RE-REVIEW: KISS – Crazy Nights (1987)

The KISS RE-REVIEW SERIES Part 29:  

 – Crazy Nights (1987 Polygram, 1997 Mercury remaster)

Here’s a little song for everybody out there.

It’s a song that is a recurring theme for Kiss in the 1980s.  It’s a down and out song: Asylum failed to live up to commercial hopes and the band only  toured in North America.  Paul Stanley was still firmly in control of Kiss.  His partner Gene Simmons was now a record label mogul.  He signed Loz Netto and House of Lords.  Meanwhile, Paul observed bands like Bon Jovi who once opened for them, now eclipsing their success.

Kiss chose producer Ron Nevison for their next album tentatively titled Who Dares Wins.  Nevison had recently produced big hits for Heart and Ozzy Osbourne, and Kiss aimed to follow along.  The new music was the most commercial they’d written since 1980’s Unmasked.  Big name songwriters participated on all but two songs.  Much to the chagrin of Kiss fans, keyboards were brought on heavily for the sessions.  Paul had been writing on keyboards for the first time.  (In concert, keys were played offstage by Gary Corbett.)

The album was renamed Crazy Nights, preceded by first single and video, “Crazy Crazy Nights”. From the first “Woo!”, it’s far too bright and shiny. It’s one of those “gosh, this is so inspiring!” tunes that you’re embarrassed to like.  “They try to tell us that we don’t belong, but that’s alright, we’re millions strong.”  The awkward change to a higher key at the end is annoying as Paul hits absurd notes.  Bruce Kulick’s guitar playing is exemplary, a showcase of true technical mastery, but not the kind of playing associated with classic Kiss.

A pretty stinky song called “I’ll Fight Hell to Hold You” is a mish-mash of mismatched parts and very high notes.  It inspired my neighbor George to say, “If a song this poor made the album, can you imagine the songs that didn’t?”  Gene wrote about 25 songs for Crazy Nights.  Shudder.  “Bang Bang You” is pretty weak too, keeping things in “park” rather than “drive”.  It’s also the second time Paul referrs to a previous Kiss song in the lyrics.  This time Paul states that he’s gonna “shoot you down with my Love Gun, baby.”  On “Crazy Crazy Nights”, Paul stated that we “Love It Loud”.  Reminding fans of better songs from more nostalgic times?

Bruce Kulick gets a smoking guitar into on Gene’s first track, “No No No”.  Every trick in the book is thrown down in a mere 45 seconds.  The track is a sudden fast thrash into heavier territory.  However it’s track 4, and it’s Gene’s first song?  That’s problem numero uno.  The second issue is Gene’s newfound smooth singing style.  The demonic growl is gone, and Gene adopted a clean voice that does not really sound much like Gene Simmons.  He continues that style on “Hell Or High Water”, a pretty good tune in fact.

Things go a ridiculous extreme on “My Way”, another one of Paul’s “inspirational” tunes.  “I’m gonna talk like I talk, walk like I walk, My Way.”  Sinatra this is not.  What sinks it are the stupidly high notes that Paul hits.  Paul Stanley was simply one of the great voices in rock, bar none.  He could do things that few people this side of Freddie Mercury could do.  But just because you have a car that can go 200 mph doesn’t mean you have to keep it floored.  Save it for when it counts.

Side two commences with another atrocity, “When Your Walls Come Down”, which never would have been in consideration for a better album.  Consider that Eric Carr wrote a number of ideas for this album that weren’t used, like “Dial L For Love”.  That unfinished song had a Van Hagar vibe that was on trend, and potentially better than crap like “When Your Walls Come Down”.

The first Kiss ballad since “I Still Love You” on Creatures of the Night (1982) is “Reason to Live”.  A weak ballad is of little interest, and the music video surprised some by having Bruce Kulick on stage playing damn keyboards!  Paul and his buddy Desmond Child are responsible for a song we’d rather forget.

Simmons returns with a great number called “Good Girl Gone Bad”.  Cliche title aside, this understated dusky prowler has melodic qualities in common with some of Gene’s better material on Unmasked.  Another decent song, Paul’s “Turn On the Night” is a hokey but good enough anthem for the 80s.  It’s co-written by Diane Warren, who later scored it big with a little song called “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing“.  It will be too bright for some fans, but it’s a tasty pill if you can swallow it.  Paul has always had a way with a chorus.  Bruce’s solo is another standout.  “Turn On the Night” is actually pretty good.  The music video seemed to be a continuation from “Reason to Live”.  The blonde woman that torched Paul’s car seems to be now sabotaging a Kiss concert on a roof top?  I’m very confused.

Crazy Nights ends with a fart, a pretty low-grade Simmons tune named “Thief in the Night”.  On a better produced album like Creatures, a song like this could have smoked the competition.  On a plastic, thin album like Crazy Nights, it completely misses the gut.

It’s probably unfair to lay the blame for Crazy Nights at the feet of Paul Stanley and Ron Nevison.  If Gene wasn’t out trying to discover the next big band, and was actually focused on Kiss, could they have gotten it together?  The fact is that Kiss are at their best when running full steam.  It’s always been a partnership between Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as the primary writers.  Crazy Nights represents a point at which these partners were working like broken cogs.

It’s a damn shame.

Today’s rating:

1.75/5 stars

Uncle Meat’s rating:

0/5 steaks 

Meat’s slice:  For this Meat’s slice, we include an actual commentary, as Uncle Meat listened to the album in real time.

Uncle Meat:
This first shit tune…sounds like a wrestling entrance.

Mike LeBain:
Totally.
It’s of the time.

UM:
It’s shit.

ML:
You couldn’t even give this 0 steaks.

UM:
It’s Warrant…It’s Poison…It’s shit.

ML:
You’d have to go to rotten ground beef for this.
And that’s…fuck what’s his name…

UM:
And that key change is ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!! So awful.

ML
…Ron Nevison produced.

UM:
This is shit.

ML:
Enjoy my friend.
It gets pretty silly later.
Wait until you hear My Way.
Mark my words.
Reemember: MY WAY.
I’ll walk like I walk, talk like I talk, My Way…

UM:
If I end up taking a walk and killing a 48 year old Chinese woman…It’s on you my friend.

ML:
I realize that.
It’s right here in permanent Internet records.

UM:
Well…first absolute shit tune is over…and it’s rated dung.

ML:
Second song is worse.

UM:
The shit storm is over Randy…
Oh no it’s not Mr Lahey…because here comes song 2.
I’m using that in my review of this album…

ML:
HAHAHAHAHAH

UM:
I’m so glad I shaved my head two days ago…or I would be lighting my hair on fire.
Bang Bang You…just about to start.
I see it’s a Desmond Child vehicle.
Grrrr
This is so garbage…hot steaming garbage.
I dont know if I can do this whole album.

ML:
HAHAHAHAHA Bang Bang You…
You have to finish it now.

UM:
I hate this.

ML:
You can tell this is the period when Gene wasn’t around anymore.

UM:
My bum is embarrassed for my ears right now.

ML:
You think this is bad, I invite you to play Hot in the Shade.

UM:
OK…fuck man…it’s only song 4 of this one…hold it now.

ML:
I’ll shoot you down with my love gun baby.

UM:
I’m not guaranteeing I’m getting through this one.

ML:
You can’t walk away now.

UM:
And…I might just review the first 4 songs…and say… ok…I’m done…don’t care about the rest…goodbye.
Goodbye.
That would make a point.

ML
Nope you HAVE to play MY WAY.
I need you to hear track 6.

UM:
Who is singing No No No?
Kulick?

ML:
Gene.

UM:
Doesn’t sound like him.

ML:
He doesn’t sound like him on any of the album.

UM:
Oh…ok…he sounds different.

ML:
Nevison forced him to drop his normal voice.

UM:
Passable.

ML:
Barely.

UM:
Kinda reminds me of Skyscraper by David Lee Roth.

ML:
Same era.
Very plastic and keyboardy and samply on the drums.

UM:
Better than the first 3.
Eric carr’s only writing credit.
Does Kulick or Carr sing any tunes?

ML:
Nope just Gene or Paul.
Eric was promised a song and didn’t get one which made him very bitter.
Apparently he stopped speaking to Paul around the next album.

UM:
I mean on any album.

ML
Eric sings two.
He sings Beth on Smashes and Thrashes.
And Little Caesar on Hot in the Shade.
Bruce sings one.
I Walk Alone on Carnival of Souls.

UM:
Ok…that’s weird.

ML:
Funny thing there:
Both guys sang their first original Kiss songs on their LAST Kiss albums.
In Fact Bruce’s song is the last song on his last Kiss album.

UM:
Neat.

ML:
In the current band Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer both have two lead vocals each.

UM:
Hell or High Water is…boring…not offensive like earlier.
Sounds like Tesla.

ML:
But you can hear his voice is smooth not rough.

UM:
I just wrote down one line now in the first minute of My Way.
“Bon Jovi can fuck right the fuck off already”.
Oh man this smells.
It’s like actual runny sharts are oozing throught this speaker.
OK… Reason to Live is on a new shelf of shit. Holy Fuck. Of course…Desmond Fucking Child. What a shit hat.
It sounds like St. Elmos Fire meets Michael Bolton working out in a shit gym.
OK…I’m done it’s off…I can’t do anymore…no fucking way.
Done.

 

Crazy Nights is the last album reissued in the Mercury CD remasters series.  No album more recent than this has been remastered and reissued.

Original mikeladano.com review:  2012/08/04

49 comments

  1. This is were Kiss and I parted ways. At the time I thought Crazy Crazy nights was just awful. It took until I heard Unholy and Domino to bring me back.

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  7. My Way and Turn on The Night just remind me of how Heart was sounding at the time and of course with Crazy Nights you get all things Heart thanks to the producer.
    I really didn’t mind the not so Mean Gene’s style of singing but KISS was dying for any kind of hit at this point!
    I just looked at my review of this from over 2 years ago and I gave it a 5/11….
    Loved the back and forth banter between u an MEAT…
    HA…great call Meat on Crazy Nights and Skyscraper being cut from the same sounding like sterile factory…

    My fave line of the review….courtesy of Meat explaining My Way..

    “If I end up taking a walk and killing a 48 year old Chinese woman…It’s on you my friend.’

    Oh and one more from MEAT..

    ‘My bum is embarrassed for my ears right now.’

    HAHAHAHA…..

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    1. To clarify this a little … this was never meant to be a review. Mike challenged me on a Saturday afternoon to listen to all of Crazy Nights. It wasnt until later that day that I realized that our facebook conversation would be the perfect review. Reason to Live was just shitty enough for me to abandon the rest of the album. If there is a God .. or a Rock God .. I will never be succumbed to any song off this travesty ever again. And no worries … no Chinese women were harmed because of this horrible album .. Not yet atleast

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    2. ‘My bum is embarrassed for my ears right now’ is my favourite line by far :)

      Meat comes out with that stuff left right and center. If you ever met, you’d see the guy never stops making me laugh! Even when he’s annoying me on purpose I still have to laugh.

      I think you were too kind to Crazy Nights. But you know who I really want to read this review? Jompa. You know him and Ron Nevison!

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  8. The good thing about the single “Crazy Nights” was that it got into the top ten in the UK Charts. Back then, any metal type tune getting that high in the charts was a sock in the eye to the trendy mainstream music scene. That’s my excuse for liking the song and I’m sticking to it. I never heard the entire album though and after reading you and Uncle Meat, I don’t want to.

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    1. But Geoff, here’s the thing. Gene Simmons has been talking for years about a box set he has coming out called Gene Simmons 100. It’s 100 unreleased songs he recorded. I am sure some of the 25 songs he wrote for this album will be on it.

      My point? You KNOW I’m buying it.

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  11. Song wise, I think it’s one of Kiss’ best non make-up album of the 80’s. Crazy Crazy Nights, I’ll Fight Hell To Hold You, My Way and Turn On The Night are all brilliant pop-rockers and there are a few that is just good here.
    No No No might be a waste of bum-wipe and Reason To Live might be a butter deluxe re-write of I Want To Know What Love Is, but the rest of the songs I kinda like, even Bang Bang You for all its cheesiness.
    I don’t need to get into Ron Nevison, he’s always useless and everything bad is his fault. On this album he made sure that songs like Hide Your Heart and Sword And Stone didn’t get included.
    With a decent producer, Crazy Nights might had become a great album.
    In my opinion, it’s the production here that falters, not the songs.

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  12. Just curious, were KISS at that point as big as the 80s glam metal bands (Def Leppard, Motley Crue, GnR)? It sounds like they defied expectations with this hit album.

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    1. Well, this album tied for their best selling of the decade. It went platinum in the States. Their best selling albums are Destroyer and Alive II which both went double platinum (sold two million copies).

      By way of comparison, Leppard’s Hysteria has sold 12 million copies, Appetite for Destruction has sold 18 million, and Girls Girls Girls sold 4 million, while Feelgood sold 6 million.

      So I’d say they weren’t. Their early stuff wasn’t pop enough to cross over outside of their rock audience despite the brand being ubiquitous in American culture, and when they went full pop to match the glam bands the records weren’t good enough to shift more than a million units. The glam stuff (except G N’ R) was so lightweight that anyone that liked a good 4/4 beat and catchy hooks could listen to it without being afraid of the metal stigma. It was friction-less music calculated for mainstream acceptance.

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        1. The kids of today can and do listen to Appetite and aren’t made fun of, I’m not sure the same is true with Leppard. “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Paradise City”, and “Sweet Child” it seems like are in every movie ever now. Don’t hear anything from Hysteria being used in modern film.

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    2. Hey Jim! No, at the time DL, Motley and GNR were much bigger than Kiss. Kiss were lucky to sell a million copies if they could, and those bands were going double platinum.

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