SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Alive II (1978).
There’s not too many million-selling albums that have a man covered in blood on the cover. And yet here is one. (I’ve always been confused why Paul and Ace both look like they are not wearing the white makeup in these photos). I must have listened to this 4 sided LP a thousand times as a kid (my poor mother–what did she do while I monopolized the only stereo in the house and made her listen to Paul Stanley rambling on and on?
“Detroit Rock City” and “King of the Night Time World” open the concert just like they open Destroyer. But unlike on Destroyer, the next songs keep up the fast pace with “Ladies Room” and “Makin’ Love.” All four of these songs are a bit faster, a bit louder a but more intense than the album versions (especially the Destroyer tracks, which have all of the bombast removed). This first side ends with an energy-packed “Love Gun.” I mean, holy cow, what an opening, it’s all nonstop heavy rock. Even though I like, nay, love the originals, these version have so much energy, so much presence (they would have it even without the crazed fans screaming–which is practically like static it is so continuous) that they blow away the studio versions.
“Calling Dr. Love” is a much faster tempo (with a wonderful intro about “rock and roll pneumonia”) and “Christine Sixteen” loses the piano (which I admit I liked, but it works great without it), and it’s far creepier here. “Shock Me” picks up some rock from the studio version, but more importantly, it picks up a crazy guitar solo (which is yes, much better seen than heard). “Hard Luck Woman” to me sounds funny in this setting. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but it’s hard to imagine them playing it amidst all the chaos of the rest of the show. And then “Tomorrow and Tonight” is fine in this context, but you can kind of feel the fans wishing for “Rock and Roll All Nite.”
Side three opens with “I Stole Your Love” which rocks equally as hard live. It’s followed by “Beth” perhaps the strangest thing on a live album. From what I’ve seen, Peter comes down from behind the drums, sits in the front of the stage and sings his mega-hit to piped-in piano music. I guess it was something of a break for the rest of the band. It’s followed by a truly intense version of “God of Thunder”–faster and heavier than the original and very cool. The only surprise is that it contains a drum solo–the solo is not the surprise (it is the 70s after all), the surprise is that “God of Thunder” is so obviously Gene’s song, it seems odd that they would break it up with a drum solo (although if memory serves, he uses the time to clean off all the blood from his face and guitar). “I Want You” sounds really great in this version (the guitars are wicked) and it gives Paul a chance to show some vocal acrobatics.
The LP version featured this awesome gatefold inner photo which I have to say may have really set the bar high for other bands in terms of concert awesomeness. My vinyl copy has pencil lines etched into the cardboard from the number of times I traced the picture. (Thanks to Porcelain Theology, a blog I am enjoying very much, for this picture). The live portion of the show ends with “Shout It out Loud” which works as a very solid anthem to end the concert.
The fourth side of the LP always confused me. When I was young and didn’t really understand how to read credits, I assumed that whoever’s name was after the song was the person who sang it (generally true, but not always). So, when side four featured covers and songs written by people not in the band, it blew my mind. I also didn’t understand why there were five non-live, indeed, brand new songs on this live album (they didn’t want to release any songs that were also on Alive!–perhaps the last time they didn’t reissue music). I respect this decision, but at the same time, how much cooler would this concert be with “100,000 Years” or “Deuce” included?
The five songs actually aren’t bad, but they don’t really have all that much excitement to them. “All American Man” is a surprisingly gritty song from Paul and “Larger Than Life” is pretty interesting musically (and I just realized that love means penis in this song too and that it’s actually a pretty funny brag song). “Rocket Ride” is probably the best song on this side. Ace didn’t contribute to any of the other songs on this side, but he goes out with a blaze! The chorus is a little cheesy but the verses are really cool, and the solo rocks.
How I miss the excess of the 70s.
[READ: October 1, 2011] “Flick Chicks”
Mindy Kaling is a writer for and actor on The Office. She is very funny. I’m not sure if she has written for the New Yorker before, but I like her and wanted to include her here (just to get some of her magic mojo to appear on my blog). This piece is labelled an “L.A. Postcard” and it is more or less broken into two parts.
The introduction shows Mindy sitting down to pitch a new movie. She claims that all TV writers want to write for movies because “At the Oscars, the most famous person there is, like, Angelina Jolie. At the Emmys the huge, exciting celebrity is Bethenny Frankel.” [I actually don’t even know if Bethenny Frankel is a real person, so I guess that proves the point]. Although this year there has been a lot of chatter about the movies stars who are now on TV shows–see the New Yorker event Bravura Television. William H. Macy and Jeremy Irons may not be Angelina Jolie, but they’re still pretty awesome.
Anyhow, the joke of her movie pitch is that she wants to write a romantic comedy, but the studio is now focusing solely on making movies based on board games (see the existence of Battleship: The Movie). Pretty darn funny. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 