Part 28 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II” (1991 CD single)
As part of their “Hey, let’s try anything!” modus operadi, Kiss decided to record a single with old producer Bob Ezrin. It was all a part of their greater scheme to drop the pop and get back to their rock roots. Working with Ezrin, who produced both their greatest commerial success (Destroyer) and failure (The Elder), was a tentative step to see what the chemistry would be like this time. The single was the perfect chance to test drive the partnership.
Released in conjunction with the movie Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, this new Kiss single was also a first in that Kiss were contributing a brand new song to a movie soundtrack. This version is actually a different mix than that later on Revenge, so this single still is an exclusive of sorts.
“God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II” (my God what a cumbersome title) is a reworking of an old Argent tune, hence the II. At the time I didn’t think much of it, and I still don’t. It’s not a personal favourite of mine. It’s a little slow, although very anthemic and perfect for the live setting. It does feature Gene and Paul singing lead together, a rare thing indeed and a first since…when? A long time anyway. It also has some sweet harmony vocals from Eric Carr…his last recording with Kiss before succumbing to cancer way too young at age 41. While he underwent treatment, Eric Singer played drums on the song. This was all kept secret in 1991 before Carr died; in hindsight you can tell it’s Singer on drums. Carr even gave it his all, playing drums in the music video.
The other two tracks were also exclusive to the movie soundtrack: “Junior’s Gone Wild” by King’s X, and “Shout it Out” by Slaughter. Both bands were experiencing increased success and fans were eager for new music. “Junior’s Gone Wild” sounds like something not too far removed from King’s X in-the-making fourth album. “Shout it Out” is a typical Slaughter party rocker, as good as anything on their debut. A bit shrill and and sweet by today’s standards though.
Part 27 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Hot In the Shade (1989)
When we last met, I was bitching about Kiss going pop and losing sight of its roots. Hot In the Shade represents the first tentative steps back in the right direction. It wasn’t a home run, but it did at least get a runner on base.
By this time, two important events had occurred:
Paul Stanley confronted Gene Simmons about his lack of participation in Kiss. Gene agreed with Paul’s diagnosis and was back on board creatively.
Paul Stanley had completed a small solo club tour with Eric Singer, playing a lot of Kiss’ old music.
Kiss knew they had to get back to rock and roll, so Hot In the Shade represents a scattershot approach: try anything, and see what works. You’ll hear things as diverse as horn sections (“Cadillac Dreams”), female backing vocals (“Silver Spoon”), acoustic slide guitar (“Rise To It”) and speed metal (“Boomerang”). All things rooted in rock, but not necessarily from the roots of Kiss.
It was with baited breath that I awaited the debut of the forthcoming new Kiss video on MuchMusic. Would they finally get back to rock, and drop the keyboards and the dancing?
“Hide Your Heart”, the first single, had a more serious video with a storyline, and Paul was playing a vintage guitar again! He wasn’t posing with it, he was playing it! The song was more rock, no keyboards in sight, and had that irresitable “Ahh ahh ahh, hey hey hey, do do do” chorus. It was a step in the right direction. I couldn’t wait for the album. (Ace Frehley also released his own version of “Hide Your Heart” on his solo album Trouble Walkin’, almost simultaneously.)
I remember buying the cassette tape on a school field trip in grade 12, and listening to it on a Walkman in the bus. The first sounds I heard were Paul Stanley’s* bluesy slide licks as the intro to “Rise To It”. A positive start.
Then, the band kicked in, and “Rise To It” really impressed me. The drums courtesy of Eric Carr were loud and clear, the song a little heavier than previous Kiss tunes, and Bruce was wailing. I opened up the J-card and read the liner notes.
I was surprised to see that Vini Poncia, the producer who did the Kiss disco albums, was back as a songwriting partner with Gene and Paul. I also saw that Tommy Thayer of Black N Blue co-wrote two songs with Gene (“Betrayed” and “The Street Giveth”). This was only Tommy’s first writing credit with Kiss. There would be many more.
I also saw a song written by Paul and Michael Bolton called “Forever”…uh oh, that couldn’t be a good thing.
But it wasn’t bad. “Forever” was an acoustic ballad at least, with only minor texture keyboards in the background. Bruce nailed an absolutely perfect acoustic guitar solo, the kind you can hum the melody to. I still relish Eric Carr’s drumming on it, which is unusually hard hitting for a ballad.
Moving along, I finally I got to the song that Eric co-wrote, called “Little Caesar” which struck me as an odd title. It took a few seconds, but I realized that Eric was singing it too! Finally, a proper original Eric Carr lead vocal. I always felt that Kiss needed to incorporate Eric Carr more in lead vocals, and his version of “Beth” from the previous album was a crappy way to give him his first .
“Boomerang” was and probably still is the fastest song that Kiss has ever done. It’s obvious Kiss were trying to emulate speed metal, which was starting to happen at the time. It wasn’t a great song, but I was impressed that Kiss really were shedding the pop that we all hated so much.
In hindsight, Hot In the Shade breaks down to three good-to-great songs: the singles “Hide Your Heart”, “Forever”, and “Rise To It”. “Little Caesar” is also pretty good, but not up to the standards of the singles. Other songs such as “King of Hearts” have interesting parts or catchy bits, but by and large are filler. Others, like “You Love Me to Hate You” and “The Street Giveth, the Street Taketh Away” are undeniably filler.
Hot In the Shade was bulked out at 15 songs, but probably could have been fine with just 9, like a classic Kiss LP from the 70’s. As it stands, it’s pretty hard to make it through the whole thing in one sitting.Kiss get an “A” for effort most certainly. The ship had been drifting for a little while and this album was turning the ship back around. They gave extra value with the length of the album, like it or lump it, and tried many different directions, which were at least rock-based.
Kiss also self-produced this time, and ended up using polished demos for much of the album. As such it seems to have a flat sound, and Bruce Kulick’s guitar sound lacks warmth. It would have been nice if they spent more time on the sound.
Sadly, Eric Carr would not live long enough to see the good ship Kiss right itself on Revenge. He passed away from cancer in November 1991.
2.5/5 stars
Incidentally, Kiss put off touring behind this album until 1990, as they were reportedly trying to work on a reunion with Ace Frehley! No deals were reached and all that happened was a Paul-and-Gene-in-makeup cameo in the “Rise To It” vid.
*Confirmed by Bruce Kulick, that’s Paul Stanley on the slide.
Part 25 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Crazy Nights (1987)
Gene Simmons, still off in la-la land ($immons Records, managing Liza Minelli), was about as far removed from the demon as you could get. Looking quite womanly, and no longer singing in his “monster voice”, Gene had lost it by 1987. Paul Stanley was writing songs on keyboards (not a good sign) although Bruce and Eric both made strong songwriting contributions. The result is Crazy Nights, a record that Bon Jovi could have made, but Kiss? It didn’t sound like Kiss to me.
Still, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Crazy Nights because it came out when I was in highschool, and I played it nonstop then, even though I questioned Kiss’ direction. (Over)produced by Ron Nevison, Kiss were trying way too hard for radio and video hits. The rock was all but gone. At the same time, the songs are actually pretty well written for the most part. Better, on average, than some songs on Animalize. It’s the gloss and production that sinks Crazy Nights.
Originally titled Who Dares Wins, the album does indeed feature too many keyboards. I remember being so disheartened by the video for “Reason to Live”, and seeing Bruce Kulick playing keys instead of guitar. Stanley himself didn’t play guitar in the videos either — he wore one, and danced around with it. This didn’t seem like rock and roll anymore.
Here’s my song breakdown. I just wish there was more oomph to them.
Good to great songs:
“Hell Or High Water”
“Good Girl Gone Bad”
“Turn On The Night”
“No, No, No”
OK songs:
“Crazy, Crazy Nights”
“Reason To Live”
“I’ll Fight Hell To Hold You”
“My Way”
Bad songs:
“When Your Walls Come Down”
“Thief In The Night” (a song written earlier and recorded by Wendy O. Williams first)
So, not bad. Not enough Gene though. That was a problem on a lot of albums from Dynasty to Crazy Nights, there just wasn’t enough Gene. He had become a sideman, not a frontman. Gene’s singing here is smooth, no rasp and no guts. Paul’s singing is very high and something shrill. It was the 1980’s.
Only one song (“Crazy Crazy Nights”) has been played live since this tour.
Pick it up if you love 80’s rock. Avoid if you don’t.
2/5 stars
There are also several outtakes from this album that were later released: “Time Traveler” is a Paul Stanley keyboard song that found its way onto The Box Set. “Boomerang”, a speedy thrash-like number, was re-recorded for the next studio album, Hot In The Shade. “Dial L For Love”, an Eric Carr demo, was released on his posthumous Unfinished Business CD. Finally, one of the better Paul Stanley songs called “Sword and Stone”, was recorded by Bonfire and released on the soundtrack to the movie Shocker.
I have a couple bootlegs from this tour, seen below. (Yes, they put Vinnie on the cover of one by mistake!)
The Great Change happened around the turn of the millennium.
Prior to that, CD sales were fast and furious. DVD sales had begun to replace VHS sales. We still carried blank cassette tapes. Not too many people were downloading music. Most people weren’t even connected to the internet yet. I still had friends who would come over to use it, and I only got it in mid ’98.
Then I noticed a change. Cassette sales dwindled while requests for blank CD’s increased. Initially we resisted carrying blank CD’s. We thought by doing so, we would be unintentionally killing a CD sale. Eventually we began carrying blank discs, when they started dropping in price. They, they took off. We started hearing about Napster. And Metallica. Metallica fans began selling off their discs.
I remember one guying coming in with a great selection of Metallica discs. All the albums, plus the Live Sh*t box set.
“Wow, this is a great Metallica collection you have here,” I commented as I went through the discs.
“Thanks. I’m selling them because of that fucking asshole Lars. I ripped them all to my computer and now he can go fuck himself.”
I’ll never forget that because at first I felt like, “Well, that doesn’t really do anything to Lars, you already paid for the discs and gave him your money,” but I guess it was the principle of the thing. People were really pissed off. And that represented a huge change. People always bitched about CD prices. $24 for a regularly priced disc, that’s a lot of money. I used to get two albums for that money in 1986. There’d never been a satisfactory answer as to why a kid had to pay $24.99 for the new Judas Priest in 1998. And believe me, it wasn’t the stores ripping off the kids. The margin we made on new CDs could barely be called profit.
Over the next five years, I watched CD prices and sales drop, while we were forced to diversify in order to stay alive. We had already been carrying DVD’s. We started carrying McFarlane dolls. They were cool, but a lot of them were really limited. For example, for Kiss, we only got one Eric Carr, and two Aces. People would want the whole set, but all you’d have left was Paul and Gene.
Then bobble-heads came (which I hate, I absolutely hate bobble-heads). Then Osbournes family toys. Trivia games. Simpsons toys. Clocks. Posters. Books. Hats. CD wallets with a Linkin Park logo on them. Anything we could make a reasonable buck on, even if it was only marginally related to what we did, like the Simpsons toys. (We carried DVD’s, so Simpsons was marginally related.) Then we’d knock down whatever wasn’t selling to clearance prices, and try something else.
The only tangent that was really successful was Xbox and Playstation games. We had so many requests, and physically a game is identical to a CD or DVD, so games were a no brainer. People asked for them all the time. We had to educate ourselves from the ground up on game pricing and we jerry-rigged a way in our computer system to inventory them. However to me, the scent of decay was in the air. Because downloading had killed such a huge chunk of our music sales, the stores were nothing like the way I remembered.
Working in a store selling video games and bobble-heads wasn’t the dream job that started me on this path. I was always there for one reason: the music!
Part 24 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Exposed (VHS 1987, DVD 2002)
While Kiss took some time off as Gene continued to pursue his movie career, Exposed was released in lieu of a studio album. 1986 was the first year to ever come and go without new Kiss music. The band sought commercial success, and an outside producer as they worked hard to record hits. This video nicely documented their career to that point.
A lot of long term KISS fans absolutely hate Exposed. It is not without flaws, but considering when it came out and what it aimed to do, it is actually one of the best home videos from the era.
Exposed is an early example of a mockumentary, or, as they say in the opening, “A rousing docu-drama. It will be disgusting to some, titilating to others. But whether it disgusts you, or titilates you, it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” That right there tells you everything you need to know. Interspersed with the docu-drama bits are video clips, and live clips of the band during the makeup years.
The biggest flaw with Exposed is that it’s pretty sexist. It’s all meant to be in good fun I guess, but many will be offended by Gene using women as wall decorations. It was the 80’s; every band influenced by Kiss was doing the same thing, and Kiss responded by taking it to the limit. It is what it is, and if you’re likely to be offended, don’t watch. It’s still nothing compared to some rap videos I’ve seen.
The second biggest flaw is the lack of Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick participation. They each get two scenes: In Eric’s scene, he meets the interviewer and leaves without any audible lines. In Bruce’s scene, he chases a girl down the stairs and has the line, “Is this for the documentary? Edit her out!” In the final scene, Bruce and Eric are seen taking Paul’s monkey Sonny Crocket for a stroll. Everything else is the Gene and Paul Show.
The docu-drama takes place at “Paul’s mansion”, and this is where the jokes begin. It’s kind of an 80’s Monkees, with the band all living together in the same house. There’s a butler and women everywhere. Gene of course has a throne.
Paul and Gene are funny in Exposed. The interview segments are 50% “straight”, talking seriously about the early years of Kiss, and 50% comedy segments. I enjoyed the comedy. Gene in partiular is a very funny guy. In the “straight” segments there is a comraderie rarely seen between Gene and Paul, such as Paul razzing Gene about early song lyrics he had written. (“My mother is beauuuuutiful…,” Paul croons to an old Gene lyric.)
The music videos include some rarities such as the banned “Who Wants To Be Lonely” clip (more girls). Basically you get every music video from 1982 through to 1985., with a couple exceptions.
The live stuff proved to be just a taster for what Kiss had in their vaults. At the time, bands didn’t release a lot of archive concerts on home video, instead concentrating on documenting current tours. Now they do release such archival concerts on DVD, and since then Kiss have released more complete footage on Kissology I-III. The film quality, despite complaints from the fans, is pretty decent, especially the old 1974 clip of Deuce. Some fans claim their bootleg home videos look and sound better than the official KISS releases; I haven’t seen that.
The video ends with a brief audio clip of Paul answering the question, “What do we call this?” He responds, “Why don’t we call it Volume I?”
Volume II would come later in the form of Kiss’ X-treme Close Up, a more “serious” video, stripped of the girls and the jokiness. I find Exposed to be a much more entertaining video.
Check it out if you are a fan, particularly for 80’s Kiss. Avoid if you are not.
4/5 stars
Incidentally, you can get Kiss Exposed as a third bonus disc in a deluxe edition of Kiss Gold. Seen below, the regular edition of Kiss Gold. We’ll be talking about that CD much later on.
Part 23 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Asylum (1985)
My bias with this album is simple: Asylum was the “new” Kiss album when I first started listening to the band. “Tears Are Falling” was getting a lot of airplay, and it was the latest thing. I still think, on a whole, it is superior to Animalize. The reason for this is all around stronger songs, with Bruce Kulick contributing heavily. Recall that when we last checked in with Kiss, Bruce Kulick was temping, filling in for the ailing Mark St. John. He was their fourth guitar player in as many albums.
By the time to record a new album, Bruce was a full member of Kiss. Gene was still off in la-la land trying to become a movie star, as he was cast as a transvestite in the John Stamos vehicle, Never Too Young To Die.
The good news is, Paul was steering the ship as best he could, considering he was effectively working without his partner in Kiss. Paul contributed some decent material with a bevy of cowriters including Kulick.
King Of The Mountain (awesome)
Tears Are Falling (awesome)
Who Wants To Be Lonely (great)
Radar For Love (decent)
Uh! All Night (decent)
Gene’s good songs include:
Trial By Fire (good)
Secretly Cruel (great)
That only leaves three duds by my counting: Gene’s and Paul’s first co-write in years, “Love’s A Deadly Weapon”, Gene’s “Any Way You Slice It”, and Paul’s “I’m Alive”. “I’m Alive” is almost a carbon copy of other fast Paul songs such as “Gimme More”.
The cover art is bland, but it does have links to Kiss’ past such their traditional “aura” colours (purple for Paul, red for Gene, blue for the guitar play, and green for the drummer). Production is a little glossy on the drums (samples?), but there are no keyboards, or anything like what would happen later on Crazy Nights. It’s a little more pop than Animalize, but I think it’s just a better album. Just better songs.
Part 22 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! I’m generally not going to be covering DVDs, but this one was crucial to me. I heard a lot of these versions so often, that they were the “original” versions for me. So I have a soft spot for Animalize Live Uncensored.
KISS – Animalize Live Uncensored (VHS, 1985)
This video was recorded live at Cobo Hall, Detroit Michigan December 8th, 1984. It has never been released officially on DVD, although as you can see there are unofficial versions to be had. (It’s clearly unofficial since it has a picture of Carnival of Souls era Kiss on the back!) Annoying subtitles are the only real drawback to the DVD.
There’s not much crossover between this and the two Alive albums, as it leans heavily on newer material (Creatures, Lick It Up, Animalize). The tempos are, in general, faster. The energy is high, and Paul is singing at the peak of his talents. The solos by Bruce Kulick are flashy in that 80’s sort of way, which isn’t my thing. Basically this is 80’s KISS, like it or lump it. I like it somewhat, probably due to nostalgia.
Visually, Gene and Paul are all over the stage, while Eric stands on his drums and demands to be seen and heard. At the end, the band climb onto a flying platform. Very cool live show.
One special treat was Eric’s lead vocals on “Young and Wasted” and “Black Diamond”. I also quite enjoyed Eric’s drum solo. Gene’s bass solo is nothing much to speak of, just a chance for him to introduce “I Love It Loud”, but far more musical than solos past or present. Actually he only speaks twice on the whole DVD. Before “I Love It Loud” he says to the crowd, “Oh yeah? Ohhh yeeeah? Well alright, come on.” And then at another point Paul says, “How you doing Gene, alright?” to which Gene responds, “Welll ooooooohhhh yeeeeaaaah!” Quite comical really. Paul’s raps are some of his all time classics. “Paul, what you are doing with a pistol down your pants?” (“Love Gun”) His story about Gene’s “little child” (“Fits Like A Glove”) is also classic. His guitar solo is nothing special, I guess Bruce Kulick was just too new to the band to warrant a big solo? The fact that Paul has one is somewhat a rarity in KISStory.
The video quality of the DVD is fairly low. Don’t quote me on this, but I think I heard that this concert is going to be reissued on the next installment of the KISStory DVDs.
3/5 stars
There are several CD bootlegs (incomplete however) of this concert. The only live audio from this concert to be officially released was “Heaven’s On Fire”. Kiss contributed that track to Ronnie James Dio’s Hear N’ Aid LP (also being reissued!) which donated proceeds to feed people in Africa.
Part 21 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! Still flushing out the last of the lo-fi cell phone pics, sorry about that.
KISS – Animalize (1984)
Exit Vinnie Vincent. Enter Mark St. John aka Mark Norton, a music teacher that came highly recommended, but had no touring experience. Looking for the next young hot shot to compete with Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie, Kiss took a chance.
In addition to yet another lineup change and third lead guitar player, there were other fractures setting in. Gene Simmons was dead set to become a movie star, and played the villain role alongside Tom Selleck in a movie called Runaway, written and directed by Michael Crichton. Paul Stanley was left to produce the next album.
Paul and Gene recorded in separate studios, shuffling Mark St. John between them when needed. Gene didn’t play bass on several of Paul’s songs, and studio musicians were brought in to add guitar solos, drum overdubs, and backing vocals. All songs but one were co-written by outside writers.
Animalize is one of those albums that was hugely popular (2 x platinum I think?). It has a couple hot singles, a couple decent album cuts, but disappointly Animalize is mostly filler. Gene’s material is particularly forgettable and uninspired. It’s like you’re listening to half a band.
Mathematically, here’s how it breaks down:
1. I’ve Had Enough (Into The Fire) – good song
2. Heaven’s On Fire – good song (but overplayed)
3. Burn Bitch Burn – bad
4. Get All You Can Take – great song
5. Lonely Is The Hunter – bad
6. Under The Gun – bad
7. Thrills In The Night – great
8. While The City Sleeps – terrible
9. Murder In High Heels – terrible
4 out of 9 good songs, and not one of them by Gene Simmons. All of Gene’s stuff on Animalize sucked, leaving the kids of the 80’s to think that he was a sideman and Paul was the main guy. Gene also has the worst lyric in Kisstory here: “I wanna put my log in your fireplace.”
However, a highlight of the album are some of the solos. A fast neoclassical/jazz player, St. John was miles away from Kiss’ roots. It was the era of the fast classically trained player. Even so, when the band thought that Mark wasn’t nailing the feel, they asked Bruce Kulick to fill in on two songs. He appears on “Lonely Is The Hunter” and “Murder In High Heels”. So, technically Animalize was Bruce’s first Kiss album, although nobody knew at the time that Kulick was destined to replace St. John, who was struck with a freak arthritic condition that left him unable to tour.
Kulick wouldn’t be granted full member status until the next album, while the band felt him out. Later, St. John too went on to make some great solo work — check out his Magic Bullet Theory CD.
Animalize is far from outstanding. I would rank it among Kiss’ three worst albums, the other two being Hot In The Shade and Psycho-Circus. It’s historically important because of how popular the tour and album were. Most of the good songs, however, can be found elsewhere such as the Kiss box set.
Part 20 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Lick It Up (1983)
And off came the makeup. Showing up for the cover photo session in their street clothes, the world now knew what Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Carr, and Vinnie Vincent looked like. I always found that concept kind of funny — like, did anyone care what Vinnie Vincent looked like? It wasn’t until much later — around 1986 — that I first saw a photo of Ace Frehley without makeup. I cared a lot more about that!
Musically? What a rebirth! Like a snake shedding its skin (ooh, I bet Gene would have loved my analogy there) Kiss found new life on Lick It Up. This is a strong, strong album, almost as strong as Creatures Of The Night. Fresh blood, a fresh look, and new freedom to be taken seriously as musicians gave Kiss a serious kick in the pants. It might not be considered classic today by critics, but the song “Lick It Up” only left the setlist briefly during the 96-97 reunion tour.
Witness the strenths:
1. All songs written by the band, no outside writers, thanks to the strong talents of Vinnie Vincent.
2. All songs played by the band except one solo by Rick Derringer (“Exciter”).
3. A fresh sound thanks to Vinnie Vincent.
I’ve always said this: When restrained, Vinnie Vincent is one of my favourite guitar players. His tone on Lick It Up is just oustanding and so unique. When left to his own devices like on his solo albums, his playing sounds like razor blades in your ears. Here, he plays melodically, powerfully, and manipulates his tone with his hands like an artist. Hear his guitar whine and cry as only a master can make it do. He could have been a guitar hero if he wasn’t a psycho!
Every song is good, not one bad tune in the pack. Some of my favourites include:
“Exciter”, a great riffy opener with a catchy chorus.
“Not For The Innocent” which has a bit of Vinnie’s “Boyz Are Gonna Rock” riff at the end there.
“A Million To One” which probably would have made a great third single.
“Dance All Over Your Face” which is a slow monster plod Gene song with a great chorus.
“And On The 8th Day”, the album closer, and another song that spun off of Vinnie’s original “Boyz Are Gonna Rock” demo.
Any one of those songs can stand up with the best rock songs in the Kiss canon. And you’ll noticed I didn’t include “Lick It Up” itself. That’s how strong this album is. It’s also worth noting that two other songs from this album were frequently performed live. Gene’s “Fits Like A Glove” was one of those speedy songs that Kiss were starting to do in the 80’s. So was “Young and Wasted”, which Eric Carr sang live.
The Japanese had a neat idea when issuing this on LP. They put on obi sheet over the non-makeup cover, featuring Kiss in makeup — you had to buy the LP and remove it to see Kiss’ real faces! This was a great idea, and is the origin of the rumours that Japan had a makeup cover while the rest of the world did not. Also, this obi featured Vinnie’s only cover photo in makeup.
Vinnie Vincent proved to be too unstable a personality to stay in the band much longer. Gene and Paul have always said Vinnie was a gifted writer, and he’d come back as a writer 1992’s Revenge. Keep reading LeBrain’s Blog for the story there!
Lick It Up to me is a classic, and it deserves no less than:
Part 19 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Creatures of the Night (1982, 1985, 1997)
Creatures Of The Night is one heavy, over the top & loud Kiss album. Very very loud. Hot on the heels of The Elder and Killers, Creatures was a defiant “we’re back!” from a band who was written off by the end of 1981.
It is important to note that there are several versions of Creatures floating around. At one point in 1985, shortly after Asylum, it was reissued with new (non-makeup) cover art with Bruce Kulick instead of Ace Frehley. Interestingly, neither played on Creatures. The reissue with the non-makeup cover has the songs in a different order, and they were remixed to bring down the loudness of the drums. I guess someone in the mid 80’s decided the album was just too loud, and the remix was done. Thankfully, the original loud drum mix was remastered in 1997, finally available on CD.
Interestingly, the 1985 remixed version featured a picture of Gene’s ass in leather pants on the back cover! See below for a gander at Gene’s buttocks.
And yeah, the drums are loud alright! They sound awesome, like John Bonham shooting cannons off the back of the stage. They are the cleanest, most powerful, natural and clear drum sounds this side of Led Zeppelin, and Kiss had a lot to be proud of. Just listen to “I Love It Loud”. Wow.
Creatures really is a stellar album featuring songwriting by Bryan Adams, Mikal Japp and a guy named Vincent Cusano, better known by his stage name Vinnie Vincent. Guitars were by Paul Stanley, Bob Kulick, Vinnie Vincent, Rick Derringer, Steve Ferris, and who-knows-how-many-others. Kiss claim to have lost track due to the process of auditioning and recording at the same time. Eric Carr, who had no songwriting credits this time, played bass on Paul’s “I Still Love You”.
“Creatures Of The Night” is an amazing fast paced opening, starting off with a barrage of Carr’s toms. I think The Elder was a dissapointing way to introduce the new drummer. Creatures overcompensates, and I am sure Carr was very happy. The main riff and guitar lick in “Creatures” is driving and catchy, and the chorus will stay in your head for days. This is Kiss’ statement of purpose.
Gene takes the tempo down a bit with “Saint & Sinner”, a rebellious one about standing your ground: “Get me off this carousel, you can do as you please, you can go to hell. Put my back against the wall, well, I’m not gonna fall on my knees, no, not at all.” At this point Gene was trying to sing in his low “monster” voice more, and this is such a great song. Shame it has not been resurrected live.
“Keep Me Comin'” is a pretty self-explanatory Paul title. The riff is very Zeppelinesque, and Zep was a seemingly huge influence on this era of Kiss. It has some serious groove to it and Paul sings his ass off.
“Rock And Roll Hell” was a song that was played live a couple of times on the 1982 tour. I would describe this Gene song as a slow burner. It seems to be about a kid who “might even steal a guitar” to get out of his rock and roll hell, and make the big time. Very cool groove and lyric.
“Danger” is probably the weakest song on the album. It’s another fast Paul track with a somewhat weak chorus. It would be followed in the exact same album slot (last song side 1) by similar Paul songs on later albums: “Gimme More” on Lick It Up, and “I’m Alive” on Asylum. All three songs are below standard and interchangeable.
Side 2 begins with “I Love It Loud”. Everybody knows “I Love It Loud”. Your grandma knows “I Love It Loud”. At the time as a kid, I thought this was the greatest Kiss song ever. That drum beat, that chanting, and Gene’s awesome lyrics about taking no crap — yeah! That’s what every grade 8 student felt like! Unfortunately the novelty wears off after a couple of days and today I feel it’s one of Kiss’ most boring songs. After all, there’s not much to it. Shame it still finds its way into setlists in 2012, while other songs have fallen by the wayside.
The sole ballad “I Still Love You” is next. When Kiss used to play it live (the last time was the 1995 Unplugged concert), it became Paul’s vocal centrepiece. It’s a slow with not enough dynamics, but Paul again sings his ass off. As mentioned, Eric Carr on bass.
“Killer” (probably written at the same time as Killers?) is a really cool Gene Simmons song that has lots of interesting riffs and twists. I can’t believe how cool this song still is today. It’s fast, it has interesting backing vocals, and is insanely catchy.
The album ends with Gene’s plodding epic, “War Machine” which still gets played live to this day, despite being retired briefly during the reunion tours. Gene wrote the song with Bryan Adams which would be a surprise to Adams fans. Who knew he could get so heavy? The lyrics are pure, vintage Gene: “Strike down the one who leads me, I’m gonna take his place, I’m gonna vindicate the human race.”
Creatures wound up being the first Kiss studio album to have only two lead singers: Gene and Paul. Sadly this would remain the case until Eric Carr got his first album vocal much later in 1988. I am glad that the Kiss of today have decided to let all four members sing, as that was one of the factors that got me into the band in the first place.
This would also prove to be Kiss’ final album in makeup. They had grounded themselves musically once again, while their biggest change was yet to happen….
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