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Flaming Gin

This one I can only categorize as extraordinary or remarkable, or perhaps even extraordinarily remarkable, if only because I still have no idea about the origins of the phenomenon about which I may readily write a few words. But as you might guess, the less you know about the background, the more fun it is to write.

Of course, I think it would be appropriate to once again mention my acquired knowledge from another attentive Kiss fan at this point, which I intend to rely on a little today. It said that the opening riff of Flaming You was merely an enhanced version of the opening and main riff of Cold Gin. I can't really argue much with that, except that this statement must also be an enhanced version of the matter, at least as I see it.

I think it would be more accurate to call Flaming Youth's riff a regression rather than a further development, or literally a mirror image of Cold Gin's. And by that I don't mean this as running backwards, like a record that you let run backwards in order to possibly read some nonsense out of it, but rather to take the single chords from Cold Gin and let them result in a new riff more or less in reverse order, namely that of Flaming Youth.

Unfortunately, to my great regret, this is not so much an isolated case in Kisstory, but I feel unable to even remotely guess whether this was done out of pure congenial intent or whether it was just a clumsy coincidence.

The only idea I can't get out of my head is that of Ace's well documented, rather limited work ethic in the making of Destroyer, and how he must have been having fun at the poker table with his friends.

Flaming Youth (1976)

Cold Gin (1974)

#Kiss #Ace Frehley #Paul Stanley #Gene Simmons #Bob Ezrin #Destroyer #1976 #Debut #1974 #Kenny Kerner #Richie Wise #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Cover It Up Vol. 1 - Kissin' Time

To be honest, I've never consciously listened to Bobby Rydell's original before in my life, and Kiss' version was also much more the focus of my ignorance than my appreciation during the longest period of my fan existence. That's what I call a great prerequisite for a completely objective examination of these two more or less wonderful songs. Or not?

But over the past few months, especially since I'm writing this blog, I've turned more and more to the probably rather unloved Kiss songs in the band's catalog (1), and so, of course, I've also got involved to Kiss' Kissin' Time from time to time. And what else can I say, to my great surprise, I'm even somehow into it.

In direct comparison to the '59 version, I would emphasize the '74's radical heaviness, especially in the verses. The catchy vocal melody remains from the original, all the rest has given way to a sometimes almost uncompromisingly boisterously hard rock rearrangement. With an attitude that I would have hoped for on Then She Kissed Me or Any Way You Want It, for example.

But despite my newly developed fondness for this mercilessly underrated Kiss song, I can't recognize much more in it than the bastard son from the debut album and Hotter Than Hell, which doesn't really want to find its home on either album. Not even with a more than halfway successful classic Ace solo in it.

But that shouldn't matter, because Kiss' Kissin' Time has found a new and permanent home in my heart anyway.

Side Note:

(1) Fancy I Finally Found My Place or Nothing Can Keep Me From You? I can help you with that.

Kissin' Time (1974)

Kissin' Time (1959)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Gene Simmons #Peter Criss #Bobby Rydell #1974 #1959 #Debut Album #We Got Love #Ace Solo #Ace Frehley #Roland Rockover #Cover It Up #Youtube

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Striking Bottoms

After my little entry about Bang Bang You in which I dealt with the similarity of its vocal verses to those of Rock Bottom, I honestly got a bit worried about its remaining guitar verses. The ones from Rock Bottom I mean, because I didn't come across any doubles in any other song after that. And I did come across quite a few Kiss songs and guitar verses. Well, and because I was so worried, that more or less led me to the resolution to perhaps focus more on songs that I might have supposedly avoided before. Oddly enough, whether it was blind intuition or a lucky coincidence, one of the first songs that came to mind was Tommy's song from Sonic Boom When Lightning Strikes.

So after I listened to it, it went through my head, you know when you hum a song to yourself when you're busy in the kitchen. The funny thing is that the exact same thing happened to me as with I Want You and Spit, because whenever I had the guitar verses of When Lightning Strikes in my head, they inevitably and repeatedly turned into those of Rock Bottom. When I hear the riff from When Lightning Strikes, I hear the bass line and guitar solo from Rock Bottom, and vice versa. And Tommy's chorus vocals and Paul's sudden and rocking vocal entrance right after the acoustic intro sound suspiciously similar in the middle (1).

So there we have another mental stumbling block that I haven't been able to get out of my head since. But everything's fine, it's just the usual mind fuck. One more. Actually exactly what I was looking for, now that I think about it.

Side Note:

(1) And the more these two intermingled songs buzz around in my head, the more the verses of of All the Way blend in without me doing anything. But that would be another story, wouldn't it?

You can bet your bottoms that the links are highlighted:

When Lightning Strikes (2009)

Rock Bottom (1975)

#Kiss #Tommy Thayer #Paul Stanley #Ace Frehley #When Lightning Strikes #Rock Bottom #2009 #1975 #Sonic Boom #Dressed to Kill #Bang Bang You #Crazy Nights #1987 #I Want You #Spit #1992 #1976 #Revenge #Rock and Roll Over #All the Way #Hotter Than Hell #1974 #Roland Rockover #Neil Bogart #Youtube

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Reprise Vol. 4 - War Machine & Not For the Innocent

War Machine is hitting the shit a lot harder than just about any other Kiss song before. Not only musically, because of its straight but brute heaviness, but most certainly to the same degree lyrically as well.

These more or less give free rein to a fantasy of violence lead by a call for regency of the fist over society, if of necessity, then even by pure forceful breaking the laws of nature in two. Demons or whatever merely make it in as a side note, but only to demonstrate the pure wickedness of the non-demonic spokesman of this song, who gets pure satisfaction by calling for the release of all demons, and finds pleasure in the midst of the chaos he creates.

So, someone please tell me that this is not hard stuff.

You could ask yourself if this could be a foreshadowing of a planned removal of the make-up for the release of Creatures of the Night, considering that War Machine's title character is only human, and not a demon or anything similar, thus demonstrating that this human protagonist of War Machine, a possibly unmasked Gene, is quite capable of not only competing with demons, but even being superior to them in pure attitude (1). If this were indeed the case, I would find it rather regrettable not to have been true to this line in the following years.

Apart from Lick It Up, of course.

If you wanted it that way you could include Not for the Innocent (2) in this attitude scheme, and more than just the attempt to express that one is dealing with really bad guys here. The world in which we move here is primarily concerned with the law of the jungle in an anarchic world from which there is no escape, because apparently no one is left to protect the innocent from the beasts on the loose. If Kiss were universe-building in their lyrics, one could assume this and the apocalyptic theme of the Lick it up videos was as a direct consequence of the intended world overthrow out of War Machine (3).

This concept would have at least provided a real opportunity for Gene to have a contemporary tough persona for himself during the unmasked era that he could have stayed true to. But I guess that new revolution just didn't work (4) .

And Asylum and that colorful drag were a pretty good concept, too.

Side Note:

(1) After all, War Machine was the legitimate God of Thunder of the 80s for unmasked Kiss.

(2) All Hell's Breakin' Loose, And on the 8th Day, Young and Wasted and whatever from Lick It Up also fitted in perfectly.

(3) Incidentally, the substantially longer original entry from which some of these words originate can be found right here.

(4) The apocalyptic theme at least made it onto the back cover of Animalize, but that was it.

War Machine (1982)

Not For the Innocent (1983)

#Kiss #Gene Simmons #Bryan Adams #Jim Vallance #Vinnie Vincent #War Machine #Not For the Innocent #Creatures of the Night #Lick It Up #Michael James Jackson #All Hell's Breakin' Loose #And on the 8th Day #Young and Wasted #1982 #1983 #Demon #Asylum #God of Thunder #80's #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Just Touch Me, Magic Boy

The title of todays topic actually sums everything up pretty well, if only in a retrograde sense. Assuming that Magic Touch and Just a Boy are two completely different spin-offs and further developments of one and the same origin .

I guess Paul's solo album, and in this case Take Me Away (Together as One), forms a special junction from which two threads continue in two fundamentally different directions.

For once you can see that this folky feeling from Just a Boy was not completely unrelated to Paul. And by that I mean those classic acoustic guitars from Take Me Away (Together as One) which breathe and exude the scent and almost dreamlike atmosphere of a Sherwood Forest, right up to the pompous excesses of the electric power chorus that Just a Boy also has. Although Paul doesn't sing a falsetto here (yet), he does practise a sensitive head voice, which easily suggests what is to follow as a further step in this direction on Dynasty.

But speaking of Dynasty or excesses with the electric guitar, doesn't this also remind you a little of the main riff and Magic Touch overall? And by that I don't necessarily mean that Paul once again has appropriated his own melodies and riffs to an too overwhelming extent, but also a very specific intensity of drama, which Paul had increasingly incorporated into his songwriting and his voice, especially in the 80s. And while Just a Boy tends to indulge in kitsch, Magic Touch carries the soul and the emotional urge within it. And where the inexperienced youth clearly speaks out in Just a Boy, it clearly does so from the position of a much matured man in Magic Touch. Only Together as One does the splits and finds itself again at the tipping point between the two of those worlds.

Surprised? Or have you always secretly known it in your heart of hearts? After all, it would have been too easy if Paul had called it Apart in Two.

Take Me Away (Together as One) (1978)

Magic Touch (1979)

Just A Boy (1981)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Bob Ezrin #Jeff Glixman #Take Me Away (Together as One) #Magic Touch #Vinnie Poncia #Just a Boy #1978 #1979 #1981 #Sherwood Forest #Music from The Elder #Solo Album #Dynasty #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Communication Glove

Actually, I had planned to write about elephants again, but because it can't always go on like this whenever I have something to write about Fits Like a Glove, I've decided to just let it go with the elephants. I would like to ask all elephant fans for their understanding.

So let's forget about the elephants.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy, because the passage in Fits Like a Glove I'm talking about today sounds not unlike an elephant, or rather an elephant blessed with an overlong trunk, which people in the pedestrian zone step on as they walk past and whose sounds of pain are painfully suppressed, causing it to slowly get into serious trouble.

Do you know which part I mean? Of course this Well It Must Be Love, It Must Be Love, this crooked bridge to the legendary scream refrain. Or was that already the refrain? Be that as it may, coincidentally, the guitar refrain of Led Zeppelin's Communication Breakdown sounds more or less identical.

Only a little less like an elephant with a blocked trunk who tries to sneeze, but just as urgent.

Fits Like a Glove (1983)

Communication Breakdown (1969)

#Kiss #Gene Simmons #John Bonham #John Paul Jones #Jimmy Page #Fits Like a Glove #Communication Breakdown #1983 #1969 #Led Zeppelin #Elephant #Lick It Up #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Hide Your Hard Luck, Strutter!

Have I actually ever written something about Hide Your Heart before? I don't think so, if only because I've always considered this song something of an anomaly within the Kiss katalog, and ultimately never gave it too much thought. But as life goes, it can happen that an unexpected and completely unintentional thought suddenly comes to mind, and Poof! it's already too late and you're in the middle of the latest mess. Just think of Dan Aykroyd in Ghostbusters and how the Marshmallow Man came about. And then you only have one path left, and you have to fight your way out of it with all the means at your disposal.

Yes, that's exactly how it can feel from time to time. Just as it does today, but what don't you do for dramatic effect.

To get back to the anomaly, before I make short work of Hide Your Heart, I'll allude to the romantic gang drama and the third person narrative perspective. There's no I's, or no You's in it, it's always just about this Johnny. And Tito and Rosa. That can only be Desmond Child's doing. You're allowed to call me picky, but I think there's probably no real song more atypical of Kiss than Hide Your Heart (1). and this is coming from someone who recognizes Carnival of Souls as an album packed with klassic Kiss vibes. Whatever you think about it, I can only say that in the case of Hide Your Heart it's primarily down to the lyrics, so you will also look in vain for rockets and fire places.

The icing on the cake would be those Ah-ah-ah, Hey-hey-hey, Doo-doo-doos that emphasize the whole thing even more. As far as I'm aware, those are by Holly Knight and are by no means bad, just blessed with a pretty different feeling. I would see Beth or Hard Luck Woman as more klassik, if only on a lyrical level. But with Hard Luck Woman we're spot on again. All the more so when it comes to Hide Your Heart. On a musical level.

Just listen to the first section of its instrumental introduction and then to the first chords of Hide Your Heart. Do you notice something? If not, listen to the first section of Hard Luck Woman again, the beginning of Strutter minus the short drum intro, and then listen to the beginning of Hide Your Heart again. Strutter and Hard Luck Woman merged into the riff of Hide Your Heart. More or less. But there we finally have the klassik Kiss element. And that can only come from Paul.

I'm afraid from now on I have to consider this song as purified.

Side Note:

(1) Apart from fanfare, and some other Elder stuff of course. But since I consider The Elder a klassik, we could of course also talk about Carnival of Souls in this regard (see above), but if we do, then also about Creatures of the Night, or even Crazy Nights, and half of the band's back catalog.

Hide Your Heart (1989)

Hard Luck Woman (1976)

Strutter (1974)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Holly Knight #Desmond Child #Gene SImmons #Hide Your Heart #Hard Luck Woman #Strutter #Eddie Kramer #1989 #1976 #1974 #Music from The Elder #Carnival of Souls #Crazy Nights #Creatures of the Night #Roland Rockover #Dan Aykroyd #Ghostbusters #Youtube #Hot in the Shade #Rock and Roll Over #Debut Album #Ivan Reitman

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Beth²

Oh, Beth, What I Can Do?

I believe that it is this little line that forms the crux of my chosen matter today and, to my ears, gets to the heart of my concerns most clearly.

Based on the fact that it is precisely the casually carefree simplicity of a Peter Criss, carried by the timbre of his rough but nonetheless emotional voice, that makes the song, and is also carried by an orchestra that ensures his very own little vocal melody the necessary confirmation and self-worth to be able to fully unfold in its nakedness.

I guess that Eric Carr certainly didn't have that kind of advantage. On the contrary, we can certainly assume that the opposite value is conducive to unfavorability. In other words, the boss is causing stress and the employee has unfortunately lost out. I see it as something like trying to compensate for love with professionalism, which would only be possible if the recipient were unable to recognize love or differentiate it from anything else.

And since I consider Eric Carr to be the better singer overall, of course, I can only explain his failure on this lyric line, far from any lightness and filled with too much artificial all-american pathos, by going exclusively with my gut feeling. And this clearly suggests to me that Eric had to try to do something that didn't come from his heart, and that this must have been just the best result of a series of attempts, all of which must have led in the wrong direction, and that in the end they settled for this compromise. But that's nothing new, is it?

I still wanted to be able to understand the whole thing emotionally through the music alone.

Side Note:

(1) What is it actually? A bridge or the chorus? Or even both?

Beth (1976)

Beth (1988)

#Kiss #Peter Criss #Eric Carr #Beth #Destroyer #1976 #Smashes Thrashes & Hits #1988 #Bob Ezrin #Stan Penridge #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Only the Lonely

In the past, sometime in the 17th or 18th century, there were the alchemists who were known above all for trying in vain to transform lead into its neighboring element, gold. Modern science, on the other hand, has shown that at least one particle accelerator is needed to achieve what the alchemists labored to no purpose for years to achieve, whereas in Greek mythology, King Midas only needed a touch of the hand.

I can't say for sure what exactly happens when Gene touches something with his hand, nor can I say for sure whether he is in possession of a particle accelerator, nor whether you need one to achieve the opposite, namely to turn gold into lead. The only thing I can say for certain is that he has managed this special trick more than once, apparently effortlessly.

Oh, it's about Animalize again today, you're probably wondering. That's right, it's once again about Animalize, but also a bit about The Elder. And for that, I think we're more than happy to take another, different look at Only You's standout middle part, which I've already drawn a parallel to a very specific song on Creatures of the Night in a previous entry.

And to fulfill the more unpleasant part of our duty, we'd rather do the same with Lonely Is the Hunter and its rather less shiny middle section. If you don't notice any similarities straight away, I can only recommend setting the Only You Player to triple speed. After that, it should be like scales falling from your eyes.

When you click on the links, they don't turn into gold, but at least they start exactly at the points discussed above. That's quite something:

Only You (1981)

Lonely Is the Hunter (1984)

#Kiss #Gene Simmons #Lonely is the Hunter #Only You #Animalize #Music from The Elder #1984 #1981 #Paul Stanley #Michael James Jackson #Bob Ezrin #17th Century #18th Century #Alchemist #King Midas #Greek Mythology #Particle Accelerator #Creatures of the Night #Roland Rockover #Gold #Lead #Youtube

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Anything for Shout It Out Loud

I think it is well known that Dressed to Kill was written and recorded in no time at all. That this is true for better part of the first six studio albums is not hard to imagine, but it is especially true for Dressed to Kill, and you can hear it. And yet there are still good songs and ideas on it, which have remained a landmark for the band's classic Kiss sound for decades. Crazy Nights, Carnival of Souls or Sonic Boom spontaneously come to mind as albums worth mentioning, just to spread it out colorfully over the decades. And somehow also Destroyer.

Well, sort of.

And since Sweet Pain and Love Her All I Can are a completely different story, let's just talk about Shout It Out Loud and Anything For My Baby today. And that concerns the first verse line of both songs, sung by Paul. The one of Shout It Out Loud is, of course, not at all dissimilar by chance, right up to the point where it takes the first exit and moves into direction super anthem. This is clearly less of a rip-off and more of something that is due to the over-accelerated songwriting and the resulting immaturity of the songs on Dressed to Kill.

Whether this one line must have been particularly close to his heart and he felt obliged to himself to make more of it, or whether it simply flowed out of his mouth spontaneously while composing with Gene and Bob Ezrin at the piano without much thought, is a matter of pure speculation. One thing, however, is quite certain, namely that they impressively managed to make a lot more out of it.

The magic of the early phase. You just have to love it.

Simply click on the highlighted links and dive in:

Anything For My Baby (1975)

Shout It Out Loud (1976)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Gene Simmons #Bob Ezrin #Neil Bogart #Anything For My Baby #Shout It Out Loud #Dressed to Kill #Destroyer #1975 #1976 #Crazy Nights #Carnival of Souls #Sonic Boom #1987 #1997 #2009 #Sweet Pain #Love Her All I Can #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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No Easy Come Down

80's movies week, still.

That little intro to When Your Walls Come Down always sounded to me like No Easy Way Out by John Tepper from the Rocky IV soundtrack (1). You know, from the sequence where Sylvester Stallone, quite agitated, races through the streets in his Lamborghini Jalpa 3500 and reflects in a wonderful video montage deeply about the past.

There was also this little middle sequence in which he apparently finds himself in a certain limbo for a few moments after this strainful rollercoaster of emotions, accompanied by this with that catchy playful echo picking, or whatever real musicians call it (2).

No matter how far-fetched this may sound, I know this stylistic device was already popularized at the time by Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), but also, and lo and behold, by Survivor's Eye of the Tiger (1982) for a presumably even wider audience, which gives us the second accurate reference to a Rocky movie. Add Sword and Stone's more than coincidental similarities to Survivor's Burning Heart from the Rocky IV soundtrack, and I think with probabability itself I've gained a loyal ally on my side.

And I'm not even mentioning the similarity in meaning between the two song titles, if you just think about it in a broader context.

Side Note:

(1) Let's all be honest for a moment, it can't be that I'm the only person on this planet who has thought this thought for the past 30 years and more? Isn't it terrible to have a notion in your head over such a long period of time while listening to a particular piece of music and never ever pronounce it?

(2) I have no idea what it's called, I do make music occasionally and play one instrument or another, but I'm pretty sure I'm a lifetime away from being able to call myself a musician.

Highlighted links should be as natural as Rocky's swollen eyes after a fight:

When Your Walls Come Down (1987)

No Easy Way Out (1985)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Adam Mitchell #Bruce Kulick #When Your Walls Come Down #Crazy Nights #1987 #Ron Nevison #Robert Tepper #No Easy Way Out #Rocky IV #Rocky IV OST #1985 #Pink Floyd #Another Brick in the Wall #1979 #Survivor #Eye of the Tiger #1982 #Rocky III #Picking #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Poiser

And the 80's movies week enters its third round.

Today with the Dudes of Wrath. For those Kiss fans still unfamiliar with the Dudes of Wrath, let me tell you that they were an all-star band, or rather a buddy project between Paul Stanley, Desmond Child and Jean Beauvoir, who were joined by a few other not unillustrious names within the hard rock scene to record the theme song for the latest, lively Wes Craven horror film at the time (1).

Which unfortunately flopped, and therefore did not quite live up to expectations as the successor to Freddy Krueger and the A Nightmare on Elm Street series associated with it. And somehow this also applies to its title track, despite hit guarantor Desmond Child. And despite Shocker's undeniable proximity to Alice Cooper's Poison from the latter's mega-seller Trash, on which Desmond famously had nine of his ten fingers in the pie.

Just compare the verses and choruses of both songs without obligation and in a relaxed manner. And perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to also listen to Alice's Spark in the Dark afterwards.

Side Note:

(1) Who would have wanted to miss such an opportunity? Even Vinnie Vincent was once on board one year earlier for The Dream Master soundtrack in '88.

Shocker (1989)

Poison (1989)

Spark in the Dark (1989)

#Dudes of Wrath #Desmond Child #Paul Stanley #Jean Beauvior #Alice Cooper #Shocker #Poison #1989 #OST #Trash #Wes Craven #Horace Pinker #Mitch Pileggi #Roland Rockover #Freddy Krueger #A Nightmare on Elm Street #Youtube #The Dream Master #Vinnie Vincent Invasion #1988

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Power of the And

80's movies week continues (Two-In-One Edition).

To stay true to Sword and Stone's soundtrack references, I can't resist throwing another OST this time from 1986, taken from the Gremlins riff Critters, into the cheerful movie round not without its raison d'être.

The simple, but by no means bad, contemporary and extremely catchy pop-rock earworm that we are talking about here doesn't really exist outside its own movie universe, but comes along with its own music video which is more or less interwoven into the plot of the movie and is therefore played often enough not to be forgotten so quickly. And what can I mean by that other than Power of the Night by Johnny Steele?

There is this small but succinct passage in Power of the Night, in which the last line of the chorus is melodically and dramatically prolonged, only for the last two words to be delivered with exaggerated masculine determination. The exact same description would also apply to a certain part in Sword and Stone.

(...)

Interestingly, Power of the Night's verse lyrics are not entirely unrelated to those of Gene's While the City Sleeps on Animalize, to put it mildly. But this is probably due to the fact that both While the City Sleeps and Power of the Night know how to make the best use of pseudo-dramatic clichés that would do a ham actor a credit.

In the process, when two stereotypically composed songs collide, something like this can surely happen, but, admittedly, I still like Johnny Steele's much better.

All links are highlighted:

Sword and Stone (1986)

Power of the Night (1986)

While the City Sleeps (1984)

Power of the Night (1986)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Bruce Kulick #Desmond Child #Sword and Stone #1986 #Critters #Johnny Steele #Terrence Mann #Stephen Ferek #Power of the Night #Gene Simmons #While the City Sleeps #Animalize #1984 #Mitch Weissmann #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Heartburn and Stoned

80's movies week.

In certain hardcore fan circles, Sword and Stone is often confused with Time Traveller, or rather Time Traveler with Sword and Stone. Incidentally, these are the same fans who, for example, also prefer to confuse All For the Glory with All For the Love of Rock N' Roll. No wonder, because after all Eric Singer sings both titles. Who wouldn't make such a faux pas? (1)

In the case of Sword and Stone, however, there is a direct reference to the OST of the 80s box office hit Rocky IV due to its great similarity to the beginning of Survivor's Burning Heart, which, tied to the strict idiocy alluded to above, makes Time Traveller preferable and not infrequently associated with training montages, although this title has more than little in common with the music taking place there and its zeitgeisty visualization. What else can I say?

Maybe you don't know what I'm talking about now, but believe me you will when it's over. You will when it's over!

Side Note:

(1) I can't keep track of two titles either.

Sword and Stone (1986)

Burning Heart (1985)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Bruce Kulick #Sword and Stone #Survivor #Burning Heart #Rocky #Rocky IV #OST #1985 #1986 #All For the Glory #All For the Love of Rock N' Roll #Sonic Boom #Monster #2009 #2012 #Roland Rockover #Youtube #Apollo Creed #Desmond Child

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Paul's Balls-in-the-Zipper Voice Pt. 3 of 10

Even if Heaven's on Fire's yodel intro was, as we know, only a small vocal exercise before the actual recordings, it does a wonderful job of getting you in the mood for what's to come.

I am of course talking about Paul's squeaky loudmouth voice, which in his defense could be considered essential in the hard rock and metal scene in the 80s, and therefore not fundamentally bad, but just the norm of the time. And with Paul Stanley, Kiss did much better, sonically speaking, to have him in the band than, for example, Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil, whose peak performance consists more or less of creating the timbre of a laughing bag caught in the constant spin cycle of a broken washing machine. Just to establish a relation.

In fact, I see Animalize as an important stage, or even a milestone, in Paul's ongoing climb to establish the retread of his own vocal identity. And we mustn't forget that he was working on several fronts at that time.

Heaven's on Fire represents a kind of middle ground in this case, and keeps the high-pitched revelations of the new Paul relatively in check, but when it does, it does so all the more, while at the same time keeping his old, classic 70's voice under control better than ever. But the pressure with which Paul virtually squeezes out the bridges, no matter how uncomplex the musical material, is unparalleled, and despite all my mockery, he must be given credit to a not too small extent. This key naturally continues unperturbed in the refrain, where it is supported by a multitude of other vocal registers to form a simple and dynamically harmonious sound of a perfectly saturated rainbow. It's simply everything you could wish for and borders on perfection. Possibly Kiss' best chorus, or probably their best produced chorus of the 80s. Live they never even came close to the studio version.

But you Can’t Always Get What You Want (1)

Side Note:

(1) That fits perfectly, because the upcoming episode of Paul's Balls-in-the-Zipper Voice will be all about Get All You Can Take.

Heaven's on Fire (1984)

#Kiss #Paul Stanley #Desmond Child #Heaven's on Fire #Animalize #Gene Simmons #Michael James Jackson #Vince Neil #Mötley Crüe #Roland Rockover #Youtube

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Blackin' the Void Well

I can't say for sure whether Kiss had a master plan to do everything in their power to give Psycho Circus a proper The Elder touch, only that quite a few clues could give that impression to no small degree.

And I don't know if Gene could have possibly foisted some old vocal verses on Ace, or if it was just a little Fuck You from Ace himself that he smuggled in because he wasn't exactly happy with the process of recording Psycho Circus. Whether these are just figments of my imagination or whether one of these little scenarios could possibly have taken place will probably remain a mystery forever.

After all, I only suspect this because once you notice that Mr. Blackwell and Into the Void inextricably share almost identical vocal verses, then such guesses inevitably and almost automatically arise. What makes Into the Void the fourth notch on Psycho Circus's Elder tally stick, thus Psycho Circus takes the leading position of all Kiss albums with Elder references. At least as far as I can see.

The only thing that is certain to me is that, no matter how the stars may have aligned for Kiss with Psycho Circus, it seems that all roads must have always led them to The Elder.

Kis(s)met?

And like a star in the dark night, I have illuminated your way to the verses and highlighted both links.

Into the Void (1998)

Mr. Blackwell (1981)

#Kiss #Ace Frehley #Karl Cochran #Bruce Fairbairn #Gene Simmons #Lou Reed #Bob Ezrin #Into the Void #Mr. Blackwell #1998 #1981 #Psycho Circus #Music from The Elder #Roland Rockover #Reunion #Youtube

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Life's a Bitch For a Living

This entry is for all Kiss fans of an older age who have a soft spot for Betrayed from Hot in the Shade without realizing exactly where this affinity actually comes from!

I'm only emphasizing this because I've occasionally read comments on fan sites about Betrayed, but none of them were ever really able to define themselves more precisely than my core statement, let alone elaborate on it. This is not meant to be a judgment, nor do I ever want to put myself above anyone, of course, because we are all emotional beings after all, and make our decisions and act guided mostly by our emotions.

But every now and then I guess it could be nice to know exactly where certain preferences and associated feelings come from. And not that it's as easy as I might say, but in the case of Kiss, achieving this goal shouldn't be too much of a problem. In order to approach the solution step by step, I would first like to remind you of See You in Your Dreams, the '78 version that can be found on Gene's solo album.

And should anyone have activated the well-placed highlighted link in the meantime, I might have already anticipated everything, because the riff behind it comes from none other than Black Diamond itself. Because what See You In Your Dreams borrows only fragmentarily but nevertheless directly from Black Diamond, Betrayed does in a similar way, but goes two steps further - only the focus of the resulting riff has shifted a little. And then stops at some point in the middle on its way to Black Diamond.

Which inspires me to do the same and simply break off my little comparison in the middle and save the rest for later. You have to understand, I also happen to be a bitch from time to time.

Betrayed (1989)

Black Diamond (1974)

#Kiss #Gene Simmons #Tommy Thayer #Paul Stanley #1989 #1974 #Debut #Hot in the Shade #70's #80's #Roland Rockover #Youtube