And so did Bon Jovi AND Aerosmith? Da hell?
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Post by trashcanman on Feb 6, 2017 18:57:08 GMT 2
AND studio musicians to boot. I really should hate KISS, but I just can't. Queen was always a diverse band, and I'd hardly call AOBTD a disco tune, but the Hot Space album was discoish and every track without Bowie on it was mediocre to bad.
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