Gene Simmons documentary

spagthorpe said:
I remember someone in elementary school bringing Kiss Alive to school. Us problem children thought it was the coolest thing, and we listened to it in the AV room during lunch. Remember Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park? I never really got that into them other than enjoy the airplay. Music aside, Gene is a dick.
Click to expand...
Stared at the sleeve of KA1 for hours while listening to it in my youth - looking at it now thinking - wow - what a mid 70s classic images - smoke filled before the show starts, no-one's ever heard of mobile tech or even CDs, hippies were over, and only New Yorkers and Londoners seemed to know what punk is.
 
Last edited:
I just finished watching the rest of it.

So many good tunes from those early albums.

And Gene can still sing... Plus I've always felt he was a bit under the radar as a bassist.

Paul on the other hand seems to be shot, vocally. The songs where he's represented sound shrill and screechy, which sucks because I always thought he was a pretty good singer.
 
unix-guy said:
I just finished watching the rest of it.

So many good tunes from those early albums.

And Gene can still sing... Plus I've always felt he was a bit under the radar as a bassist.

Paul on the other hand seems to be shot, vocally. The songs where he's represented sound shrill and screechy, which sucks because I always thought he was a pretty good singer.
Click to expand...
Gotta watch this doc you guys are talking about

I always thought Peter was by far the best singer in Kiss and not
because of Beth either - check out his vocals in live versions of Black Diamond - A big opportunity was missed not having Peter sing more. Maybe he didn't want to or couldn't - I don't know but they could have had a Triumph like thing going on with Gil Moore and Rik Emmett almost alternating with two very different vocal styles to add more variety.
 
sprint said:
Gotta watch this doc you guys are talking about

I always thought Peter was by far the best singer in Kiss and not
because of Beth either - check out his vocals in live versions of Black Diamond - A big opportunity was missed not having Peter sing more. Maybe he didn't want to or couldn't - I don't know but they could have had a Triumph like thing going on with Gil Moore and Rik Emmett almost alternating with two very different vocal styles to add more variety.
Click to expand...
Totally agreed about Peter.

Black Diamond
Hard Luck Woman
100,000 Years
Beth
Baby Driver

The Triumph thing was more of a problem for the band, I think...
 
Admin M@ said:
If I want to preserve any of the memories I have of enjoying KISS as a tween year old, I can't go near anything that has anything to do with any of them after the makeup came off.
Click to expand...

You do know your old mate Steve Farris nearly joined them and played the solo on Creatures of the Night?
 
unix-guy said:
I was born in 1968 ;)

But I also somehow convinced my parents to join Columbia House records so I had 3-4 KISS albums before I had anything else!

I think it was KISS, Dressed to Kill, Destroyer and Alive to start with.
Click to expand...
I believe those exact albums were also in my 14-for-a-penny.
sprint said:
Was really into Kiss at age 15/16 when Kiss Alive 1 landed. By the time Rock and Roll Over came along I'd discovered this and moved on:
View attachment 85476
Click to expand...
A little later for me, but the same thing happened, only it was Moving Pictures & Permanent Waves. After that, I just felt like, Kiss is for kids.
 
unix-guy said:
I stepped away from them after Dynasty... Although years later I can appreciate it.

I came back for Lick it Up and made it thru Animalize and then I just stopped.

I didn't like what they did with Eric Carr when he died and I didn't like how they treated Ace and Peter in the reunion days.
Click to expand...

I agree. I was a huge Kiss fan from my eight year till my fifteenth. Then I went into metal and years later into prog and fusion. I still like Kiss. Everything until Lick it Up. After that album I don't care and they went down hill and didn't make any good album anymore. I also hate it that they replaced Ace and Peter with two clones. Was better if they went on and had the new guys use their own style make up. I saw them once live with the new guys and didn't like it.
 
Last edited:
Bodde said:
I agree. I was a huge Kiss fan from my eight year till my fifteenth. Then I went into metal and years later into prog and fusion. I still like Kiss. Everything until Lick it Up. After that album I don't care and they went down hill and didn't make any good album anymore. I also hate it that they replaced Ace and Peter with two clones. Was better if they went on and had the new guys use their own style make up. I saw them once live with the new guys and didn't like it.
Click to expand...
They definitely had a stylistic change starting from Lick It Up... Animalize was the beginning of the "modern KISS" era, in my opinion.

I totally agree about the "clones". I mean, Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent both got their own characters and that worked for most of the fans, I think.
 
sprint said:
In the early days (up to Destroyer) there was a mystique and a cool factor that appealed to many mid teens (16yo). They were considered strange and menacing to the point where parents would not allow their 13yo kids access (remember there was no internet, video etc so the only visual access was via album sleeve, concert, or Creem magazine). Much later on, it became a circus, literally, with all the old fart kiss fans bringing their kiddies to the show.
Click to expand...

This rings so true with me. I was a kid (born 1970) and I wanted the Destroyer album because it looked so cool. My parents wouldn't buy it for me because it did indeed seem to menacing.

Instead, they got me this album, which came out on the Realistic label (associated with Radio Shack!)

Hammer.jpg

I was beyond disappointed!
 
Born in 62 and first concert ever was to see KISS in MSG 1977. Was way into them at that time. Kiss alive was an awesome recording. Sat around 20 feet from stage right and Gene threw out his bloody rag and the guy in front of me grabbed it...It was quite a spectacle for a young blossoming guitarist to see.

Saw Van Halen at the Palladium in 1979 and my KISS albums were already starting to collect dust ...LOL
 
I saw them on the final tour at Madison Square Garden.

I've been lucky to see a lot of world class bass players live.

Gene Simmons had the best visceral live tone that I have heard IMHO.

Believe me, I was shocked after the show to hear myself say that to Mrs. B and some friends over drinks. His SVT tone punches you right in the chest, even from the second tier.

For perspective, Justin Chancellor and John Paul Jones were tied for my previous number one live bass tone. With Paul Raven, Billy Sheehan, and Geddy Lee, following right behind, with Chris Squire, Tony Levin, Doug Whimbish, and Michael Anthony next up.
 
I watched the four hour Kiss Biography documentary on A&E last week, and really loved it. A trip down memory lane.

To be honest, after Destroyer I didn't really listen to them anymore. But at age 14, Kiss was really THE band that started me wanting to trade an acoustic guitar for an electric guitar (a Kort Les Paul it turns out, into a Kustom solid state 1X12 amp combo, with a Ross Distortion pedal - ah, early tools!).

I learned my first barre chords from Kiss Alive and their earlier records, slowly lifting that needle and putting it back on the turntable, and my first rudimentary rock pentatonic leads from Ace Frehley as well.

This was the era of Creem and Circus magazines and me and some school buddies would buy them, cut out photos of our heroes and make our own "scrap books." Ha!

It was marketing genius what they did - they monetized the f** out of their brand.

But the reality was, on the first five albums, all the songs were quite good Rock and Roll - still are I would argue. Some tunes are stronger than others to be sure, but they really knew what they wanted to do.

From there I discovered Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Montrose, Hendrix, Pink Floyd and too many others to write out before evolving into listening to the "tasteful" players Jeff Beck and Albert King (pre Stevie Ray Vaughan) and Larry Carlton.

But I recently listened to Kiss Alive again closely, and the Marshall plexi guitar tone was (and still is) simply glorious!!! Eddie Kramer really did a great job recording them on that.

Love this thread, for the memories it brings back.
 
grandinq said:
This rings so true with me. I was a kid (born 1970) and I wanted the Destroyer album because it looked so cool. My parents wouldn't buy it for me because it did indeed seem to menacing.

Instead, they got me this album, which came out on the Realistic label (associated with Radio Shack!)

View attachment 85658

I was beyond disappointed!
Click to expand...
Hey, Cledus Maggard and the Citizen's Band was the greatest of all time. Of. All. Time! :laughing:
 
austinbuddy said:
This was the era of Creem and Circus magazines
Click to expand...
Yup! I remember a gear edition where they went through Kiss' gear - we were transfixed! with all the gear tidbits. I remember taking a two hour bus ride with my buds to some remote music store just to see the bass Gene Simmons played at the time which they had on display. I think it was this one (Gibson Grabber - something like that). Another 25-30 years would pass before I even took up guitar, but we were all obsessed with Kiss at the time, and then Rush/VanHelan not long after.

When I see really old film of Kiss today, it still grabs me as totally fresh, cool, and honest in some way. I've seen Kiss shows spanning their career but the early stuff, rough as it was, is just classic to my eyes/ears.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom