Part 38.5 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – “Psycho Circus” (CD/VHS single, 1998)
Unfortunately, the 3D wasn’t nearly as good in 1998 as it is now. This video probably represents that best that we could do at the time. However, it’s a part of KISStory now, and worthy addition to your collection for a couple reasons.
The video itself contains two versions of “Psycho Circus”. It has the regular 2D version, which doesn’t hurt your eyes to watch, the 3D version, and the glasses. If you concentrate really hard, you can kind of imagine everything looking 3D. It’s a gimmick I guess, Kiss were experimenting with 3D images live in concert at the time. I didn’t see that tour but everybody who told me about it said that the 3D didn’t work.
The video comes with a CD single. There were four different CD singles printed, each one with a different Kiss member’s face on it. They were random and collectible, but every copy I have ever run across had Peter Criss’ face on it. I’ve never found anybody else. So, that means either: a) Peter was packed more per crate than other members (a common strategy used in trading cards and action figures), or b) fans snapped up all the Genes, Pauls and Aces very quickly. Personally I think it’s a). If you find a copy with any other member’s face on it, I think you have something collectible.
The CD single contains the rare track “In Your Face” written by Gene and sung by Ace. This is probably the easiest place to find that song. It was initially released on the Japanese version of Psycho-Circus. It’s not a bad song, and since it’s sung by Ace is it valuable to Kiss fans for that reason.
3/5 stars. A curiosity, it’s kind of fun to watch the video, if you still own a VCR.
Part 38 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Psycho Circus (1998)
I have a really hard time rating Psycho-Circus. I played it every day when it came out, but I like it a lot less now than I did in 1998. Once I got over the novelty of “finally, a new album by the original Kiss,” I stopped listening to it. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Gene and Paul are essentially the only members of the original Kiss on most of it. That’s the biggest problem.
On all but one song, drums are by Kevin Valentine (ex-Cinderella), a good studio drummer. Guitars are handled by Tommy Thayer (who fits into the story later) on all but two songs.
The other problem is it’s way too overproduced and I lay that blame at the feet of Bruce Fairbairn, rest his soul.
Fairbairn was a great producer for Bon Jovi and especially Aerosmith in the 80’s, but he was the wrong guy to produce Kiss. I think he wanted to make a dense, lush album as if it were 1998’s version of Destroyer, and he failed miserably. Paul wanted Bob Ezrin to produce…oh, the album that might have been. Paul and Fairbairn clashed in the studio regularly over the direction of the album.
The title track, though is amazing! Vintage, anthemic Paul Stanley. The solo is great, also very vintage…but it’s Tommy. I don’t mind Fairbairn’s production here, the circus noises suit the song, however the drums sound way too plastic. This is the case with almost the entire album. The drums sound like samples throughout.
Gene’s “Within” follows, which I believe was a Carnival Of Souls outtake. (Two other COS/Psycho-Circus outtakes, “Sweet & Dirty Love” and “Carnival Of Souls” itself ended up on Gene’s solo album.) “Within” is a slow dirgey ditty. It’s a good song with lots of atmosphere, but it has nothing to do sound-wise with the rest of this album. It would have been more suited to Creatures or Carnival, but not so much this album.
The cumbersome Paul title, “I Pledge Allegiance To The State Of Rock & Roll” is next. I hate this song. It’s a fast one, nothing special, a little stock, and to me is nothing but pure filler.
Then there’s finally a real Kiss song with all four members playing: Ace’s “Into the Void”. It is definitely one of the best songs on the album, with a riff that only Ace could play and the drums sound a lot better here. It’s quintessential Kiss. When I think of Kiss, I thik of songs that sound like “Into the Void”.
“We Are One” is a Gene song, and it sounds a lot like his 1978 solo album. It’s a nice song, I think it’s a tad slow, but it’s got that late 70’s vibe. Maybe like a “Great Expectations” too.
The second side of the album starts with “You Wanted The Best” which was clearly written by Gene as a Kiss “comeback” song. It’s neat in that all four members sing lead for the first time ever, but really that’s its only selling point. Fairbairn overproduced once again, and the guitars sound a lot more processed than they should. The solo is definitely Ace, though. I think “You Wanted The Best” is another one of those Gene songs that had been presented to the band and rejected from previous albums like “Within” was.
Paul Stanley takes the next track with “Raise Your Glasses”, which is yet again overproduced and also a bit too pop sounding. It sounds like something from Hot In the Shade or that general era. Paul sings some nice harmonies with himself in the middle, but the demo version of this is better (from the “Psycho Circus” CD single pictured below).
Since Peter Criss’ material was allegedly deemed too poor for this album, Paul and Ezrin wrote I “Finally Found My Way” for him to sing. It was meant to be the next “Beth” but I don’t need to tell you what happened there (nothing). It’s a piano ballad (that’s Ezrin on Fender Rhodes) and it’s a nice song, maybe it is was for Neil Diamond to sing. It’s just too darn soft, and Peter’s voice lacks the rasp. The rasp would have given it some edge like Kiss ballads of yore. He sounds great harmonizing with Paul on the bridge though.
Paul and Bruce Kulick wrote the next song, “Dreamin'”, which was ripped off of “I’m Eighteen” by Alice Cooper. It is basically the same song, and I believe Alice beat them in court too.
The most interesting song was saved for last, Gene Simmons’ epic “Journey Of 1,000 Years”. I don’t know what this could be compared to. Although it wasn’t popular with the Kiss fans I know, I think it’s the best song here. Overproducing worked on this song. It is loaded with strings and who-knows-what, and Gene’s chorus is just mindblowing. “Can you hear me calling, can you hear the sound? Can you hear me calling, or is the voice of the crowd?” If this song was on The Elder, it would have fit in better. It’s majestic and I think a good example of what Gene is capable of when he sets his mind to it.
Japan got a bonus track written by Gene called “In Your Face”. He wrote it for Ace to sing, so it has become a little bit of special song, a lost Kiss gem. The production is a little more sparse and though it is not a great Kiss song, Ace’s vocal sets it apart a bit. Worth having.
I have a couple versions of this album. I bought the Japanese version first, for the bonus track, and it was not cheap! The packaging here is cumbersome, but superior to the fragile lenticular jewel case that North America got. It is a digipack whose front cover opens like doors to reveal the Psycho Circus “clown” inside in 3D. Typical gradiose Kiss and I love it.
Australia got a 1999 reissue with a 6 song bonus disc called Kiss Live. It contains 3 classics and 3 newbies. So, in other words, you can get versions of these songs played by the original lineup. This is worth having. Track list: “Psycho Circus”, “Let Me Go, Rock and Roll”, “Into the Void” (with guitar solo), “Within” (with drum solo), “100,000 Years”, and “Black Diamond”.
When you hear Psycho Circus, you can’t help but think that Kiss blew a monumental opportunity to create history. In the end, it’s “just another Kiss album”, and not a particularly great one. It certainly inferior to the first 7 studio albums at best. It has a leg up on some of the 80’s records, but it just doesn’t rock hard enough! The right producer could have made this sound like Kiss, not Aerojovi.
Part 38 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Carnival of Souls (The Final Sessions) (1997, recorded 1994-95)
Finally! Five years since Revenge, a studio album!
But not the studio album that the general public had been expecting. The average person on the street would have expected an album by the original Kiss, since they’d just finished a long worldwide smash hit reunion tour. Carnival of Souls was an album by Paul, Gene, Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer; the album they had finished just before the reunion tour was announced.
Prior to the reunion tour, Gene hyped the new material: “Very much a brother record to Revenge,” was a quote he gave to M.E.A.T Magazine. “Head music” was another phrase he used to describe the new album, which was then still called Head (original artwork from Bruce’s website below).
With 20/20 hindsight, I think it’s obvious that Kiss were choosing to evolve by jumping on the grunge bandwagon. The producer was Toby Wright, best known for cutting two records with Alice In Chains. The riffs were downtuned, heavy, and obviously not from the streets of New York like classic Kiss. These sounded like riffs from Seattle.
The thing is, I like Carnival of Souls, quite a bit. I absolutely loved it back then. I paid $30 for a bootleg copy (at one point, this was the most heavily bootlegged album ever) back in 1996. I like almost every song, and this record was historic for Bruce Kulick. Not only did he have a whopping 9 writing credits out of 12 songs, but he also had his first lead vocal: “I Walk Alone”. (Today, Bruce sings lead vocals on his excellent solo albums — check out the BK3 album featuring Gene & Nick Simmons.)
Ironic that Bruce would indeed walk alone in early ’96, having been a driving force of this record.
Kicking off with a lot of noise, feeback, and Paul’s backwards distored vocals, “Hate” opens Carnival of Souls. Anchored by a complex drum & cymbol pattern by Eric Singer, “Hate” is probably the heaviest song Kiss has ever recorded. It is a relentless Soundgarden-ish assault with a drum pattern straight out of the Matt Cameron book of tricks.
Paul’s “Rain” is another good, grungy song, but it is nothing compared with “Master & Slave”. Also known as “Tell Me” on some bootlegs, this is a bass-driven number, with an actual chorus that can be sung along to. Kiss fans latched onto this one as an early favourite.
“Childhood’s End” is the first epic ballady type song on the album, a Gene title stolen from an Arthur C. Clarke classic. Lyrically unrelated, this song features a children’s choir and probably could have been on an album like Revenge had Bob Ezrin produced.
Perhaps unwisely, this is followed by a true ballad, Paul’s “I Will Be There”, a song written for his son. It is a beautiful, sparse, strictly acoustic piece with a soaring vocal. Bruce’s intricate solo sends this one into the net for a goal.
Closing this “side” of the album is “Jungle”, the only single from Carnival. Clocking in at almost 7 minutes, this is the album’s standout song. It is a powerful bass-driven groove, with the kind of anthemic Paul chorus that keeps me coming back. I love this song, and when I played it in the store, people loved it too.
The second “side” of the album opens with “In My Head”, probably the weirdest Gene song on the album. Heavy, angry, weird. I love this song, but it’s pretty different. Lyrically, musically, this is unlike anything Kiss have done before and I’m at a loss to compare it to something by somebody else.
“It Never Goes Away” follows “In My Head”, another slow one, this one very powerful and perhaps like something that would have been on an album like Superunknown. “Seduction of the Innocent” continues the slow song pattern. It sounds a little like heavy Beatles. I can hear some of that psychedelic “Tomorrow Never Knows” vibe, but in a heavy context. Gene’s chorus tops the cake.
An epic is up next: Gene’s “I Confess”. The verses sound much like outtakes from The Elder, with strings and a dark vibe. Then Gene’s chorus nails the foot back to the gas pedal. The song alternates between heavy choruses and quiet verses, much like the popular music of the time….
Paul’s final song of the album, “In The Mirror”, is a scorcher. It has a killer riff and could have fit on any number of Kiss albums. Imagine it recorded by the original lineup. If you can picture it in a “I Stole You Love” vibe, suddenly it sounds like something that could have been on Love Gun. As it is, the guitars are very 90’s in their sound and the drums very dry. It was the fashion.
Carnival of Souls ends with what ended up being Bruce Kulick’s swan song, his first and last lead vocal: “I Walk Alone”. This fan favourite has a very tentative lead vocal, he’s noticeably improved in the years since. Still, it’s a nice ballad, and when Gene joins him singing the end, it’s perfect. Strangely enough, this song never made any of the bootleg discs out there. Perhaps it was never meant to be on the album? I don’t know the answer to why.
Carnival has two obvious weaknesses: the trendy grungy sound, and the fact that so many songs are slow or ballads. I feel that the ballads are more than made up for by the heaviness of songs like “Hate” and “In My Head”. I think that Paul’s best two songs, “Jungle” and “Master & Slave” make up for any dull moments. As for the sudden defection from rock n’ roll to grunge?
Well, keep in mind that this is the band who went disco in ’79.
There was one outtake from this album, which is on the Kiss Box Set: “Outromental”, which made it onto promo cassettes but was cut from the album itself.
The biggest disappointment with this album was the packaging. The band decided against the original cover art, and to avoid confusion put the bare-faced lineup on the cover. But there’s no booklet, no lyrics, and only a couple pictures.
SLOAN – The Double Cross (2011 CD and iTunes editions)
This is an album that grew on me. The last number of Sloan albums (everything since Between the Bridges basically) failed to grow on me. Or, I failed to devote the time necessary to them. Whomever is at fault…I never got into them.
Then, I got stuck in traffic one night on the way home from work. There’s a certain “sweet spot” in the tri-cities. If there’s an accident right where the 401 meets highway 8, it has the potential to tie up traffic in the tri-city area. So, I took the long way home and listened to Sloan’s The Double Cross all the way through. Twice.
The album grew from a 3.5/5 to a 5/5 in those two listens.
Two tracks stand out immediately: Chris’ “Follow he Leader” and Patrick’s “Unkind”. Both are incredible songs. Both remind me of what made me go nuts for Sloan a long time ago. Both have really immediate choruses, but both also really capture a vibe. You’ll know what I mean when you hear them.
I also quite like “Shadow Of Love” which sounds new wavy to me, like something Elvis Costello would have written. Little bit of moog on there. I also quite like Patrick’s “I Gotta Know”, a melodic punk-like rocker. Jay’s “Beverly Terrace” is like a disco song, no kidding, and it’s great. I also like Jay’s “The Answer Was You”. The closer “Laying So Low” is quite good as well, a slower one which ends the album on a bittersweet note.
There are two bonus tracks worth grabbing: iTunes had “Then Again”. It is my third favourite song on the record overall, a Chris song with a dark almost heavy metal vibe (although the song is not a metal song). The iTunes pre-order only track, “Jesus Loves Me”, is a Patrick rocker with a heavy distorted riff like something Weezer might have done.
For best results, play loud. In traffic.
(Don’t like the cover art though. I love a lot of Sloan covers like One Chord and Navy Blues, and you can see they’re going for that two-colour-portrait look here, but the gold and purple are kinda putrid. Not really a cover that jumps out at you at the record store. But then again, who browses record stores anymore? Sigh.)
Part 37 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Greatest Hits (1997, Europe only)
Wait a minute — wasn’t the last review I did a Kiss compilation from 1997 called Greatest Kiss? Yup! Welcome to Kiss – the compilation years. This is why fans such as me were losing their patience.
Yet, I paid $40 to order this from Europe, wanting my Kiss collection to be as complete as possible. My employers wondered what the hell was wrong with me, spending $40 for 20 songs that I already had. I guess it’s hard to understand if you’re not from the Kiss Army!
Greatest Hits was released in Europe hot on the heels of Greatest Kiss. For the fifth time in a row, Kiss had released a non-original, non-studio album. This had never happened before. (For the record, the four before this one were Alive III, MTV Unplugged, You Wanted The Best, and Greatest Kiss. And this doesn’t include Kiss My Ass.)
The tracklisting is actually a little interesting. Greatest Kiss only had one non-makeup song (“God Gave Rock And Roll To You II”) and this one has three: “Crazy Crazy Nights”, “Lick It Up”, and “God Gave”. That alone was unexpected and I remember listening to this CD, glad that Kiss weren’t totally disregarding the 80’s.
Aside from this, it’s a pretty ordinary compilation and covers a lot of ground already on Greatest Kiss. I did detect one bad edit between tracks, where a fade did not end completely. This was dissapointing to me, and combined with the lack of any sort of liner notes in the packaging, smacked of a rush-job and cash-in.
Thankfully, Kiss were listening, and finally released a studio album next. Puzzling the general public even more, the next album didn’t have the original lineup. TO BE CONTINUED…
Part 36 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Greatest Kiss (1997 European, Japanese, North American versions)
The Reunion Tour was a tremendous ongoing success. As Kiss hit different markets, different releases were prepared. Europe got Greatest Kiss first,and I paid almost $30 for it with tax on import from an HMV store in early ’97.
While we, the fans, were not happy that it had been five years since the last studio album, we still bought this new compilation for one “new” track: A live version of “Shout It Out Loud” from the Reunion Tour. I’ve heard though that the song was recorded in the studio or at rehearsal, not the live Detroit concert as claimed. Either way, this song was released as a promotional video, so it was nice to have a CD version of it.
Also, much as You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! was a taster for the remastered live albums, Greatest Kiss was a taster for the remastered studio albums, about to be released through 1997 in groups of three.
The CD is otherwise made up of your standard original era hits. Both North America and Japan had their own track listings, and I ended up getting all three:
Here’s the most familiar around here, the North American version:
1. Detroit Rock City
2. Hard Luck Woman
3. Sure Know Something
4. Deuce
5. Do You Love Me
6. I Was Made For Lovin’ You
7. Calling Dr. Love
8. Christine Sixteen
9. Beth
10. Strutter
11. Cold Gin
12. Plaster Caster (yes! nice to see this on a compilation)
13. Rock And Roll All Nite
14. Flaming Youth
15. Two Sides Of The Coin
16. Shout It Out Loud (Live ’96)
Europe had 20 tracks, adding “Black Diamond”, “God of Thunder”, “She”, “Love Gun”, “Goin’ Blind”, “”Shock Me”, and puzzlingly “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II” which was not by the original band. Europe lacked “Flaming Youth”, “Two Sides of the Coin”, and “Christine Sixteen”, however.
Japan also had 20 tracks. Their CD is almost identical to the European one, with “Flaming Youth”, “Two Sides of the Coin”, and “Christine Sixteen” missing. They subbed in “C’mon And Love Me” and “Rock Bottom” instead of “Cold Gin” and “Plaster Caster”.
Personally I’m not partial to this CD. The one “new” song is now available on the Kiss Box Set so there’s nothing exclusive. Today the novelty of the Kiss remasters project is old hat, so there’s not much here to entice a buyer. There are other compilations on the market, and I’m going to discuss them all. If you only want original Kiss, then this one works as well as any.
Part 35 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!!(1996, Japanese import, bonus track)
When this compilation album came out, it was the first and only time we had two Kiss albums on our store’s front rack simultaneously! It followed hot on the heels of MTV Unplugged, only about 3 months prior.
Kiss had just announced their big reunion tour and this album was tied in to promote that. It is a milestone in a few ways. It was the first musical product released by the reunited original lineup Kiss. It was also the third (or fourth depending if you count Kiss My Ass) consecutive non-studio album release in a row by the band, which had never happened before. It would also not be the last, with Greatest Kiss and the UK-only Greatest Hits soon to follow.
It was a dark time for the Kiss army craving new music.
You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! (one comma and two exclamation marks: punctuation is important) was a live compilation of:
8 hits from KISS Alive! and KISS Alive II
5 previously unreleased live versions (including the bonus track “New York Groove”)
1 interview with the entire band by Jay Leno, 17 minutes long
The previously released songs were all remastered for the first time, a sneak preview of the Kiss remasters to start coming in 1997. New liner notes were provided by Robert V. Conte, who would later do all the liner notes for the Kiss Remasters series. Judging by his use of certain adjectives, I’m guessing he was pretty much told what he could and could not write!
It’s hard to argue with the selection of hits. “Rock Bottom”, “Parasite”, “Firehouse”, and “Rock And Roll All Nite” (the definitive version) from the first Alive! were definitely highlights of that album, but then again you couldn’t have gone wrong with any selections from Alive! From Alive II it’s “I Stole Your Love”, “Shout It Out Loud”, “Beth” (really? ugh), and “Calling Dr. Love”. (Interesting: no “Detroit Rock City”.) All are pretty monumental Kiss songs that the band were playing live that summer.
The unreleased material was interesting. They purport to be from the same concerts that Alive! and Alive II were taken from, but it is clear that at least the lead vocals were recorded in 1996. Since the voice changes naturally with age, you can tell it’s not Paul Stanley 1975 singing. Having said that, even though I’m bitter that Kiss tried to pass these off as vintage live songs, they are really good versions. I’ve always liked both “Room Service” and “Two Timer” as deep album songs from Dressed To Kill. I especially like “Let Me Know”, one of the earliest Kiss songs ever, and one of my personal favourites.
Exclusive to vinyl and Japanese import, is a live version of “New York Groove” from Australia 1980 and with Eric Carr on drums. This is the same version of the song as the Kissology 2 DVD. Since KISS could have gone with “Shock Me” from Alive II if they were trying to include an Ace vocal track, I choose to think of this inclusion as a little nod to Eric Carr and thanking him for keeping the band going during the 80’s. I think this version was also released in Australian markets so, I am sure this was also a nod to the fans there for patiently waiting for Kiss to come back. Kiss would of course play “New York Groove” live on the 1996 tour as well.
The 17 minute interview with Jay Leno is interesting and fun, though I have to be honest, its inclusion here makes this album one that I don’t listen to often. Jay’s a funny guy and there are lots of laughs here (almost all at Gene’s expense!) but don’t expect any revelations you’ve never heard before.
In addition to containing “vintage” songs that weren’t exactly that, You Wanted the Best was to include “photos from the Kiss vaults” inside according to the sticker on the front. There’s nothing inside apart from a skimpy booklet. The CD did have a neat-o coloured jewel case, as you can see from the photo gallery.
Essential only to the diehards. Everyone else pick up Alive! and Alive II, or even better…the 4 CD Alive box!
Part 34 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS: MTV Unplugged (1996)
Kiss had been releasing a lot of product (KISStory the book, a live video and album, and a tribute CD) but not a lot of new music since Revenge. In ’95 they decided to go out and do an “official” Kiss Kovention tour, charging a then-insane $100 a pop, but giving you an acoustic performance for your dollars.
The Konvention tour yielded some great performances, with Kiss taking requests for songs they barely remember and doing their best to play them. “Lover Her All I Can”, “Shandi”, and “Nothin’ To Lose” with Eric Singer on lead vocals were all rolled out. See below for a cool bootleg CD and tracklist from an Australian show on the tour.
Kiss were invited to do MTV Unplugged. What the audience that night didn’t know is that after a full set by Paul, Gene, Bruce and Eric, two “members of the family” would come out: Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. They were greeted with disbelief and joy.
The evening began with the current Kiss, rolling out rarely played classics like “Comin’ Home”, “Got To Choose” (on the Japanese release, anyway) and “A World Without Hereos”. They even tackled “See You Tonite” from Gene’s solo album, and “Every Time I Look At You” (with strings) from Revenge: both firsts.
You can’t complain at all about the tracklist on MTV Unplugged. I raved about the album then, and I still rave about it now. I don’t understand why this wasn’t a massive smash hit across the board. This is a great Kiss album that almost anyone can enjoy. From Paul’s stirring vocal on “I Still Love You” to the classic “Rock Bottom”, this is awesome all the way through.
But of course, they saved Ace and Peter for the end. Out they came to do two of their signature songs: “Beth” for Peter, and the Stones’ “2000 Man” for Ace. Last but not least, Bruce and Eric returned to the stage to form a formidable 6-man Kiss lineup. With everyone but Bruce taking a turn at the lead vocals, they rolled out “Nothin’ To Lose” and of course “Rock and Roll All Nite” to end the show.
Expertly recorded and mixed, my only beef is the cutting short of some of Paul’s raps. I would love a two disc deluxe edition of this one day. Kiss played for three hours that day, doing multiple takes and playing songs that didn’t make the show: “Spit”, “Hard Luck Woman” with Paul on lead vocals, and a country version of “God of Thunder”!
Part 33 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! By 1995, Kiss merchandising was in full gear. This was its flagship release.
KISStory, Jeff Kitts, 1995 ($149.99 in 1995, currently $320.70 new/$263.24 used, on Amazon, in CAD)
I got KISStory back when it came out, in early 1995 or so. I ordered it (or, rather, my mom ordered it for me since she had the credit card in the house) back in July of 1994. When it arrived, it took me a couple weeks to go through all the content.
Early pressings were all signed by Eric Singer, Bruce Kulick, Paul Stanley, and Gene Simmons. The second pressing was signed by the original band. Personally I am happy with my copy, as I love the Revenge lineup of the band, which was much shorter lived than the original. As a side note, according to the Firehouse fanzine, Bill Aucoin (ex Kiss-manager) stated that a good number of the copies signed by the original band are actually autopen. For that reason I’m glad I have the Revenge lineup, which was contemporary to the release of the book.
Also, early pressings had a lot of binding issues. Be careful. A friend of mine had his copy of KISStory repaired professionally because his binding fell apart. I have been very, very careful with my book and in the 15 years since, the binding is still OK. But I treat this thing with kid gloves, people.
Each book is numbered and comes in a black case. The book is massive. Absolutely huge. It’s always funny when the advertizing for a book states that it weighs over 8 lbs.
Content wise, it is rich but flawed. There are numerous errors in the book. For example, the book states that five new songs were released on Kiss Killers. Well, we all know it was four new songs. The timeline is a bit mixed up at times, and the 80’s are not covered in enough depth. But let’s face it, you don’t buy a book like this for text. You buy it for the pictures. Text is kind of like…a bonus track. The best text is probably in old newspaper articles and concert reviews contained inside anyway.
Where the book succeeds, it succeeds like no other. However you have to remember, when this came out this was the only authorized Kiss book. Now there are lots, and much cheaper. At the time though, some of these photographs had never seen the light of day before. Newspaper articles, reviews, magazine covers, it’s all here, in massive quantities.
I think my personal favourite things were sketches of costumes and basses out of Gene’s personal sketchbook. Also, early lyrics for songs released and unreleased. There are costume sketches for outfits never made. There are drawings for stage shows that never saw the light of day. Everything you can imagine.
Yes, the price tag is hefty. However, if I sold my copy of KISStory today, I’d make a good profit. This is an investment as much as a book, but I think you’ll want to hang onto yours.
Today, a treat: Part 0 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! Yes, part 0. Today we go right back to the beginning: Wicked Lester.
KISS – Wicked Lester / Eddie Kramer Demos (1972 – 1973, CD bootleg)
Before forming Kiss with Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, Gene and Paul had a five piece band called Wicked Lester that cut one album for Epic. That album has never been released, although a couple tracks turned up on the Kiss Box Set.
You might recognize two songs: “She” and “Love Her All I Can” which were both recorded much harder on Dressed To Kill. One song, “(We Want To) Shout It Out Loud” is a Hollies cover that later inspired the title of the classic hit from Destroyer. The sound is very hippy-dippy and directionless. Flutes and strings and overly sweet harmony vocals mire what might have ended up being some cool songs. Indeed, “She” is about as vastly different from the sludgy version on Dressed To Kill as you can imagine.
The CD bootleg copy that I have is pretty lo-res. It includes as bonus tracks the five songs that Kiss cut on their original Eddie Kramer demo, that got them their record deal. These are fully realized rough and loose versions of the songs on the albums, and once again two have been released on the Box Set. Some are quite a bit longer, with extended solos.
The cover art is the original art that the band were going to use. The boy is supposed to be Wicked Lester, their intended mascot. The artwork was later used by a band called Laughing Dogs.
KISS – Psycho Circus (1998)
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